Jovic Saves Match Point to Set Up Repeat of Last Week's Roehampton Final, Bigun Comes Back, Leach Cruises to Reach Wimbledon Quarterfinals: Round Robin Play Continues Friday in 14U Event

©Colette Lewis 2024--
Wimbledon--

Iva Jovic has been playing tennis long enough to know just how slim the margins can be at the top of the junior game. In last week's ITF J300 Roehampton final, Jovic was unable to convert match points; today in the third round of the Wimbledon Junior Championships, the No. 6 seed saved one herself trailing No. 11 seed Wakana Sonobe of Japan 4-6, 4-5, 30-40.

"Honestly, at that point I was like, if I go out here, I want to go out being aggressive," said the 16-year-old from Torrance California. "I went for a big serve and I was ripping, could have easily missed one of those balls. I had her on the stretch, she neutralized really well, and then she hit the tape with that one forehand. It's tennis, and little margins like that can make a big difference."

Jovic closed out the game with a blistering backhand winner, and didn't lose a game after that, reeling off nine straight games for 4-6, 7-5, 6-0 win.

"It doesn't make sense," Jovic said. "Unlucky last week for me, had a couple of match points and ended up losing, so I guess I had some good karma this week."

Awaiting Jovic in the quarterfinals is No. 15 seed Teodora Kostovic, who saved those match points in the Roehampton final to claim the title. Kostovic took out No. 2 seed Laura Samson of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-4 in today's third round to extend her grass winning streak to nine, albeit with an asterisk.

"This time it'll be on the grass, actually," said Jovic, referring to rain forcing the Roehampton final to move to indoor hard courts.  "I'm excited to play her on the grass and use what I learned today. It's definitely going to be tough tomorrow. At Roehampton, she did a little bit better job adjusting to the surface--obviously it was one point, I could have won anyway--but she was playing more hard court tennis, and it was a pretty slow hard court. I was still in the grass mentality, and she adjusted a little better. Today, I think I learned from that and was able to adjust before it was too late, so hopefully I can do that again."

The other quarterfinal in the bottom half features unseeded Monika Stankiewicz of Poland and No. 3 seed Emerson Jones of Australia. In the top half, No. 1 seed Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia came from 4-1 down in the opening set to defeat Sonja Zhiyenbayeva of Kazakhstan 7-5, 6-4 and will play unseeded Rositsa Dencheva of Bulgaria in the quarterfinals. No. 10 seed Jeline Vandromme of Belgium will play Vendula Valdmannova of the Czech Republic, who took out No. 4 seed Tyra Grant 6-3, 7-5.

Top seed Kaylan Bigun got his first real test this week, with No. 13 seed Amir Omarkhanov of Kazakhstan taking the first set in a 7-6(4) tiebreaker, before Bigun quickly evened the match with a 6-0 second set.

The third set reverted to the tense back-and-forth of the first set, but Bigun got a couple of unforced backhand errors from Omarkhanov to get the break and closed out the match with some big serving to advance to his second consecutive Wimbledon Junior Championships singles quarterfinal.

"It was what my brother (Meecah) called a testing match, but I'm happy with the way I competed and stayed locked in, even though I wasn't feeling my best on the court today," said the 18-year-old left-hander. 

Bigun said changing his return position helped him get into more points.

"I moved my return positioning further back, so I could have more time to swing," Bigun said. "I was missing returns on second serves and all that, so I just stepped back to give myself a little more time to look, and I stayed there the rest of the match, felt more comfortable there."

The rise to No. 1 in the world in the ITF junior rankings on the heels of his Roland Garros singles title has given Bigun confidence in his approach during a match's big moments.

"Obviously you gain confidence in your mindset when you're in those tough situations," Bigun said. "I've figured out what works for me, how I need to act, be present in every point, and I think that's what's important, what keeps you calm in those moments. For me, I focus on my breathing, tell myself a few key words, honest just try to stay present in the point and not think a game ahead."

Bigun will face unseeded Mees Rottgering of the Netherlands in the quarterfinals, who took out the last British player standing, unseeded Charlie Robertson, 7-6(5), 6-2 on show court 12.

Rottgering, an Australian Open semifinalist this year, felt that the crowd was definitely pro-Robertson, but fair to him.

"It isn't easy playing a person at home," said the left-hander, who turned 17 on Sunday. "But the crowd was very nice for me, they were also supporting me, and I played very well at the end."

