Tuck and Kim Meet Monday for Junior Orange Bowl B12s Title; Top Seed Cho Ousted in B14s Quarterfinals, Long Island's Kennedy Reaches Semifinals; Top Four Seeds in G12s and G14s Advance to Semifinals

©Colette Lewis 2022--
Coral Gables FL--

Thunderstorms delayed the start of play for the quarterfinals of the Boys and Girls 14s and the Girls 12s on the hard courts, but the semifinals of the Boys 12s on the Har-Tru Courts of Salvadore Park went off as scheduled, with No. 2 seed Tabb Tuck of the United States and Dongjae Kim of Korea, a No. 9 seed, advancing to Monday's final.

Tuck took control of his match with No. 3 seed Tavish Pahwa of India early, and although the contest tightened in the second set, Tuck came away with 6-0, 6-1 win.

Pahwa, the national 12-and-under champion in India, made his stand in the third game of the second set, and although he lost it to go down 3-0, he had put pressure on Tuck and had earned break points. Pahwa won the next game, with Tuck making several uncharacteristic errors, to provide some hope for a comeback, but in his next service game he squandered multiple game points in a long deuce game and lost it. With Tuck serving for the match, he had to save three break points, but when he finally got a game point, he hit a good first serve, and Pahwa's forehand went long, putting Tuck in his second major final on this Florida junior swing.

Tuck, who has lost just 14 games in his six victories, admits that his competitive mindset translates to his off-court activities, although he doesn't allow any frustrations to travel with him when he's on court.

"I just have to stay calm, because that's the best way to win," said Tuck, a 12-year-old from Birmingham Alabama. "I play my dad almost every day in ping pong and I've broken like eight paddles this year. I break paddles all the time and I think it gets all the anger out, so I don't have it on the tennis court."

Tuck and his father Benjamin have been keeping track of the results in their daily ping pong battles, and Tuck said he is leading comfortably.

"This year we bought a big white board and we've been keeping track of every game this whole year," said Tuck, whose first name is also Benjamin but goes by his middle name Tabb, the maiden name of his grandmother. "It's like 800 for me, 600 for him, lots of games. It's good for the mental part."

In the other semifinal, Kim was not intimidated by the power of top seed Taiki Takizawa, a big left-hander from Australia, with Kim having no difficulty with the pace, giving as good as he got in his 6-3, 6-2 win over the top seed. 

After an exchange of breaks to start the match, Kim got another to go up 4-2 and served out the first set, then broke Takizawa to start the second. As in the first set, Kim was also broken early, but when he broke Takizawa in the third game, he was able to hold on, then get a third break to go up 5-2. 

Takizawa was able to overpower many of his opponents this week with his huge forehand, but he struggled with that shot today, with the majority of his errors on that side finding the tape. That continued right until the end of the match, with a netted forehand squandering a break point in the final game.

Tuck and Kim met in the third round of the Eddie Herr, with Tuck winning 7-5, 6-0.

"It was a really good match," said Tuck, who went on to reach the final. "He's a really good player, so I'll just have to stay consistent, stay solid, keep everything deep in the court and try to move him around."

Kim, who does not speak English, spoke of how he intends to reverse the Eddie Herr loss via Google Translate.

"I'm going to hit with more confidence and turn the forehand around."

Tuck believes he will have an edge in the final, as Kim has not previously advanced to an important international final.

"I think I will have an advantage," Tuck said. "When I played Michael (Antonius) in the (Eddie Herr) final, I was a little nervous coming in, missing shots I don't usually miss. But I'm prepared for the big stage now, so I think I'll do well."

Takizawa was not the only top seed to bow out today, as Se Hyuk Cho, the Eddie Herr 14s champion, lost to Kuan-Shou Chen of Taiwan 6-3, 6-1. Cho had beaten Chen in the semifinals of the Eddie Herr two weeks ago 6-1, 6-1.

Chen will face No. 3 seed Ivan Ivanov, who won the match of the day over American Jack Secord, a No. 9 seed, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(13). Secord came back from a 5-1 deficit in the tiebreaker, and obviously, from that scoreline, both players had their chances, but unfortunately, I wasn't there, so I am unable to provide any more details.

