Orange Bowl Recap; No. 3 Seed Owensby, Eddie Herr Champion Ovrootsky Fall at Junior Orange Bowl

©Colette Lewis 2017--

Coral Gables FL--

Before I get to the results from Day Three of the Junior Orange Bowl, it's time for my recap of last week's Orange Bowl for the Tennis Recruiting Network. ITF World Junior champion Whitney Osuigwe finished her impressive year with a second Grade A title, while Hugo Gaston of France claimed his first title at the highest level in junior competition.  I will post the photos and videos from the Orange Bowl when I return to Kalamazoo.

One of the problems with covering the Junior Orange Bowl, which I don't have at the Eddie Herr or the Orange Bowl, is trying to follow action at four separate sites.  Today I went to Crandon Park for my first look at the Boys 14s, and while I saw some close matches, only one top 8 seed was eliminated, with Saud Alhogbani of Saudi Arabia, the 2017 USTA 14s Clay and Hard Court champion, falling to No. 17 seed Samir Banerjee 6-3, 6-4.  

Evan Wen, a 17 seed, gave No. 4 seed Francisco Lamas of Venezuela a battle, but Lamas was too solid in the final set of his 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 victory.  Unseeded Victor Lilov, the Junior Orange Bowl 12s champion, led 5-2 in the second set tiebreaker, but No. 5 seed Jacobi Bain of the Bahamas won the final five points of the match for a 6-3, 7-6(5) victory.  Two unseeded Americans advanced to the round of the 16, with qualifier Gabrielius Guzauskas beating Adrian Dibildox of Mexico 6-0, 6-1 and Benjamin Kittay overcoming Louis Cloud 6-3, 7-5.  

I got my first look at Leo Borg, son of the legendary Bjorn Borg, and while the family resemblance is easy to spot, the game style is quite different, at least in the several games I saw in the 17th seed's 7-5, 6-4 win over Jack Anthrop, a No. 9 seed. Borg was not content to rally from the baseline, but moved forward regularly to finish points at the net. I've also heard he is not as emotionally controlled as his father was on court, but I didn't see any evidence of volatility in the tense last few games of the first set.

Top seed Alexander Bernard earned his spot in the round of a 16 with a 7-6(2), 6-3 win over unseeded Alex Lee, and No. 2 seed and Eddie Herr champion Shintaro Mochizuki of Japan displayed his usual form, defeating unseeded Michael Zheng 6-1, 6-2.

The place to be for the first upsets of the tournament was the University of Miami, where Girls 14s No. 3 seed Charlotte Owensby, No. 4 seed and Eddie Herr champion Vivian Ovrootsky and No. 7 seed Kailey Evans, the 16s Eddie Herr finalist, were eliminated.  

Owensby lost to Elvina Kalieva 7-6(4), 6-4, with Kalieva not seeded this week, presumably because she has been playing 18s tournaments since last February.  Ovrootsky was beaten by Klara Milicevic of Sweden, a No. 17 seed, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 and Evans fell to No. 17 seed Madison Sieg 6-4, 6-1.

The 12s lost only one top 8 seed today, although the girls No. 1 and No. 2 seeds had to grind out tough wins to advance.  No. 1 Linda Fruhvirtova managed to defeat Mio Mushika of Japan 7-6(4), 6-7(6), 7-5, which from the score alone looked to be an epic.  I was able to get back from Key Biscayne to watch the final set of No. 2 seed Sofia Costoulas's 6-3, 7-6(9) win over unseeded Katherine Hui, and Costoulas was fortunate to avoid a third set, with Hui serving for the set at 5-4 and then having two set points at 6-5 and 7-6 in the tiebreaker.  

In the boys 12s, none of the 16 third round matches went to a third set, with the closest contest unseeded Argentine Giuliano Furlotti's 6-4, 6-4 win over No. 9 seed Andre Megrabian of Belgium. Top seed Alexander Blockx of Belgium beat Luca Lemaitre Vilchis of Mexico 6-1, 6-4 and No. 2 seed Juncheng Shang, the Eddie Herr champion, downed Reiya Hattori of Japan 6-1, 6-3.

See the TennisLink site for all results from Friday and for Saturday's fourth round times.

B12s
1. Alexander Blockx, BEL
2. Juncheng Shang, USA
3. Nishesh Basavareddy, USA
4. Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez, MEX
5. Cooper Williams, USA
6. Marc Majdandzic, GER (lost 3rd rd)
7. Lennon Jones, JPN
8. Learner Tien, USA w/d

B14s
1. Alexander Bernard, USA
2. Shintaro Mochizuki, JPN
3. Christopher Li, PER
4. Francisco Lamas, VEN
5. Jacobi Bain, BAH
6. Saud Alhogbani, KSA (lost 3rd rd)
7. Alvaro Guillen-Meza, ECU
8. Joel Pierleoni, GBR  (lost 1st rd)

G12s
1. Linda Fruhvirtova, CZE
2. Sofia Costoulas, BEL
3. Alexandra Eala, PHI
4. Tsehay Driscoll, USA w/d
5. Melisa Ercan, TUR
6. Stephanie Yakoff, USA
7. Priya Nelson, USA
8. Clervie Ngounoue, USA

G14s
1. Alexandra Yepifanova, USA
2. Noa Krznaric, CRO
3. Charlotte Owensby, USA (lost 3rd rd)
4. Vivian Ovrootsky, USA (lost 3rd rd)
5. Clarine Lerby, NED
6. Daria Tomashevskaya, CAN w/d
7. Kailey Evans, USA (lost 3rd rd)
8. Kyoka Kubo, JPN