Qualifier Kim Shocks Roland Garros Champion to Reach Junior Wimbledon Third Round; Tien, Zheng and Gorzny Also Advance; Norrie Moves into Men's Semifinals

©Colette Lewis 2022--
Wimbledon--

Last Friday, Aidan Kim was in at 9-all in a match tiebreaker that would determine whether he would qualify for the main draw at the Wimbledon Junior Championships. He won the next two points from South Africa's Devin Badenhorst to earn his place in the main draw, and in Tuesday's second round defeated top seed and Roland Garros champion Gabriel Debru of France 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in front of a large crowd on Show Court 12.

"Every point in that tiebreak I'm still remembering in my head," said Kim, who turns 18 in November, so will not be able to compete in the ITF junior events next year. "It was very intense. But I really feel like anyone in the top 100 is neck and neck, especially on grass courts. Anyone can win on grass; I feel as juniors, we're not as used to playing on grass as much as some pros who have been playing for years."

Although Kim liked his chances against Debru, he acknowledged the boost he got from the fans, many of whom were waiting to take their seats for the quarterfinal matches on Court One and Centre Court.

"The crowd was definitely a factor in helping me today," said Kim, who is from Milford Michigan. "It's by far the most fans that have ever watched me play. It was a great feeling and a great atmosphere. In these past few tournaments I've been considered the underdog and it's nice to have fans supporting."

Kim said he needed to work through his nerves in the first set, but he began to find his form in the second, breaking Debru at 3-4 and holding to even the match. Kim went up an early break in the third, was immediately broken for 2-2, and then got several gifts from Debru serving at 2-3, with three double faults significantly damaging his confidence in that shot. Kim held easily for 4-2 and 5-3 leads, then broke for a third time in the set, with the match ending on Debru's ninth double fault.

Kim will play Michael Zheng Wednesday in the third round, in the only round of 16 singles match between players from the same country.

The 18-year-old New Jersey resident defeated Martin Vergara Del Puerto of Paraguay 7-5, 6-0, looking exceptionally confident in the second set and unfazed by Vergara Del Puerto's lengthy medical timeout before he served to stay in the match at 0-5.

Zheng and Kim played in the first round of qualifying at the $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Orange Park Florida back in April, with Zheng winning 6-7(5), 6-4, 10-8 and going on to reach the final.

Debru was hardly the only seed to exit in the second round, with four of the top five seeds eliminated Tuesday.

No. 2 seed Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic was beaten by Duke rising freshman Pedro Rodenas of Spain, No. 5 seed Nishesh Basavareddy lost to Peter Privara of Slovakia 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 and No. 4 seed Gonzalo Bueno of Peru was ousted by Learner Tien.

Tien, a resident of Irvine California, had no experience on grass before playing the Roehampton J1, and had no practice there prior to his first match due to what he termed "luggage issues."

"I actually wasn't able to hit on the grass at all until the warmup before my first match, so that was my first time playing on grass," said the 16-year-old left-hander, who went on to win that match and reach the third round. 

Tien had been told that his game should work well on the surface, but he wasn't convinced.

"I heard that a lot from various people, telling me my game would suit it pretty well," Tien said. "But I really didn't have any expectations coming in, despite what I had heard. I was a bit skeptical on how it would go because I had no experience playing on it. But it turned out ok once I started getting used to it."

Against Bueno, who has had his best results on clay, Tien struggled to close out his service games in the first set, but as the points got longer in the second and third sets, he began to take control.

"I was making early mistakes, not really overplaying, but making loose errors and giving him free points, without him having to do much," Tien said. "So I just tried making him play more, not giving him as many errors or free points and making him earn as many points as I could."

Tien broke Bueno to go up 5-2 in the third, but wasn't able to serve it out. Having already broken Bueno three times in four service games, Tien didn't doubt he could do it again in the final game.

"I played that return game with not too much pressure on me, because I knew I was still going to serve for it at 5-4," said Tien, who was unable to play the Roland Garros junior qualifying when he came down with Covid after playing the Grade A in Milan. "I had a pretty good mindset in that game and I was confident in my ability to break him there."

