Disappointing Fourth of July for US Girls, with only Hovde Advancing to Third Round; Qualifiers Take Out No. 4 and No. 6 Seeds in Girls Draw; Fritz and Anisimova Advance to Quarterfinals
©Colette Lewis 2022--
Wimbledon--
There were no Independence Day fireworks for two of the three American girls playing in the second round Monday at Wimbledon, with No. 8 seed Qavia Lopez withdrawing with an injury prior to the start of her match with Hayu Kinoshita of Japan and Alexis Blokhina losing the final five games in her 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 loss to No. 7 seed Luca Udvardy of Hungary. Top seed Liv Hovde will now shoulder the hopes for an American girls singles champion, as she defeated Anastasyia Lopata of Ukraine 6-1, 6-0 in 55 minutes.
Lopez had rolled her ankle just a few points from the completion of her 6-1, 7-5 first round win over Denislava Glushkova of Bulgaria on Sunday. She had hoped to be able to play singles today, but was advised against it after consulting medical professionals. Lopez and Hovde, the No. 2 seeds, are scheduled to play their first round doubles match on Tuesday and again Lopez will wait until the day of her match to decide whether to play.
Although Udvardy played well in the final set, particularly after Blokhina could not convert her two game points serving at 3-1, Blokhina was disappointed in her own mental state as the momentum shifted.
"I kept checking out in big moments and that's not usually what I do, and there were a couple of line calls that threw me off," said the 17-year-old from Plantation Florida.
In the first round of junior singles Saturday and Sunday the juniors had the same access to Hawkeye and its challenge system as the pros, but once the pro players were no longer were assigned to those courts, the cameras were turned off for the girls second round of singles today.
"Yesterday I could at least know mentally that I hit the ball out," said Blokhina. "In the third set, there were like two or three that I was really certain about and it would have made major changes, with 4-3 me or 4-3 down is a big difference, obviously. She played well, but I didn't play the way I needed to play, I didn't play the smartest tennis."
After winning the Easter Bowl in early April, Blokhina played two $25,000 USTA women's Pro Circuit tournaments in Florida, beating both Carol Zhao(Stanford) and Catherine Harrison(UCLA), both of whom just completed outstanding weeks on the pro tour. Zhao won the $100,000 tournament in Charleston last week and Harrison qualified for Wimbledon and made the second round.
Blokhina still has doubles here, partnering with Udvardy for the second straight week. Their first round match is on Tuesday, but before she sets her sights on the USTA Nationals 18s in San Diego, Blokhina will be competing in Israel next week at the Maccabiah Games.
"It's the Jewish Olympic Games," said Blokhina, who starts her college career at Stanford in September. "I'm going to Israel right after this."
Olivia Lincer would have been the fourth American girl in action today, but earlier this spring she switched from representing the United States to playing under the Polish flag.
"I grew up in Polish household with Polish traditions," said the 17-year-old, whose father Magic was born in Poland and now owns an academy in Connecticut. "I'm just really proud of my nationality, and even though I don't live there, I feel really close and connected to Poland. Most of my dad's family still lives there. So I think it was more just a personal decision."
Lincer doesn't have a formal relationship with the Polish federation as of yet, but she did catch the attention of former Wimbledon finalist Agnieszka Radwanska and her husband Dawid Celt, the coach of Poland's Billie Jean King Cup team, who were watching her beat No. 11 seed Johanne Svendsen of Denmark 7-6(0), 7-5.
Svendsen, who reached the Roehampton J1 final last week, served for the first set at 5-3, but her game began to crumble in tiebreaker, with Lincer able to just wait for errors. Lincer was up a break in the second set, failed to serve it out at 5-4, but able to break and hold for the win.
Lincer knew that Svendsen has difficulty staying positive when things don't go her way, but she didn't dwell on what was happening on her opponent's side of the net.
"I've seen her acting a little bit negative in past matches," said Lincer, who has a WTA ranking of 859. "It is an advantage, knowing that she's getting down on herself, but I try to just focus on myself during the match, not think about what's in my opponent's head, because that can get confusing."
Two qualifiers advanced to the third round,: Yu Yun Li of Taiwan defeated No. 6 seed Taylah Preston of Australia, the J1 Nottingham champion, 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 6-3, and Isabella Kruger of South Africa ousted No. 4 seed Nikola Daubnerova of Slovakia 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-2. The 17-year-old Kruger received her entry into qualifying based on her WTA ranking of 454, as she hasn't played a junior event since she was 14.
In Wednesday's third round, Lincer will face No. 5 seed Victoria Mboko of Canada, who defeated British wild card Ella McDonald 6-4, 3-6, 6-0 today. They played in the first round of the Grade 1 in College Park last August, with Mboko earning a 6-1, 7-5 win.
The first round of boys doubles saw only one seeded team eliminated, with No. 3 seeds Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez of Mexico and Nishesh Basavareddy losing to two-time junior slam doubles champion Coleman Wong of Hong Kong. Wong and his partner Michael Zheng defeated Pacheco Mendez and Basavareddy 6-3, 6-2.
The all-US teams advancing to Wednesday's second round are Aidan Kim and Cooper Williams, Learner Tien and Ozan Colak, and Roehampton champions Alex Michelsen and Sebastian Gorzny. Nicholas Godsick, playing with Switzerland's Mika Brunold, also advanced.
Tuesday's schedule features the second round of boys singles and the first round of girls doubles.
Monday's second round results of American juniors:Luca Udvardy[7](HUN) d. Alexis Blokhina 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
Liv Hovde[1] d. Anastasiya Lopata(UKR) 6-1, 6-0
Hayu Kinoshita(JPN) d. Qavia Lopez[8] walkover
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