Top Seed Wang, Second Seed Juvan Out in Second Round of Eddie Herr ITF; Quarterfinals Set for Thursday in 12s, 14s and Boys 16s

©Colette Lewis 2016--
Bradenton, FL--

Sixteen-year-old Irina Cantos Siemers of Germany spent several years training at the IMG Academy when she was younger, and although she had not been back since last playing the 14s age division of the Eddie Herr in 2013, she credits the atmosphere with an assist in her 6-3, 7-6(4) win over top seed Xiyu Wang of China in Wednesday's second round of the ITF Grade 1 Eddie Herr.

"I think this is part of why I won today," said Cantos Siemers, who is currently training in Barcelona. "I love it here. Every time I'm here, I'm so happy."

Cantos Siemers didn't have to do much in the first set against fellow left-hander Wang, who made a slew of unforced errors and not nearly enough first serves. Cantos Siemers then took a 2-0 lead in the second set, and stretched that to 5-2, but the 15-year-old Wang found her game just in time.

"She was missing quite a lot with her forehand, and I knew exactly what I had to do," Cantos Siemers said. "Then she switched it up a bit and I got a little bit tight and a little bit confused. And she didn't miss at all actually."

Wang began to find the depth and placement that had been missing from her game earlier and she won four straight games to take a 6-5 lead.  She failed to earn a set point however when serving for the set however, and Cantos Siemers got to where she wanted to be, in a tiebreaker.

"I love playing tiebreakers,"  Cantos Siemers said. "I don't know why, but I feel very secure in them, so yeah, I felt good. But I was obviously a little nervous, because she was playing better."

The tiebreaker was 3-3 at the first changeover, but Wang's backhand began to show signs of stress and she made two errors on that side, the second of which gave Cantos Siemers two match points.  She only needed one, hitting a backhand just inside the baseline that handcuffed Wang and forced an error.

"It's one of my best wins, definitely," said Cantos Siemers, who is supported by the German Tennis Federation and still visits there often. "She's probably the highest ranked player I've beaten."

Next up for Cantos Siemers is one of the eight US girls left in the round of 16, No. 14 seed Morgan Coppoc. Coppoc defeated Lina Glushko of Israel 6-4, 7-5.

Sofia Sewing has had a great deal of success on the courts of the IMG Academy, winning the Eddie Herr 14s title in 2013 and the 16s title in 2014. She suffered her first Eddie Herr loss in three years last year in the ITF tournament, going out to eventual champion Kylie McKenzie in the second round, but she has another winning streak going now after beating No. 2 seed Kaja Juvan of Slovenia 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4.

Sewing served for the first set at 5-4, but was unable to get to set point, and Juvan took the tiebreaker, aided by a fortunate net cord. The first set took over 75 minutes to complete, but despite the discouraging end to the set, Sewing stayed positive.

"That net cord hurt a lot," said the 17-year-old from Miami. "I held that grudge for a while but I had to try to move on, think about the next set. I had to just play my game, forget about the first set and start over."

Sewing found herself in control in many of the rallies in the final two sets.

"I think the key for both of us to win was who was going to be more aggressive," Sewing said. "Who could be more consistent, because we had a lot of long rallies, and it was a really tough match. I think it was a really good match from both of us; it was really close, a few games in the end, a few points, that really made the difference."

Sewing, who won in three sets in her first round match Tuesday against Canadian qualifier Brindtha Ramasamy, will play No. 15 seed Lea Boskovic of Croatia, who defeated lucky loser Abigail Desiatnikov 6-3, 6-4.

The six other US girls in the round of 16 include two qualifiers: Vanessa Ong and Victoria Emma.  Ong, 14, defeated No. 10 seed Daniela Vismane of Latvia 6-3, 6-4 and will play Carson Branstine, who is still playing for the USA in this tournament, but is expected to change to Canada soon.  Branstine defeated Zhibek Kulambayeva of Kazakhstan 6-2, 6-2.  Emma took out fellow qualifier Salma Ewing 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 and will face No. 12 seed Maria Carle of Argentina. Jimena Rodriguez-Benito defeated Himari Sato of Japan 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 and will play No. 9 seed Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine.