Tien will face the big serving No. 15 seed Martyn Pawelski of Poland Wednesday's third round.

The fourth American boy in the round of 16 is Sebastian Gorzny, who came back to defeat 15-year-old Joao Fonseca of Brazil 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Gorzny was aware of the talk around Fonseca, who has improved his ITF junior ranking from 327 in January to 55 now. 

"I know he's 15 and he's playing great, is one of the youngest people in the tournament," said the 18-year-old Gorzny, who grew up in Southern California, but trains now in Florida. "He had a great couple of results at the French Open, so I knew he was playing well. He has a big serve, a big forehand, so he was dictating all the points, but I managed to pull through."

Gorzny found a way to avoid Fonseca's forehand and used his skills around the net to keep Fonseca off balance. 

At 4-4 in the third, Fonseca made an unforced error on his forehand at 30-40 to give Gorzny the only break of the set, and he served it out, with a significant assist from the Hawkeye Challenge system, which was available for juniors on Court 15 today.

At 30-15, Gorzny's serve was called out, but he challenged it and Hawkeye showed it had caught the line, giving him two match points. Fonseca's backhand forced an error from Gorzny on the first but the Brazilian's forehand found the net on the second.

Gorzny, as with nearly all the American juniors here, had little experience on grass courts.

"I was very nervous going into Roehampton, but grass is a lot of fun and I wanted to play," said Gorzny, who defeated three seeds before losing to eventual champion Martin Landaluce of Spain in the singles semifinals and winning the doubles title there.

Gorzny thought his serve and willingness to move forward could be an asset.

"I knew it would be tough to break me, and I like coming into the net, like volleying, so I thought those two parts would help me out," Gorzny said. "Everything else is still a work in progress, but I'm going to keep trying to be aggressive and it helps."

Gorzny's opponent Wednesday is the only top 5 seed remaining, No. 3 seed Milli Poljicak of Croatia, one of the seeds Gorzny knocked off in Roehampton.

"I played pretty well," Gorzny said. "He's one of the top guys in the tournament so it's going to be a challenge, but I'm looking forward it."

Ozan Colak lost to No. 8 seed Edas Butvilas of Lithuania 6-3, 6-3, and Alex Frusina saw his comeback fall just short against No. 14 seed Bor Artnak of Slovenia. Trailing 5-1, with Artnak serving, Frusina won four straight games before Artnak stopped his run by holding from 15-30 down to go up 6-5 and breaking Frusina on the fourth match point in the final game for a 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 victory.

Kim, Zheng, Tien and Gorzny, along with girls top seed Liv Hovde, play Wednesday, with all but Hovde playing in the second round of doubles after singles.

Hovde's partner Qavia Lopez was unable to play singles Monday after injuring her ankle late in her first round win Sunday, and couldn't play the first round of doubles today.

American girls who advanced to Wednesday's second round of doubles are Mia Slama and her partner Lucia Peyre of Argentina and Sonya Macavei and her partner Julie Struplova of the Czech Republic.

Slama and Peyre defeated the British wild card team of Given Roach and Millie Skelton 6-4, 7-6(6) and Macavei and Struplova beat No. 5 seeds Alexis Blokhina and Luca Udvardy  5-7, 6-3, 10-2.

Former TCU star Cameron Norrie has reached the semifinals of his home slam after coming from two sets to one down to beat David Goffin of Belgium 3-6, 7-5, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5. Norrie is just the fourth British man in the Open Era to reach the Wimbledon semifinals (Roger Taylor, Tim Henman, Andy Murray) and is the third former collegian in a slam semifinal this century (John Isner, Kevin Anderson). For more on Norrie's win, see this article from the Wimbledon website.

Norrie will face top seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia, who came back to beat No. 10 seed Jannik Sinner of Italy 5-7, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.

Taylor Fritz[11] plays Rafael Nadal[2] of Spain in Wednesday's men's quarterfinals, with Cristian Garin of Chile and Nick Kyrgios of Australia in the other men's quarterfinal.

Amanda Anisimova[20] faces Simona Halep[16] of Romania in one of the two women's quarterfinals, with Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan[17] and Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia in the other women's quarterfinal.