More Rain Mars Orange Bowl, Leaves First Round Unfinished

©Colette Lewis 2015--
Plantation, FL--

Already at least one day, and in the case of the 16s division, two days behind, the Metropolia Orange Bowl experienced yet another day of intermittent rain on Tuesday, with just over half of the first round matches completed.

Some drizzle and mist early in the day didn't stop play for too long, and a dry few hours at midday helped, but by 3 p.m. rain was heavy enough to make the courts unplayable, keeping play from resuming until around 4:45 p.m.  Two hours later, more rain, this time a true downpour, ended play for the day.

The top seeds, Sonya Kenin and Casper Ruud, never took the court for their first round matches.  Boys second seed Mate Valkusz of Hungary beat Gianni Ross 6-4, 6-1 and No. 2 girls seed Dalma Galfi, also of Hungary, got by wild card Meible Chi 6-1, 5-7, 6-1.

One of the day's most intriguing matches, between No. 13 seed Anastasia Potapova of Russia and Amanda Anisimova, ended up going to the Russian 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-0, after a two-hour rain delay and another brief delay between the second and third set for additional court grooming.  The ITF's two highest ranked 14-year-olds have similar power games, but it was Potapova who found a rhythm despite all the disruptions, while Anisimova never located the game that had been so successful at the Grade A in Mexico City and last week at the Eddie Herr.

Last year's girls 16s champion, No. 9 seed Bianca Andreescu of Canada, did her part to move the matches along, beating Lamis Alhussein Abdel Aziz of Egypt 6-0, 6-0 in her 18s Orange Bowl debut.  Last year's boys 16s champion, Sam Riffice, trailed qualifier Andres Andrade of Ecuador 6-4, 3-2 when play was suspended for the night.

Both Eddie Herr ITF champions are safely through to the second round. Unseeded Kylie McKenzie defeated Georgia Craciun of Romania 6-2, 7-6(6) and No. 7 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, playing under the lights at the Veltri Tennis Center, beat Piotr Matuszewski of Poland 6-4, 6-1.

 Of the six boys seeds to finish, only one lost, No 15 seed Benjamin Sigouin of Canada, who lost to Brandon Holt 6-3, 3-6, 6-0. Holt had beaten Sigouin 6-0, 6-1 in the semifinals of October's Grade B1 in Tulsa, and he picked up where he left off, there taking a 4-1 lead. Sigouin, who reached the semifinals last week at the Eddie Herr, got the break back for 4-3, only to be broken in the next game.  Serving for the set, Holt saved two break points, and Sigouin's inability to get Holt's second serve back in play was costly. On his fifth set point, Holt finally secured the set, when Sigouin's backhand return of a second serve went long.

It was then that Sigouin began to serve underhand, apparently due to an abdominal strain.

"He had some issues I think, with his ab," said Holt. "After the first set, he started to serve underhand only on the ad side, I'm not sure why, maybe because the ad side may hurt your ab more, I don't know. Just on the ad side and only on the first serve.  It didn't frustrate me, because he missed it 95% of the time, but when it went in, it was really good."

Because Sigouin was hitting his second serve well and normally, Holt didn't let the odd situation bother him too much.

"I was pretty glad I came out with the win, because I was pretty tight on his service games, feeling I should beat someone serving underhand," Holt said. "But then it was only on one side and only on the first serve, so who knows?  He didn't really want to have any long points, so it was really tough for me. He'd go for on the first ball, but every once in a while he'd try to rally, and that was tough for me, because I didn't have any groove. I didn't feel comfortable hitting the ball because the whole entire match, I was literally trying to just put it in."

The third set was over quickly, with Sigouin having difficulty finding the court. He received a point penalty for ball abuse after falling behind 4-0 and even with two game points in the final game, he couldn't hold off the errors long enough to avoid the goose egg.

Southern Californian Holt, who lost in the first round of the Eddie Herr last week, admits that he struggled with adjusting to the green clay.

