Kuzuhara Meets Williams for Spot in Semifinals at ITF J1 Eddie Herr Championships; US Girls 16s Champion Guaranteed with Semifinals Set for 12s, 14s, and 16s; Orange Bowl 16s Qualifying Draws Released

©Colette Lewis 2021-- 

Bradenton FL-- 

One of the two Americans to reach the quarterfinals of the ITF J1 Eddie Herr International Championships will be eliminated Friday, when top seed Bruno Kuzuhara and unseeded Cooper Williams meet for the first time since the 12s.  The 16-year-old Williams is looking for a better showing this time around.

"I think I got beat 0 and 0, or 0 and 1," Williams said. "It was over in like 35 minutes. Hopefully I'll do better this time."

Williams was happy with his level in his third round match today, which was played on the Academy Park courts, a tram-ride from the main tennis area at the IMG Academy. Williams defeated unseeded Maxim Shin of Uzbekistan, who had taken out No. 7 seed Alexsander Orlikowski of Poland in the second round, 6-0, 6-2.

"He had a good win yesterday," said Williams, who won the first 10 games of the match. "I just came out playing solid, making the guy uncomfortable, attacked his backhand the first couple of games and kind of ran with the match. I played solid, didn't make a lot of errors, came forward well, dropshotted well, used my forehand to his backhand. I played a near perfect match."

Williams, who played the J1 in Guadalajara and last week's Grade A in Merida, losing to the finalists in both tournaments, had closed out second round opponent Lennon Roark Jones of Japan 6-0 in the second set, an indication of his dominance this week.

"I've come into my own on clay," said Williams, a high school junior who recently gave a verbal commitment to Harvard. "I came here pretty confident with the way I was playing. I've definitely performed pretty well and am looking forward to keeping it up."

Like Williams, Kuzuhara has also been impressive in his first three matches. The 17-year-old cruised past No. 14 seed Adam Jurajda of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-2.

Williams is one of two unseeded boys to reach the quarterfinals, with the other Dino Prizmic of Croatia, a semifinalist at last week's JA in Merida. Prizmic will face No. 3 seed Jakub Mensik of the Czerch Republic, who needed three hours to beat wild card Sebastian Gorzny 6-4, 6-7(6), 7-6(3).  Gorzny led 4-2 in the final set, but Mensik's drop shot proved to be the difference. Mensik could not find a way through Gorzny with his serve or groundstrokes, but his drop shots were successful throughout the late stages of the third set and in the tiebreaker.

No. 16 seed Kilian Feldbausch of Switzerland took out No. 4 seed Leo Borg of Sweden 6-7(1), 6-4, 6-2 in another lengthy third round match. He will face No. 8 seed Edas Butvilas of Lithuania, who beat No. 12 seed Bor Artnak of Slovenia 6-4, 7-6(6).

No. 2 seed Viacheslav Bielinskyi of Ukraine defeated wild card Michael Zheng 6-2, 6-4 and will face No. 9 seed Olaf Pieczkowski of Poland, who beat Merida champion Mili Poljicak of Croatia 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Only one unseeded girl reached the quarterfinals, with Mia Kupres of Canada earning another routine win. Kupres defeated Kristyna Tomajkova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-1 and will meet No. 2 seed Diana Shnaider of Russia for a spot in the semifinals. Shnaider prevented an all-Canadian quarterfinal when she defeated No. 15 seed Victoria Mboko 6-1, 3-6, 7-5.

No. 4 seed Petra Marcinko of Croatia withdrew from singles with an illness, giving No. 16 seed Evialina Laskevich of Belarus a walkover. Laskevich, a semifinalist at the 2019 Eddie Herr as a 15-year-old, will take on 14-year-old Brenda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic, who came back to defeat No. 11 seed Laura Hietaranta of Finland 0-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Top seed Kristina Dmitruk of Belarus has dropped just nine games in her three matches, beating Baylor freshman Alina Shcherbinina of Russia 6-2, 6-0 in today's third round. Dmitruk's quarterfinal opponent will be No. 6 seed Solana Sierra of Argentina, who beat No. 10 seed Celine Naef of Switzerland 5-7, 7-5, 6-3. Naef served for the match at 5-4 in the second set, but Sierra, who had pulled off a similar comeback in the second round yesterday, found her way to victory once again.

No. 3 seed Linda Fruhvirtova blanked Mao Mushika of Japan to advance to a meeting with No. 12 seed Lucija Ciric Bagaric of Croatia, who took out No. 7 seed Mirra Andreeva of Russia, a Eddie Herr 12s finalist in 2019, 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-2.

The doubles semifinals are set for Friday, with three unseeded teams still alive for the boys title.

