Top Two Girls Seeds Fall in Eddie Herr ITF Quarterfinals; Lopez and Krueger to Meet for Girls 16s Title; Anthrop, Kreynes and Exsted Advance to Boys 16s, 14s, 12s Finals

©Colette Lewis 2019--
Bradenton Florida--

An unseeded girl will win the ITF Eddie Herr International Grade 1 title in 2019 after the top two seeds were dismissed in Friday's quarterfinals, while a rematch of last week's boys final at the Grade A in Mexico will highlight the boys semifinals Saturday.

Conditions were ideal at the IMG Academy's green clay courts, with clear blue skies, temperatures in the 70s and no wind. Evialina Laskevich of Belarus took full advantage, beating top seed Alexandra Eala of the Philippines 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2 in a match that lasted just short of three hours.

"It was a really a difficult match, I'm just happy that I won," said the 15-year-old right-hander, who celebrated her birthday last month. "Of course I'm tired, but I really want to win this tournament. It's really amazing to play semis here and I'm ready."

Laskevich was down 5-2 in the first set when she called her coach to the court, with this the first day that coaching is allowed, as a chair umpire is necessary to monitor that situation.

"I think it helped me, I made it 5-all," Laskevich said. "He said, 'just relax and play your game, play with freedom.'"

Laskevich was ranked 95 coming into the tournament, while Eala, just 14 years old, is No. 12 in the ITF World Junior rankings. But she didn't waiver, taking more control with every game, and after needing nearly two-and-a-half hours for the first two sets, the third ended relatively quickly, in just 35 minutes.

"It's amazing to be in the semis," Laskevich said, who is making her second trip to the United States, having made the quarterfinals of the Junior Orange Bowl 12s in 2016. "It's a nice place; I like to be in America."

In her first Grade 1 semifinal, Laskevich will face qualifier Eva Lys of Germany, who ended the run of 13-year-old wild card Clervie Ngounoue 6-1, 7-5. Down 6-1, 5-1, Ngounoue saved a match point and went on to win four straight games, taking a lead 5-5 30-0 lead on her serve, only to lose the next four points. Lys, who had played so solidly in the first 12 games of the match, began to spray forehands, and she had to save a break point serving for the match at 6-5. Ngounoue went for and missed a backhand return, and Lys cracked a forehand winner to earn a match point, which went her way when Ngounoue netted a backhand.

"It was pretty tough, she's a really good player," said Lys, a 17-year-old from Hamburg. "Leading 5-1, match point, I made an easy mistake and then I was so shaky. She started to play so good and I didn't know what to do. In the end, I kind of found myself again. But she was playing so good, and my forehand was so shaky, I made so many down-the-line mistakes, I just stopped playing down-the-line and just stayed cross."

Lys had to win two third set match tiebreakers in the last two rounds of qualifying, but she has yet to drop a set in her four main draw wins.

"I had two pretty tough matches, winning the 10-pointers, so I could have been out in the qualies," said Lys, who tore a ligament and has played only two tournaments since August, reaching the semifinals of a $15,000 tournament in Greece last month. "So I'm pretty surprised so far I got so far. For me, I couldn't be happier."

The other tournament Lys played was a ITF Junior Grade 2 in Spain in October, where she lost to Laskevich 6-4, 6-1 in the first round.

"I played her a month ago and I won, but I think it will be a tough match," Laskevich said. "It's semis and she has won a lot of good players."

Elvina Kalieva is the last American vying for a singles title after the 16-year-old defeated second-seeded 14-year-old Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-2. Kalieva has yet to drop a set this week, and has beaten the No. 5 and No. 2 seeds, while also eliminating last week's Grade A champion Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva in the third round.

Kalieva will play unseeded Jana Kolodynska, a 16-year-old from Belarus, who has had an equally impressive tournament, beating the No. 9 and No. 6 seeds. Today Kolodynska took out unseeded Guillermina Grant of Uruguay 6-2, 6-2.

Saturday's boys semifinal between No. 6 seed Arthur Cazaux of France and No. 2 seed Thiago Tirante of Argentina is a rematch of the Grade A final Sunday in Mexico, with Tirante winning it 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-3. Neither had much trouble on Friday, with Tirante taking out No. 5 seed Jeffrey Von Der Schulenburg of Switzerland 6-3, 6-2 and Cazaux beating unseeded Max Alcala Gurri of Spain 6-1, 6-3.

In the top half of the draw, No. 8 seed Timo Legout ended the run of unseeded Gian Luca Tanner of Switzerland 6-1, 6-1 and unseeded Roman Burruchaga of Argentina beat No. 9 seed Felix Gill of Great Britain 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.