"I felt pretty confident, but I wasn't used to the clay and it was getting in my head, mentally," said Holt, the son of Tracy Austin and Scott Holt. "Like why am I out here, the ball's bouncing sideways."

Holt looked more comfortable Tuesday, but wasn't expecting a classic clay court match from Sigouin either.

"We're both kind of hard court players, who play close to the baseline," Holt said.  I knew going into the match we probably wouldn't have the longest points, that it'd just be first-strike tennis."

Only one of the eight girls seeds who finished their matches on Tuesday lost, 2014 Orange Bowl finalist Ingrid Neel, the No. 16 seed, who fell to Eleni Christofi of Greece 7-6(9), 6-3.

No second round matches are on Wednesday's schedule, but doubles will begin in both age divisions.  For draws and the orders of play, see the tournament website.

The complete results from today are below:

Boys 18s
No. 2 Mate Valkusz, HUN d. Gianni Ross, USA, 6-4, 6-1
No. 5 Alex De Minaur, AUS d. Vasil Kirkov, USA, 6-4, 6-4
No. 7 Felix Auger-Aliassime, CAN d. Piotr Matuszewski, POL, 6-4, 6-1
No. 9 Miomir Kecmanovic, SRB d. Alexandre Rotsaert, USA, 6-2, 6-1
No. 10 Jurabek Karimov, UZB d. (LL) Sean Huynh, CAN, 6-1, 6-0
No. 14 Ulises Blanch, USA d. Alexis Canter, GBR, 6-4, 6-2
Brandon Holt, USA d. No. 15 Benjamin Sigouin, CAN, 6-3, 3-6, 6-0
Calin Manda, ROU d. Oliver Crawford, USA, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4
Kacper Zuk, POL d. Lucas Koelle, BRA, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2
Kenneth Raisma, EST d. Gabriel Decamps, BRA, 7-6(4), 6-2
Felipe Meligeni Rodrigues Alves, BRA d. Yshai Oliel, ISR, 6-2, 7-5
Alexandar Lazarov, BUL d. Jack Mingjie Lin, CAN, 6-2, 6-2
Alexei Popyrin, AUS d. Ergi Kirkin, TUR, 6-2, 6-3
Yibing Wu, CHN d. Zeke Clark, USA, 6-4, 2-6, 6-0
Toru Horie, JPN d. Johnathan Small, USA, 6-0, 6-2
Yunosuke Tanaka, JPN d. Mattias Siimar, EST, 7-6(5), 6-4
Chien Hsun Lo, TPE d. Alexey Aleschev, RUS, 7-6(4), 6-4

Girls 18s
No. 2 Dalma Galfi, HUN d. Meible Chi, USA, 6-1, 5-7, 6-1
No. 3 Katie Swan, GBR d. Morgan Coppoc, USA, 6-4, 6-1
No. 7 Evgeniya Levashova, RUS d. Carson Branstine, USA, 6-2, 6-1
No. 9 Bianca Vanessa Andreescu, CAN d. Lamis Alhussein Abdel Aziz, EGY, 6-0, 6-0
No. 10 Pranjala Yadlapalli, IND d. Sofia Sewing, USA, 7-5, 6-0
No. 12 Michaela Gordon, USA d. Maria Jose Portillo Ramirez, MEX, 6-3, 6-0
No. 13 Anastasia Potapova, RUS d. Amanda Anisimova, USA, 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-0
Eleni Christofi, GRE d. No. 16 Ingrid Neel, USA, 7-6(9), 6-3
Kylie McKenzie, USA d. Georgia Craciun, ROU, 6-2, 7-6(6)
Ioana Minca, ROU d. Yuliana Monroy, COL, 6-1, 6-0
Maria Mateas, USA d. Lara Salden, BEL, 6-2, 6-1
Helen Abigail Altick, USA d. Vanessa Wong, CAN, 6-3, 2-0, ret.
Kelly Chen, USA d. Thaisa Grana Pedretti, BRA, 6-2, 6-2
Anatasia Detiuc, MDA d. Natasha Subhash, USA, 6-1, 6-1
Ellie Douglas, USA d. Ornella Garavani, ARG, 6-4, 6-1
Monika Kilnarova, CZE d. Isolde De Jong, NED, 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4

