Rajeev Ram?s memories of Kalamazoo will undoubtedly be positive ones, but they won?t include an 18s singles title to match his 2000 16s championship. Ram, who started slowly in his third round match Monday but recovered for a three set win, ran into an extremely sharp John Isner and was unable to get his serve and volley game rolling against the angular seventeen year old from Greensboro NC. Isner, seeded 20th, demonstrated the advantages of his 6 foot 7 inch frame in the first set, hitting frequent service winners and crisp volleys to win it 6-3. In the second set, Isner was up a break, but Ram battled back to tie it at five, and both players held to send the match to a tiebreaker. Ram?s opportunity to send the match to a third set ended, when at five all and Isner serving, Ram chipped an approach shot long, setting up match point. Ram hit a powerful first serve that Isner returned with pace right at his feet. All he could do was pop it up and Isner calmly surveyed the open court and placed a soft volley past Ram for the win.

In other 18s singles action, the higher seeds prevailed in nearly every match. The only exception was Brett Joelson of Beaverton OR, seeded 23rd, who beat 11th seed Chris Kwon of Boca Raton FL 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3. Top seed Brian Baker of Nashville TN and second seed Prakash Amritraj of Encino CA both cruised in to the fifth round with 6-3, 6-0 wins. For fourth round results in 18 singles, click here.

In 16 singles, several favorites lost Tuesday, with Robert Cameron of Lenoir City TN falling in straight sets to Travis Helgeson of Overland Park KS. Cameron, who dominated the Clay Courts last month, did not play with his usual consistency and Helgeson took full advantage of the third seed?s lackluster play in his 7-5, 6-2 win. Fifth seed Brandon Wai of San Diego CA was defeated by Chong Wang of Corpus Christi TX, 7-6 (2), 6-1. Number one seed Yevgeny Supeko of Billings MT and number two seed Vahid Mirzadeh of Wellington FL advanced with straight set victories. For fourth round results in 16s singles, click here.

Source: Colette Lewis (Tournament Office)