The only all-US third round match will feature No. 3 seed Ellie Douglas and Nicole Mossmer.  Douglas advanced when Anastasia Iamachkine of Peru retired trailing 6-1, 2-0, while Mossmer defeated Katya Townsend 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.

Five US boys advanced to the third round, with four of them in the top half of the draw. No. 14 seed Gianni Ross beat Jason Legall 7-6(5), 6-2, No. 7 seed Sam Riffice defeated Jack Mingjie Lin of Canada 6-2, 6-1, Vasil Kirkov downed Seon Yong Han of Korea 6-4, 6-1 and Patrick Kypson defeated qualifier William Grant 6-1, 6-3.  Ross will play top seed Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia next, Riffice faces No. 12 seed Ergi Kirkin of Turkey, Kirkov meets No. 13 seed Alberto Lim of the Philippines and Kypson takes on No. 6 seed Tomas Etcheverry of Argentina.

In the bottom half of the draw, Kalamazoo 16s champion Lukas Greif is the only US boy remaining.  He advanced when Sebastian Korda retired trailing 4-0 in the first set. Korda has been ill and his status for next week's Orange Bowl is questionable.  Greif will play Marko Miladinovic of Serbia, who beat No. 11 seed Trent Bryde 6-2, 6-1.  Bryde was the only boys seed to lose in the second round.

The doubles quarterfinals are set for Thursday, with three US teams still alive in the boys draw: Gianni Ross and Danny Thomas, Govind Nanda and Alexandre Rotsaert and Greif and Axel Nefve, who beat a seeded team for the second straight day today.

The girls doubles quarterfinals have eight US girls participating: No. 2 seeds Douglas and Natasha Subhash, Coppoc and Emma, Elysia Bolton and Mossmer and Sewing and Branstine.  Sewing is playing with Maria Portillo Ramirez of Mexico and Branstine is playing with Cantos Siemers.

The quarterfinals are set for the 12s and 14s divisions and the boys 16s division, with the girls 16s division a day behind due to rain late in the day on Monday.

The matchups:

Girls 12s:
Jade Haller[15](SUI) v Stela Peeva[11](BUL)
Katrina Scott[3](USA) v Denislava Glushkova[9](BUL)
Alexandra Eala(PHI) v Dasha Piekhanova[4](CAN)
Rebecca Lynn[6](USA) v Tatiana Muzykantskaya[2](RUS)

Girls 14s:
Qinwen Zheng[1](CHN) v Gianna Pielet[5](USA)
Gabby Price[4](USA) v Jada Bui[14](CAN)
Kylie Bilchev[8](GBR) v Natasha Sengphrachanh[12](CAN)
Elaine Chervinsky(USA) v Emma Raducanu[2](GBR)

Boys 12s:
Victor Lilov[1](USA) v Jackson Armistead[5](USA)
Ron Ellouck[4](ISR) v Jonah Braswell[9](USA)
Kenta Nakamura(JPN) v Haesun Lee[3](KOR)
Dinko Dinev[6](BUL) v Gunuk Kang(KOR)

Boys 14s:
Bu Yunchaokete[1](CHN) v Stefan Leustian(USA)
Nicholas-David Ionel[4](ROU) v Toby Kodat(USA)
Ryota Kaneda(JPN) v Alexander Gaponenko[3](ISR)
Juan Torres(ARG) v Zane Khan[2](USA)

Boys 16s:
JanMagnus Johnson(USA) v Vikash Singh[5](IND)
Jake Hersey[4](GBR) v Stefan Palosi[7](ROU)
Tyler Zink[8](USA) v Jack Draper[3](GBR)
Liam Draxl(CAN) v Anton Matusevich[2](GBR)

Complete draws can be found at the TennisLink site.