Eddie Herr ITF Recap; Three US Girls Advance to Orange Bowl Semifinals; Williams Downs Kang to Reach Boys Final Four; Nguyen and Hill in Girls 16 Final; Forbes and Honda Face Off for Boys 16s Title

©Colette Lewis 2022--
Plantation FL--

Before I get to the first championships of the 2022 Orange Bowl, check out my Tennis Recruiting Network recap of the ITF J1 Eddie Herr last week at the IMG Academy in Bradenton Florida. Japan's Mayu Crossley, the girls champion, is still alive for the rare Eddie Herr/Orange Bowl double.

Friday was a busy day at the Veltri Tennis Center, with the ITF Grade A Orange Bowl singles quarterfinals, the semifinals in the 16s singles and 18s doubles and the final of the 16s doubles.

Fortunately, the week's exemplary weather continued and American juniors continued to shine in their home tournament, with three 16s finalists and four 18s semifinalists in singles as well as three 16s doubles champions.

Mayu Crossley of Japan, who trains at the Evert Academy in Boca Raton, is the only 18s semifinalist not from the United States. The unseeded 16-year-old ran her winning streak in the last two weeks to ten, with Rositsa Dencheva of Bulgaria vanquished for the second time in two weeks, this time by a score of 7-5, 6-2.

Crossley will face unseeded 16-year-old Anya Murthy, who beat fellow American Maya Joint 7-5, 1-6, 6-3. Crossley and Murthy will play for the first time Saturday.

So will Americans Iva Jovic and Clervie Ngounoue, but they have recently had a chance to get to know one another as teammates at the ITF Junior Billie Jean King Cup in Turkey early last month, with the United States capturing the title. Ngounoue, 16, played No. 1 singles for the team, with Jovic or Valerie Glozman at No. 2 singles.

"Up until BJK I had only heard of her, we hadn't had time to talk," said the fifth-seeded Ngounoue, who defeated 14-year-old left-hander Wakana Sonobe of Japan 6-2, 6-4 in the quarterfinals. "We trained together the week before the BJK, and so I've practiced with her at the USTA. She's a great player and I'm looking forward to it being a challenging match for both of us."

Ngounoue, who won her first Grade A title in Merida Mexico two weeks ago, said the 2022 Orange Bowl was always in her plans. 

"It was on the schedule the whole year because I'm still going to play juniors next year as well," said Ngounoue, who reached the 2019 16s Orange Bowl final as a 13-year-old. "This year the big thing for me was just getting healthy physically. I'm happy I seem to be on track again with my body, trying to take it tournament by tournament, try to push myself and see how far I get and how I progress over the next couple of years. I'm glad I'm stable now, you never know what happens, so hopefully we can start off 2023 great."

Jovic, who turned 15 this week, defeated unseeded Ela Milic of Slovenia 6-0, 6-2 in a match that was much more competitive than that score suggests.

"That's the longest 6-0, 6-2 match I've ever played," Jovic said of the one-hour and 33 minute contest. "We were fighting every game, I just won most of the important points. I had a good strategy, I was executing my shots, hitting my ground strokes well, but you never know with those kind of matches. It definitely could have gone in a different direction, but I'm happy that today it went my way."

Jovic said that Ngounoue served as the unofficial caption of the Junior Billie Jean King Cup team, with her greater international experience, but recognizes that she can't defer to Ngounoue's advantage there once they take the court in Saturday's semifinal.

"I look up to her as a person and a player, she's awesome, but  you know tomorrow we're opponents, so you don't look up to her, you try to win," said the Torrance California native, who won the Junior Orange Bowl 14s title last year. "I don't have anything to lose tomorrow, so I'm going to embrace that and try to roll with it."

In the boys semifinals, top seed Gerard Campana Lee of Korea was tested by No. 11 seed Hayden Jones of Australia before taking a 6-7(7), 6-1, 6-2 decision in just under three hours. He will face No. 6 seed Cooper Williams, who took out fellow 17-year-old American Kyle Kang 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, in a two-and-a-half- hour battle.

Kang was up 40-0 serving at 4-all, but Williams won five straight points, getting the break with a volley winner and continuing to apply pressure at the net when serving out the final game. After Kang sent a backhand wide to give Williams a match point at 40-30, Williams again finished with a volley winner.

