Taylor Townsend

Taylor Townsend and Ziqi Wang capped impressive runs through the field of the National Open 12s on Wednesday at the Champions Club.

The No. 3 seed Townsend easily dispatched No. 2 seed Jessie Lynn Paul, 6-3, 6-1, to take the girls’ title. The ninth-seeded Wang, meanwhile, won a much tighter match on the boys’ final, beating top-seeded David Crisovan 6-4, 7-6 (5).

Both players had to go through their respective draw’s top two seeds in the final two rounds.

“This is probably the best tournament I’ve ever had,” Wang said, who is ranked No. 69 in the nation in the 12-and-under age division.

In his semifinal match Tuesday against No. 2 seed David Parker, Wang dropped just three games, but he faced a much more formidable challenge in the final against 13th-ranked Crisovan.

The two talented juniors, who often slugged it out from the baseline, traded breaks of serve in the first set before Wang broke to go up 4-3 and then held for a 5-3 lead, closing out the set two games later.

Crisovan served for the second set at 5-4, but Wang quickly won the first two points and eventually got the break to draw even. Both players then held serve to force the tiebreaker.

Wang, from Birmingham, lost the first two points of the tiebreaker before reeling off five in a row. Crisovan then won the next two to draw even, but he missed a routine forehand wide on the next point and Wang closed out the match with a backhand cross-court winner.

“I just went for everything there,” Wang said. “I had a lot of confidence going into the tournament and I played a really good match (Tuesday against Parker), so I was really confident going into the final.”

Townsend, ranked No. 38, showed plenty of confidence throughout the tournament, especially in her final two matches. She routed top-seeded and 16th-ranked Andie Daniell, 6-2, 6-0, in the semifinals and had little more difficulty against the 19th-ranked Paul.

Attacking the net at every opportunity, a rarity among players her age, Townsend kept constant pressure on Paul, who was unable to convert enough passing shots. After winning the first set, Townsend, from Jonesboro, Ga., jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second and cruised to the win.

“I’ve really been focusing on being aggressive,” Townsend said. “I’m coming to the net a lot ... and focusing on attacking the net.

“I just thing I went out and played really aggressive and I was proud of myself.”

The top three finishers in the boys and girls draws automatically qualify for the top-level Super National tournaments later this summer.

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