Top Seeds, Qualifiers and Lucky Losers Make Their Mark on Day One of Junior Orange Bowl Boys 12s

©Colette Lewis 2017--
Coral Gables FL--

I spent most of a sunny but chilly Wednesday at Salvadore Park watching the Boys 12s, where the only Top 8 seed who did not advance was Learner Tien, who withdrew and was replaced by a lucky loser.

Lucky losers were in fact the story of the day in the Boys 12s, with more of them--18-- getting into the 128-player main draw than qualifiers(16) or seeds (also 16). That meant every player who lost in the final round of qualifying on Tuesday was given a place in the main draw, although two of the final round qualifying losers did not sign in, giving four second round qualifying losers a chance to play in the main draw.

When the final match of the day ended around 6 p.m., five lucky losers and eight qualifiers had made their way into Thursday's second round, along with 12 seeds.  Three of the seeds--Tien, Thomas Faurel[9] and Kyle Kang[9]--withdrew, with Andrea M'chich[9] of France the only seed to bow out in competition.

The top four B12s seeds lost only four games between them.  Top seed Alexander Blockx of Belgium, who did not play the Eddie Herr, beat Cal Wider 6-0, 6-1. (NOTE: if country is not given, player is from the United States). Eddie Herr champion and No. 2 seed Juncheng Shang rolled over qualifier Cole Cozens 6-0, 6-0 and No. 3 seed Nishesh Basavareddy, who lost to Shang in the semifinals of the Eddie Herr, defeated Roberto Leal of Venezuela 6-1, 6-0.  No. 4 seed Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez of Mexico, an Eddie Herr quarterfinalist, beat fellow left-hander Loic Rompre of Canada 6-2, 6-0.

I spent the final couple of hours at the Girls 12s at the Biltmore Tennis Center, and was impressed in my first look at No. 2 seed Sofia Costoulas of Belgium, who beat Petra Marcinko of Croatia 6-1, 6-1.  Service motions are usually not remarkable in the girls 12s, but Costoulas has a good one going for her, along with excellent footwork and of course, the obligatory powerful ground strokes.

As you can see from the update below, the top 8 seeds held up exceptionally well in all age divisions.

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
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
7. Alvaro Guillen-Meza, ECU
8. Joel Pierleoni, GBR

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
4. Vivian Ovrootsky, USA
5. Clarine Lerby, NED
6. Daria Tomashevskaya, CAN w/d
7. Kailey Evans, USA
8. Kyoka Kubo, JPN

Complete results and times for Thursday's matches can be found at the TennisLink site.