Bradenton FL–
I decided to make the trip to the Legacy Hotel Courts on the West Campus of the IMG Academy, and although there were only eleven matches played on the six courts, I was there for a good six hours, with three-setter after three-setter extending the second round of the ITF J300.
Seven of those 11 matches (No. 4 seed Alan Wazny of Poland received a walkover due to Carel Ngounoue’s injury) went the distance, but the biggest upsets were straight sets matches, with Hollie Smart of Great Britain beating No. 3 seed Luna Cinalli of Argentina 6-3, 7-5 and Connor Doig of South Africa beating No. 3 seed Ryo Tabata of Japan 6-4, 6-2.
Smart got off to a good start against Cinalli and closed the first set without much resistance, but Cinalli served for the second set at 5-3 and held a set point at 40-30. Smart saved it with her forehand, forcing a Cinalli error, and two unforced Cinalli errors later, Smart was back on serve.
Smart held on to level in a tight game and then took the lead when she converted her second break point by putting away a forehand on a short ball. Serving out the match proved difficult, however, with her 30-0 lead disappearing and a match point lost at 40-30 after a backhand error. She missed a forehand pass wide that gave Cinalli a break point, and was unable to land a first serve. But Cinalli scored the second service return and then scored two more forehands to hand the match to Smart.
Smart had not yet played on green clay this week, but has reached the semi-finals of a J300 on red clay in Europe and progressed to the quarter-finals of last week’s J500 in Merida, and believes the surface suits her game.
“Playing heavy balls and combining them with the low slice keeps my opponent moving,” said the 16-year-old, who trains at LTA’s Academy in Loughborough. “I can get him in tough positions for them and take him out of their attacking zone.”
Smart used her slice, both forehand and backhand, to coax mistakes from Cinalli.
“She definitely struggled when it was lower, so I tried to combine that,” Smart said. “Not too much so she didn’t get into a groove, but going heavy and then keeping it low definitely gave me a lot of cheap points, or opportunities to come out on top.”
Cinalli is the rare junior girls with a one-handed backhand, with Smart not recalling any other opponent she has faced with that shot.
“It’s definitely different,” Smart said. “She’ll feel better on some shots and have trouble with others, so I’m just trying to figure out what works. The first few games are a bit of problem-solving. But as the match goes on, it was better to keep it high. She struggled with that and got one hand up there.”
Smart will face No. 15 seed Iva Marinkovic of Sweden, who won one of the three-setters on the Legacy Hotel courts, beating Zhang-Qian Wei of China 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. Marinkovic is one of two remaining seeds in the top half, with No. 5 Anastasija Cvetkovic of Serbia beating qualifier Ana Avramovic 6-1, 6-3 in the only other girls’ two-setter on the Legacy Courts.
Like Smart, Doig was unfamiliar with the green clay in the United States, but the 17-year-old from South Africa was able to practice on the surface for four days after losing in the first round of the J500 in Merida last week.
“This is my first time in the United States and my first time on green clay,” Doig said. “I don’t have as much experience on the clay as everyone else, because I’m from South Africa. We don’t really have clay courts, none at all. I’ve definitely improved a lot on it since I first got on it, and I feel more comfortable. I’d say I enjoy it more than the European clay. Here I’d say it’s a little bit faster and has a better bounce than the European clay.”
Doig stuck with the usually consistent Tabata, a Roland Garros boys semi-finalist this year, in the rallies. That consistency wasn’t evident today, with Doig’s shot tolerance superior to Tabata’s and his motivation boosted by an earlier loss.
“About three and a half years ago, on my first trip to Europe, playing for South Africa in the U14 Davis Cup (World Junior Tennis) in Prostejov (Czech Republic),” Doig said. “I lost that match after being up 6-5 and 40-0 in the third set. So there was definitely an element of revenge in this one. He’s definitely very strong; he’s a good opponent so he makes you play a lot of balls. Against an opponent like him you have to take your chances and play at your highest level to win, which is what I did today.”
Doig will face the lone remaining qualifier, Israel’s Tim Vaisman, in the third round on Thursday.
In addition to Tabata, two more boys fell on the Legacy Hotel courts, with Colombia’s Juan Miguel Bolivar Idarraga beating No. 8 seed Zigo Sesko of Slovenia 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-3 and wild card Marcel Latak beating No. 10 seed Kuan-Shou Chen of Taiwan 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-5.
Chen served for the match at 5-4 in the third set, but Latak raised his game when necessary, breaking Chen at love and quickly holding him to put the pressure back on Chen.
