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Tennessee: No. 1 seeds reach National 12s semis

By: John Frierson
(Contact)

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Andie Daniell

David Crisovan hardly broke a sweat Monday, while Andie Daniell had to work much, much harder. But both No. 1 seeds in the USTA National Open 12s at the Champions Club moved on to the semifinals.

Crisovan, from Hallandale Beach, Fla., cruised past fifth-seeded Connor Curry, 6-2, 6-1, and will face Knoxville’s Sunay Bhat, the No. 3 seed, in the boys’ semifinals this morning at 11.

“I served pretty well, I hit a lot of winners and I only made like three unforced errors, so it was good,” said Crisovan, who is ranked No. 13 in the United States.

There was a lot more quarterfinal drama for Daniell, who fought through two tough sets for a 7-5, 7-6 (8) win over fifth-seeded Josie Kuhlman. Daniell, from Douglasville, Ga., went up 6-3 in the tiebreaker, giving her three match points. But Kulhman fought back and eventually earned two set points before Daniell, ranked No. 18 in the country, closed out the tiebreaker, 10-8.

“I’ve played (Kuhlman) before and she’s really improved a lot,” Daniell said. “She was playing better and I just had to gut it out.”

Daniell will face a fellow Georgian, third-seeded Taylor Townsend of Jonesboro, this morning in the semifinals. Townsend advanced with a 6-0, 6-4 win over Dylan P. Owens, the No. 5 seed.

Bhat will face Crisovan twice today, in singles and doubles. He earned his singles semifinals spot despite a slow start, winning 2-6, 6-0, 1-0 (4) against fifth-seeded Michael Kay.

Bhat and Ziqi Wang, the No. 4 seeded team, advanced to the doubles final with a comfortable 8-3 win over No. 2 seeds David Parker and Nikita Kardivar. No. 2 Parker won 6-1, 6-0 in his singles quarterfinal.

In the other doubles semifinal, top-seeded Crisovan and Victor Gurevich rolled past No. 3 Jared Donaldson and Shane Monroe, 8-1. Crisovan and Gurevich, both from the Miami area, play together regularly and dressed the same from head to toe in Nike gear: black shoes and socks, blue shorts, sleeveless white shirts, matching caps and blue sunglasses.

“We do this at every tournament,” Gurevich said. “We like it.”

Daniell and the girls’ singles No. 2 seed, Jessie Lynn Paul, are No. 1 together for doubles and face Brooke Broda and Meredith Laskey for the championship after both duos won 8-2 against the Nos. 2 and 3 seeds. Paul won 6-0, 6-0 in her singles quarterfinal.

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