Jovic Avenges Roehampton Final Loss to Reach Wimbledon Junior Championships Semifinals; Rottgering Ousts Top Seed Bigun; Seven Americans Compete in Saturday's Doubles Semifinals; Lee Advances to 14U Semifinals

©Colette Lewis 2024--
Wimbledon--

Three of the pre-tournament favorites saw their dream of a Wimbledon Junior Championships singles title come to an end Friday, with top seed and Roland Garros champion Kaylan Bigun and both of last week's Roehampton champions eliminated in the quarterfinals. 

Unseeded Mees Rottgering of the Netherlands didn't play Roehampton last week to give the ab he injured at Roland Garros more time to heal. The 17-year-old had lost to fellow left-hander Bigun in the semifinals at May's ITF J500 in Milan, but was confident grass would give him with a better chance for victory in today's rematch, played under cloudy and cool conditions on Show Court 12.

Rottgering got very few opportunities on Court 12, but he converted the only break point Bigun gave him and went on to record a 7-6(3), 6-3 victory.

"He's serving really good, so I knew it was tough to break him," said Rottgering, who saved three break points in the match, all in his first three service games of the opening set. "I wasn't paying very well in the beginning, missed a lot shots in the rally. But on big points, I know how to play, and I know how to play on break points, and I think I managed that very well. And in the tiebreak, I got lucky with a net cord, but I managed well mentally."

His confidence on significant points was apparent in the tiebreaker; while he did get a fortunate net cord on one of them, he did not make any unforced errors, with a missed first serve return the sum total of his mistakes in the 10 points.

With Bigun serving at 1-2 in the second set, Rottgering used his forehand to force errors from Bigun, earning his only break point of the match at 30-40. Bigun made an unforced error and that was the match, indicating just how small the margins were throughout the contest. He lost to Jan Kumstat of the Czech Republic in Australia this year

After losing 6-1, 6-3 to Jan Kumstat in the semifinals of the Australian Open in January, Rottgering is determined to put lessons learned there to good use.

"At Australia, I made the semis as well and I didn't play very well there, so I hope I can play better tomorrow," Rottgering said. "I'm kind of nervous, but I'm also excited."

Rottgering's opponent in the semifinals is No. 16 seed Theo Papamalamis of France, who end the run of unseeded Jagger Leach 6-3, 6-3.

After getting broken in the first game of the match, Papamalamis quickly found his form, finishing the match with 26 winners and just 13 unforced errors.

This is the Wimbledon debut for Papamalamis, but with his willingness to move forward, he suspected he would thrive on the grass.

"Fortunately, I played in Roehampton, and I think it was a good idea," said the 18-year-old, who lost to Maxim Mrva of the Czech Republic in the third round last week. "I tried to improve my play on grass, because I have never played on it, first time, and I feel better and better during the week, and now it's very good."

Rottgering and Papamalamis have played twice, and Papamalamis has won both, but he is discounting those victories given when they occurred.

"But it was back in time, because he is younger," said Papamalamis, who will be joining Texas A&M in the fall of 2025. "Three years ago I won, and two years ago I won, clay and hard court. But is was two years ago, so it doesn't count."

The other boys semifinal will feature unseeded Naoya Honda of Japan and No. 2 seed Nicolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway. Honda, one of the last players to move into the main draw, defeated Roehampton champion Rafael Jodar of Spain 6-4, 6-4; Budkov Kjaer avenged his Roehampton quarterfinal loss to Maxim Mrva of the Czech Republic 7-6(2), 6-4.

A rematch of last Friday's girls Roehampton final was expected to be another thriller, after Teodora Kostovic of Serbia saved match points to defeat Iva Jovic 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(2) in a match moved indoors due to inclement weather. The sixth-seeded Jovic was having none of that today on Court 8, playing a near perfect match to post a 6-3, 6-2 victory over no. 15 seed Kostovic.

Statistics don't always tell the story of a match, but just how well Jovic played today is reflected in the numbers. She had eight unforced errors and 16 winners, in contrast to Kostovic, who had 22 winners, but 36 unforced errors, more than four times what Jovic allowed.

"I didn't realize that, but it felt like a good one," said Jovic, who was determined not to squander the lead as she had in Roehampton. "In Roehampton she went on a really long bathroom break after the first set and I kind of think I let my mind wander a little bit, gave her an opening in the second and she's really good at that if you give her a little bit, she gets energetic and it just starts rolling for her. I just told myself I needed to play every point like it's life or death, because if you give her a little bit, she'll give you something back."

The 16-year-old Jovic, who reached the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, her best previous result in a junior slam, said she is starting to see the benefits of all the work she's done to improve her serve.

"I've been working a lot on my serve every day, targets, baskets with Tom (Gutteridge, USTA National Coach)," Jovic said. "Changing it a lot, technically, always tweaking it, so I'm happy that it's showing."

With the improvement in that shot, Jovic can be more aggressive when returning.

"It honestly changes your mind set a little bit," said the Torrance California resident. "When you can hold, you can be a little more lose on the return game and go a little bigger. If you go big, you're probably going to break once per set, so it has shifted my mentality and given me the opportunity to be a little more relaxed on return games."

