Top Two Seeds Take Different Paths to Third Round in Boys 14s

Top Two Seeds Take Different Paths to Third Round in Boys 14s ~~~
©Colette Lewis 2005
Coral Gables FL--

Top seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria and second seed JT Sundling of the United States moved into the third round at the Junior Orange Bowl, but they had vastly different tests on the courts Sunday afternoon at the University of Miami tennis center.

Dimitrov, the 14s champion at the Eddie Herr, was challenged throughout his match by unseeded Josip Mesin of Croatia before eventually prevailing 7-6 (4), 6-4. I heard the quality of match described as that of a late round 16s tournament, and the portions of it that I saw were definitely on that level. Next up for Dimitrov is Jordan Cox of the United States. Cox advanced when Texan Blake Davis, who is recovering from a ribcage muscle problem, retired trailing 4-3 in the first set.

Sundling was barely on the court an hour in his 6-1, 6-0 drubbing of Hernan Gomez of Columbia. Sundling's size and serve gave the much smaller Gomez very few options and the Californian had no trouble outgunning his opponent from the baseline either.

If both should win Monday, Jadon Phillips--the qualifier who has now six matches with his straight set victory Sunday afternoon--and Sundling would meet Tuesday in the Round of 16.

Also in Sundling's quarter is Rhyne Williams, the Eddie Herr 16s semifinalist, who was suprisingly unseeded given his top 20 USTA ranking in 16s. Williams, playing more aggressively against Gabrial Dias of Brazil than he had against U.S. qualifier Kevin McMillen in the first round, came through with a straight set win.

Shaun Bernstein of New York, in his first year in 14s, also advanced to the third round with a straight set win, as did Pennsylvania's Frank Carleton, the seventh seed, Devin Britton of Mississippi and Mousheg Hovhannisyan of Southern California.

Sam Wells and Alex Domijan of Florida both need three sets to get through, with Wells taking out 13th seed Ryusei Makiguchi 6-7 (3), 6-4, 7-5, and Domijan, the 14s Eddie Herr finalist, barely getting by thirteen-year-old Ray Sarmiento of California 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Another thirteen-year-old and the tenth player from the United States to make the third round, is 16th seed Evan King of Chicago who defeated qualifier Bowen Ouvang of Hong Kong 6-4, 7-6 (3).

Third seed Jose Silva of Brazil and fourth seed Yannick Reuter of Belgium also advanced, as did last year's Junior Orange Bowl 12s champion Bernard Tomic of Australia, who took out the ninth seed Shuichi Sekiguchi of Japan 7-6 (6), 6-0.

In the boys 12s, Emmett Egger and Mika DeCoster of the United States will play a rematch of the Eddie Herr final on Monday because the luck of the draw put the unseeded (!) DeCoster and rival Egger on an early collision course. The other Eddie Herr semifinalist from the U.S., Christian Harrison (also unseeded) pulled through in a third set tiebreak to upend a one seed, Semion Branzburg of Israel.