Rottgering wasn't certain that he was going to play the Wimbledon Junior Championships after suffering an ab injury at Roland Garros and being unable to compete in the Roehampton warmup event.

"I was injured and I wasn't really sure if I would even play Wimbledon," said Rottgering, who has received a main draw wild card into the ATP Challenger in the Netherlands next week, on clay. "I couldn't imagine that I was in the quarters; I'm very happy with the result and want to keep going, of course."

Rottgering and Bigun have met twice, with Rottgering winning their first meeting in 2023 in Colombia, then falling in three sets in the semifinals of May's J500 in Milan, which Bigun won.

"It's going to be tough, but two times was a close match, we played good matches, so we'll see," Rottgering said.

The third American quarterfinalist is unseeded Jagger Leach, who defeated qualifier Flynn Thomas of Switzerland 6-3, 6-2.  

Leach knew Thomas would present a different challenge than the big-serving No. 6 seed Jan Kumstat of the Czech Republic, who he beat in the second round Wednesday.

"It definitely took me a few games to adjust," said the 17-year-old right-hander, who has now reached his 2024 goal of making a junior slam quarterfinal. "Yesterday Jan is a power player, he wants to keep the points short and he was just ripping for the corners. Today, it was the opposite; my opponent was playing more behind the baseline, really solid, making a lot of balls. I didn't feel like I really needed to change anything that I did from yesterday, but I knew I was going to be the one pulling the trigger on most points, so I was just staying selective until I got a ball I liked and that was my game plan."

Leach will face No. 16 seed Theo Papamalamis of France, who defeated No. 3 seed Federico Cina of Italy 6-2, 0-6, 6-3, winning an 11-deuce game to close it out, after Cina had saved six match points. 

In the boys bottom half, Roehampton champion Rafael Jodar of Spain, who dominated No. 4 seed and Roland Garros finalist Tomasz Berkieta of Poland 6-0, 6-3 in today's third round, will face Naoya Honda of Japan, who, like Jodar, is unseeded.

No. 10 seed Maxim Mrva will take on No. 2 seed Nicolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway for the second time in two weeks, having beaten Budkov Kjaer in the quarterfinals of the Roehampton tournament  in two tiebreakers.  In today's third round, Budkov Kjaer defeated No. 15 seed Cooper Woestendick 6-1, 6-4.

Seven Americans have advanced to the doubles quarterfinals, including Australian Open champions  Grant and Jovic, the No. 2 seeds here this week, and Australian Open champions Max Exsted and Woestendick, the No. 7 seeds this week.

Roehampton champions Bigun and Leach, the No. 3 seeds, have also reached the quarterfinals, as has Alex Razeghi and his partner Max Schoenhaus of Germany.

The girls doubles quarterfinals are not quite set, with a late evening rain shower causing one match to be suspended.

The first two rounds of the girls round robin competition in the 14U event were nearly completed, with just one on court when the rain arrived. The boys, who played one round today, will play two rounds Friday, with the boys and girls semifinalists determined by group standings after Friday's matches.

The girls draw is here; the boys draw is here.

Thursday's 14U round robin results of Americans:

Daniella Britton(GBR) d. Maggie Sohns 6-2, 4-6, 10-6

Maggie Sohns d. Zoe Doldan(PAR) 6-4, 6-0

Welles Newman d. Sijia Zhang(CHN) 6-2, 6-4

Welles Newman d. Claudia Chacon(VEN) 6-0, 6-0

Raya Kotseva d. Liv Zingg(GBR) 6-3, 6-2

Raya Kotseva d. Tori Russell(AUS) 6-2, 6-2

Takahiro Kawaguchi(JPN) d. Michael Antonius 6-1, 6-2 

Jordan Lee d. Taiki Takizawa(JPN) 6-0, 6-4

Friday's 14U round robin matches featuring Americans:

Raya Kotseva v Xinran Sun(CHN)

Welles Newman v Megan Knight(GBR)

Maggie Sohns v Jana Kovackova(CZE)

Jordan Lee v Aran Selvaraasan(GBR)

Jordan Lee v Rafalentino Ali Da Costa(INA)

Michael Antonius v Livas Eduardo De Carvalho Damazio(BRA)

Michael Antonius v Niall Pickerd-Barua(GBR)