Eddie Herr Recap; Sieg, Houghton and Blanch Reach Orange Bowl 16s Finals; Gauff, Navarro and Khan Advance to Grade A Semifinals; Zamarripa Makes $15K Final

©Colette Lewis 2018--
Plantation, Florida

Before I get to today's action at the Orange Bowl, here's the link to my recap, for the Tennis Recruiting Network, of last week's Eddie Herr International Championships in Bradenton.  Only two of the eight singles champions were from the United States this year, but the doubles competition was dominated by Americans, with US players winning six of the eight titles.

Saturday's Orange Bowl finals in the 16s age division will feature three Americans, with unseeded India Houghton taking on No. 4 seed Madison Sieg in the all-American girls final, and No. 1 seed Dali Blanch facing No. 3 seed Pablo Llamas Ruiz of Spain for the boys title.

Houghton defeated unseeded wild card Jaleesa Leslie 6-2, 6-4, her fifth consecutive straight-sets win. The 16-year-old left-hander said that although she doesn't play much on clay in her Northern California home, she likes the surface.

"In fifth grade, I spent a few months in Spain, playing on the red clay there, and I really liked it," Houghton said. "I'm definitely getting more used to the clay with each match."

Houghton said that she had to take advantage of Leslie's second serve, because her first serve was such a weapon.

"Her serve was really strong and it got even stronger in the second set, I thought," Houghton said. "I had to focus, especially when she had a second serve. I had to use that opportunity."

Houghton, who reached the Easter Bowl 16s final this spring, thinks that experience will help her on Saturday.

"The Easter Bowl was my first final, so it was a new experience for me," Houghton said. "So hopefully I can use that in this match."

The 15-year-old Sieg, who defeated No. 8 seed Yelizaveta Karlova of Kazakhstan 7-6(2), 6-3, is appearing in her second consecutive final, having lost to Elaine Chervinsky at last week's Eddie Herr.

Houghton and Sieg met in the first round of the Winter Nationals last December, with Houghton winning 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.

Blanch defeated No. 4 seed Kokora Isomura of Japan 7-6(3), 6-1, with the 15-year-old able to take control in the second set by adjusting his strategy.

"In the first set I got very frustrated," said Blanch, who trains in Argentina, as his older brother Ulises also did. "I was hitting the ball too flat, so in the second set I changed up. He played on the line, so I had to spin the ball more, push him back, in order to attack more and that worked in the second."

Blanch said being the number one seed feels like an advantage to him, and after a slow to start to the year, he is happy that he's reached that position.

"At the beginning of the year, I didn't know if I would play this tournament," said Blanch, who won two Grade 4s this fall. "My ranking wasn't that good and I had a tough start. But then I won some tournaments, and I'm very happy to be in the final."

Blanch will face No. 3 seed Pablo Llamas Ruiz of Spain, who prevented a second all-US final with a 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 win over No. 2 seed Alexander Bernard.  Blanch and Llamas will be playing for the first time in Saturday's final.

In the 18s, top seed Coco Gauff defeated unseeded Helene Pellicano of Malta 6-3, 6-2 to set up a rematch with No. 3 seed Diane Parry of France. Parry, who beat wild card Charlotte Chavatipon 6-1, 6-3, defeated Gauff 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the Yucatan Grade A two weeks ago.

The other girls semifinal is also a rematch, an even more recent one, with No. 2 seed Qinwen Zheng of China facing unseeded Emma Navarro. Navarro and Zheng met in the first round of the Eddie Herr last week, with Zheng rolling 6-1, 6-0.

Neither had an easy time getting to that rematch, with Zheng coming back for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 win over No. 6 seed Lea Ma, and Navarro earning a 7-6(1), 6-3 victory over 14-year-old wild card Robin Montgomery.

Montgomery served for the first set at 5-4, but couldn't close it out, and Navarro dominated in the subsequent tiebreaker, with unforced errors by Montgomery also a factor. Navarro was unable to serve out the match at 5-2, but she broke Montgomery for the win.

Only one seed remains in the boys 18s semifinals--No. 13 Otto Virtanen of Finland--after all four boys quarterfinals went to three sets. Virtanen earned his second consecutive Grade A win over No. 7 seed Anton Matusevich of Great Britain. After beating Matusevich from a set down in the first round of  the US Open junior championships, Virtanen duplicated that in today's quarterfinal, posting a  4-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory. He will play unseeded Alejo Lingua Lavallen of Argentina, who beat No. 15 seed Liam Draxl of Canada 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.

Sixteen-year-old Zane Khan took out his third seed of the week, beating No. 6 seed Jonas Forejtek of the Czech Republic 7-6(1), 2-6, 7-5.  Khan, who has been nursing a shoulder injury that caused him to retire at the Eddie Herr, said it has felt better as the week has progressed, and with his focus and energy at a high level, he doesn't think about it when he's playing.

"Especially in the third set, I started hitting it even harder," said Khan, who won 107 points in the match, while Forejtek won 110.

Khan, who saved three set points in the opening set, had several  tough service games in the third, while Forejtek was holding more easily, but Khan always felt he was dictating the match.

"My energy was high and I felt like that helped me," said Khan, who has begun working with former ATP pro Sebastien Grosjean at Boca West in Boca Raton. "Every single time he would always be further back, just try to make balls. He was really nervous, it looked like, and I kept putting pressure on, even shots that were right to him, I took time away and he was really nervous and kept missing in the net. I felt like I was in control the whole match."

