Southern 16s
Alejandro Moreno Latorre of Knoxville, Tenn., defeated No. 1 seed Mitchell Deames of Daniel Island, S.C., 6-3, 6-1 in Friday’s semifinals to advance to today’s boys final of the USTA Southern Closed 16s at the Rebsamen Tennis Center in Little Rock. Kida Ferrari of Fairhope, Ala., will play Gavriella Smith of New Orleans in the girls final.
Persistence does pay off. Disappointed by early round losses in his two previous attempts at the United States Tennis Association’s Southern Closed 16’s Championship, Alejandro Moreno Latorre came back for one more attempt, and he advanced to the final round of the boys division with a 6-1, 6-3 semifinal victory over No. 1 seed Mitchell Deames at the Rebsamen Tennis Center in Little Rock on Friday.
Latorre, 16, of Knoxville, Tenn., said it was his plan all along.
“My 16s haven’t gone as well as I wanted them to go,” he said. “I was pretty low on confidence, so I wanted to come here and do something about it.”
Latorre will play for the boys singles championship today against David Saye of Charlotte, N.C. Saye advanced with a 6-2, 6-4 semifinal victory over Edward Tymes of Midland, Ga.
Kida Ferrari will play Gavriella Smith in the girls final.
Ferrari of Fairhope, Ala., advanced with a 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 semifinal victory over Piper Charney of Mount Pleasant, S.C. Smith defeated Micah Pierce in the semifinal round, 6-1, 6-2. Smith and Pierce are both from New Orleans.
The singles finals are scheduled for 9:30 a.m. today.
Latorre lost the first game of the first set but broke back in the second and held serve in the third to take a 2-1 lead. He never again trailed.
Deames teamed with Tan Rasheed of Mount Pleasant, S.C., for a 6-4, 7-6 (3) victory over Harrison Kim of Cumming, Ga., and Marco Pennelli of Alpharetta, Ga., in doubles on Thursday.
“I played some good matches coming up to today,” Deames said. “I got through some good kids. I’m pretty happy. With the doubles yesterday, it was a pretty good week.”
After Latorre won six consecutive games to win the first set, he won the first three of the second. Deames held serve to pull within 3-1, but Latorre won the next two games.
Deames broke his opponent’s potential match-winning serve and held to cut Latorre’s lead to 5-3 and hoped to ride momentum to a third set.
“We had some long games,” Deames said. “He was just a little better today.”
Latorre said he could feel pressure begin to build.
“I got a little bit tight,” he said. “I was a little bit nervous. I think I was becoming a little bit too predictable.”
He served in the set’s ninth game and scored four consecutive points to win and advance.
“Even when I was up 5-1 and serving, I was still a little bit tight,” Latorre said. “I knew I had to focus, but as I was serving, my hands were shaking. My heart was beating faster. I’m just glad I closed it out.”