Goldberg Upsets No. 2 Seed in Junior Orange Bowl Boys 14s; Washington Boys Make Mark in 12s

©Colette Lewis 2009--
Coral Gables, FL--

The rains of the past three days were blown away by a cool front, and the effort to get the tournament back on schedule made for a long day of tennis for players in all divisions.

In boys 14s play at the University of Miami, unseeded Yale Goldberg of Ohio started his tournament off with a bang, defeating No. 2 seed Artem Oganesyan of Russia 6-4, 6-1. At the very bottom of the draw, the 14-year-old right-hander was one of the last players to get on the court for his first round match this morning, and he had no idea what to expect from Oganesyan, who is ranked sixth in the 14-and-under division in Europe.

"A couple of people around here knew (him), but I didn't really know at all going into the match," he said. "I figured out, in the warm-up and the beginning of the match, how I should play."

Goldberg saw that Oganesyan was trying to hit through him, so he waited for the inevitable error.

"I figured if I stayed back and let him miss, and come to the net when I get the opportunity, I could beat him."

Goldberg had very little time to enjoy his big upset, with only a couple of hours between his first and second round match. But his afternoon opponent, Eyal Cohen of Israel, had played a long three-set match in the first round, so Goldberg felt he had an advantage.

"He only got an hour break, which is tough," said Goldberg, who went on to claim a 6-3, 6-3 victory to reach the final 32. "I got a longer break than him. It was definitely a help."

The seeded American boys all won, with Roy Lederman (17), Nikko Madregallejo (17), Mackenzie McDonald (9) Gregory Garcia (9) and Joe Di Giulio (7) all reaching the third round with straight set victories. Thai Kwiatkowski, the No. 6 seed, won a long and dramatic second round match from Franko Miocic of Croatia 6-7(6), 7-5, 7-6(0). Kwiatkowski is often very emotional on the court, but Miocic was even more so and it was exhausting to watch so much energy expended point after point and game after game. After such a battle, Kwiatkowski was lucky that he did not have to play another match that same day, as he had completed his first round on Thursday.

The girls 14s are suffering the most from the rain. With only 10 courts at the Biltmore Tennis Center, they were still playing under the lights at 8 p.m. on Saturday, and some of their matches were sent to the University of Miami after the boys second round was complete. I did see No. 1 seed Brooke Austin's second round match, and she looked in top form with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Milou Pietersz of the Netherlands.

In the boys 12s, Spencer Furman and Henrik Wiersholm, both of whom are from the Seattle area, continue to post impressive results. Both reached the third round with wins. Wiersholm won both his matches on Saturday, taking out No. 1 seed Duck Hee Lee of Korea 6-1, 6-1 and Justin Hill of Canada 6-2, 6-0. Furman had defeated a No. 1 seed on Thursday, and Saturday he downed Grayson Broadus of the U.S. 6-4, 6-4.

Tommy Paul and Stefan Kozlov, the No. 1 seeds from the U.S., also advanced to the third round.

In the girls 12s, there is already a quarter of the draw without a No. 1 seed remaining. Eddie Herr champion Mariya Shishkina has advanced to the third round, as has Kenadi Hance, the other No. 1 seed from the U.S. Because the girls 12s finish on Tuesday, they will play two matches again on Sunday (and Monday), with Sunday's matches beginning at 8 a.m.

For complete results, see the TennisLink site.

Tags: junior tennis, Junior Orange Bowl, Yale Goldberg, Colette Lewis