Wimbledon Girls Top Seed Hovde Survives Thanks to Hawkeye; Tien and Zheng Reach Boys Quarterfinals; Wimbledon's Inaugural 14U Tournament Begins Thursday; Fritz, Anisimova Fall in Quarterfinals

©Colette Lewis 2022--
Wimbledon--

Without the Hawkeye challenge system, Wimbledon girls top seed Liv Hovde would be heading back to Texas after a third round loss to No. 13 seed Kayla Cross of Canada.

Serving at 6-4, 5-4 40-30, Cross heard the baseline judge call out on Hovde's forehand, and began celebrating her victory. But Hovde had access to the Hawkeye Challenge system on court 8, and asked that her shot be reviewed. The animation showed the ball on the line, Hovde was awarded the point, and after a drop shot winner and a double fault from Cross, the score was 5-all.

"I was hoping I had another challenge and I did," said the 16-year-old from Texas, who went on to claim a 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 victory. "It was crazy that the ball ended up being in after it was called out, so it was very fortunate. It's crazy to think about if I was on a court without [Hawkeye]."

Cross did manage to win the first two points on Hovde's next service game, but a rejuvenated Hovde took the next four points. Cross gave herself a chance to reach a tiebreaker serving at 5-6 40-15, but again Hovde reeled off four straight points and the match was even.

Cross, a 17-year-old left-hander, came to court with her right thigh wrapped, and while Hovde was on a bathroom break after taking the second set, Cross had her left thigh wrapped in similar fashion.

In the third set, Hovde dramatically improved her serving, losing only one point on serve while building a 5-1 lead. But Cross managed to get both breaks back, only to be broken at love serving at 4-5.

"Those things just happen," said Hovde, who is coached by former Australian Open men's finalist Phil Dent. "You have to be mentally strong and just push through. I have to be confident in everything, so I just focused on every point."

Dent doesn't travel with Hovde, but she speaks with him regularly, and had already heard from him after her improbable victory today. 

"He was just super proud of how I came back and just fought," Hovde said. "He said it was just great to see."

Hovde will face unseeded Ella Seidel of Germany in Thursday's quarterfinals.

While top seed Hovde survived, No. 2 seed Celine Naef of Switzerland did not, losing to No. 16 seed Linda Klimovicova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 1-6, 6-3.  Klimovicova will take on British wild card Jasmine Conway next. 

The only girls quarterfinal between seeds will feature No. 7 seed Luca Udvardy of Hungary and No. 3 seed Nikola Bartunkova of the Czech Republic, who reached the Roland Garros semifinals. Qualifier Isabella Kruger of South Africa will face No. 5 seed Victoria Mboko of Canada in the other quarterfinal in the top half.

None of the quarterfinalists have previously played their opponent in ITF junior competition. 

Two US boys advanced to the quarterfinals, with Learner Tien, playing in his first junior slam, defeating No. 15 seed Martyn Pawelski of Poland 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-2, and Michael Zheng, playing in his third junior slam, winning the all-US battle with qualifier Aidan Kim 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

Tien didn't face a break point throughout the match, and although his conversation rate on break points wasn't good, he played a much cleaner game overall, with more winners than unforced errors. Pawelski also began to get discouraged after failing two convert his three game points serving at 1-2, and once Tien went up 3-1, Pawelski received a warning for ball abuse after launching a ball out of the court. After that, he appeared to doubt his ability to come back against the much less volatile Tien.

Tien will face fellow 16-year-old Martin Landaluce of Spain, who won his 14th consecutive match on grass today. The No. 10 seed defeated No. 7 seed Gilles Bailly of Belgium 7-6(7), 6-4.

Zheng wasn't sure he was going to like grass, but after reaching the third round at Roehampton, he is beginning to take to the surface.

"I think I'm starting to get more comfortable with every match and practice that goes by," said the 18-year-old from New Jersey. "When I first started on it in Roehampton it was tough, the footing was tough, how the balls were bouncing. But the Wimbledon grass is a little better, the bounces are more consistent and I'm just starting to get more comfortable."

