Non -seed Antonius and Liutova reach ITF J300 College Park Finals; Five Americans qualify for us

© Colette Lewis 2025–

College Park, MD

Antonius, who had defeated seeds in the previous three rounds, defeated Unseeded Matei Todoran of Romania 7-5, 6-3, with the key to his victory in the last game of the first set.

“If I remember correctly, it was 30-40 on his serve, and he hit a backhand-cross-court, his backhand was so solid in that game,” said Antonius, who comes from Buffalo New York, but trains with the USTA on the National Campus in Lake Nona Florida. “Then I hit two simple balls at his forehand at Deuce, and I didn’t know if he was tight or nervous, but he couldn’t put them in the field. That game made me realize that I should focus a bit on the forehand in the second set.”

Antonius received the first break of the second set, when Todoran, a 17-year-old from Cluj-Napoca, saved two breakpoints, but double accused of giving Antonius a third who converted the American. He was easy to take a 5-2 lead, and after a love hold of Todoran, he stepped up to serve before the game. After serving for the first set at 5-3 and not closing that first attempt with a bad version, Antonius was determined not to make the same mistake in the second set.

He went up 40-0, making Todoran mistakes to help him, but missed an overhead to waste the first match point. On the second, Todoran struck a forehand wide to send Antonius to his first J300 final.

“I could see that he got tired and (Usta coach) Sylvain (Guichard) told me that I had to stay physically and let him work for everything,” said Antonius. “I just told myself, you have to cross the finish line now.”

Antonius will be confronted with no. 2 Seed Yannick Alexandrescou of Romania, who defeated no. 4 Seed Ryo Tabata from Japan with 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-2 to reach his fourth J300 final of the year, but the first on hard courts.

With the first set with only one early break for each, double partners Alexandrescou and Tabata went to the Tiebreaker with nothing to separate them, but Tabata took control and jumped to a 4-0 lead with four straight winners. Alexandrescou returned to Serve and closed the gap to 6-5, but a large Tabata-Forehand forced a mistake from Alexanderescou to give him a lead.

“He dominated me in the Tiebreaker, he started to hit four winners,” said the 17-year-old from Bucharest, who usually does not give up many winners, especially four in a row. “I couldn’t do anything. If you start badly in the tiebreak, there is no chances that you will win it.”

Alexandrescou describes his game as “very normal, I stay back, try to combat”, so he does not credit himself for strategic changes that the results in the following two sets have reversed.

“I was lucky that he was physically tired, I think he was tight, he could not serve as he did in the first set,” said Alexandrescou. “I really think he dropped the level a lot because of the way he served when he was a cramp.”

Alexandrescou knows that playing someone is so young as Antonius in the latter changes the dynamics, even with the experience he has gained with his three ITF J300 titles.

“I know he is 2010 (year of birth), so not tomorrow,” said Alexandrescou. “I haven’t seen him much, but if he is in the final of a J300 level at the age of 15, he is clearly a great player, with a great future, so I am very pumped for tomorrow’s game and I will try to improvise.”

De rollen werden vandaag teruggedraaid in de halve finales van de meisjes, met nr. 3 zaad Laima Vladson, die alle drie van haar wedstrijden in drie sets had gewonnen, een snelle 4-0 kreeg, gepensioneerde overwinning van nr. 5 zaad Anastasija Cvetkovic van Servië, terwijl kwalificatiekwalificeerder werd voor de eerste keer om nr. 9 zaad Xinran van Serbia, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2. 6-0.

Vladson did not put pressure on itself to quickly end the game, because her 6-1 third set on no. 6 seed yushan shao of China in the quarterfinals on Thursday had given the confidence she needed.

“I didn’t really expect much from myself, just I tried to stay grounded to go for my shots,” said the 17-year-old from Lithuania, who won back-to-back J300 titles in South America this winter. “I know what I did yesterday to win and I just tried to follow the same plan for today. And it worked, so I am really grateful that my coaches and the ITF (Grand Slam Touring) team help me achieve my goals for this tournament and the US Open.”

“I love if there is a tournament that feels like a community,” said Vladson, who participated in the annual bowling party last night. “Not only do you come to the tournament, you play a match, you go back to the hotel and that’s it.”

Vladson does not leave her competitive instincts at the courts, because she reported that she defeated all her friends in Bowlen last night.

“Me and Alan Wazny tied it, but it was fun and we defeated everyone by a landslide,” said Vladson.

Liutova had gone through her first six games, including qualification, so comfortable that it was a shock when she dropped the first set to Sun, which is also 15 years old. Liutova could have rattled, but she did not panic and credited her mother Lena’s coaching to help her return to the game plan.

“My mother gave me some notes for the game, but I did not read them in the first set, I was so tight,” said Liutova, who admitted that he felt nervous at the thought of her first J300 final. “In the second set I read them of course, and I started to become more consistent, perhaps to play with more margin and let myself play tennis, not to think about the result at all. My mother, when I lost the first set, just told me to fight until the end; it didn’t matter if I win or loss, just fighting, just fighting and playing your game.”

In the third set, Sun switched from looking at a challenging aggressive game style, especially after she was hit 3-0 behind two breaks.

Liutova acknowledged the danger of that situation and made adjustments in response.

“I told myself that she has nothing to lose and she started to return deep on the line, aggressive,” said Liutova. “So if she became more aggressive, I should be twice as consistent.”

Liutova was confronted with two breaking points in the last match, but saved them both and hit three winners in a row to end the game.

“I am so excited to be in the final, to play in that energy,” said Liutova.

After many years at the training at the Gorin Academy, Liutova wants to represent the United States and goes through the bureaucratic process that is currently required.

“I hope it will be as soon as possible,” said Liutova. “I want to be with the United States as soon as possible.”

The double finals are set for Saturday, with the girls final set at 10.30 am simultaneously with the Boys Singles Final. No. 4 seeds Kamonwan Yodpetch from Thailand and Ruien Zhang from China will be confronted with the third placed Chinese team of Shao and Sun. Yodpetch and Zhang defeated ungusted Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann and Karlin Schock 6-4, 4-6, 10-7. While Shao and Sun received a Walkover from Cvetkovic and Ksenia Ephremova in France, due to the injury of Cvetkovic.

The boys’ final will contain no. 2 seeds Alexandrescou and Tabata against no. 8 seeds Gavin Goode and Ryan Cozad.

Goode and Cozad defeated Antonius and Andrew Johnson 6-2, 6-2, with Alexandrescou and Tabata who close the day game with a 6-3, 6-1 win over no. 6 seeds Savva Rybkin of Russia and Kerem Yilmaz van Turkey.

Katie Volynets, Hina Inoue and Claire Liu are among the 25 women from the United States in the main drawing, where Inoue makes her debut. Martin Damm and Zachary Svajda, both Kalamazoo champions, joined the 21 American men who already played in the main table with Damm, the 16S champion 2018 Darwin Blanch, the Champion 16S and 2025 18S, in the first round.