Vallejo Earns Paraguay's First Title, Marcinko Sweeps Girls Championships at Orange Bowl; Hovde, Kuzuhara Win Inaugural Lew Brewer Awards

©Colette Lewis 2021--
Plantation FL--

The final day of the 2021 Orange Bowl produced some history in both the boys and girls tournaments, with Adolfo Daniel Vallejo of Paraguay the first player from his country to claim an Orange Bowl title with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Bruno Kuzuhara of the United States, and Croatia's Petra Marcinko the first girl to sweep the singles and doubles titles since 1993.

The seventh-seeded Vallejo had to overcome a partisan crowd, the South Florida heat and humidity and the fatigue of his four previous three-set matches, including Saturday's semifinal, to put his name on the list of champions.

Vallejo took the crowd out of the match early, winning the first four games from an obviously nervous Kuzuhara, who double faulted and made uncharacteristic errors throughout those games. Yet once Kuzuhara held for 4-1, then broke Vallejo to make it 4-2, the supporters surrounding the Frank Veltri Tennis Center's Court 1 began to entertain hope for a turnaround. But Kuzuhara was broken again, shutting down any momentum and Vallejo closed out the first set.

Vallejo said he was also very nervous, but figured that Kuzuhara, who grew up and lives in nearby Coconut Creek, felt the weight of the occasion even more.

"He's playing in his home country, so I guess he has more pressure," Vallejo said. "The first set was very good. He couldn't do much because I was basically dominating. I mean he was missing, but I was mostly dominating."

"First game was not my best, I kind of let the nerves take over me a bit," said the 17-year-old Kuzuhara, the tournament's No. 2 seed. "But then after that, I felt that I played free, played well, it's just how tennis goes."

After a bathroom break, Kuzuhara lost a 10-minute service game, but didn't mope, breaking back immediately and holding serve in his next two attempts. But at 3-all he was broken, and when Vallejo held in a deuce game for a 5-3, the atmosphere began to change from hope to resignation. Serving to stay in the match, Kuzuhara made several unforced errors, and Vallejo took the title on his first match point.

   

Vallejo, who has played Davis Cup for Paraguay since 2019, said Kuzuhara wasn't the only one who felt support from local tennis fans.

"It's unbelievable to come here to the United States and have this kind of support, with people that speak Spanish," Vallejo said. "Even people from my home country of Paraguay, it's unbelievable. To win it was something I never imagined."

Vallejo said he is expecting to be something of a celebrity now when he returns home.

"It will be a big deal," said Vallejo, who is coached by former ATP 52 Ramon Delgado of Paraguay. "In Paraguay we love tennis. We don't have basically any players right now, and it's a long time since Victor Pecci reached the final in the French Open, so yeah, it's a big thing for Paraguay. I'm very proud."

Although disappointed with his loss, Kuzuhara recognized the accomplishment of reaching the final of one of the biggest junior tournaments in the world, one that is played a short drive from where he grew up learning the game.

"It's amazing making the finals here, so many great names, so many great players have made the finals, played on this exact court and are at where I want to be," said Kuzuhara, who is coached by the USTA's Brian Baker, the 2002 Orange Bowl champion. "It was a great honor to play here today."

Both Kuzuhara and Vallejo are planning to travel to Australia to play the Junior Championships in Melbourne next month.

Petra Marcinko lost in the first round at last year's Orange Bowl, to eventual champion Ashlyn Krueger, leaving her marveling at the improvement she has made to her game in the past 12 months. This summer, she lost to her opponent in the finals, doubles partner Diana Shnaider of Russia 6-2, 6-2 at the Tennis Europe Team Summer Cup, and again she can see the strides she has made, taking the Orange Bowl title today with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory.

"She was playing really amazing and I didn't have my day, so it was pretty easy," Marcinko said of that loss. "But I think I've improved a lot in these six months. I worked on my consistency and my mental game, and that's the most important part I improved on."

Marcinko admitted that playing her doubles partner made the match feel more like practice than an important final. After she lost the first set in 28 minutes, Marcinko took a bathroom break, returning with a more aggressive look to her game.