Gianluca Ballotta of Peru and Leanid Boika got a walkover from No. 6 seeds Luka Mikrut of Croatia and Borg, due to a Borg injury.  They will face Benjamin Kittay and Zheng, who defeated France's Paul Inchauspe and Feldbausch 6-4, 7-5.

Wild cards Alexander Frusina and ITF World No. 1 junior Juncheng Jerry Shang of China advanced to the semifinals with a 7-6(4), 6-4 win over No. 8 seeds Prizmic and Vilius Gaubas of Lithuania. Frusina and Shang will play No. 4 seeds Orlikowski and Pieczkowski, who beat No. 5 seeds Butvilas and Jordan's Abedallah Shelbayh 6-2, 6-7(5), 10-7.

All four girls doubles semifinalists are seeded, and only the 6-4, 6-7(4), 10-6 win by No. 8 seeds Kayla Cross and Mboko over No. 3 seeds Dimitruk and Hietaranta kept the top four seeds from advancing.

Marcinko recovered enough to play doubles, pairing with Shnaider, and they defeated No. 6 seeds Laskevich and Shcherbinina 6-4, 3-6, 12-10. Their opponents in the semifinals will be No. 4 seed Ciric Bagaric and Johanne Svendsen of Denmark, who beat No. 5 seeds Andreeva and Annabelle Xu of Canada 1-6, 7-5, 10-8.

Cross and Mboko, the Merida JA champions, will play the second-seeded Fruhvirtova sisters in the semifinals. They defeated the Czech pair in the quarterfinals last week.

The semifinals are set in the 12s, 14s and 16, all for 8 a.m. Friday morning.  After two rounds of singles today in the Girls 16s, all semifinalists are Americans, and whoever claims the title will be the fifth straight US girl to do so.  Below are the results from today's quarterfinals, in draw order.  Complete draws are available here.

B16s:

Lorenzo Carboni[WC](ITA) d. Juan David Velasquez Ariza[1](COL) 6-2, 6-2 

Andrew Delgado[WC](USA) d. Asror Ismoilov[13](USA) 6-2, 6-0

Rudy Quan[WC](USA) d. Lucas Silva[9](BRA) 5-7, 6-1, 6-2

Rei Sakamoto[2](JPN) d. Amir Milushev[5](UZB) 4-6, 7-5, 6-3

B14s:

Max Exsted[1](USA) d. Avner Wong[13](USA) 6-4, 6-4

Shion Itsusaki[12](JPN) d. Benjamin Saltman[10](USA) 6-4, 6-1

Timofey Derepasko[3](RUS) d. Shu Ota(JPN) 6-2, 7-5

Andrea de Marchi[2](ITA) d. Alaa Trifi[9](FRA) 6-3, 6-1

B12s:

Navneet Raghuram[1](USA) d. Juan Miguel Bolivar[6](COL) 6-3, 6-0

Jordan Lee[4](USA) d. Jerrid Gaines[5](USA) 6-3, 6-2

Cho Minhyuk(KOR) d. Vihaan Reddy[3](USA) 7-5, 1-6, 11-9

Teodor Davidov[2](USA) d. Mark Mrcela[WC](USA) 2-6, 6-3, 10-4

G16s:

Piper Charney[1](USA) d. Vittoria Paganetti[13](ITA) 7-6(4), 6-3

Brooklyn Olson[3](USA) d. Mayu Crossley[7](JPN) 7-5, 6-0

Kate Kim[4](USA) d. Brooke Lynn Schafer[16](USA) 6-2, 6-0

Reya Coe[10](USA) d. Kinaa Graham[2](USA) 6-3, 1-6, 6-3

G14s:

Rositsa Dencheva[1](BUL) d. Tahlia Kokkinis[7](AUS) 6-3, 6-3

Wakana Sonobe[3](JPN) d. Ichino Horikawa[13](JPN) 6-3 6-1

Maya Iyengar[4](USA) d. Jo Lee Saw(MAS) 6-2, 4-6, 5-1, ret. inj.

Eva Oxford[2](USA) d. Maria Aytoyan(USA) 6-2, 6-1 

G12s:

Lia Belibova[1](MDA) d. Joyce Geng[8](CAN) 6-1, 6-3

Anita Tu[5](USA) d. Ann Bugaienko[4](USA) 6-4, 6-3

Kristina Penickova[3](USA) d. Ye Sung Choo(KOR) 6-3, 6-2 

Ana Avramovic[11](USA) d. Bela Martinez[7](PUR) 6-4, 6-4

The qualifying for the 16s Orange Bowl begins Friday morning in Plantation, with draws now posted at the tournament site.