Zheng points to his game style and serve as major factors in his success the past two weeks.

"My ball is a little bit flatter, so on the grass I think it helps," said Zheng, who will start at Columbia this fall. "I wouldn't say I like to come in, but I can come in, I think have good hands, and when opportunity comes I can put it away. And I'm serving very well this tournament, so it's been good."

Zheng said that Kim raised his level in the second set, and it wasn't until he picked up the only break of serve, at 3-3 in the third, that he could envision a victory.

"At 2-all my energy started getting better and once I got the break in the third, my serve started coming in, and I thought I had it from there."

Zheng will play doubles partner Coleman Wong of Hong Kong, who defeated Peter Privara of Slovakia 7-5, 7-5.  Landaluce is the only seed remaining in the top half.

The other two seeds left in the boys quarterfinals will face off Thursday: No. 6 Kilian Feldbausch of Switzerland and No. 3 Mili Poljicak of Croatia. Feldbausch defeated Alexander Blockx of Belgium 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-0 and Poljicak avenged his Roehampton loss to Sebastian Gorzny 6-2, 7-5.

Kalin Ivanovski became the first player from Macedonia to reach a junior slam quarterfinal after he defeated No. 9 seed Edas Butvilas of Lithuania 6-4, 5-7, 6-0. He will face Duke incoming freshman Pedro Rodenas of Spain, who beat No. 14 seed Bor Artnak of Slovenia 6-1, 6-2.

The doubles quarterfinals are also set, with three Americans remaining after Wednesday's second round action. Roehampton champions Alex Michelsen and Gorzny defeated No. 8 seeds Artnak and Hynek Barton of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-6(3) to reach the quarterfinals, where they will play Jack Loutit of New Zealand and Edward Winter of Australia.

Zheng and Wong needed nine match points, but they eventually advanced over the British wild card team of Henry Searle and Luca Pow 6-3, 6-7(11), 12-10.

Both US girls in the second round of doubles lost. Sonya Macavei and her partner Julie Struplova of the Czech Republic were beaten by the British wild card team of Hannah Klugman and Hephzibah Oluwadare 6-4, 6-3.  Mia Slama and her partner Lucia Peyre of Argentina had two match points in the match tiebreaker, but fell to Klimovicova and Dominika Salkova of the Czech Republic 3-6, 7-5, 15-13.

The first 14-and-under tournament at Wimbledon debuts on Thursday, with round robin play for the 16 boys and 16 girls in the draws, including three Americans. The girls play two rounds Thursday and the boys play one round; on Friday that switches to two rounds for boys and one for girls. The round robin group winners move on to play in the semifinals, scheduled for Saturday. 

Carel Ngounoue is the No. 3 seed in the boys draw, with Keaton Hance the No. 7 seed. Nicole Okhtenberg is the No. 4 seed in the girls draw.

The schedule for the matches, on courts 4,5,6 and 8, is available on Thursday's order of play.

The last two Americans in men's and women's singles lost in today's quarterfinals, with No. 11 seed Taylor Fritz falling to No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(4) in four hours and 21 minutes, and No. 20 seed Amanda Anisimova losing to No. 16 seed Simona Halep of Romania 6-2, 6-4.

In women's doubles, unseeded Danielle Collins(Virginia) and Desirae Krawczyk(Arizona State) are through to Friday's semifinals, where they will play top seeds Elise Mertens of Belgium and Shuai Zhang of China.

Defending mixed doubles champions and No. 2 seeds Krawczyk and Neal Skupski(LSU) are through to Thursday's mixed doubles final, where they will play unseeded Samantha Stosur and Matt Ebden of Australia. Stosur and Ebden defeated Coco Gauff and Jack Sock 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 in today's semifinals. 

Top seeds Rajeev Ram(Illinois) and Joe Salisbury(Memphis) of Great Britain advanced to the men's doubles semifinals and will play No. 14 seeds Ebden and Max Purcell of Australia Thursday.