Boys 16s
No. 2 Jonas Eriksson Ziverts, SWE d. Axel Nefve, USA, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1
No. 3 Karl Friberg, SWE d. Lukas Greif, USA, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3
No. 4 Sergio Luis Hernandez Ramirez, COL d. Charlie Sharton, USA, 6-4, 6-1
No. 8 Nicaise Muamba, CAN d. Ethan Prost, USA, 6-1, 6-2
No. 10 Brian Cernoch, USA d. Antonio Cayetano March, ECU, 6-4, 6-3
No. 11 Andrew Fenty, USA d. Mateo Barreiros Reyes, BRA, 6-1, 6-1
No. 13 Karl Poling, USA d. Danil Glinka, EST, 6-2, 6-3
Timofey Skatov, RUS d. No. 14 Tristan McCormick, USA, 6-3, 7-6(6)
Alejandro Hoyos Franco, COL d. Zachary Garner, USA, 7-5, 6-4
Vikash Singh, IND d. Noah Schachter, USA, 6-2, 6-0
Sami Soufi, USA d. Anton Levanovich, BLR, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2
Jack Pulliam, USA d. Mark Wallner, GER, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5
Patrick Zahraj, GER d. Michael Heller, USA, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4
Keenan Mayo, USA d. Palaphoom Kovapitukted, THA, 6-3, 6-2
Evan Bynoe, USA d. Maximiliano Jose Sanoja Alvarez, VEN, 6-0, 6-2
Matthew Rodriguez, USA d. Vincentiu Andrei Niculescu, ROU, 6-4, 6-2

Girls 16s
No. 4 Rachel Lim, USA d. Lilly Elida Haseth, NOR, 6-3, 6-2
No. 5 Emily Appleton, GBR d. Yekaterina Martens, USA, 6-3, 6-1
No. 6 Brindtha Ramasamy, CAN d. Melissa Sakar, USA, 6-2, 7-6(3)
No. 9 Sohyun Park, KOR d. Gia Cohen, USA, 6-1, 7-6(6)
No. 10 Mihaela Lorena Marculescu, ROU d. Jennifer Gadalov, USA, 6-2, 7-5
Emma Kurtz, USA d. No. 11 Ania Hertel, POL, 6-3, 6-1
Isabella Tcherkes Zade, ITA d. No. 12 Jimena Rodriguez-Benito, USA, 7-6(4), 6-2
No. 13 Tiffany Lagarde, CAN d. Jayci Goldsmith, USA, 6-2, 6-2
McCartney Kessler, USA d. No. 15 Maya Tahan, ISR, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3
No. 16 Maria Manilova, RUS d. Alexa Noel, USA, 6-2, 7-6(6)
Abigail Forbes, USA d. River Hart, CAN, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(3)
Lillian Gabrielsen, NOR d.  Dalayna Hewitt, USA, 6-2, 6-4
Alana Wolfberg, USA d. Ashleigh Jacobs, CAN, 6-4, 6-4
Jada Robinson, USA d. Paula Baranano, ARG, 7-5, 1-6, 6-4
Marcella Cruz, USA d. Renata Lombera, MEX, 6-1, 6-1
Kacie Harvey, USA d. Sofia Ayuso, VEN, 6-0, 6-2
Carolyn Campana, USA d. Luniuska Delgado, VEN, 7-6(5), 6-3
Amber O’Dell, USA d. Georgia Gulin, BRA, 6-2, 6-0
Maileen Nuudi, EST d. Catherine Xu, USA, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2
Anna Brylin, USA d. Anastasia Tikhonova, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1