"Earlier I ended up losing a lot of points when I played a little too passive," said the 17-year-old from Boca Raton Florida, who has committed to Harvard for 2023. "Especially when I got him on the run to his backhand, it felt right to come forward and knock off volleys, work on my game up there. Kyle's very, very good from the baseline, so I thought the more I can make him uncomfortable, the better for me."

Williams is now in his fourth straight week of junior competition, having reached the singles quarterfinals in the J1 in Guadalajara, the JA in Merida and losing in the third round of the J1 Eddie Herr to eventual champion Arthur Gea. He won the doubles titles in both Guadalajara and Bradenton, so he has played plenty of tennis every week.

"I'm pretty tired, but I've held up ok," said Williams. "I don't know, this was what, a three-hour match, but physically I'm doing ok, doing a great job recovering and it's just two more."

The other boys semifinal will feature No. 2 seed and Merida JA champion Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez of Mexico and No. 7 seed Ilyan Radulov of Bulgaria, neither of whom have lost a set in their first four victories. Pacheco Mendez defeated No. 8 seed Rei Sakamoto of Japan 6-3, 7-6(6) and Radulov beat unseeded Jan Hrazdil of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-4.

Three of the 18s singles semifinalists will also compete in the doubles finals Saturday. Campana Lee and his partner Paul Inchauspe of France, the top seeds, defeated unseeded Charlie Camus of Australia and Ilyas Fahim of Morocco 5-7, 6-2, 10-1 and will face No. 4 seed Radulov and his partner Adriano Dzhenev for the title. The Bulgarians defeated unseeded Americans Alexander Frusina and Marko Mesarovic 6-2, 7-5.

Jovic and her partner Tyra Grant defeated fellow unseeded Americans Sage Loudon and Katie Rolls 6-4, 7-6(1) to advance to the final against No. 3 seeds Ranah Stoiber and Mingge Xu of Great Britain. Stoiber and Xu defeated Murthy and Poland's Malwina Rowinska 6-1, 6-1 in the other semifinal.

The United States will have its fifth consecutive girls 16s champion Saturday, when No. 13 seed Alexis Nguyen takes on unseeded Claire Hill for the title, after both came through tough three-set victories over fellow Americans.

Hill defeated unseeded wild card Monika Ekstrand 0-6, 6-3, 7-6(6) battling through after a difficult start.

"In the first set she was being really aggressive and hitting a lot of winners on me," said Hill, who is from Cary NC. "I just felt I had to stay in it, because there was no way she could keep up that level the entire time. I just needed to stay in the points as long as possible and break her down, and that's what I did in the second set."

When it came to the third set tiebreaker, Hill, who said she was "so nervous," put her jitters aside to take 6-4 lead.

"When I was up 6-4, I was like I need to go for my serve," said Hill, who trains with Brian DeVilliers at the Van Der Meer Academy in South Carolina and Calin Mateas in Durham North Carolina. "I came in, hit a backhand swinging volley and she got to it. I was thinking in my head, I should have gone for a lot more there."

Serving at 5-6, Ekstrand stayed alive again when her shot hit the netcord and dropped for a winner.

"I was so frustrated, I said I just need to come back and win the next two points," Hill said, who did just that. Scrambling on defense throughout on the 6-all point, Hill earned her third match point with an improbable defensive lob that landed on the baseline for a winner, and she won a more conventional point with a backhand pass to end it.

Hill, who turns 16 next month, said she did not anticipate having so much success this week, but did return with good memories from her run to the 14s USTA Clay Courts final at the Veltri Tennis Center last July.

"I got to the finals the other time I played here, and it was also unexpected," Hill said. "These are my lucky courts. And I'm super excited to be in the finals."

Hill will face No. 13 seed Alexis Nguyen, who defeated No. 10 seed Tianmei Wang 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Nguyen had lost to Wang twice this year, so she knew what to expect and what to change when she fell behind again.

"I was kind of tight going in, but I think I was able to move her more," said the 15-year-old, who trains at the JMG Academy in Sacramento. "I noticed when I wasn't being physical; the games I lost I was just going through the motions, so I was trying to be more physical. She won't really go away during the whole match, so I had to keep on her the whole time."

Hill and Nguyen have never played although Hill said she had played Nguyen's twin sister Avery.

"We are at the same Academy, with the same coaches, so our games are pretty similar," Alexis said.

