©Colette Lewis 2024--
Bradenton Florida--
The jackets and sweatpants came off early today at the IMG Academy, with temperatures warming quickly, with clear skies and little wind. The pros were out hitting with IMG juniors or each other, with Sebastian Korda, Peyton Stearns, Daniel Galan, Michael Mmoh, Stefan Kozlov, Martin Damm(in a boot) and Micah Braswell among those preparing for the 2025 season today on the Bollettieri Stadium hard court and elsewhere on the grounds.
On the Har-Tru courts, the third round of the
ITF J300 produced a couple more upsets in a week full of them in the boys draw, while the girls tournaments has just one unseeded player in the quarterfinals.
Two US boys advanced to the quarterfinals, with unseeded Dominick Mosejczuk continuing his streak of wins over Valentin Garay of Argentina. After beating Garay at a J200 in June and last week in at the J500 in Merida, Mosejczuk earned a third victory today by a schore of 6-3, 7-6(5). Mosejczuk will play No. 8 seed Henry Bernet of Switzerland, who beat No. 9 seed Jack Kennedy 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
No. 5 seed Jagger Leach joined Mosejczuk in the quarterfinals, with a comprehensive 6-1, 6-1 win over unseeded Haydar Gokpinar of Turkey and will play unseeded Yannick Alexandrescou of Romania, who beat Jamie Mackenzie of Germany 7-6(3), 7-6(4).
Top seed Max Mrva of the Czech Republic sailed past wild card Abhishek Thorat 6-2, 6-0 on the Stadium Court to set up a meeting with unseeded Matteo Morazzi of Spain, who breezed past No. 12 seed Maxwell Exsted 6-2, 6-0.
In the bottom quarter, No. 16 seed Andres Santamarta Roig of Spain, a 6-1, 6-4 winner over wild card Sasha Colleu of France, will face unseeded Daniil Sarksian of Russia, who came back to defeated No. 7 seed Oskari Paldanius of Finland 0-6, 6-3, 7-5.
Sarksian said that last week's J500 in Merida Mexico "was a disaster for me, (losing) first round singles and first round doubles," but the 18-year-old, who trains at the Rafa Nadal Academy, still came into this tournament optimistic, with a quarterfinal and a semifinal at $15,000 tournaments on ITF men's World Tennis Tour in October.
"I did well a couple of weeks before in $15Ks, so that gave me a big boost in terms of confidence," Sarksian said. "Yes, Merida was, as I said, a disaster, but I tried not to think about it that much, because the level that I showed there was actually great, the result wasn't."
Sarksian gave credit to Paldanius for his quick start, although he also thought he contributed to that blanking.
"Oskari played well at the beginning, just a couple of unforced errors in the first set, but also I didn't push him that much," Sarksian said. "I started slowly, wasn't ready enough to compete."
All that changed in the second set, with Sarksian taking a big lead and holding on to even the match. Sarksian described the third set as a rollercoaster, watching a 5-2, two-break lead disappear after a holding a match point. Sarksian admitted that thoughts of his second round loss last year crept in at that point.
"Last year I played against Max Schoenhaus on this same court and I lost," Sarksian said. "5-3, 40-15, double match point on my serve and I lost 7-6 in the third. I had the flashbacks from it, so it was tough mentally to not think about it, but with a bit more of experience, that helped me a lot."
In the only boys quarterfinal that features a previous meeting, Sarksian holds a 1-0 lead over Santamarta Roig, with a three-set win in the first round of a J200 in July of 2023.
The girls quarterfinals also have just one prior meeting, also in a first round match at a J200 in 2023, with No. 7 seed Maya Iyengar hoping to avenge her three-set lost to No. 4 seed Tereza Krejcova of the Czech Republic. She'll get the chance after both she and Krejcova won tough three-setters in today's third round.
Iyengar was pleased with the way she came out again No. 10 seed Laima Vladson of Lithuania, but had to battle through some tough games before sealing the 6-1, 6-7(4), 6-4 victory.
"First set, I was doing well, hitting everything deep," said the 17-year-old from Arizona, who in now in her fourth week, after playing a W15 in Clemson before the J300 in Zapopan and a quarterfinal appearance last week in Merida. "She's a very streaky player and I knew that going in; she can just play horrible or really good. In the second set I had two sloppy games; I did get back into it, but in the breaker I just played not good at all."
Iyengar said her mind was still on her disappointing finish to the second set as faced a third.
"In the beginning of the third, I played a rushed game, lost in 20 seconds," said Iyengar, the ITF J300 Pan Am Regional champion. "But in the end, just hanging in there was the way, and I served really well at 5-4 to close it out, and I think that was the first game I think I served ok the whole match. I think the more matches I play, the worse my technique is starting to get."
Krejcova dropped the opening set against 15-year-old Ksenia Efremova of France, but fought back for a 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 victory.
