Orange Bowl Top Seed Banerjee Ousted by Eddie Herr Finalist; Qualifier Michelsen Defeats No. 9 Seed Buse; Few Surprises in Girls First Round

©Colette Lewis 2021--
Plantation FL--

Prior to today's first round match at the ITF JA Orange Bowl, Kilian Feldbausch had only one day to recover from a grueling run at the Eddie Herr ITF J1, where he won four matches from a set down, beat top seed Bruno Kuzuhara to reach the final and extended No. 2 seed Viacheslav Bielinskyi to a third set tiebreaker before running out of gas.

That one day was enough, with the 16-year-old from Switzerland defeating top seed and 2021 Wimbledon boys champion Samir Banerjee 6-3, 6-2 on the Veltri Tennis Center's stadium court. 

Banerjee, who did not play any of the clay court tournaments leading up to the Orange Bowl, looked rusty, and he also took a medical timeout after losing serve in the opening game of the second set,  receiving treatment for his elbow. Feldbausch kept the pressure on, and while he admitted feeling some fatigue, it didn't affect his performance.

"My legs feel a bit heavy, but I stayed focused," Feldbausch said. "Yesterday I rest in my room, just moved in the fitness a bit, worked on the legs."

Feldbausch, who has reached three J1 finals on clay this year, felt he was more at home on the clay than Banerjee.

"I think he play better on hard court or on grass," Feldbausch said. "But I like to play the seeded players, because it's a challenge."

Feldbausch, who plays Princeton recruit Paul Inchauspe of France in the second round Wednesday, admits that reaching another final this week will be a challenge.

"It will be difficult, but I think I can do it," Feldbausch said. "I need to stay mentally focused and try always my best."

 Four other boys seeds lost in today's first round: No. 14 seed Ethan Quinn, who was beaten by Henrique Rocha of Portugal 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(4); No. 11 seed Aleksander Orlikowski of Poland, who lost to lucky loser Lorenzo Ferri of Italy 6-1, 6-4; No. 12 seed Ozan Colak, who fell to Dylan Dietrich of Switzerland 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 and No. 9 seed Ignacio Buse of Peru, who was beaten by qualifier Alex Michelsen 6-1, 5-7, 6-0.

Michelsen, playing in his first Grade A tournament, was pleased with his execution on a surface he is just beginning to get comfortable on.

"I served well, returned well, wasn't missing much, going for my shots, and I was volleying really well, better than last week," said the 17-year-old from Southern California, who is competing in his first Orange Bowl. "I've been in Florida two weeks now, so I'm getting used to it."

The fact that he was in qualifying this week was a plus, given his limited experience on the surface.

"I won three matches in qualifying, grinded through qualies and I think that helped today, actually," said Michelsen, who didn't know that Buse had reached the 16s Orange Bowl final in 2020. "Just to have those matches on these courts."

Michelsen, who recently committed to Georgia for next fall, didn't travel much before this year.

"The competition is always so good in SoCal, so I could just play local tournaments," Michelsen said. "We're spoiled."

The only seed to fall in the girls draw was No. 16 seed Alexis Blokhina, who lost to Rebecca Munk Mortensen of Denmark 6-3, 4-6, 7-5. 

Top seed Kristina Dmitruk of Belarus defeated Katja Wiersholm 6-3, 6-3 and No. 2 seed Alexandra Eala of the Philippines beat Charlotte Owensby 6-2, 6-3. 

Brenda and Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic both won their 30th matches since November 15th, with No. 4 seed Brenda beating Emma Charney 6-2, 6-2 and No. 3 seed Linda defeating Anastasiya Lopata of Ukraine 6-3, 6-1.

The first round of the 16s was finally completed, after beginning Sunday.  The Eddie Herr 16s champions, switching from hard courts to clay, had mixed results. Unseeded Kate Kim defeated Kate Fakih 7-5, 6-1, but wild card Rudy Quan lost to No. 15 seed George Lazarov of Bulgaria 7-5, 6-3.

Second round singles in both 16s and 18s are on Wednesday's schedule, along with the first round of 18s doubles and the second round of 16s doubles.