Krug Ousts Top Seed McDonald, Only Four Girls Seeds Remain After Orange Bowl First Round; No. 2 Seeds Upset in 16s Division; Live Streaming on Four Courts Begins Wednesday

©Colette Lewis 2022--
Plantation FL--

Seeds in the girls division have been falling like coconuts at the Veltri Tennis Center with 12 of the 16 seeds eliminated in the first round at the ITF JA Orange Bowl Championships.

With the palm trees around courts 1 and 2 dropping their fruit regularly before some preventative maintenance took place today, the girls draw lost its No. 1 and No. 4 seeds Tuesday, with two seeds now remaining in each half.

Ava Krug pulled off the biggest upset, with the 17-year-old from Florida defeating top seed Ella McDonald 6-2, 1-6, 6-1 this afternoon on Court No. 1.  

Krug came out blasting her groundstrokes and made very few errors, overpowering the 17-year-old left-hander. But as impressive as Krug was in the first set, she lost her edge in the second, with McDonald taking advantage of Krug's errors. Neither played well at the same time in the match, with Krug again reversing form to take a 3-0, two-break lead in the final set. But she opened the door for McDonald in the fourth game, dropping her serve, a gift McDonald did not accept, double faulting three times in her next service game, and it was clear sailing for Krug from then on.

Krug had lost to McDonald 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the J1 in Guadalajara three weeks ago, so she took those lessons to the court in today's rematch.

"We kind of knew how each other played, and the one thing I learned was that she plays the big points really well," said Krug, who has committed to Duke for the fall of 2023. "I just feel like today, knowing that, I just tried not to give away any points. After winning the first and losing the second, I was getting a little annoyed there, but I was determined to change the outcome this time. I was happy with the way I fought, because there were a lot of ups and downs in the match, but I tried to stay calm and I think that steady mindset was what made me come out on top today."

Krug is the granddaughter of Dick Vitale, a beloved ESPN color commentator for college basketball, who returned to announcing after missing most of last season due to cancer.

"He's back doing games, he's cancer-free," Krug said, who received a call from the 83-year-old legend less than two minutes after her win over McDonald. "Something happened with his voice and that's all fixed, so right now everything's perfect. So far, right now he's doing great, so hopefully it stays that way."

Krug will play Rositsa Dencheva of Bulgaria in the second round Wednesday. 

With Hephzibah Oluwadare of Great Britain defeating No. 4 seed Sayaka Ishii of Japan 6-3, 7-5 and Eddie Herr ITF J1 champion Mayu Crossley beating No. 11 seed Tatum Evans 6-3, 6-2, the only seeds remaining in the top half are No. 15 Madeleine Jessup of Taiwan and No. 8 Kaitlin Quevedo.

No. 6 seed Ena Koike of Japan, who retired from her semifinal match at last week's Eddie Herr, withdrew today, and No. 12 seed Sonja Zhiyenbayeva of Germany lost to Rebecca Munk Mortensen of Denmark, leaving just No. 5 Clervie Ngounoue and No. 2  Tereza Valentova of the Czech Republic as seeds in the bottom half.

The boys draw has had none of the upsets that have been so common in the girls draw, with all seeded players in action today advancing. Eddie Herr ITF J1 champion Arthur Gea of France, the No. 10 seed, continued his winning form, beating Keegan Rice of Canada 6-1, 6-2. Gea's opponent in Wednesday's second round is wild card Andrew Delgado. Two other American wild cards have advanced to the second round: Lucas Brown, who defeated qualifier Thanaphat Boosarawongse of Thailand 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 and Kyle Kang, who beat qualifier Thomas Faurel of France 7-6(1), 6-2.

The 16s are a round ahead of the 18s, with all second round matches completed today. Top seed Stiles Brockett defeated Asror Ismoilov of Uzbekistan 6-2, 6-4, but Eddie Herr 16s champion and No. 2 seed Max Exsted lost to qualifier Enzo Kohlmann de Freitas of Brazil 6-4, 2-6, 6-4. The girls 16s Eddie Herr champion, No. 1 seed Hyunyee Lee of Korea, advanced to the third round with a 6-0, 7-5 win over Rachael Smith.

Live scoring for all Orange Bowl courts can be found here. Live streaming, provided by Tennis Analytics, is scheduled to be available on courts 1, 2, 3 and 4 beginning Wednesday here. The order of play for Wednesday is here.