The other American Jack, No. 6 seed Kennedy, advanced to the semifinals with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Jamie Mackenzie of New Zealand, a No. 17 seed. Kennedy will face another No. 17 seed, Weiyi Kong of China, who defeated Eyad Ezzat of Egypt, a 17 seed, 6-2, 6-1.

The Junior Orange Bowl seeding committee can take a bow in the two girls divisions, as the top four seeds in both the 12s and 14s have advanced to the semifinals. 

In the girls 12s, top seed Christina Lyutova of the United States continued her march through the draw, defeating Floridian Caroline Shao, a No. 17 seed, 6-1, 6-0 today at Crandon Park. Lyutova, a finalist in the 12s last year, will face No. 4 seed Yui Komada of Japan, who beat No. 6 seed Andreea Olariu of Romania 6-4, 6-1.

In the bottom half, No. 3 seed Haniya Minhas of Pakistan downed No. 5 seed Xinran Sun of China 6-4, 6-3 and will face No. 2 seed Yeri Hong of Korea, who duplicated her Eddie Herr quarterfinal win over Hannah Ayrault by the exact same score, 6-3, 6-0. Hong and Minhas also met in the Eddie Herr semifinals, with Hong eking out a 6-4, 4-6, 10-6 victory.

In the girls 14s, top seed Hannah Klugman didn't drop a game in her quarterfinal win over Victoria Barros of Brazil, a No. 17 seed. 

"I'm feeling really confident," said the 13-year-old Klugman, who lost in the 14s quarterfinals last year. "I'm playing really solid, really well. I think it was a really good match today. The other girl played really well, I just played well, although my serve wasn't as good as yesterday."

Although as the top seed, with an ITF Junior ranking of 152, Klugman is obviously the player most likely to get her opponents' best efforts, she is trying to deflect the pressure that comes with that target.

"I'm trying to stay as relaxed as I can," Klugman said. "If I get too tense out here, you can't finish the point, so staying relaxed that's my main thing here. I'm enjoying it, you know, it's such a great tournament."

Klugman will face No. 3 seed Emerson Jones of Australia, who defeated the last American girl in the draw, No. 9 seed Maria Aytoyan, 6-4, 6-0. 

"I've watch her a bit and I've hit with her in practice," Klugman said of Jones. "She's a really great player, it's going to be really tough tomorrow, but I'm really excited. It will be a good match."

In the bottom half, No. 4 seed Adelina Lachinova of Latvia will take on No. 2 seed and Eddie Herr champion Yihan Qu of China. Lachinova defeated No. 6 seed Ksenia Efremova of Russia 7-5, 6-1, using her superior defense to wear down the hard-hitting Russian. 

Lachinova, a semifinalist two weeks ago at the Eddie Herr, has managed to excel on the Tennis Europe and ITF Junior Circuit this year, with 11 titles, including four J5s this fall, despite having no one to train with.

"I have a sparring partner, and practice with coach, one hour, 30 minutes, five days a week," said the 14-year-old Lachinova, who is visiting the United States for the first time. "In winter, I play on hard, indoor. In summer, on the clay. Here, I am very happy to be in America, in Florida, in Miami."

After two consecutive wins in three sets, Qu defeated No. 7 seed Luna Maria Cinalli of Argentina in straight sets, 7-5, 7-6(4), although she did not close out the match convincingly. Serving up 4-3 in the second, Qu was broken, and after Cinalli played a poor game to give Qu a chance to serve out the match at 6-5, the big left-hander again faltered. The tiebreaker wasn't top-level tennis, with the server losing seven consecutive points during one stretch, but Qu eventually took her opportunity serving up 5-4 and won the next two points to claim the victory.

Cinalli, who has drawn notice at the Biltmore Tennis Center this week for her one-handed backhand, was on court for the Argentina's victory over France in the World Cup, but said, "I was happy about Argentina’s championship, but angry I lost my match."

For more on today's action at Salvadore Park and the Biltmore, see this juniororangebowl.org article from Harvey Fialkov.

The boys 12s final, at 9 a.m. Monday, will not be live streamed due to infrastructure issues at Salvadore park, but will be recorded and made available later in the day on Monday. 

The forecast is for dry conditions Monday.

All six semifinal matches will be played at the Biltmore Tennis Center Monday, with live streaming available here.

The draws can be found here.