©Colette Lewis 2025--
Wimbledon--
A warm and sunny day at the All England Lawn Tennis Club proved inhospitable to three more boys seeds in Wednesday's third round of the
Wimbledon Junior Championships, with the exit of No. 2 seed Jacopo Vasami of Italy and No. 8 seed Jack Kennedy leaving just two Top 8 seeds in the quarterfinals.
No. 14 seed Alan Wazny of Poland defeated Vasami 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 and didn't look anything like a player who had not won a junior slam match until this week when he took control of the match in second set tiebreaker.
"Tiebreak I played really, really well," said the 18-year-old, who won the Roland Garros doubles title last month with Oskari Paldanius of Finland. "I served almost perfectly, every first serve. And then in the third set, I managed to break him in the first game and third game, and he smashed the racquet totally."
Vasami was spraying balls all over the court in the first three games and although he didn't display any frustration verbally, his Wilson racquet bore the brunt of his anger, as he retreated to the corner of Court 4 and violently smashed it five or six times before heading to the changeover.
Wazny didn't read much into Vasami's outburst, maintaining his concentration as he built a 5-1 lead.
"I didn't focus on that, I just focused on holding my serve," said Wazny, who lost in the first round last week at Roehampton. "I could take a risk on the return, maybe get another break, but if not, it's ok."
Vasami held for 5-2, and serving for the match, Wazny took a 30-0 lead, only to double fault.
"I was a bit nervous, not much, because I was confident with my serve for the whole match, so I felt stable" Wazny said. "But it was just a stupid decision to go too aggressive on second serve, it was not necessary."
After Wazny made an unforced error on his forehand, Vasami may have felt some hope, but Wazny quickly erased any doubt about his ability to close out the biggest win of his junior career, hitting two massive forehand winners to earn the victory.
Wazny will face qualifier Ronit Karki, who defeated No. 8 seed Jack Kennedy 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the only all-USA contest of the third round.
Karki said it wasn't nerves that caused him to drop the opening set, but a failure to take enough risk.
"The mindset I was in was a little too passive," said the 17-year-old from New Jersey, who now trains in Florida. "I didn't want to be the one making errors and that's not the correct way to think. You practice to take control of the point, that's how you're trained to play and I started to play that way in the second and third."
Karki, who gave credit to his serve after his second round win over No. 9 seed Yannick Alexandrescou of Romania, again cited its effectiveness today.
"I also started serving really well in the second and third, I think I had seven aces in this match," Karki said. "I guess for a bigger dude, that's normal, but for me, I don't see that ever."
Karki broke Kennedy at love to take a 4-3 lead in the third set, but lost the first two points on serve in his attempt to consolidate.
"I was down 0-30, got it to 30-all and hit two aces on the line," Karki said. "That's when I realized I was serving really, really good and I should have confidence in it."
Down 0-30 again serving for the match at 5-4, Karki forced an error with a short forehand angle and earned a match point by forcing two more errors from Kennedy. Karki was able to eliminate any drama, but only just, with Kennedy's forehand out by and inch or so, according to the Electric Line Calling "close call" video that was shown on the Court 7 screen.
"There were a lot of close points in that last game," Karki said. "The last point too, it was barely out."
Karki will prepare for the quarterfinals with his usual meal of pasta in cream sauce, with chicken and mushrooms, while he takes a break from thinking about tennis for a few hours. And he might indulge in his new favorite beverage.
"I like the ginger shot, I've been drinking that," Karki said. "You don't see that at every tournament, that's for sure."
While Karki and Wazny have never played in singles, No. 7 seed Benjamin Willwerth and No. 13 seed Max Schoenhaus of Germany will meet in a second consecutive slam quarterfinal. Willwerth eased past No. 10 seed Oskari Paldanius of Finland 6-1, 6-4, while Schoenhaus eliminated 2024 Wimbledon boys finalist and No. 3 seed Mees Rottgering of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-4.
In Paris, Schoenhaus defeated Willwerth 6-3, 3-6 7-6(11), saving two match points; Willwerth said after his first round win this week that he's "not a clay player," with grass much more suited to his game.
Ziga Sesko of Slovenia, who beat top seed Andres Santamarta Roig in the second round, continued his run with a 7-6(2), 6-2 win over Nikita Bilozertsev of Ukraine. He'll play the highest remaining boys seed, No. 6 Ivan Ivanov of Bulgaria, who beat Jack Secord 6-3, 6-2.
The final boys quarterfinal match will feature No. 12 seed Alexander Vasilev of Bulgaria and unseeded Thijs Boogaard of the Netherlands. Vasilev defeated unseeded Keaton Hance 7-6(5), 6-4 and Boogaard beat No. 15 seed Timofei Derepasko of Russia 7-6(5), 7-6(5), after Derepasko had served for both sets.