"Final, Orange Bowl, I had too much thoughts going into my head," said Marcinko, who turned 16 earlier this month. "I'm going to make it simple; I'm going to display my game, I'm going to put more balls in the court, make her do something. I like it when the match depends on me, how I do, not the opponent."

Marcinko took the lead for good in the third set, with a break at 2-all, and when Shnaider took a medical timeout for a left thigh problem after losing her serve, Marcinko walked all the way to the fence to retrieve Shnaider's towel for her.

Shnaider said it was more her nerves, rather than her legs that let her down.

"I was so nervous about being in the finals of the Orange Bowl, so that's why I could not show my best game," said the 17-year-old from Moscow, who now trains in Belarus. "Four tournaments in a row (two on the ITF Women's Circuit), it's impossible to feel your best in a final, but it wasn't that so much. It was my mentality."

Marcinko also felt she had the upper hand mentally.

"I was relaxed, I think that's why I won," said Marcinko, who is currently without a coach and traveling with her father. "I was cool in my head. I did a few mistakes out of nerves, but was good enough to win the match. I knew she was going to get nervous, going to get tight, fold a bit under pressure, but she was playing well, so it didn't affect her game that much."

Marcinko said she is eager to return home to Zagreb after three weeks in Mexico and the United States, with her mother's pancakes, a tradition when she wins a tournament, the prime focus of her celebration.

Marcinko can look forward to a second helping of pancakes after teaming with Shnaider for the doubles title, with the No. 2 seeds beating Linda and Brenda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic in the final for the second week in a row. Last week's Eddie Herr final went to 11-9 in the match tiebreaker; this week, in just their second tournament as a team, Marcinko and Shnaider hit their stride in an impressive second set, closing out the No. 1 seeds 7-6(5), 6-0.

"We were more motivated to show our opponents that the first time was not lucky, that we are better," said Shnaider, the 2021 Wimbledon girls doubles champion. 

"Second set was amazing," said Shnaider. "It was really good, played our best," Marcinko added. "The first set was a bit slow but we got it at the end, played the important points well."

Another motivation was to put a smile back on Shnaider's face after the disappointment of the singles final two hours earlier.

"We make her day better now," Marcinko said.

Marcinko's day could not have been any better, becoming the first girl to win both singles and doubles at the Orange Bowl since 1993, the first year doubles results are available. 

Marcinko is planning to play the junior slams next year, beginning with Australia next month. Shnaider is not vaccinated, so she will probably not be going, although she is on the entry list as of now.

In the boys doubles final, No. 7 seeds Edas Butvilas of Lithuania and Abedallah Shelbayh of Jordan defeated unseeded Nicholas Godsick and Ethan Quinn 6-2, 6-4 to earn the title.

Shelbayh and Butvilas were on opposite sides of the court in the final of the Wimbledon Junior Championships this year, with Butvilas coming out on top, but they had wanted to play together for some time.

"We tried a couple of times, but different tournaments and different schedules," said Shelbayh, a freshman at the University of Florida, who is closing out his junior career with an Orange Bowl title. "But when the chance came, we took advantage of it."

Last week's Eddie Herr was their first tournament as a team, but they perfected their partnership, dropping only one set all week.

"Today everything was going great," said the 17-year-old Butvilas. "We returned really well, served really well."

Shelbayh and Butvilas said Sunday's final was the first match that they both played well throughout.

"We had some matches where I was not there, but he really raised the level," said Shelbayh, who won the 16s Orange Bowl doubles title in 2019. "But today, as a team, it was the best match from start to finish. We had to stay on top of them, they're a very good team," Shelbayh said of the 2020 Orange Bowl 16s champions.

The USTA announced at the conclusion of the boys final that Director of Junior Competition Lew Brewer, the tournament director of the Orange Bowl, would be retiring as a full-time employee of the USTA at the end of this year.

In Brewer's honor, the USTA has established the Lew Brewer Award, to be given annually at the Orange Bowl to one American girl and one American boy "who have exhibited character, grit and mental toughness over the course of their Junior Tennis Career. They have committed to excellence in high-performance tennis competition and are striving to reach their full potential both on and off the court."

The first two recipients of the award are Liv Hovde and Bruno Kuzuhara.