Top Seeds Roll On to Third Round at Junior Orange Bowl

©Colette Lewis 2017--

Coral Gables FL--

Day Two of the 2017 Junior Orange Bowl featured another sunny day without notable upsets at the four Miami-area sites. 

As was the case on Wednesday, the top seeds breezed into the third round, with the one exception being 14s No. 1 seed Alexander Bernard who dropped the first set before closing with more typical top seed scores. Bernard beat Lucas Britez of Paraguay 4-6, 6-0, 6-1 at the Crandon Park site, where I'll be spending Friday.

Today I spent the majority of the day at the Girls 14s at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center at the University of Miami.  I watched top seed Alexandra Yepifanova and No. 3 seed Charlotte Owensby dominate their opponents on court 1, with Yepifanova defeating Mariana Manyoma of Colombia 6-0, 6-1 and Owensby downing Ashlyn Krueger 6-1, 6-1.  

Closes matches were rare, but I did see one that was a battle.  Hina Inoue, who somehow was not seeded despite reaching the semifinals of the Eddie Herr and having the highest ITF ranking (226) in the draw, and No. 9 seed Elaine Chervinsky went at it for over two and a half hours, with Inoue claiming a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory. 

Later in the day, No. 2 seed Noa Krznaric of Croatia, who is playing in her fifth Junior Orange Bowl, beat qualifier Jacqueline Soloveychik 6-2, 6-1. Krznaric reached the 12s final in 2015.

The Eddie Herr champions have fared well in their opening matches this week, with G14s winner Vivian Ovrootsky, the No. 4 seed, beating Danielle Tuhten of Canada 6-2, 6-3. Boys 12s winner Juncheng "Jerry" Shang, seeded second, lost his first game of the tournament while beating qualifier Matteo Antonescu 6-1, 6-0.  Boys 14s winner Shintaro Mochizuki of Japan, the No. 2 seed, blanked Youssef Hazem of Egypt.  Girls 12s champion Brenda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic, who is 10, is not playing this week due to the implementation of a new rule that requires a competitor to be 11 years old, but her 12-year-old sister Linda, who was the runnerup in the 14s, is the top seed in the 12s. She defeated Gala Arangio of Mexico 6-3, 6-4 in today's second round.

Alexander Blockx, the top seed in the boys 12s, received a walkover into the third round, with Andrew Rundle unable to compete due to illness.  Below are the top 8 seeds remaining in contention, and as you can see, only one of them has lost in competition in the first two rounds.  For complete draws and times for Friday's matches, see the TennisLink site.

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