Top seed and 2023 finalist Teodora Kostovic of Serbia defeated No. 13 seed Nellie Taraba Wallberg of Sweden 6-2, 6-4 and will play No. 9 seed Luna Cinalli of Argentina, who beat No. 5 seed Julie Pastikova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. No. 3 seed Alena Kovackova of the Czech Republic avenged her Wimbledon junior loss to Flora Johnson of Great Britain with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory to set up a meeting with No. 8 seed Reina Goto of Japan. Goto defeated No. 12 seed Yoana Konstantinova 7-6(2), 6-4.
Alena's younger sister Jana, the No. 2 seed, defeated Deniz Dilek of Turkey 6-1, 7-5. This year's Wimbledon 14U champion will face the only unseeded player in the girls quarterfinals, Emma Dong of Canada. Dong defeated the only qualifier remaining, 15-year-old Zaire Clarke, 7-5, 3-6, 6-1.
The doubles semifinals feature two American teams, both unseeded. Maximus Dussault and Mosejczuk defeated Mackenzie and Niels McDonald of Germany 6-3, 6-1 and will face unseeded Morazzi and Nathan Trouve of France Friday.
In the girls doubles, unseeded Monica Ekstrand and Kori Montoya defeated unseeded Allegra Korpanec Davies of Great Britain and Ava Rodriguez 2-6, 6-3, 10-5 to advanced to the semifinals.
The semifinals in the younger age divisions are set for Friday, with the Asian cohort dominating in the 12s and 14s. Below are today's quarterfinal results. The doubles finals are scheduled for later in the day Friday; the 16s, which will be back on the East Campus Har-Tru courts after playing four days at the campus Legacy Hotel courts, have one singles and multiple doubles matches on their Friday schedule.
IMG International quarterfinals:
B12s:
Haruto Tamaki(JPN) d. Georgii Abushenko(RUS) 6-0, 6-3
Saku Agui(JPN) d. Daniel Gardality[3](USA) 6-1, 6-4
Mingeon Choi(KOR) d. Christian Pohoski[9](USA) 6-1, 6-2
Novak Palombo[2](AUS) d. Aleksandr Kharkov[5](USA) 6-2, 4-6, 11-9
G12s:
Nikol Davletshina[1](USA) d. Ayul Kim[16](KOR) 6-3, 7-6(5)
Seohyeon Kim[4](KOR) d. Ana Maric[9](AUS) 7-6(2), 6-1
Minori Sato(JPN) d. Fangqiao Zou(CHN) 5-7, 6-4, 10-6
Shangran Cai[12](CHN) d. Ayaka Iwasa(JPN) 6-7(6), 6-4, 10-6
B14s
Qi Hongjin[7](CHN) d. Ethan Domingo[1](AUS) 6-1, 6-3
Dharma Pantaratorn[8](THA) d. Daniil Berezin[4](USA) 7-5, 3-6,7-6(4)
Junseo Jang(KOR)[12] d. Dylan Meineke(USA) 6-2, 6-4
Victor Pignaton[14](USA) d. Carter Jauffret[13](USA) 5-7, 7-6(1), 6-2
G14s
Tea Kovacevic[1](BIH) d. Amy Shen(CAN) 6-0, 6-2
Sofiia Bielinska[3](UKR) d. Alisa Terentyeva[8](RUS) 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(1)
Daniel Baranes(ISR) d.Tori Russell[14](AUS) 6-1, 6-4
Baotong Xu[2](CHN) d. Maria Valentina Pop(ROU)[15] 3-6, 6-3, 7-5
B16s
Jordan Lee[1](USA) d. Matthew Shapiro[9](USA) 7-5, 6-3
Teodor Davidov(USA) d. Achyuth Binu[12](USA) 6-4, 2-6, 7-5
Emilio Camacho[4](ECU) d. Maddox Bose[15](USA) 6-3, 6-2
Jerrid Gaines[2](USA) d. Samim Filiz[16](TUR) 6-2, 5-7, 6-3
G16s
Londyn Mccord[10]USA) d. Misaki Yamagishi(JPN) 3-6, 6-1, 6-3
Paige Wygodski[6](USA) d. Olivia Traynor[3](USA) 7-6(4), 6-2
Hanne Estrada[12](MEX) d. Ophelia Korpanec Davies(GBR) Def-NS
Katerina Shabashkevic[7](USA) d. Isabelle DeLuccia[2](USA) 7-6(8), 6-4, 6-3
With a main draw wild card into next month's Australian Open and two Challenger titles this fall, Nishesh Basavareddy was not expected to return to Stanford, and the 19-year-old from Indiana made it official today in an Instagram post.
Nishesh Basavareddy announces he's forgoing NCAA eligibility at Stanford to go pro.
And he's already off to an amazing start!
Very close to the top 100 and will be playing the Australian Open main draw as the USTA wildcard.
🎾
[image or embed]
— Tick Tock Tennis (@ticktocktennis.bsky.social) December 5, 2024 at 2:23 PM