Ryan Lipman has already played a couple best-of-five set matches and hopes to use that experience in Sunday’s boys’ 18s final against second-seeded Chase Buchanan, with the winner getting a wild card in to the main draw of the U.S. Open.

On Saturday, Lipman, the eighth seed from Nashville, Tenn., pulled out a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, win over No. 13 Raymond Sarmiento, Fontana, Calif., in one semifinal match. In the other, Buchanan, New Albany, Ohio, breezed past unseeded Mousheg Hovhannisyan, North Hollywood, Calif., 6-0, 6-1.

Although Buchanan has never played a best-of-five, “I definitely don’t have a problem going three sets,” he said. One of Lipman’s best-of-five matches went four sets — 7-6 in the fourth. "It was fun," he said. When Sarmiento called for a trainer early in the third set, “It just made me a little more tight because I knew if I kept fighting, he would eventually lose it,” Lipman said. “You could probably tell on his service game. I couldn't find the court. I was like, ‘Come on, Ryan, make it. Duh.’”

In 16s, top seed Jack Sock, Lincoln, Neb., was tested for the first time in the tournament before defeating Bjorn Fratangelo (3), Pittsburgh, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. “(Fratangelo) came out firing,” Sock said. “I thought if I moved him a lot, he’d try to go for broke and miss more than he made. I played too far behind the baseline, I played too defensively and let him play his own game, and I don’t know how I won.”

Sock will take on Gonzales Austin, the eighth seed from Miami, in Sunday’s final. Austin won a three-hour three-setter over Raymond Withrow (4), Omaha, Neb., 6-7(2), 7-6(5), 6-3 on Saturday. During the 10-minute break between the second and third sets, Austin said he didn’t have a coach with him and didn’t want to talk with his mother because she “doesn’t really play tennis, so my friend (Zach McCourt) was just keeping me pumped up because it was a close second set.”

Source: USTA Nationals Staff