Fort Lauderdale FL–
The heat and humidity on Wednesday dissipated Thursday morning, with temperatures in the 70s and a light breeze providing perfect conditions for a long day of Orange Bowl competition at the Jimmy Evert Tennis Center.
When the final match ended under the lights, ten American boys and four American girls had advanced to the round of 16 of the ITF J500, and all semifinalists in both the boys and girls 16-year-old divisions are Americans.
Exactly half of the seeds in the 18s are out after two rounds, although both No. 1 seeds are done. Victoria Barros of Brazil defeated Antonina Sushkova of Ukraine 6-0, 6-3 and Yannick Alexandrescou, who has now officially switched countries from Romania to France, defeated wild card Nikolas Stoot 6-3, 6-3.
Number 4 seed Thea Frodin was one of the first victims, with Tereza Hermanova of the Czech Republic beating the 16-year-old American 6-4, 6-4.
Hermanova is now in her fourth week on North American clay, having competed in the J300 and J500 in Mexico and the J300 in Bradenton last week.
“I feel great,” said the 16-year-old from Prague, who considers this her best win of the six she has achieved on this trip. “I think it’s better to play more matches, it’s great.”
Hermanova today attributed her success against Frodin to her family.
“I think I changed it up, some slices, some drop shots and I think that’s how it went,” said Hermanova, who is playing in the Orange Bowl for the first time. “I think before the game we knew how to play the game and that was good. And today I came back very well.”
Frodin was hardly the only seed to fall, with No. 5 seed Luna Cinalli falling to 15-year-old Welles Newman 6-2, 6-0. Newman, who claimed three main draw victories at the USTA Pro Circuit W35s last month, is playing her first junior event since reaching the third round of the US Open in September.
The other three American girls advancing are wildcard Lani Chang, Anita Tu and qualifier Sarah Ye. Chang, who turned 15 on Tuesday, defeated Lyla Messler 6-4, 6-0; Tu defeated Noelia Manta of Switzerland 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-3 and Ye advanced as No. 13 seed Ha Eum Lee of Korea retired 4-6, 5-2.
It was impossible to keep track of all the American boys, as 17 of the 32 players from the United States participated today. Ten of them advanced, five of which beat their compatriots.
Safir Azam defeated Agassi Rusher 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in a wildcard battle, with Azam set to play top seed Alexandrescou on Friday morning.
Wildcard Marcel Latak defeated Gavin Goode 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 and No. 10 seed Noah Johnston defeated wildcard Tyler Lee 7-5, 6-0. The other two all-American matches in the second round were lengthy battles with No. 12 seed Michael Antonius beating Vihaan Reddy 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-2 and Tanishk Konduri beating qualifier Navneet Raghuram 5-7, 6-0, 6-4. The final match of the Konduri-Raghuram match was a classic, with Raghuram serving to stay in the match. After nine deuces and errors on his first two match points, Konduri converted his third after a Raghuram error.
Qualifier Benjamin Saltman pulled off the biggest upset of the day, beating No. 3 seed Ryo Tabata of Japan 2-6, 6-2, 6-1, while Carel Ngounoue defeated No. 13 seed Kuan-Shou Chen of Taiwan 7-6(4), 6-4.
Three other seeded Americans advanced, with No. 2 seed Jack Kennedy beating Volodymyr Gurenko of Canada 6-4, 6-1, No. 8 seed Ronit Karki rebounding for a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 win over Daniel Jade of France and No. 16 seed Andrew Johnson beating Juan Miguel Bolivar Idarraga of Colombia 6-0, 5-7, 6-1.
No. 4 seed Oskari Paldanius of Finland lost to qualifier Olive Sanders of the Czech Republic 6-1, 7-5; No. 5 seed Keaton Hance couldn’t stop the momentum of ITF J300 Bradenton finalist Dimitar Kisimov of Bulgaria, who recorded a 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 win.
Yannik Alvarez of Puerto Rico defeated his doubles partner, No. 9 seed Ziga Sesko of Slovenia, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 to close the match with four straight matches.
“I’ve been traveling with him the last few weeks and playing doubles with him, so it’s hard to play against him,” said the 17-year-old Georgia native, who is part of the ITF Grand Slam Development Touring Team on this trip. “He hits really fast, the ball comes super fast and I wasn’t mentally ready for it, I was late, lazy footwork. In the second set I knew I had to start strong, got the early break and just held serve. He didn’t play his best, I didn’t play my best and I was behind for most of the third set, 3-1, 4-2. I played solid, he gave me a few mistakes, which was pretty lucky.”
Alvarez, a blue chip in the class of 2027, recently committed to the University of Georgia.
“I visited a lot of schools, but once I visited Georgia, I knew that was where I wanted to be,” Alvarez said. “I fell in love.”
Two rounds of singles will be played on Friday, with the round of 16 singles and quarter-finals scheduled, as well as the quarter-finals in doubles.
The girls’ 16s division is still not fully caught up after rain on Monday and Tuesday, but they will play the singles semi-finals on Friday, as well as two rounds of doubles.
All four semi-finalists in the boys and girls 16 years are from the United States.
The girls’ top half semi-final will see Priscilla Siricantho take on Alexandra Miroshnichenko; in the bottom half, Daniela Del Mastro plays No. 14 seed Julia Seversen.
In the boys’ top half semifinals, No. 14 seed Colter Amey, who has reached the semifinals for the second week in a row, will play No. 7 seed Daniel Malacek; in the bottom half, No. 12 seed Gadin Arun plays No. 2 seed Matias Reyniak.
Play starts at 9.30am on Friday due to several late doubles matches, with the 18s third round and girls 16s semi-finals followed by the 18s quarter-finals and boys 16s semi-finals.
Below are the seeds in each division:
B12s
1. Rui He
2. Oliver Baker
3. Evan Fan
4. James Borchard
5. William McGugin
6. Ethan Wang
7. Jobe Dikkenberg
8. Pranav Madamanchi
B14s
1. Mohammed Genidy
2. Tristan Ascenzo
3. Kazuki Nakajima
4. Siyun Kim
5. Evan Giurescu
6. Ishaan Marla
7. Alexander Anderson
8. His name is Upston
G12s
1. Fangqiao Zou
2. Lucy Dupere
3. Ann Sandru
4. Mila Mikoczi Spivey
5. Seungyeon Seo
6. Enter Toli
7. Summer Yang
8. Cataleya Brown
G14s
1. Nikol Davletshina
2. Isha Manchala
3. Tanvi Pandey
4. Isabella Yan
5.Olivia Lin
6. Jerin Lim
7. Ayaka Iwasa
8. Audrey Dussault
Due to the overlap with the Orange Bowl, I won’t be covering the event personally, but will follow the results when the tournament reaches the quarterfinals on Monday.
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