Easter Bowl ITF Videos; Kudla, Harrison and Brooksby Advance at Orlando Challenger; Sharma Defeats Fruhvirtova to Reach Charleston Semifinals

The videos of the Easter Bowl ITF finals are below, with the videos for the 12s, 14s, and 16s, still to come. 

A photo gallery from the Easter Bowl by photographer Derrick Tuskan is available at Tennis Recruiting Network.

Americans Denis Kudla, Christian Harrison and Jenson Brooksby and former South Florida star Roberto Cid of the Dominican Republic have advanced to the semifinals of ATP Challenger 80 in Orlando. 

No. 5 seed Kudla, the only seed who made the quarterfinals, defeated Michael Mmoh 7-5, 6-3 and will face Cid, who advanced when former UNC star Brayden Schnur of Canada retired trailing 3-6, 6-2, 4-0. Harrison downed Jack Sock 7-6(3), 6-3 and will play Brooksby, who beat wild card Zane Khan 6-4, 6-3.

Sock and Mitchell Krueger will play Harrison and Dennis Novikov in the doubles final Saturday.

Astra Sharma

 The run of 15-year-old Linda Fruhvirtova ended this evening at the WTA MUSC Health Women's Open in Charleston South Carolina, with former Vanderbilt star Astra Sharma advancing to the semifinals with a 6-3, 6-4 victory.

"I honestly don't really look at the age," Sharma said when asked about playing someone so young. "Look at Linda, she's an amazing player who plays as if she was born to hold a racquet her whole life."

Sharma, 25, will face 19-year-old Maria Camila Osorio Serrano, who advanced to the semifinals when 18-year-old Clara Tauson of Denmark retired trailing 6-4, 1-0. 

"Same with Maria," Sharma continued. "She's just come off a really good win in Bogota and she's been backing it up here in Charleston against really top quality opponents. So I don't think age has anything to do with it. She might be fresher than me, since she has younger legs. I'm really looking forward to playing her tomorrow, I think she's been playing really well, it will be a really good challenge to see how I match up against her."

Sharma, who will be playing in just her second WTA semifinal, was asked about her decision to play college tennis.

"I was really undercooked as a junior," said Sharma, who uses Nashville as her training base during most of the post-Australian Open year. "I wasn't played that many touraments, I also played soccer and everything, so I didn't really have a traditional tennis background in terms of the quantity and quality that I put in compared to the other girls. I just had too many things going on, so my decision to go to college was more, let's see, if I focus one hundred percent on tennis how good can I get. And honestly, college for me was the perfect time to do that. All the facilities are open, you have eight other girls willing to hit with you, you have coaches and physios. So for me it was a perfect kind of environment for developing a tennis player, which I really needed. I think I was behind, in terms of maturity, on court and off court, so that was really good for me."

In the other semifinal, top seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia will play Danka Kovinic of Montenegro. Jabeur defeated Nao Hibino 6-0, 6-1, while Kovinic took out No. 3 seed Shelby Rogers 7-5, 6-1.