The doubles finals are set for Saturday, with the unseeded American team of Savannah Broadus and Kylie Collins taking on No. 5 seeds Giulia Morlet of France and Diana Shnaider of Russia. Broadus and Collins saved a match point on a deciding point with Broadus serving at 5-6 in the second set to beat wild cards Reese Brantmeier and Allie Gretkowski 6-7(6), 7-6(4), 10-2. Morlet and Shnaider defeated unseeded Nanari Katsumi and Manami Ukita of Japan 4-6, 6-2, 10-8.

The boys doubles final will feature No. 5 seeds Alexander Hoogmartens of Belgium and Von Der Schulenburg against No. 3 seeds Arthur Fery and Gill of Great Britain. Hoogmartens and Von Der Schulenburg defeated Burruchaga and Santiago De La Fuente of Argentina 6-3, 2-6, 11-9, and Fery and Gill beat unseeded Marc Ktiri and Pedro Vives Marcos of Spain 6-2, 7-6(2).

Saturday's order of play
Boys singles draw
Girls singles draw
Girls doubles draw
Boys doubles draw

Five Americans have advanced to finals in the 12s, 14s and 16s divisions, including an all-American final in the girls 16s. Fifteen-year-old Ashlyn Krueger, a wild card seeded No. 8, will face 14-year-old Qavia Lopez, the No. 7 seed for the title. Krueger ended the Eddie Herr winning streak of 12-year-old Brenda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic, Linda's younger sister, who had won the Eddie Herr 12s as a 10-year-old and the 14s last year as an 11-year-old, by a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 score. Lopez, the No. 7 seed, avenged a loss to Lan Mi of China in the quarterfinals of the Grade 4 in Boca Raton last month, beating the No. 5 seed 6-3, 6-4.

In the boys 12s, Maxwell Exsted of Minnesota took out top seed Alejandro Arcila of Colombia and will face Manas Dhamne of India in the final.

In the boys 14s, No. 12 seed Benjamin Kreynes of Florida will face top seed Mahai Alexandru Coman of Romania for the title, and in the 16s final, No. 2 seed Jack Anthrop, also of Florida, will play top seed Marko Andrejic of Austria.

The singles results from today are below, followed by the doubles matchups for Saturday's finals. Complete draws are available at the TennisLink site.

B12s
Semifinal results:
Maxwell Exsted[3](USA) d. Alejandro Arcila[1](COL) 6-4, 7-5
Manas Dhamne[4](IND) d. Changmin Ryu[2](KOR) 6-1, 6-1

G12s
Semifinal results:
Mirra Andreeva[1](RUS) d. Yifei Huang[5](CHN) 6-2, 6-0
Alina Korneeva[2](RUS) d. Mariia Masiianskaia[6](RUS) 6-4, 6-1

B14s 

Semifinal results:
Mahai Alexandru Coman[1](ROU) d. Juan Prado[4](BOL) 6-1, 6-2
Benjamin Kreynes[12](USA) d. Sean Daryabeigi[2](USA) 6-2, 2-6, 6-4

G14s 

Semifinal results:
Kayla Cross[1](CAN) d. Karsyn Evans[8](USA) 6-2, 6-0
Sara Saito[13](JPN) d. Lucciana Perez[10](PER) 6-4, 7-5

B16s
Semifinal results:
Marko Andrejic[1](AUT) d. Azuma Visaya[4](USA) 6-3, 6-2
Jack Anthrop[2](USA) d. Spencer Johnson[11](USA) 6-1, 6-3

G16s
Semifinal results:
Qavia Lopez[7](USA) d. Lan Mi[5](CHN) 6-3, 6-4
Ashlyn Krueger[8](USA) d. Brenda Fruhvirtova[9](CZE) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2

Doubles Finals:

B12s

Se Hyuk Cho(KOR) & Minsoek Maeng(KOR)[6]) v Manas Dhamne(IND) & Aarav Samrat Hada(NPL)[2]

G12s
Mirra Andreeva(RUS) & Alina Korneeva(RUS)[1] v JiYi Wang(CHN) & Yifei Huang(CHN)[7]

B14s
Michael Kouame(FRA) & Fabio Nestola(GBR) v Juan Prado(BOL) & Lucas Silva(BRA)[2]

G14s 
Kayla Cross(CAN) & Nikola Daubnerova(SVK)[1] v Ena Koike(USA) & Sara Saito(JPN)

B16s
Gonzalo Bueno(PER) & Felipe Lopez(CHL) v Ozan Colak(USA) & Aidan Kim(USA)[2]

G16s
Sarah Hamner(USA) & Vivian Ovrootsky(USA)[1] v Ava Krug(USA) & Qavia Lopez(USA)[6]