Eight qualifying tournaments will continue, top boys will be drawn at ITF J300 Bradenton; The upsets continue in the 12s, 14s, 16s division at the IMG Academy International Championships

Because the ITF J300 is played on green clay, disruptions were minimal, keeping the tournament on schedule. But the upsets that started Monday continued, with another five seeds, including No. 1 Yannick Alexandrescou, eliminated.

Alexandrescou, who played in the singles semi-finals and doubles final at the ITF J500 in Merida on Saturday evening, looked unwell during the opening matches of his match against Ecuador’s Lucas Yunez and eventually requested an immediate visit from the trainer at 5-all in the first set, saying he was struggling to breathe. He tried for a few more points but could not continue as the 17-year-old from Romania, a quarter-finalist here last year, retired. He and Ryo Tabata, the No. 1 seeds in doubles, gave a walkover to the team of Juan Miguel Bolivar Idarraga of Colombia and Pedro Chabalgoity of Brazil, with no other team signing on as alternates.

No. 16 seed Linus Lagerbohm of Finland, also a semifinalist in Merida last week, withdrew from his match with wildcard Jordan Lee, the 2024 16s champion here. Lee was leading 5-1 when Lagerbohm was unable to continue due to illness. Lagerbohm also withdrew from the doubles, with partner Stefan Haita of Romania, but one alternative team had been registered to take their place, twin brothers Max and Jan Frolich of the Czech Republic. The Frolichs lost to Lee and his partner Jerrid Gaines Jr. with 6-0, 7-5.

The other two boys seeds to fall today were No. 14 seed Tito Chavez of Spain and No. 15 seed Ryan Cozad. Chavez lost to wildcard Samim Filiz of Turkey 7-5, 5-7, 6-4, while Cozad was defeated 6-1, 6-1 by qualifier Tim Vaisman of Israel.

The only girls seed to lose today was No. 11 seed Capucine Jauffret, who was defeated by qualifier Lingling Zhu of China 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4).

Zhu, who won both of her qualifying matches in straight sets on Sunday, had a few chances to end the match without a tiebreak, with Jauffret serving at 5-6, but Jauffret held on and Zhu double-faulted on the opening point of the tiebreak.

That unfortunate start did not prove costly as she took the next two points and led 4-2 at the first change of ends. Jauffret got the minibreak back for 4-4, but Zhu was more trapped during the final three points, with Jauffret making three errors to end it.

“I wanted to play every point, concentrate on every shot and not think too much,” said the 16-year-old, who recently trained in Naples, Florida. “I tried to focus on what I was working on in practice.”

Zhu had not played a tournament on green clay before this one, only the occasional practice session, so the two qualifying matches were useful for her, and for her doubles and training partner, Avery Alexander of Canada, who defeated IMG student Ava Rodriguez 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 on the IMG Stadium Court.

Alexander, who also won two qualifying matches in straight sets on Sunday, was happy to have those matches as preparation as she had not played during the clay swing in Mexico.

“At my academy we trained on green clay, which was one of the most important surfaces,” said the 16-year-old, who has been training and traveling with a private coach for the past six months, sharing it with Zhu. “But in the last six months I haven’t trained much on green clay. So the qualifying matches were good experiences, good training for the main tournament. They were tough matches, good players, strong players in qualifying and I got a little bit more used to the surface.”

Alexander said playing as an IMG student on Stadium Court was “a good experience.”

“I blocked out the noise after the points and just focused on myself, my own serves, point by point,” Alexander said. “I stuck to my patterns, so I didn’t have to worry too much about what was going on, who was there or anything.”

Zhu will play Tereza Hermanova of the Czech Republic in the second round on Wednesday, with Alexander facing No. 16 seed Nancy Lee. Zhu and Alexander lost their doubles match in the first round to Canadians Clemence Mercier and Andrea Cabio 6-3, 2-6, 10-6.

The other qualifier to advance to the second round was Ana Avramovic, who defeated Japan’s Rira Kosaka 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, while lucky loser Sena Yoon also recorded a win.

Yoon, who defeated Kori Montoya 6-3, 6-3, was considering leaving for her home in Boca Raton after losing her final-round qualifying match to Armira Kockinis 5-7, 6-4, 10-3 on Sunday. But she decided to spend another night in Bradenton after drawing the No. 2 lucky loser, and when the girl who drew the top spot couldn’t play due to injury, Yoon went in for Brazil’s Victoria Barros, who won the No. 2 seed before withdrawing after making the J500 Merida final.

“The next day I came to sign up and I was like, oh, I’m not going to play and I wasn’t even ready to play tennis,” said the 17-year-old recruit from Columbia, who didn’t have to play Monday while Barros got a Tuesday start. “But the girl ahead of me at number 1 didn’t apply, so I got the spot.”

Yoon had lost to Montoya three times this year at ITF Junior Circuit events, most recently at the J300 in Houston in October, so she was especially pleased with today’s result.

“I think I played pretty well today, with a few funky shots here and there, but it was good,” said Yoon, who will face Kristina Liutova, the 2025 ITF J300 College Park champion, on Wednesday. Liutova defeated qualifier Yilin Chen 6-2, 6-3.

In the boys’ draw, five qualifiers reached the second round. In addition to Vaisman, Japan’s Koki Nara, Tyler Lee, Noble Renfrow and Kamil Stolarczyk advanced with wins today.

Lee cruised past Merida quarterfinalist Olivers Sanders of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-2; Nara, an IMG student, defeated wildcard Nick Stoot by the same score. On the courts of the Legacy Hotel, Renfrow defeated Max Frohlich of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-4 and Stolarcyzk defeated Dani Szabo of Canada 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

The first round of ITF doubles ended at dusk with top seeds Laima Vladson of Uzbekistan and Nadia Lagaev of Canada advancing, as did No. 2 seeds Ansastasija Cvetkovic of Serbia and Sol Ailin Larraya Guidi of Argentina. The only seeded team to lose was No. 6 Sofia Bielinska of Ukraine and Sofia Meabe of Argentina. They fell to Nancy Lee and Kaya Moe 6-2, 6-2.

Two-time junior slam champions Alan Wazny of Poland and Oskari Paldanius of Finland, the No. 2 seeds, advanced, as did all the seeded teams except those who did not play: No. 1 Alexandrescou and Tabata and No. 5 Lagerbohm and Haita.

The Girls 12s lost their No. 1 seed in today’s second round, with China’s Xiaoke Li beating Lucy Dupere 3-6, 6-4, 10-8. No. 3 seed Darcy Basist of Australia also lost to Yoonseol Choi of Korea 6-0, 6-2.

No. 2 seed Yerin Lim of Korea lost in the second round of the Girls 14s, while Aiym Kanagatova of Kazakhstan recorded a 1-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory.

No. 2 seed Daniella Sales, the USTA National 14s champion, was defeated in the second round of the girls 16s by London Evans 6-1, 6-0.

The top four seeds in the boys 16s and boys 12s are all still alive for the round of 16; boys 14s #2 seed Japan’s Kazuki Nakajima lost in the first round on Monday.

A question-and-answer session with former ATP Top 5 player Kevin Anderson, hosted by IMG’s Jimmy Arias, is scheduled for Wednesday at 3 p.m. in the Champions Room of the IMG Academy.