Bulgaria's Ivanov and Latvia's Lachinova Make History with Junior Orange Bowl 14s Titles; Lyutova's Comeback Delivers Girls 12s Championship After Runner-up Finish in 2021
©Colette Lewis 2022--
Coral Gables FL--
It's been a history-making December for the Orange Bowl Championships in South Florida, with five of the eight singles titles going to countries that had not previously claimed one.
Two of those first-time champions were crowned today in the Junior Orange Bowl 14s divisions, with Ivan Ivanov of Bulgaria defeating American Jack Kennedy 6-2, 6-3 and Adelina Lachinova of Latvia beating top seed Hannah Klugman of Great Britain 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 on Court 1 of the Kerdyk Biltmore Tennis Center.
Lachinova, the No. 4 seed, got off to a fast start, with Klugman, unable to find the court with her shots, having the nerves snowball, resulting in a code violation for an audible obscenity an overrule on a line call. Meanwhile, Lachinova was her usual steady self, lots of first serves, a few winners, great defense and no unforced errors.
Klugman dug in during the second set, raised her level went up 4-2, only to be broken right back. At 4-4, Klugman again lost her serve, but Lachinova played a rare poor service game, going down 0-40 as she was serving for the match. At 5-all Klugman saved two break points and held in the three-deuce game, and again when up 0-40, with Lachinova giving her another easy break to even the match.
Lachinova took advantage of the 10-minute break between sets to talk with her coach, the ITF Grand Slam Development team's Petra Russegger, and they decided a change in strategy was appropriate heading into the third set.
"We know that Hannah is a very great player and that she is hitting really hard, so that was the goal, to mix up the pace," Russegger said of their initial strategy coming into the match, and what was necessary after failing to serve out the championship. "We had to calm down. We sat together and I had the opportunity to coach her. We changed a little bit the tactics, and it worked out."
Lachinova began targeting Klugman's backhand more, and stepped up her own pace, taking more aggressive swings at the ball.
At 3-all in the third set, Klugman was broken, and Lachinova held to go up 5-3. Klugman, serving to stay in the match, had two game points to put the pressure back on Lachinova, but a drop shot in the net and a backhand unforced error negated them, and forehand unforced error gave Lachinova a match point. When Klugman's short forehand putaway found the net, Lachinova collapsed on the court, and she let out a scream in celebration.
"I knew what she was going to come out with, but I just didn't play the right way," said Klugman, a 13-year-old from Great Britain. "I wasn't prepared to stay in the rallies enough. When I got my head around that, staying in it, because obviously she gets a lot back. Don't overplay. And I think I overplayed in the first set and at the end as well."
Lachinova had lost to Klugman 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 this summer at the ITF 14U World Tennis team championships in Prague, so she knew what to expect, but cited the difference in the surface as the reason for the reversal, with hard court tennis much more to her liking.
As for being the first player from Latvia to win the title, Lachinova said she was very proud of herself for that accomplishment, the biggest of the 12 titles she captured in 2022.
"I'm very happy I won this tournament, Orange Bowl," said Lachinova, whose parents immigrated to Latvia from Russia before she was born. "One hundred twenty-eight girls here and I'm best. I cannot believe that I won."
Lachinova plans to return home to Riga for Christmas, and begin building her ITF ranking with Junior Circuit tournaments with J60s and J100s after winning three J5s(called J30s in 2023) this fall.
Klugman is also moving up, with her sights on the Orange Bowl in Plantation next year.
"This is my last under 14 tournament," Klugman said. "I'm happy with it. It's obviously not the outcome I wanted, but it's still a positive."
The Grand Slam Development Fund team claimed its second title of the tournament Tuesday afternoon, with Ivanov also a member of the traveling group of young players supported by the ITF.
Like Lachinova, No. 3 seed Ivanov got off to a great start against No. 6 seed Kennedy, who had come into the final without dropping a set, or playing an opponent higher than a No. 17 seed.
The confident Ivanov, who had dropped only one game in his semifinal win over No. 7 seed Kuan-Shou Chen of Taiwan, used his world-class forehand to put Kennedy on the defensive. Unable to construct points with the proficiency he had shown in his previous matches, Kennedy was reduced to defending, and his cause wasn't helped by nervous errors.
"I was missing a little bit, and it had to do with the nerves early on," said Kennedy, a 14-year-old from New York. "He was definitely a little faster than I expected, and that definitely caught me off guard."
