Top Seed Pacheco Needs Comeback to Advance, Seven of Top Eight Girls Seeds Reach Eddie Herr ITF Quarterfinals; Singles Semifinals, Doubles Finals Friday for Eddie Herr 12s, 14s and 16s Divisions; Orange Bowl Wild Cards

©Colette Lewis 2023--
Bradenton FL--

Thursday's third round of the Eddie Herr ITF J300 featured just two three-set matches, with boys top seed Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez of Mexico and girls No. 3 seed Alena Kovackova rebounding from the loss of the first set to advance to Friday's quarterfinals.

No. 16 seed Mia Slama, who recently signed a National Letter of Intent to attend North Carolina State next fall, took the first set from the 15-year-old from the Czech Republic, but Kovackova, who reached the semifinals last week at the J500 in Merida Mexico, came back to post a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory.

While Kovackova, who was a member of the Czech Junior Billie Jean King Cup team that finished runner-up to the United States earlier this month in Spain, has years of ITF Junior Circuit competition ahead of her, Pacheco is playing the final tournament of his junior career.

Pacheco's goal in competing here, after winning the J300 in Zapopan Mexico two weeks ago and repeating as the Merida J500 champion Sunday, is to secure the year-end ITF No. 1 junior ranking, which he will do if the 18-year-old wins the tournament. Not only could each match be the last of his junior career, but the pressure of falling short of the goal was evident in the first set of his 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over No. 15 seed Danil Panarin of Russia.

Panarin and Pacheco met in the Zapopan final, with Pacheco taking a 7-5, 7-6(2) decision, so Pacheco was prepared for a battle, especially on the IMG Academy Courts, where Panarin trains.

Frustrated by his own sloppy play, Pacheco was berating himself loudly and often in Spanish at the end of the first set, but finally began to relax after breaking Panarin to open the second set. 

"I didn't play my best, but the other guy just played much better than me," Pacheco said. "I started to feel a bit tired after all the matches I've been through, but I competed pretty well and I could fix the things that wasn't that good in the first set."

Panarin, who will be joining the Vanderbilt men's team in January, saw his level dip in the second set, and at one point at the end of the second set and the start of the third, he lost 10 of 11 points. Down an early break in the third, Panarin could have mentally conceded, but he did not, and although Pacheco continued to use his forehand well and stopped making errors, Panarin did get his chance to break back with Pacheco serving at 3-2. Facing what turned out to be his only break point of the set, Pacheco got a bit of luck with a net cord ace, and after two more deuces, he had kept his lead.

"It was so tough at the end, I just made a couple of more points than him," Pacheco said. "But it was a good third set, so I'm happy about that."

Pacheco didn't drop a point in his next service game for a 5-3 lead, but after Panarin held easily to make it 5-4, the pressure was back on. He built a 40-15 lead, but couldn't convert his two match points, with a wild backhand error on the first and another backhand error, this one forced, on the second. Panarin tried an ill-conceived drop shot on the next point which Pacheco easily swatted away and a great first serve on match point number three kept alive his quest for World Junior No. 1. 

Pacheco will face No. 11 seed Reda Bennani of Morocco, who ended the run of qualifier Thanaphat Boosarawongse of Thailand 6-3, 6-4.

Three unseeded boys have advanced to the quarterfinals and one will reach the semifinals, with University of Kentucky signee Thomas Faurel of France facing Luca Preda of Romania. Faurel defeated No. 13 seed Viktor Frydrych of Great Britain 6-1, 6-0 and Preda beat 15-year-old Ivan Ivanov of Bulgari 6-3, 6-3.

The third unseeded boys in the quarterfinals is Theo Papamalamis of France, who defeated No. 4 seed Alexander Frusina, the last American in the boys draw, 6-2, 6-1. 

Seven of the top eight seeds have advanced to the girls quarterfinals, with Americans Tyra Grant, the No. 4 seed, and Iva Jovic, the No. 2 seed, still in contention. Grant defeated No. 14 seed Emily Sartz-Lunde of Norway 6-2, 6-3 and Jovic earned a quick 6-3, 6-1 win over unseeded Mika Stojsavljevic of Great Britain. 

The ITF doubles semifinals are Friday, with the same theme as the singles. The boys have three unseeded teams, with the only seeds No. 6 Timofey Derepasko and Daniil Sarksian of Russia. Derepasko and Sarksian defeated top seeds Pacheco Mendez and Iliyan Radulov of Bulgari 4-6, 7-5 10-8. Kaylan Bigun and Jagger Leach, the only American boys still in contention for an Eddie Herr ITF title, defeated No. 4 seeds and Merida J500 champions Eriksson and Maxim Mrva of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 and will play unseeded Atakan Karahan of Turkey and Hoyoung Roh of Korea. Karahan and Roh defeated No. 5 seeds Charlie Camus of Australia and Charlie Robertson of Great Britain 4-6 6-3, 12-10.

