Ramstein's Sean Stokstad returns a shot from ISB's Edouard Van Der Mersch in a boys singles semifinal match at the DODDS-Europe tennis championships in Wiesbaden-Nordenstadt on Friday. Stokstad, the No. 2 seed, won the match 7-6 (10-8), 6-4, and will meet defending champ and top seed Nick Garcia of Heidelberg in Saturday's final. (Michael Abrams / S&S)
Ramstein's Sean Stokstad returns a shot from ISB's Edouard Van Der Mersch in a boys singles semifinal match at the DODDS-Europe tennis championships in Wiesbaden-Nordenstadt on Friday. Stokstad, the No. 2 seed, won the match 7-6 (10-8), 6-4, and will meet defending champ and top seed Nick Garcia of Heidelberg in Saturday's final. (Michael Abrams / S&S)
ISB's Kara Williamson returns a shot from Ramstein's Lindsey Jones in a girls singles semifinal match at the DODDS-Europe tennis championships in Wiesbaden-Nordenstadt on Friday. Williamson, the No. 2 seed, defeated Jones, No. 3, 6-2, 6-3 and will face two-time defending champion and top seed Krista Citkovska of SHAPE in Saturday's final. (Michael Abrams / S&S)
WIESBADEN-NORDENSTADT — The seedings proved prophetic Friday as the top two seeds in boys and girls singles reached Saturday’s finals in the DODDS-Europe tennis championships.
No. 1 seeds Nick Garcia of Heidelberg and Krista Citkovska of SHAPE will defend their titles around noon at the Vitis tennis center here against Sean Stokstad of Ramstein and Kara Williamson of International School of Brussels.
Both No. 2s knew what they were up against.
“I’m just going to go swimming and relax,” Williamson said of preparing for her match against Citkovska. Citovska has yet to lose a game this season — including shutouts Friday of Isabelle Ignacio of Baumholder and No. 4 Chelsea Cotter of Heidelberg.
“I played her once before, and it wasn’t a good match,” Williamson said.
Stokstad, fresh off his 7-6 (10-8), 6-4 semifinal victory over third-seeded Edouard Van Der Mersch of ISB, said he was planning to replay his previous matches against Garcia in his head.
“I’ll take some things from the past — what to do, what not to do against him,” he said. “I hope I can take a couple of games from him.”
Garcia beat Stokstad at love at Heidelberg last Saturday, but appeared slightly more touchable in Friday’s 6-1, 6-2 semifinal victory over No. 5 Patrick Barrenechea of Wiesbaden. They were the first singles games Garcia has lost all season.
Stokstad also hoped his long tiebreaker set against Van Der Mersch might prove of benefit.
“For some reason, I was playing tentatively today,” said Stokstad, who’s 4-0 against Van Der Mersch over the last two seasons. “I wasn’t expecting him to play so well, but maybe it got all the nerves out of me.”
In doubles, the No. 1 boys from ISB advanced, but the rest of the seedings fell apart.
The No. 7 Ramstein team of Eric Radvany and Clay Marquardt downed the No. 3s, Adam Pauley and Jeremy Junker of Mannheim, 6-4, 6-4, in the semis.
For the girls, AFNORTH’s No. 5 duo of Heather Acre and Melanie Seitz toppled ISB’s top-seeded Tamara Casteels and Ayumi Sakakibara 1-6, 6-1, 6-3 in one semifinal, and Wiesbaden’s No. 6 team, Nancy Jensen and Jessica Smith, beat Heidelberg’s Nikki Ecenrode and Andrea Wheatcroft 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (12-10) in the other. The Heidelberg duo earlier knocked off the No. 2 team, SHAPE’s Ilena Jansen and Svenja Jansen, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (12-10).
Bahrain’s six-player contingent, led by former Patch coach Shane Washington, didn’t reach any of the semis in their first tournament appearance. But the sextet still made its mark despite having to sacrifice practice time to their faith.
“The kids were fasting [for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan],” Washington said of the three weeks his team had to prepare for this trip. “They aren’t allowed to drink water and it’s over 100 degrees, so we couldn’t practice very long. We’d hit a bit, but we couldn’t run.”
Even so, girls No. 6 seed Eman Yousif rebounded from a 6-2, 6-1 quarterfinal loss Friday to No. 3 Lindsey Jones of Ramstein to win a consolation match. Moeez Ali claimed two consolation victories in boys singles Friday.
“I like the concept of consolation rounds,” Ali said.
“In other tournaments, if you lose two, you’re out.”