Down 4-0 in the second set, Kennedy fought back, breaking Ivanov and then holding in a ten-minute game to make it 4-2. But in spite of his improved play and a willingness to change tactics, Kennedy was unable to counter Ivanov's first strike tennis.
"I knew he was a good player, but I was really shocked at how he came out guns blazing in the first," Kennedy said. "All in all, he just played really well. That was how the match went, first and second set."
Ivanov agreed that he brought some of his best tennis to the final.
"Jack is a really good player, but attacking is my style," said the 14-year-old from Varna. "I tried to make my best movement, to be faster, to be stronger and I think I did it."
Ivanov downplayed the significance of the historic title, the first for a boy from Bulgaria, with former ATP No. 3 Grigor Dimitrov the only other boy from that country to make a Junior Orange Bowl final.
"Of course I'm proud, but it's nothing, it's under 14s," Ivanov said. "So, we continue."
Ivanov gets his lofty ambitions from his tennis heroes: Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who founded an academy where he now trains.
"I live there now full time," said Ivanov, who had previously made regular training visits to the academy in Manacor, but did not live there until August. "I really enjoy it, and I feel that I improve," said Ivanov, who hopes this title will get him a photo or a chance to hit with the all-time leader in men's slam singles titles.
Ivanov, who saved what he estimated to be five match points in his 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(13) quarterfinal victory over Jack Secord of the United States, wasn't dwelling on how dramatically his fate could have changed had he lost that contest.
"As I said before, it was not my best day, but I still fight and we go to this win," Ivanov said.
Ivanov is heading back to Bulgaria for Christmas before returning to the Academy, and is looking to improve his ITF junior ranking, currently in the 700s, when he returns to competition in 2023.
"And then the Futures, and after a few years, ATP," Ivanov said.
Kennedy is taking some time off for the holidays and will return to competition at the J60s in Costa Rica in January.
When she was down 4-1 in the final set of the Girls 12s final to No. 2 seed and Eddie Herr champion Yeri Hong of Korea, top seed Christina Lyutova did not let herself consider losing. The 12-year-old Russian immigrant, who has trained in Redmond Washington for the past two years, had suffered a 6-3, 6-1 loss last year in the girls 12s final to Lia Belibova of Moldova, vowing to come back to claim the title this year.
With an assist from Hong, who made a raft of unforced errors late in the match, Lyutova went on to win the last five games and the title that had eluded her in 2021.
"I always try to think how win, not think that I lose," said Lyutova, who has a green card and is eager to represent the United States. "I think on the pressure moments, I focused more. When she started to miss, I felt ok, I can do it, just push it forward."
Hong had the support of the Korean team, which included boys 12s champion Dongjae Kim, but it wasn't enough as Lyutova, saved two break points serving at 1-4, came from 0-30 down at 3-4 and got the break she needed via her steady play and Hong's errors at 4-all.
"I saw that my team was a little bit nervous," Lyutova said of her coaches from Gorin Academy and her family members when she fell behind 1-4 in the third. "But they still supported me, and I was not nervous."
With five breaks in the third set alone, there was no expectation that Lyutova would get an easy hold for the championship, but that's what she did, going up 40-0, and winning on her first match point after three backhands produced another error from Hong.
Lyutova will head to Orlando this week, to spend the holidays there before playing the 16s division at the USTA Winter Nationals, which begin on December 28th.
The third place and consolation matches were also played Tuesday in all three divisions.
Yui Komada, the No. 4 seed from Japan, defeated Haniya Minhas, the No. 3 seed from Pakistan, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 for third place in the Girls 12s.
Fifth place in the girls 12s went to Anastasiia Nikolaieva of Ukraine, a No. 9 seed, who defeated Ye Seo Park of Korea, a No. 17 seed, 6-1, 6-1.
No. 3 seed Emerson Jones of Australia took third place in the Girls 14s, defeating No. 2 seed Yihan Qu of China 6-4, 6-2.
Ksenia Efremova of Russia, the No. 6 seed, won the G14s consolation title, defeating Maria Aytoyan of the United States 6-2, 6-0.
Liam Alvarez of the United States won the B14s consolation title, beating Yannick Theodor Alexandrescou of Romania 7-5, 7-6(2) in a battle of No. 9 seeds.
Kuan-Shoul Chen of Taiwan, seeded No. 7, took third place in the B14s, getting a walkover from Weiyi Kong of China, a No. 17 seed.
Full draws can be found here.
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