All four girls doubles teams are seeded, with No. 1 seeds Grant and Jovic advancing to the semifinals with a 3-6, 6-1, 10-7 win over unseed Noemi Basiletti of Italy and Anna Puls of Germany. They will play No. 5 seeds Yoana Konstantinova of Bulgaria and Kostovic, who beat No. 3 seed Rositsa Dencheva and Elizara Yaneva of Bulgaria 6-3, 6-4.

Eddie Herr ITF quarterfinals Friday:

Laura Samsonova[1](CZE) v Wakana Sonobe[6](JPN)

Tyra Grant[4](USA) v Iva Ivanova[8](BUL)

Teodora Kostovic[5](SRB) v Alena Kovackova[3](CZE)

Alisa Oktiabreva[10](RUS) v Iva Jovic[2](USA)

Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez[1](MEX) v Reda Bennani[11](MAR)

Thomas Faurel(FRA) v Luca Preda(ROU)

Maxim Mrva[8](CZE) v Theo Papmalamis(FRA)

Sebastian Eriksson[10](SWE) v Iliyan Radulov[2](BUL)

The 12s, 14s and 16s age divisions will play their semifinals Friday, with Thursday's quarterfinal results below. 

B12s

Xiaohan Jiang(CHN) d. Luke Jones[7](USA) 6-3, 7-5

Thamma Kosiri[3](THA) d. Kazuki Nakajima(JPN) 6-2, 7-6(5)

Jang Junseo[4](KOR) d. Haruto Tamaki[WC](JPN) 6-0, 6-1 

Geonho Kim(KOR) d. Nanato Agui[WC](JPN) 6-2, 6-1 

G12s

Caroline Shao[1](USA) d.  Sofiia Bielinska[8](UKR) 7-5, 0-6, 10-8

Adriana Khomyakova[6](USA) d. Nikol Davletshina[3](USA) 7-6(4), 6-4 

Yui Watanabe[5](USA) d. Yerin Lee[11](KOR) 6-4, 6-1

Paweenon Nualsri[2](THA) d. Audrey Dussault[10](USA) 6-4, 6-4

B14s

Michael Antonius[1](USA) d. Kaan Isik Kosaner[10](TUR) 6-3, 6-3

Andrew Johnson[3](USA) d. Jordan Lee[6] 6-3, 6-2

Matei Victor Chelemen(ROU) v Jerrid Gaines[4](USA) 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(5)

Samim Filiz(ECU) d. Achyuth Binu(USA) 6-3, 6-0

G14s

Yeri Hong(KOR) d. Reagan Levine[9](USA) 6-0, 6-4

Charlie Celebrini[4](USA) d. Renee Alame[16](AUS) 6-3, 6-4

Giulia Safina Popa(ROU) d. Chukwumelije Clarke[5](USA) 6-1, 6-2 

Joyce Geng[14](CAN) d. Ariana Ikwueme[6](USA) 6-1, 6-1 

B16s

Jack Satterfield[1](USA) d. Jeremiah Braswell(USA) 3-6, 6-2, 6-3

Ryan Cozad[3](USA) d. Keaton Hance[5](USA) 6-3, 6-0

Nischal Spurling[6](USA) d.  Benjamin Saltman[4](USA) 6-2, 6-3

Jack Secord[2](USA) d. Wenbo Bai(CHN) 6-1, 6-3 

G16s

Annika Penickova[1][WC](USA) d. Ishika Ashar[5](USA) 6-3, 1-6, 6-2

Katerina Shabashkevich[8](USA) d. Alisa Ozgun[9](USA) 6-3, 6-0

Ava Rodriguez[7](USA) d. Sara Shumate(USA) 6-2, 6-0

Kristina Penickova[2][WC](USA) d. Kayla Moore[6](USA) 6-2, 6-2

The doubles finals are Friday afternoon after two rounds of doubles were played Thursday. See the USTA/Eddie Herr website for those results.

Qualifying for the Orange Bowl 16s begins tomorrow at the Veltri Tennis Center in Plantation Florida, with the draws and order of play available here.

The current Orange Bowl wild card list is as follows, but be advised that changes are likely before play begins Sunday/Monday.

Boys 16s main draw:

Ajinkya Karnatki

Adrian Treacy

Connor Plunkett

Jeremiah Braswell

Abraham Rosett

Jordan Lee

Girls 16s main draw:

Sena Yoon

Berklie Simmering

Abigail Lee

Catherine Rennard

Lillian Santos

Sara Shumate

ITF J500 Qualifying:

Boys:

Nathan Blokhin

Lachlan Gaskell

Krish Arora

Girls:

Thea Latak

Claire Hill

ITF J500 Main Draw:

Boys:

Stiles Brockett

Noah Johnston

Calvin Baierl

Mitchell Lee

Girls:

Monika Ekstrand

Valerie Glozman

Mia Yamakita  

Alexis Nguyen  

Elizabeth Ionescu

Capucine Jauffret