Eddie Herr Slideshow; Junior Orange Bowl Draws

The semifinalists in singles and finalists in doubles from the Eddie Herr are featured in this slideshow. With all the finals played at the same time, it's difficult for me to cover them adequately, but I hope this provides some recognition for the top performers at one of the most important junior tournaments of the year. Videos will be processed next month, when I am home and have more time and bandwidth. The album can be accessed from mobile devices via this link.



The Junior Orange Bowl draws have been released, with play beginning Wednesday at four sites: Boys 12s at Salvadore Park, Girls 12s at Tropical Park, Boys 14s at Crandon Park, Key Biscayne and Girls 14s at the University of Miami.  Usually the girls 14s are at Crandon Park, but with the 192 draw for the Boys 14s this year, more courts are needed, for them, especially with the unavailability of the Biltmore courts, which are under renovation. I believe all divisions except the boys 12s, which are played on Har-Tru, will play the final two days at the University of Miami. The tournament ends on December 22nd this year, one day earlier than usual.

The top four seeds in each age division:

Girls 12s (all pictured above as Eddie Herr semifinalists):
1. Noa Krznaric, Croatia
2. Elvina Kalieva, USA
3. Kylie Bilchev, Great Britain
4. Cori Gauff, USA

Boys 12s
1. Xioafei Wang, China
2. Hugo Hashimoto, USA
3. Hamad Medjedovic, Serbia
4. Saud Alhogbani, USA

Girls 14s
1. Ekaterina Makarova, Russia
2. Alexa Noel, USA
3. Luniusca Delgado, Venezuela
4. Katie Volynets, USA

Boys 14s
1. Thiago Tirante, Argentina
2. Govind Nanda, USA
3. Chun Hsin Tseng, Taiwan
4. Timofey Skatov, Russia

Seeding in the 12s and 14s is always difficult, with limited cross play among countries and no global ranking system. And with only 16 seeds in a 128-draw, there aren't many seeds available period.

That said, the committee didn't seed USTA 12s champion Nikki Yanez, who reached quarterfinals at the Eddie Herr, nor did ITF No. 134 and Grade A Osaka Mayors Cup finalist Yuki Naito of Japan receive a Girls 14s seed. Naito played 18s at the Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl and she is in the same quarter as Noel, as is Kacie Harvey, another strong ITF player who is not seeded.

It's hard to imagine just what Chun Hsin Tseng of Taiwan would have to do to get a No. 1 seed after winning Les Petits As and the Eddie Herr this year, but at least he is among the top four seeds.

Complete draws and times for Wednesday's matches are at the TennisLink site.