Jovic will need that freedom against No. 3 seed and Australian Open finalist Emerson Jones of Australia, who advanced to the semifinals with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Monika Stankiewicz of Poland. Jones, who has yet to lose more than five games in a match this week, defeated Jovic in the final of the ITF J300 warmup event in Traralgon Australia in January 7-5, 6-1.

Top seed Renata Jamrichova, who defeated Jones in the Australian Open final, advanced to the semifinals with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Rositsa Dencheva of Bulgaria. She will face unseeded Vendula Valdmannova of the Czech Republic, who defeated No. 10 seed Jeline Vandroome in the only three-setter in Friday's quarterfinals, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Valdmannova served for the match at 5-1 and 5-3 in the third set, but didn't get to match point either time, missing an easy forehand putaway at 5-3, 30-40 to give Vandromme all the momentum. The 16-year-old from Belgium went up 40-15, but double faulted twice in the next three points, with a unforced forehand error sandwiched in between. With Valdmannova finally holding a match point, another unforced forehand error by Vandromme put Valdmannova in her first junior slam semifinal.

"When you're leading 5-1, looking into semis, you're shaking more," said Valdmannova, who played a memorable match with two-time junior slam champion Alina Korneeva as a qualifier here last year. "Then I just told myself, it's a normal match, it's not the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, so just play your best."

Valdmannova felt the pressure shifted back to Vandromme once she was close to pulling even in that final game.

"I could tell she was getting nervous, so I just took the advantage and just kept playing," Valdmannova said. 

Although Valdmannova has seen her ranking continue to rise since last summer, she still considers herself an underdog who can play with less pressure.

"I'm just going to go in and enjoy the match," Valdmannova said. "She the favored player to win, I'm the outsider, so I'm just going to enjoy it. I'm still an outsider, although after this tournament, I may not be."

Although Jovic is the only American left in singles, she and six other Americans are still in contention for the doubles championships.  

Jovic and Tyra Grant, the No. 2 seeds and Australian Open champions, defeated No. 7 seeds Iva Ivanova of Bulgaria and Wakana Sonobe of Japan 6-2, 6-1 to advance to a meeting with No. 6 seeds Jones and Vittoria Paganetti of Italy.

Top seeds and defending girls doubles champions Alena Kovackova and Laura Samson were defeated by No. 7 seeds Mika Stojsavljevic and Mingge Xu of Great Britain 6-4, 7-5. Stojsavljevic and Xu will play Julie Pastikova of the Czech Republic and Julia Stusek of Germany, who lost in the Roehampton doubles final last week to Grant and Jovic.

The boys Roehampton doubles champions are also still alive, with No. 3 seeds Bigun and Leach winning a tight one over No. 6 seeds Budkov Kjaer and Great Britain's Viktor Frydrych 7-6(9), 4-6, 10-7.  At 7-all in the match tiebreaker, Bigun hit a defensive lob that found the baseline off an overhead smash, and when Leach put away the startled reply with a backhand winner, they rode that momentum to the next two points and the match.

An American boy is assured of being in the doubles final, after Alex Razeghi and his partner Max Schoenhaus of Germany saved a match point at 9-8 in the tiebreaker to defeat top seeds Mrva and Federico Cina of Italy 3-6, 7-5 11-9.

The third Australian Open junior champions still in contention for a Wimbledon title are No. 7 seeds Max Exsted and Cooper Woestendick, who defeated unseeded Daniil Sarksian of Russia and Tianhui Zhang of China 6-4, 6-7(2), 10-2.  They will play unseeded Czech team of Jan Klimas and Kumstat, who beat Jodar and Andreas Santamaria Roig 4-6, 7-6(2), 10-7.

In the women's doubles, Taylor Townsend will play for the Wimbledon title Saturday, with Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic. The No. 4 seeds will face No. 2 seeds Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and two-time NCAA champion Erin Routliffe(Alabama) of New Zealand.

After a second day of round robin play, the semifinals are set for Saturday in the Wimbledon 14 and under tournament.

Jordan Lee finished undefeated in his group and has advanced to the semifinals, where he'll play Dongjae Kim of Korea. The other boys semifinal will feature Takahiro Kawaguchi of Japan and Stan Put of the Netherlands.

Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic and Megan Knight of Great Britain will meet in one girls semifinal, with Keisija Berzina of Latvia taking on Xinran Sun of of China in the other.  

Results of Friday's round robin matches of Americans:

Xinran Sun(CHN) d. Raya Kotseva 6-3, 6-3 

Megan Knight(GBR) d. Welles Newman 3-6, 6-3, 10-5

Jana Kovackova(CZE) d. Maggie Sohns 6-1, 7-6(5) 

Jordan Lee d. Aran Selvaraasan(GBR) 6-2, 6-1

Jordan Lee d. Rafalentino Ali Da Costa(INA) 6-3, 6-1

Michael Antonius d. Livas Eduardo De Carvalho Damazio(BRA) 6-4, 6-0

Michael Antonius d. Niall Pickerd-Barua(GBR) 6-3, 6-2