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COLLEGE PARK, Md. - American Katie Volynets and Brazilian Gilbert Soares Klier Junior both earned their second International Tennis Federation Grade 1 titles Saturday at the Junior Tennis Champions Center. Their last steps on their paths to Prince George’s County International Hard Court titles diverged however, with Volynets needing nearly three hours to defeat Hurricane Tyra Black 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, while Klier spent just 30 minutes on court before Nick Hardt, trailing 5-2, retired due to injury.

Girls Singles Champion Katie Volynets
© Zoo Tennis

Volynets, the No. 5 seed, and Klier, the No. 8 seed, had both won ITF Grade B1 Closed events this spring, with Volynets taking the Easter Bowl title and Klier the Copa Paineiras title in Brazil.

Neither had trouble in the early rounds of last week’s event, avoiding the upset bug that bit the top seeds, with early losses by No. 2 seeds Facundo Diaz Acosta of Argentina to Hunter Heck and Lea Ma to Alexandra Vagramov of Canada. Top seed and defending champion Nicolas Mejia of Colombia went out in the third round to No. 16 seed Govind Nanda and girls No. 1 seed Alexa Noel was eliminated in the quarterfinals by No. 10 seed Loudmilla Bencheikh of France.

Volynets defeated three seeds with the loss of just seven games prior to the final, while Black, seeded No. 16, beat No. 3 seed Margaryta Bilokin of Ukraine, No. 9 seed Natasha Subhash and Bencheikh, all in straight sets, to earn her place in the championship match.

One of the finalists was going to extend her straight-sets winning streak, and it was Black who took the 65-minute first set, but only after Volynets had saved five set points: two with Black serving at 5-3, then three more with Volynets serving at 4-5, before Black took the sixth on a controversial line call.