Ray Reverses Eddie Herr Result to Defeat No. 3 Seed on Day One of Orange Bowl; US Team Wins Another Master'U Title in France; Legendary Coach Nick Bollettieri Dies at 91

©Colette Lewis 2022--
Plantation FL--

The first day of the ITF Orange Bowl Grade A featured great weather, a host of upsets, and for 2020 16s Orange Bowl champion Valeria Ray, some sweet revenge.

At last week's Eddie Herr J1 in Bradenton, Ray was drawn to play No. 2 seed Luciana Moyano of Argentina, and the 17-year-old from Doral Florida lost a grueling opening match 6-4, 2-6, 6-3. A week later, they were again paired in the first round, this time with Moyano the No. 3 seed, and Ray breezed to a 6-1, 6-1 victory.

"She beat there, so I knew exactly what I had to do this time around," said Ray, who also helped her cause by making few unforced errors. "Me being focused allowed my forehand to do its thing, and my serve was pretty good today."

Ray said she feels very comfortable on the courts of the Veltri Center, where she played many junior sectional events, and has great memories from her 16s title here two years ago.

"Of course I think about it, it was my biggest win," Ray said. "And I grew up playing at this place, since the 10s, 12s, the L7s and L6s, they were all here. It's like my home, and I really like playing here."

Ray recently signed her National Letter of Intent to join Vanderbilt next fall, as she enters another phase of her tennis career.

"I super excited to join the team next fall," Ray said. "I think I can add a lot to the team and they can give me a lot too. I just love the coaches, the atmosphere, great academics, it's perfect for me."

Moyano was one of six girls seeds to lose in the first round, with two young American wild cards pulling off upsets.

Fifteen-year-old Alanis Hamilton defeated No. 7 seed Luciana Perez Alarcon of Peru 3-6, 6-1, 6-1, while 14-year-old Shannon Lam beat No. 10 seed Mingge Xu of Great Britain 6-1, 6-3.

Anna Sedysheva of Russia defeated No. 9 seed Ranah Stoiber of Great Britain 7-5, 6-3 and two seeded Americans were beaten, with Ela Milic of Slovenia defeating No. 13 seed Ariana Pursoo 6-4, 6-2 and Wakana Sonobe of Japan defeating No. 14 seed Mia Slama 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.

The boys draw lost three seeds, with No. 14 seed Adriano Dzhenev of Bulgaria losing to David Fix of Germany 6-3, 6-2; No. 15 seed and 2021 Orange Bowl 16s finalist Alex Frusina lost to Australian Charlie Camus 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 and Max Batyutenko of Kazakhstan advanced when No. 16 seed Tomasz Berkieta of Poland retired at 6-7(2), 4-0.

The top two seeds in the girls draw, Great Britain's Ella McDonald and Czech Republic's Tereza Valentova, were off today after reaching the Eddie Herr doubles and singles finals, but the top two seeds in the boys draw, Gerard Campana Lee and Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez of Mexico, were in action.

Campana Lee, who had his 22-match ITF Junior Circuit winning streak snapped in a loss to Pacheco Mendez in the Grade A Merida final, got all he could handle from TCU signee Duncan Chan of Canada, before earning a two-hour and 18 minute, 7-6(1), 6-4 victory. Serving to stay in the match at 3-5, Chan came up with one volley winner after another facing multiple match points in the 15-minute game before holding. But Campana Lee served out the final game with no problem to advance to a second round meeting Wednesday with Luca Pow of Great Britain.

Pacheco Mendez, who, like Campana Lee, did not play the Eddie Herr, defeated wild card Mitchell Lee 6-4, 6-1. 

Jelani Sarr came within a point of defeating No. 11 seed Hayden Jones of Australia twice, but lost 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4). Sarr, a South Carolina signee, served for the match at 5-3 in the third set, but both of his match points came with Jones serving. There was nothing he could have done at the 4-5, 30-40 point, with the 16-year-old Jones hitting a perfect forehand winner in the corner, within inches of both lines to save it. On the second, with Jones serving at 5-6, Sarr made an unforced error on the backhand side and Jones regrouped to play the more composed tennis in the tiebreaker.

The 16s Eddie Herr champions made the switch from hard to clay Monday, with girls winner Hyunyee Lee of Korea, the No. 1 seed, defeating Mary Grace Rennard 6-3, 7-5, and Max Exsted, the No. 2 seed, defeating Nathan Gold 6-1, 7-6(4).

Double begins for the 18s on Tuesday, with Campana Lee and France's Paul Inchauspe the top boys seeds and Tereza Valentova of the Czech Republic and Sayaka Ishii of Japan the top girls seeds.

Live scoring is available here, and live streaming should be available on four courts by Friday's quarterfinals. Draws for the 16s and 18s can be found here.

It's great to see the tournament back to its pre-covid regimen, with chair umpires on every court, live scoring, hundreds of college coaches in attendance and screens displaying all completed scores. The event is such a huge part of junior tennis history and it's great that it's back to being one of the premier tournaments on the circuit.

The team from the United States won its ninth Master'U BNP Paribas international collegiate team title in the past ten years yesterday in France, defeating Great Britain 4-2 in Sunday's final. The US team, coached by Greg Patton(formerly Boise State) and Amanda Augustus(Cal), consisted of Fiona Crawley of North Carolina, Connie Ma of Stanford, Haley Giavara of Cal, Stefan Dostanic of USC, Ryan Seggerman of North Carolina and Patrick Maloney of Michigan. For more on the final, see this article from the ITA website.

Eddie Herr ITF 2016

It was announced this morning that legendary tennis coach Nick Bollettieri died Sunday at the age of 91. Throughout the Eddie Herr tournament last week, Nick's contribution to tennis was the topic of conversation among IMG coaches, officials, former students of his academy and all those who came in contact with his enthusiasm and passion for the sport. It is fitting that his death coincided with the last day of the tournament that was such a signature event for his academy; for most of my first 13 years covering the tournament, Nick was at the finals, handing out trophies and posing for photos with many of the champions, from the 12s to the 18s.

The new IMG indoor building, which features five indoor tennis courts, tennis offices and conference rooms and two basketball courts, includes an impressive hall of fame as you enter. A tribute to Nick, including a video history of his career, with comments from all the top players he coached, promises to keep his legacy alive as the Academy he founded moves on without him.

For more on what he meant to tennis in this country and the world, see this article from the USTA.

Another significant figure in American tennis died at age 91 last week, former USTA president Alan Schwartz of Chicago. Schwartz, who founded the Midtown Tennis Club in Chicago, was also a Vice President of the International Tennis Association. For more on Schwartz's many contributions to tennis, see this article from the ITF.