In my twenty years of attending the Eddie Herr, now known as the IMG Academy International Championships, I have made the trip to the other side of the state for the Orange Bowl Championships. The first six years I covered that event took place on the hard courts of Crandon Park on Key Biscayne; For the next 13 years, the historic event was held at the Veltri Tennis Center in Plantation Florida.
Today marked the opening of a new era for the Orange Bowl, with the first main draw matches of the ITF J500 tournament played at the newly renovated Jimmy Evert Tennis Center at Holiday Park in Fort Lauderdale.
The green clay courts with newly installed underground irrigation were buzzing with activity as the completion of the first round of the 16s division began at 8am. But the excitement reached its peak at 10 a.m., when the dedication and unveiling of the Chris Evert Stadium Court drew hundreds of fans, coaches, administrators and city dignitaries eager to interact with one of the sport’s great champions.
Football and tennis commentator Chris Fowler, now a colleague of Evert at ESPN, served as Master of Ceremonies and opened with one of the morning’s themes: how Chris Evert sparked his interest in professional tennis.
Remarks from the city’s mayor and council member, USTA’s General Manager of US Tennis Tracy Davies, Orange Bowl Committee Chairman Henri Crockett and Orange Bowl Tennis Committee Chairman Doug Wylie detailed the years-long effort to find a new home for the Orange Bowl, with collaboration between the City of Fort Lauderdale, the Orange Bowl Committee and the USTA leading to the renovation of the public courts where Jimmy Evert taught his five children and thousands of other young players the game, worth $9.5 million.
Evert, a three-time Orange Bowl champion, then took the stage to talk about her father, his legacy, the significance of the tournament and what the venue’s facelift will mean for the future of the sport in South Florida.
After the new Chris Evert scoreboard was unveiled, Evert posed for many photos with fans and VIPs, then did a short mixed-zone interview session with local media.
Before the event, Evert was watching a match where one of the players was training at the Evert Academy in Boca Raton, and in her speech she reiterated how important this tournament has been to its nearly 80-year history.
“It’s huge,” said Evert, who won the 16s in 1968 and the 18s in 1969 and 1970. “It’s the biggest international tournament in junior tennis. It’s the standard for the best. Usually when you look at players who have won the Orange Bowl, they go on to be professionals, almost 99 percent of them. It’s a great stepping stone, so to have this now with my dad, it’s a great tournament, I’ve enjoyed it.” it, and I feel very privileged.”
Keaton Hance had the honor of playing the first match in Orange Bowl history on the Chris Evert Stadium Court, defeating No. 5 Siu Chi Nicholas Cheng of Hong Kong 6-4, 6-4.
I asked the 17-year-old what he thought about baptizing the court, and what he knew about Evert.
“It’s amazing, wow, the first one,” said Hance, a Southern Californian who trains with the USTA in Lake Nona. “All I know is that my mother (Courtney) knows a lot about her. I don’t know much, but I know she was a great player, and she’s a big part of tennis history.”
Hance complimented the course itself, which was a contrast to his last tournament, where he reached the final of the ITF J500 in Merida Mexico on red clay.
“They are very nice, I know they have a subsoil (irrigation) that is especially good for the green clay,” Hance said. “They play really well, quite slowly, which I like. I’ve only been here a few days ago, but what I’ve seen is really high quality.”
A first J500 final was a milestone for Hance in Mexico, a second was his first solo trip to a tournament.
“I was basically alone,” said Hance, who resorted to hitting the wall as a warm-up as he continued to advance. “Towards the end of the tournament, a lot of guys went back home and only a few guys left. But it was a really good experience to be alone and play matches alone.”
Several players who played in Merida arrived in Bradenton the following week feeling ill, but Hance took no chances and ate every meal at a Starbucks.
“I’ve had a lot of bad experiences because of my stomach in Mexico and South America,” Hance said. “So I stuck to the same thing every day. It sounds bad, but I ate Starbucks for every meal every day. But you know what? I made it to the finals, so it worked well enough.”
While Hance played at the Chris Evert Stadium, top seed Victoria Barros, like Hance a finalist from Merida, was tested on Court 10, with the 15-year-old from Brazil beating Poland’s Maja Pawelska 7-6(6), 7-6(7). Pawelska served for the first set at 6-5 and had two set points in the second set tiebreak, but Barros was steadier in key moments to take the win.
No. 2 seed Laima Vladson of Uzbekistan lost for the second week in a row in the first round, with wildcard Yael Saffar, 132 places below the ITF No. 13, and secured the 6-4, 7-6(6) victory.
Boys star Yannick Alexandrescou of Romania, one of the players who withdrew from Bradenton due to illness after competing in Mexico, defeated Jan Chlodnicki of Poland 6-4, 6-2.
No. 2 seed Jack Kennedy, who played Ronit Karki before the women’s and men’s exhibition A Racquet at The Rock in New Jersey on Sunday, will face Emanuel Ivanisevic of Croatia, the son of Goran Ivanisevic, on Tuesday.
Three seeds, including Vladson, suffered losses today, with Agassi Rusher beating No. 15 seed Linus Lagerbohm of Finland 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 and Anita Tu beating No. 15 seed Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi of India 6-0, 6-3.
No. 16 seed Andy Johnson narrowly escaped the upset bid of Ecuador’s Emilo Camacho (6-4, 4-6, 6-4), in a match that drew a large crowd of spectators around Court 12 for all the drama.
After a long set point that earned him a break, Camacho immediately collapsed from cramp just behind the baseline. After a medical timeout, play resumed, but Johnson also had some calf cramps and saw break leads disappear twice before closing the match with a good serve.
“We were playing quite a long point, we were both in the corners for that point and I got to the net, missed a ball at the net, a dropper volley that barely hit the net. He sprinted straight to it and ended up cramping on the way and tumbling,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the cramps were specific to certain movements, so many of the rallies showed no signs of it.
“He had cramps, but only at the corners,” Johnson said of his fellow 16-year-old. “It was kind of like me, if I was running for a ball, I would feel it, and the same goes for him. But overall I would say it was one of those fun games. Everything that anyone would want to see happened. It was definitely a good experience.”
After a day off on Sunday, the IMG Academy International 16s champions switched from hard to clay courts, with only one of the two advancing.
Girls champion Adelina Iftime defeated Sophia Osipova 6-1, 6-0, but boys champion Jang Junseou of Korea lost to Kahven Singh 6-1, 6-7(1), 6-2. Boys finalist Artem Dmytrenko lost to No. 8 seed Nicolas Pedraza 6-1, 6-2. Girls finalist London Evans, who received a wildcard in the 18s, plays Tuesday.
The weather was warm and sunny during the ceremony at Evert Stadium and for several hours afterwards, but by 3.15pm dark clouds began to build and the lightning alarm sounded with four 18s matches still in progress. Those matches will be played on Tuesday, weather permitting, with rain again in the forecast. All singles matches of the first round of 16 were completed as planned on Monday, but the first round of doubles was disrupted by rain.
The first round of the 18s doubles is scheduled for late afternoon, with Alexandrescou and Japan’s Ryo Tabata as the No. 1 seeds in the boys’ draw, with US Open champions Hance and Kennedy as the No. 2 seeds.
Vladson and Sonja Zhenikhova of Germany are the No. 1 seeds in the girls’ draw, with Bradenton champions Kanon Sawashiro of Japan and Xinran Sun of China the No. 2 seeds.
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