Four US Boys, No US Girls Advance to Eddie Herr J1 Round of 16, Top Seeds in Boys Doubles Ousted; Quarterfinals Set for 12s, 14s, 16s Divisions

©Colette Lewis 2021--

Bradenton FL--

The top seeds continued to progress through the draw Wednesday at the ITF J1 Eddie Herr International Championships, with 13 of the 16 girls seeds and 10 of the 16s boys seeds advancing to Thursday's third round.

The only seeded girl to lose today was No. 14 seed Alexis Blokhina, who retired to Mao Mushika of Japan trailing 6-0, 1-0.  Only four US girls had reached the second round, and all four lost today; in addition to Blokhina, Elisabeth Jones, Ariana Pursoo and Gracie Epps lost in straight sets.

Top seed Kristina Dmitruk of Belarus defeated wild card Sayaka Ishii of Japan 6-3, 6-3, and No. 2 seed Diana Shnaider of Russia beat Anastasiya Lopata of Ukraine 6-4, 6-1. The girls seed in the biggest trouble was No. 6 Solana Sierra of Argentina, who eked out a 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-3 win over University of Arizona recruit Reece Carter of Canada.

While all US girls have been eliminated, four American boys remain in contention for the Eddie Herr title: top seed Bruno Kuzuhara, wild cards Michael Zheng and Sebastian Gorzny, and unseeded Cooper Williams.

Kuzuhara defeated Luka Mikrut of Croatia 6-3, 6-3 to set up a round of 16 encounter with No. 14 seed Adam Jurajda of the Czech Republic. Williams took out Lennon Roark Jones of Japan 6-3, 6-0 and Gorzny defeated Alexander Blockx of Belgium 6-3, 6-1. Zheng, who eliminated No. 15 seed Gerard Campana Lee of Korea 7-6(3), 6-2, said he got stronger as the first set was drawing to a close.

"It was a tough first set, very back and forth," said Zheng, a 17-year-old from New Jersey. "We were both breaking each other a lot, it was tough to hold. In the tiebreak, the beginning was close and then I started pulling away, hit a few good shots."

Zheng, who recently made a verbal commitment to Stanford for 2022, then took control.

"In the second set, I got an early break and he had chances to break back, but I just played solid," said Zheng, who didn't drop serve in the second set.

Zheng said he practiced on indoor clay prior to this tournament, but admitted that adjustments were still necessary once he got to the Har-Tru courts of the IMG Academy. 

"The clay here is really, really slow and the balls don't help here either," Zheng said. "The balls don't really help; they get super fluffy in the second set and the ball doesn't go anywhere. I'm used to playing indoor hard, fast, but it's good for me, just to get into longer rallies and use my legs a little bit more. I've had pretty good results on clay, so I'm not really complaining."

Zheng will face No. 2 seed Viacheslav Bielinskyi of Ukraine Thursday for a place in the quarterfinals.

"I heard he's very solid, obviously a very good player, highly ranked," Zheng said. "I haven't had a chance to see him play, but I'll talk to the coaches and players and get their feedback. It's always fun playing these highly ranked players."

Campana Lee was one of three seeds to lose today. Dino Prizmic of Croatia, a semifinalist last week at the JA in Mexico, defeated Vilius Gaubas of Lithuania 6-3, 6-0 and Maxim Shin of Uzbekistan beat No. 7 seed Aleksander Orlikowski of Poland 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

There was a major surprise in the second round of boys doubles, with top seeds Kuzuhara and Croatia's Mili Poljicak falling to Leanid Boika and Peru's Gianluca Ballotta 3-6, 7-6(4), 11-9.

Wild cards Zheng and Benjamin Kittay closed out the day's action as the sun set over the IMG campus, beating No. 7 seeds Bor Artnak and Sebastian Dominko of Slovenia 7-6(5), 4-6, 11-9.

In girls doubles, only one unseeded team advanced to Thursday's quarterfinals, with Qavia Lopez and Switzerland's Chelsea Fontenel defeating No. 7 seeds Celine Naef of Switzerland and Amelie Van Impe of Belgium 3-6, 7-6(5), 10-4.

The quarterfinals are set for Thursday in five of the six younger divisions, with the matchups below:

The girls 16s, which fell behind due to early morning wet courts on Monday, will catch up with two rounds on Thursday. All the top 8 seeds listed below have advanced to the round of 16; in fact, 15 of the 16 seeds are still alive.

Complete draws are here.

B16s:

Juan David Velasquez Ariza[1](COL) v Lorenzo Carboni[WC](ITA)

Asror Ismoilov[13](USA) v Andrew Delgado[WC](USA)

Lucas Silva[9](BRA) v Rudy Quan[WC](USA)

Amir Milushev[5](UZB) v Rei Sakamoto[2](JPN)

B14s:

Max Exsted[1](USA) v Avner Wong[13](USA)

Benjamin Saltman[10](USA) v Shion Itsusaki[12](JPN)

Shu Ota(JPN) v Timofey Derepasko[3](RUS)

Alaa Trifi[9](FRA) v Andrea de Marchi[2](ITA)

B12s:

Navneet Raghuram[1](USA) v Juan Miguel Bolivar[6](COL)

Jordan Lee[4](USA) v Jerrid Gaines[5](USA)

Cho Minhyuk(KOR) v Vihaan Reddy[3](USA)

Mark Mrcela[WC](USA) v Teodor Davidov[2](USA)

G16s:

Round of 16 and Quarterfinals on Thursday

Top 8 seeds:

1. Piper Charney, USA

2. Kinaa Graham, USA

3. Brooklyn Olson, USA

4. Kate Kim, USA

5. Noemi Basiletti, ITA

6. Claire An, USA

7. Mayu Crossley, JPN

8. Krisha Mahendran, USA

G14s:

Rositsa Dencheva[1](BUL) v Tahlia Kokkinis[7](AUS)

Wakana Sonobe[3](JPN) v Ichino Horikawa[13](JPN)

Jo Lee Saw(MAS) v Maya Iyengar[4](USA)

Maria Aytoyan(USA) v Eva Oxford[2](USA)

G12s:

Lia Belibova[1](MDA) v Joyce Geng[8](CAN)

Ann Bugaienko[4](USA) v Anita Tu[5](USA)

Ye Sung Choo(KOR) v Kristina Penickova[3](USA)

Bela Martinez[7](PUR) v Ana Avramovic[11](USA)