With Forejtek serving to force a third-set tiebreaker, Khan took advantage of a rare break point opportunity and with a good return at 30-40 pressuring Forejtek into a backhand error on the next shot.

Khan will face unseeded Mateus Alves of Brazil, who prevented an all-US semifinal with a 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(5) win over No. 8 seed Cannon Kingsley.

Kingsley led 4-2 in the third set, but Alves played a gem of a game to break with Kingsley serving at 4-3.  Kingsley saved a match point serving at 5-6 in the third with a big serve, and three more match points from 6-2 down in the tiebreaker, but his forehand return of a second serve at 6-5 went long to end a competitive and well-played match.

Alves has now won four consecutive three-setters, while Khan has won three three-set matches this week. Alves and Khan met last year at the Grade 2 in Peru, with Alves winning 6-3, 6-3.

The first 2018 Orange Bowl champions were crowned in 16s doubles Friday afternoon.  Llamas Ruiz and his partner Angel Guerrero Melgar, also of Spain, seeded No. 3, defeated unseeded Bohua Dong and Haoyuan Huang of China 6-1, 6-1 in the boys final.

"We come in here expecting to win, but you never know," said Guerrero, who noted they won a doubles tournament of the best 16 and under players in Spain. "We tried it, and we made it."

"Today we have a good match," said Llamas. "We are very happy for the tournament."  "Yeah, we played really good today," Guerrero added.

The girls doubles final was an all-US contest between unseeded teams, with Carson Tanguilig and Elise Wagle beating Ava Catanzarite and Allie Gretkowski 4-6, 7-6(5), 10-6.

Tanguilig and Wagle got off to a quick start, going up 4-1, but lost the next five games.  As frequent partners, the two 15-year-olds were able to rely on each other to get back on track, although they also lost a 4-1 lead in the second set, losing six of six deciding points before finally taking a big point, at 6-5 in the tiebreaker.

"6-5 in the tiebreaker is a big, big point, especially after we lost the first set," Tanguilig said. "But you just keep moving, being positive, staying loose," Wagle said.

Up 8-4 in the match tiebreaker, they did not let the lead get away, although Gretkowski, the Eddie Herr 16s doubles champion, and Catanzarite won two points, including one on Tanguilig's serve, to get it to 8-6. But Tanguilig came up with her best serve of the match to give them a 9-6 cushion, and they converted their first match point.

As for their strengths as a team, Wagle said she relies on Tanguilig's net skills and mental outlook.

"She has insane hands, you have no idea," said Wagle, who won the ITF Grade 4 in Corpus Christi with Tanguilig in October. "Her hands have saved our butts so many times. And she's positive for me, because I can be a little negative on the court."

Tanguilig said appreciates the strength of Wagle's overall game.

"Her backhand is ten times better than mine could ever be," Tanguilig said. "She can pump me up if I'm being negative and she has a good serve and good volleys, everything."

The 18s doubles semifinals are scheduled for Saturday, with three US teams in the girls draw.  Top seeds Hurricane Tyra Black and Coco Gauff will face unseeded Kacie Harvey and Natasha Subhash, and unseeded Savannah Broadus and Kylie Collins will play No. 3 seeds Adrienn Nagy of Hungary and Sohyun Park of Korea. Black and Gauff beat No. 5 seeds Sada Nahimana of Burundi and Selin Ovunc of Turkey 6-2, 6-2, while Harvey and Subhash beat unseeded Alexa Noel and Nikki Redelijk 6-3, 6-2.  Nagy and Park defeated No. 6 seeds Ana Geller of Argentina and Natsumi Kawaguchi of Japan 6-3, 6-3 and Broadus and Collins outlasted Navarro and Chloe Beck, also unseeded, 1-6, 6-3, 13-11.

The only American boy in the doubles semifinals in Mark Mandlik. Mandlik and his partner Tom Leblanc Claverie of France were the last team to get into the draw, with the alternates replacing Forejtek and Valentin Royer of France. In the quarterfinals, Mandlik and Leblanc Claverie beat Drew Baird and Toby Kodat 6-2, 6-4 and will play unseeded Justin Schlageter of Germany and Gustaf Strom of Sweden, who beat No. 5 seeds Govind Nanda and Tyler Zink 7-5, 4-6, 10-5.  Top seeds Matusevich and Adrian Andreev of Bulgaria defeated No. 6 seeds Draxl and Eliot Spizzirri 6-3, 7-6(5) to advance to a meeting with No. 4 seeds Sergey Fomin of Uzbekistan and Gauthier Onclin of Belgium, who beat No. 7 seeds Emilio Nava and Virtanen 6-1, 6-1.

Saturday's order of play is available at the tournament website.

In notable results by juniors outside of Florida, 16-year-old Allura Zamarripa has advanced to the final of the $15,000 ITF Women's Pro Circuit event in Bogota Colombia. The unseeded Californian, who has not dropped a set this week, will play top seed Andrea Villarreal of Mexico in the final.  Allura and her twin sister Maribella won the doubles title, with the No. 2 seeds beating top seeds and twin sisters Maria Perez-Garcia and Paula Perez-Garcia of Colombia 7-5, 6-4 in the final. It is the first Pro Circuit title for the Zamarripas.