Tenth seed Scoville Jenkins of Atlanta GA improved on last year?s performance with an impressive 6-2, 6-2 romp over fourth seed and Kalamazoo newcomer Timothy Neilly of Bradenton FL. Jenkins and Neilly both exhibited some nerves at the start, but once Jenkins got rolling he won eight straight games before Neilly finally broke the streak for 4-1. That only delayed the inevitable, however, as Jenkins moves on to face second seed Vahid Mirzadeh of Wellington FL on Saturday. Mirzadeh had a tougher quarterfinal match Friday against Maciek Sykut of Marathon FL. Again the winner put together an impressive streak; though Mirzadeh lost the match's first two games, he won the next six before Sykut got back on the board by winning the first game of the second set. Sykut mounted a comeback and had an opportunity to send the match to a third set when serving at 5-3. But Mirzadeh again stepped up the pressure and won the last four games to close out the match.

In the top half of the draw, Philip Kao of Cupertino CA (25) and Travis Helgeson of Overland Park KS (18) will meet for the other spot in the finals. They earned quarterfinal victories on Thursday.

In 18s singles semifinal matches played on Friday, Prakash Amritraj of Encino CA, the second seed, dropped his first set of the tournament in a second set tiebreak, but prevailed over Jonathan Stokke of Durham NC 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-1. Both players relied on their big serves throughout, with Amritraj often demonstrating his ability to go from defense to offense in the same rally. Up 2-1 on serve in the third set, Amritraj requested a bathroom break and when play resumed, he took control of the match by immediately breaking Stokke. Putting unrelenting pressure on his opponent, the USC freshman sealed his victory with another break at 4-1 to earn a spot in the semifinal against fourth seed Robert Yim. Yim, of Glendale CA, started slowly in his matchup with tenth seed Kean Feeder of Portland OR Friday afternoon. As he had in his fourth round match with Portage?s Scott Oudsema, Yim lost the first set before getting the range on his heavy groundstrokes. Feeder, who was meeting a lefthander for the second straight match, did not display the same consistency he showed in conquering Wayne Odesnik on Wednesday. In the seventh game of the third set, with Feeder serving at deuce, Yim punctuated a long rally with an outright winner, and then duplicated the feat on the next point to take a lead he would not relinquish. With his 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory, Yim reaches the singles semis for the first time in his four appearances in Kalamazoo.

The other semifinal features top seed Brian Baker of Nashville TN and eighth seed Douglas Stewart of Malibu CA. They advanced in quarterfinal matches played on Thursday.

Source: Colette Lewis (Tournament Office)