The boys semifinal that ended with unseeded wild card Matthew Forbes defeating No. 7 seed Miguel Tobon of Colombia 7-5, 6-0 provided most of the day's drama, with Forbes saving three set points when Tobon served for the first set at 5-3. Tobon looked nervous on two netted forehands, although Forbes forced the second and then hit another forehand wide at 40-30. Forbes came up with a brilliant lob winner to earn a break point and converted it when Tobon netted a backhand pass.

Both players had vocal supporters, and Tobon expressed his irritation with Forbes' group on several occasions. When Forbes held, then broke to take a 6-5 lead, a field umpire came out, and as the players sat down on their changeover, he politely reminded them of the etiquette expected of spectators. Serving for the set, Forbes needed three set points, but eventually hit a 2nd serve on the line to take the set.

Forbes, a 16-year-old from Raleigh North Carolina, then broke in the first game of the second set, and Tobon appeared to disengage. His unforced errors began to pile up, and after a competitive and well-played first set, the second was a letdown.

"He played well, but on the bigger points I just played better," said Forbes, who recently committed to North Carolina for 2024. "He just got too distracted with everything and from there on out, he just broke down. He was focused off the court, and I wasn't."

Forbes admitted that it took some effort to keep his mind on the tennis. 

"It's one of the weirder matches I've played, to be honest," said Forbes, who is emotionally demonstrative on court. "I was saying c'mon off double faults, which was disrespectful. I apologized and told him I wouldn't do it again. He had a pretty big fan crowd, but I guess he didn't like it when my fan crowd cheered."

Forbes decided to play the 16s, after playing 18s qualifying at the Eddie Herr ITF, primarily on the advice his coach Calin Mateas.

"I'm in the finals of something big for once," Forbes said. "I was originally wanting to play 18s, but my coach wanted me to show that I could win something, get my confidence up, so I can go into tournaments knowing I can win."

Forbes will play No. 5 seed Naoya Honda of Japan, who defeated No. 13 seed Prathinav Chunduru of the United States 6-0, 6-1 in 55 minutes.

"I've heard he's really solid, but I've never seen him play," Forbes said. "I mean I've seen a few points from his match yesterday. He's just going to grind, so it should be a good one."

Honda already has claimed one Orange Bowl title, earning a winner's bowl of oranges with partner Jacob Olar of the United States. The No. 2 seeds defeated unseeded Dylan Long and Nicholas Patrick of the United States 6-3, 2-6, 11-9.

Olar and Honda had never played together before, and didn't know each other before teaming up this week.

"I just messaged him on Instagram and he said he'd like to play," said Olar, who is from Lakewood Ranch Florida. "We never knew each other. The first match was tough, we had our conflicts, but managed to get through that match and just took off from there, playing confident strong doubles."

A match ending 11-9 in a tiebreaker is obviously decided by very small margins.

"I think the difference was we returned pretty big in some moments and served amazing when it really mattered," Olar said. "Obviously they were an amazing team, they made us fight for every single point, so I just think it was the matter of who hit the better shot at the right moment."

Honda said that Olar was a perfect partner for him.

"He has a good serve, his forehand is also good. We are a good team."

Girls 16s doubles champions Kenzie Nguyen and Claire Zhang were much more familiar with each other and enjoyed previous success to boost their confidence, having reached the 12s doubles final at the 2020 USTA Winter Nationals. 

Today, the unseeded 15-year-old Southern Californians defeated No. 7 seeds Georgia Cranford and Germany's Amelie Hejtmanek 7-5, 6-4 in the final, picking up their most significant victory as a team.

"We understand that we're going to make mistakes, and we're very supportive," Zhang said. "We're super kind to each other throughout the match and I think it allows us to play without a lot of stress."

Nguyen said their positive mindset was the key to the title.

"They were both very good players, they seemed very experienced, both very aggressive," Nguyen said. "It was a really tough match. Me and Claire, we were trying to stay positive, playing good tennis, be aggressive at the net, stay consistent at the baseline. I think our chemistry and our good attitude with each other really pulled us up in the match. This is so incredible, I never would have thought I would be a champion of Orange Bowl for doubles. I couldn't have chosen a better doubles partner."

"I think without her, it would have been a lot less fun," Zhang said. "And that's the most important thing, that you're enjoying yourself when you're playing tennis."

Championship Saturday for the 16s, begins with the boys final at 10:00 a.m., followed by the girls. Live streaming of all four courts can be found here. Live scoring is here.  

The order of play, including the 18s schedule, is here.