Thursday Aug 7

Closs is boss at Alpine

St. Francis-bound teen wins bracket; M-A top seed alive

By Greg Lydon / Daily News Correspondent

Semifinal action dominated the draw at the Alpine Hills Junior Fall Tennis Classic on Wednesday morning, but some hardware was handed out to a select group of champions at Alpine Hills Golf and Tennis Club in Portola Valley.

Menlo Park resident Mary Closs cruised to a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Jenny Chen to claim first place in the girls singles 14-year-old bracket.

The smooth lefty corrected her forehand troubles early in set one to make quick work of her opponent in the second set.

"I've never been able to play in this tournament before, so it feels good to win it," Closs said.

Closs's older brother and sister attended St. Francis High School in Mountain View. Closs plans to follow her older siblings and become a Lancer during her high school career.

Closs used a strong serve to take the opening game and jump out to a 1-0 lead. A break helped open up a 3-0 edge in the opening set, but unforced errors by Closs allowed her opponent to make a mid-set charge.

Chen took advantage of the erratic forehand from Closs to fight off back-to-back lengthy deuce battles and even the set up at 3 apiece.

"My forehand was kind of rough at first," Closs said. "I got through the first set and fixed what was wrong. I played much better after that."

Chen took a 1-0 lead in set two, but Closs responded nicely with a bending forehand winner down the line to even things up.

Closs ripped forehand winners down the left baseline to snatch up game two, three and four before closing things out with a spinning forehand on the move to reel in the dominant victory.

"I like to be the one to control the pace out there," Closs said.

Closs went home with a trophy, but the match of the day occurred in the 18-year-old girls singles bracket.

Tired and pushed to the brink and back, No. 1 seed Marietta Tuionetoa survived to advance to today's 9 a.m. championship final.

Tuionetoa defeated a very game Stephanie Ton 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(2) to muster out a hard fought 3-set victory.

"That was really hard, I wasn't playing my best today," Tuionetoa said.

Ton, who will be a junior at Archbishop Mitty in San Jose this fall, ran out of gas in the third set tiebreaker, but gave the 18-year-old bracket's top seed everything she could handle.

"I noticed she won the second set and had success in third because I was sitting back on the baseline making a lot of errors," Tuionetoa said. "I started coming into the net later in the match to make things more difficult for her."

Tuionetoa was a key cog on the Menlo-Atherton High girls tennis team last season, playing No. 1 singles for the majority of the year.

Ton led 3-2 in the third set, but couldn't shake her opponent to close out the upset.

The players traded points going back-and-forth until Tuionetoa pulled away in the tiebreaker.

In other tournament action, Patrick Chase (Menlo School) defeated Steven Chung 6-1, 6-1 to move on to today's boys singles 16-year-old final at 8 a.m.

Closs returned after her win earlier in the day to team win Emma Marti of Palo Alto to defeat Sophie Biffar (Paly) and Grace Dulik (Paly) 6-0, 6-0 in the girls 16-year-old doubles semifinal.

Marti also won in her 16-year-old girls semifinal match earlier in the day defeating Jamie Eng of Los Altos 6-1, 6-0.