Latak had two match points at 15-40 but dropped a return on the first, with Chen getting a lucky net rope on the second. But a double fault gave Latak another match point, which Chen saved with a good first serve. But Latak nailed a forehand winner for a fourth match point and converted it with a perfect forehand pass to seal the three-hour victory.
“I told myself I’m there physically,” the reigning Kalamazoo 16s champion said. “So if I can just be there mentally, I’ll be able to do it. If I stay focused the whole time, if I go down, it doesn’t matter because it’s all momentum.”
Latak isn’t crazy about the green clay, but he did have a chance to train on it at the USTA National Campus prior to this tournament and was determined to show some improvement.
“So far so good,” said the 16-year-old from Illinois. “Earlier this year, when I switched from hard to clay, I struggled a lot, but Christian (Groh) helped me a lot, with strategy and the way to play on green clay, and I followed that advice.”
Latak will face unseeded Daniel Jade of France in the third round on Thursday.
No. 12 seed Andrew Johnson came from 6-1 down in the first set tiebreaker to beat Puerto Rico’s Yannik Alvarez 7-6(8), 6-4, joining compatriots Latak, Jerrid Gaines Jr and Jordan Lee in the third round. Lee, last year’s 16s champion, defeated qualifier Koki Nara of Japan 6-2, 6-3 and Gaines defeated qualifier Kamil Stolarczyk 6-2, 6-3.
No. 9 seed Michael Antonius suffered his first ever defeat at the tournament after winning the Eddie Herr 12s title in 2022 and the 14s title in 2023 while not competing in Bradenton last year. Today he lost a three-hour, 35-minute battle of attrition to Brazil’s Pedro Henrique Chabalgoity 6-2, 6-7(8), 6-3.
The only seed remaining in the bottom half of the draw is No. 5 seed Jamie Mackenzie of Germany, a TCU signee, who received a walkover from Victor Ryden of Sweden.
The doubles quarterfinals are scheduled for Thursday after four of the boys’ second round matches were played under lights due to the length of so many singles matches. The top seeds in the girls’ draw, Nadia Lagaev of Canada and Laim Vladson of Uzbekistan, lost to Yu Jun Lin and Zhang-Qian Wei of China 7-6(5), 6-4.
Rui He of China defeated top seed Oliver Baker of Australia 6-3, 7-5 and Zirui Zhao of China defeated No. 2 seed Evan Fan 6-3, 6-4 in the boys 12s.
2024 girls 12s champion Nikol Davletshina, the No. 1 seed this year in the 14s, lost to No. 13 seed Adriana Khomyakova 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
B12s quarter-finals:
Rui He (CHN) vs. Yeseong Lee[9] (KOR)
Jobe Dikkenberg[3](AUS) v Dmitriy Flyam[7] (USA)
Daichi Fujise (JPN) vs. Minchan Kwon[16] (KOR)
James Borchard[5] (US) vs. Zirui Zhao (CHN)
B14s quarter-finals:
Genida Mohammed[1] (ONE) vs. Siyun Kim[7] (KOR)
Tristan Ascenzo[3] (US) vs. Kenshin Sato (JPN)
Boshi Wang[4] (USA) vs. Akhmadi Makhanov[10] (KAZ)
Yosuke Hino[8] (SGP) against Ignacio Mexias[16] (USA)
B16s quarter finals:
Mason Vaughan[1] (USA) against Rafael Bote[5] (CAN)
Dhakshish Aryan[4] (USA) vs. Artem Dmytrenko[9] (USA)
Colter Amey (USA) vs. Ansar Niyetkaliyev (KAZ)
Cristobal Plasencia Robles[12] (USA) vs. Jang Junseo[14] (KOR)
G12s quarterfinals:
Xiaoke Li (CHN) vs. Chloe Anthony[7] USA)
Yoonseol Choi (KOR) vs. Zana Peric[8] (USA)
Fangqiao Zou[4] (CHN) vs. Yeonkyung Lim[6] (KOR)
Inie Toli[2] (US) Seungyeon Seo[5] (OUT)
G14s quarterfinals:
Adriana Khomyakova[13] (US) vs. Mia Tanasoiu (US)
Jiayi Lu(CHN)[10] against Konstantina Volonaki[5](GRE)
Zihao Han[4] (CHN) vs Srishti Kiran[11] (IND)
Xinran Yan[12] (CHN) against Ayaka Iwasa[9] (JPN)
G16s quarterfinals:
Adelina Iftime[11] (USA) vs. Kara Fronek[16] (AUT)
Self Ouyang[3] USA) against Samvrutha Jawahar[7] (USA)
Vibha Gogineni[4](USA) vs. Tanvi Pandey[6] (USA)
Shaya Jovanovic (US) vs. London Evans (US)
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