Five of the six girls seeds in the round of 16 advanced to the quarterfinals, none more impressively than No. 6 seed Julieta Pareja, who defeated Elizara Yaneva of Bulgaria 6-2, 6-2. The rematch of last Friday's ITF J300 Roehampton final, which Pareja won 1-6, 6-4, 6-3, was no contest today, with the 16-year-old Californian sustaining her nearly flawless level throughout.
"In the first set (last week) she was super on from the start," said Pareja, who had 34 winners and just 20 unforced errors today. "So I knew I had to be super focused from the start here. I was really focused throughout the whole match; I don't think I had ups and downs, I took a lot of time away. I think I played really well, and I'd give myself a pretty good score there."
USTA National Coach Georgi Rumenov, who works with Pareja at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, was impressed by Pareja's execution of the strategy they'd devised.
"She played at a great level," Rumenov said. "She used her game, played really smart. She served really well today, returned well and put a lot of pressure on Yaneva. Excellent match. Today she had a very clear game plan, how to use it, and executed it beautifully."
Pareja will face No. 2 seed Hannah Klugman of Great Britain, who defeated No. 13 seed Charo Esquiva Banuls of Spain 6-4, 6-3. Klugman and Pareja met in the semifinals of the ITF J500 in Milan in May, with Pareja winning 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Top seed Emerson Jones of Australia, a 6-4, 6-4 winner over qualifier Eugenia Zozaya Menendez of Spain, will face unseeded Mia Pohankova of Slovakia in the quarterfinals. Pohankova defeated Nauhany Leme Da Silva of Brazil 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.
2024 semifinalist Vendula Valdmannova of the Czech Republic will play No. 5 seed Teodora Kostovic of Serbia, with Valdmannova cruising past Laima Vladson of Lithuania 6-0, 6-2 and Kostovic beating qualifier Kanon Sawashiro of Japan 6-3, 6-1.
The last girls quarterfinal will feature Roland Garros champion and No. 3 seed Lilli Tagger of Austria and Mimi Xu of Great Britain, who have met in two of the last three junior slams. Tagger, who beat wild card Ruby Cooling of Great Britain 6-3, 6-2, defeated Xu 6-3, 6-4 in the third round at the Australian Open this year. Xu, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Tahlia Kokkinis of Australia, defeated Tagger in the first round of the US Open last year en route to the semifinals.
In the second round of doubles, top girls seeds Klugman and Mika Stojsavljevic of Great Britain lost to Yihan Qu of China and Kamonwan Yodpetch of Thailand 6-1, 7-5.
The second-seeded boys team of Timofei Derepasko and Jacopo Vasami lost to Egor Pleshivtsev of Russia and Amir Omarkhanov of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-2.
Wednesday's junior singles results of Americans:
Ivan Ivanov[6](BUL) d. Jack Secord 6-3, 6-2
Alexander Vasilev[12](BUL) d. Keaton Hance 7-6(5), 6-4
Ronit Karki[Q] d. Jack Kennedy[8] 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
Benjamin Willwerth[7] d. Oskari Paldanius[11](FIN) 6-1, 6-4
Julieta Pareja[6] d. Elizara Yaneva(BUL) 6-2, 6-2
Thursday's junior singles matches featuring Americans:
Benjamin Willwerth[7] v Max Schoenhaus[13](GER)
Ronit Karki[Q] v Alan Wazvy[14](POL)
Julieta Pareja[6] v Hannah Klugman[2](GBR)
Thursday's junior doubles quarterfinal matches featuring Americans:
Kristina Penickova and Vendula Valdmannova(CZE) v Emerson Jones[1](AUS) and Jeline Vandromme[2](BEL)
Julieta Pareja and Thea Frodin[5] v Yihan Qu(CHN) and Kamonwan Yodpetch(THA)
Jack Secord and Yannik Alvarez(PUR) v Mees Rottgering(NED) and Hidde Schoenmakers(NED)
Jagger Leach and Oliver Bonding(GBR)[8] v Andres Santamarta Roig and Max Schoenhaus(GER)[1]
Maxwell Exsted and Jam Kumstat(CZE) v Oskari Paldanius(FIN) and Alan Wazny(POL)[4]
The fourth edition of Wimbledon's U14 tournament begins Thursday with round robin play. The boys will play two matches and the girls one match, with that schedule reversed Friday.
Three Americans are competing Tristan Ascenzo in the boys field of 16 and Emery Combs and Carol Shao in the girls field of 16. The top finishers in each of the four groups will advance to Saturday's semifinals. The event is singles only.
The girls draw is
here; the boys draw is
here.
Ben Shelton lost in the quarterfinals today to top seed Jannik Sinner 7-6(2), 6-4, 6-4.
Amanda Anisimova will play top seed Aryana Sabalenka in the
Wimbledon women's semifinals Thursday. Taylor Fritz will face two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in the men's semifinals Friday.