VIRGINIA BEACH
Maureen Slattery couldn't have staged a better debut at the USTA Girls 16s Clay Court National Championships.
The 12-year-old from Newport News blanked Nicole Chiricosta of Avon Lake, Ohio, 6-0, 6-0 in a second-round match Monday at the Virginia Beach Tennis and Country Club. Slattery, who got a bye in the first round, advances to play Samantha Lieb of Newtown, Pa., at 11:30 a.m. today. Lieb is one of several juniors who received a No. 17 seed.
"Was I nervous? Oh my goodness, yes!" said Slattery, who trains at both the Davidson Tennis Academy in Virginia Beach and the Hampton Roads Tennis Academy at Old Dominion. "I did not expect to win that easily."
But the nerves didn't show for the rising eighth-grader at Hines Middle School, whose signature is two hands on both sides. Slattery showed patience and touch on the slow clay, where she has spent a good part of her summer honing her skills under coaches Ryan and Julie Davidson.
"After the first set, sometimes I tend to let up," she said. "I just told myself to keep the pedal to the ground."
Top seeds Gabrielle De Simone and Sarah Lee advanced, dropping two games apiece. In the biggest upset of the day, third-seed Lacey Smyth was upended by Amy Grossklag 6-4, 5-7, 6-1.
At the USTA 12s National Clay Court Championships in Boca Raton, Fla., Virginia Beach's Alexandra Baer fell 6-2, 6-1 to Alexandria Stiteler of Bradenton, Fla. The 12-year-old Baer was playing a second-round match.
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