At The Open With Marcia Frost...

Thursday, August 26th
Qualifying, Day Three

It's all up to Brendan now. Today the eighteen year old upset the sixth-seeded Adrian Garcia of Chile to enter the final round of Qualifying. He is the last American teen left and he is ready, willing and able to take his game to the main draw.

Twenty-one aces (from Brendan alone) and three sets after it began, the match between Brendan and Adrian started with a close first game and progressed from there. Both hard-hitting and big servers, the men battled out the first set into a tie-breaker. Brendan let out a scream of victory when he captured it 7-2, but there was a lot more to come. The second set was full of questionable calls that kept tempers flaring. Having difficulty controlling his composure, Brendan lost that set, 6-3. Determination and the mighty serve prevailed as he took control in the third set to a 6-2 win. Tomorrow he will face Takao Suzuki for his final Qualifying match.

It doesn't get much closer than Alexandra Mueller's match against Sesil Karantancheva. What started out to look like what many describe as a "boring, men's match" -- a serving duel -- turned into an edge of your seat event.

Alexandra is hard to miss with her trademark (very) long braid. She has been playing as a pro for months now and did not look out of place on the court with one. The teen was the match leader and had the Bulgarian playing defense early on, but in the tiebreaker Sesil pulled off just a few better plays for the win. The second set was also to close to call with a break finally coming through for Alex as she caused a split at 6-4. The final set kept on serve until 5-5, at which Alexandra held off five break points before Sesil got through on the sixth and took the match in the next game.

Fourteen year old Alexa Glatch's game was definitely not up to its usual high standards today. The teen, who has been traveling and playing for months, may finally be ready for a break. Her game was just not on as she lost easily to Mervana Jugic-Salkic. The Bosnia-Herzegovina native did play well, but Alexa didn't put up much of a fight before her 6-3,6-0 loss. Fortunately, she has at least nine days to rest up before the Junior Championships.

Brendon will go after his place in the main draw tomorrow. With the withdrawal of James Blake today, there is actually an extra spot left for a lucky-loser, but let's hope that Brendon won't need it.

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