ITF J300 Bradenton Recap; Kennedy Advances to Orange Bowl Semifinals, Yaneva Rolls into Girls Final Four; Lee Faces McCollum for Another 16s Title; Unseeded Giribalan Advances to G16s Final; First Champions Crowned in Doubles
©Colette Lewis 2024--
Plantation FL--
Before the focus turns entirely to the Orange Bowl weekend, check out my recap of the ITF J300 last week in Bradenton for the Tennis Recruiting Network.
Another windy day at the Veltri Tennis Center ended Friday with three American finalists in the Orange Bowl 16s tournament and Jack Kennedy flying the stars and stripes in the ITF J500.
No. 13 Kennedy, playing in just his third J500 tournament, earned a place in the semifinals with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win over No. 6 seed Thomas Faurel of France.
After beating top seed Maxim Mrva of the Czech Republic in Thursday's third round 6-1, 7-6(4), in equally challenging conditions, Kennedy was ready for a seesaw battle with Faurel, who won the J500 in Merida Mexico two weeks ago.
"I think we both knew how to play in this wind now because yesterday was the same conditions," said the 16-year-old from New York. "It wasn't really who could adapt better, but who could mentally stay in there longer."
With the wind not yet at its peak in the first set, Kennedy and Faurel played countless long points, with neither particularly strong on serve. Faurel's early break disappeared and Kennedy took the opener with a break with Faurel serving at 4-5. In the second set, Faurel made some adjustments.
"He changed some stuff, played more aggressive, closer to the baseline, took returns early and came in more into the net," said Kennedy the 2024 Kalamazoo 18s finalist. "By the time we got to a third, I adapted more."
Kennedy broke Faurel in the first game of the third set, but gave it back, then got another break and consolidated for 4-2. Kennedy was playing freely and without errors from the fifth game on, and he maintained that level by securing a second break when Faurel made a backhand error at 30-40. The second break didn't last, with Kennedy unable to close out the match, as Faurel saved two match points. Kennedy went to the drop shot often in that game, but the tactic proved ineffective, with Faurel getting to each one and either hitting a winner or forcing an error.
But serving down 3-5 was still dangerous for the 18-year-old Faurel, who went down 0-30, then 15-40 when Kennedy, undeterred by the drop shot blunders in the previous game, cleaned up his execution. Given the number of drop shots he'd tried, Kennedy could have shied away from that strategy, but practice made perfect. On match point No. 3, he hit a clean drop shot winner to end Faurel's J500 winning streak at nine matches.
Kennedy will face unseeded Moises Kouame of France in Saturday's semifinals, after the 15-year-old defeated No. 12 seed Henry Bernet of Switzerland 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Kouame, a quarterfinalist this year at the Roland Garros Junior championships, had won only three matches total at the Merida J500 and last week's J300 in Bradenton, so he was not sure what to expect this week,
"The last weeks, I could have shown a better level," said Kouame, who has beaten three seeds in his four victories this week. "So I am very happy to come here and play better and better as the tournament goes on."
Kouame said he didn't allow his precarious position after the first set to inhibit his game.
"I didn't question myself in the match," said Koume, whose strong serve is a key to his success. "I was just focusing on point after point. The score wasn't really important to me. I was just happy to win the match, because it wasn't easy. I had to stay very focused, very calm because the conditions were not easy, a lot of wind."
Kennedy and Kouame both recently competed in the Junior Davis Cup in Turkey, but their teams did not play, so they will be meeting for the first time Saturday. Kennedy is usually the youngest player on the court at these J500 and J300 tournaments, so this will be a new experience for him.
"I'm used to being the young guy in these tournaments," Kennedy said. "So this is kind of cool, but also I'm kind of annoyed that I'm not the younger guy. I've seen him a couple of time, so I know what to expect, but he's a great player and has all the toppings on the salad, as we like to say."
"As the baby of the tournament, it's special," said Kouame, who, like Kennedy, is playing in just his third J500. "But I don't have a lot of expectations, so I'm just doing my own game, my own things and it goes as it goes."
The other boys semifinal will also feature a double-digit seed and an unseeded player, with No. 14 seed Nathan Trouve of France facing last week's champion Andres Santamarta Roig of Spain.
After all eight of Thursday's round of 16 boys matches were decided in straight sets, all four quarterfinals were decided in third sets. Santamarta defeated No. 10 seed Petr Brunclik of the Czech Republic 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 to win his tenth straight match, while Trouve came back to beat unseeded Ognjen Milic of Serbia 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Fifteen-year-olds Ksenia Efremova of France and Hannah Klugman of Great Britain will take on in-form opponents in the semifinals after straight-sets victories Friday. Efremova took a 3-1 lead in the first set over unseeded Diana-Ioana Simionescu of Romania, lost two straight games, then reeled off the next nine games in her 6-3, 6-0 win. She will face No. 5 seed Elizara Yaneva of Bulgaria, who has now lost six games in four matches this week with her 6-2, 6-2 win over No. 3 seed Kristina Penickova.
Yaneva, who won the J500 in Merida two weeks ago, said her change in attitude has been responsible for all her recent success.
"I'm feeling good on the court, and I'm trying to enjoy it as much as possible," said the 17-year-old, who withdrew from the Bradenton J300 after winning Merida the day before Bradenton began. "To think about the next point, and to be honest, not thinking. So much thinking and then I get nervous and stop playing."
Yaneva had lost to Penickova in three sets in the first round of the US Open Junior championships this year, but her preference for clay and the opportunity to practice on the green version for a week before the Orange Bowl was a major factor reversing that result.
Klugman, the defending champion, had been through three tough matches to reach the quarterfinals, but looked back in form in her 6-4, 6-1 win over 14-year-old Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic. Klugman will now have an opportunity in the semifinals to avenge her second round loss in the 2024 US Open Junior championships, facing Bradenton J300 finalist Tereza Krejcova of the Czech Republic. Krejcova defeated unseeded Nadia Lagaev of Canada 6-1, 6-0.
The 16s singles finals are set for Saturday, with 14-year-old Jordan Lee looking to add the Orange Bowl title to the IMG Academy International 16s title he won a week earlier in Bradenton.
The second-seeded Lee defeated No. 9 seed William Zhang 6-4, 6-2, his fifth straight-sets win of the week, but doesn't feel those victories have come easily.
"This tournament has been really tough, it's been really physical, because of the court conditions and the wind," Lee, who trailed 2-0 and 3-1 in the first set of the semifinals. "Today, I wasn't really physical enough with my legs, but as I got used to conditions more I started playing a bit better, making him work."
Lee, who would be the first boy to win the Eddie Herr/IMG Academy 16s and Orange Bowl 16s title back-to-back since Sam Riffice in 2014, said he's feeling two versions of fatigue.
"I'm a little physically drained, but more mentally though," Lee said. "After win streaks, it's pretty tough to keep it going, but I'm keeping it going."
Lee will face No. 5 seed Ford McCollum, who reached the final with a 6-3, 4-1 retired decision from doubles partner Zavier Augustin.
"The conditions were tough today with the wind and it was tough to play super clean," said the 16-year-old left-hander from Los Angeles. "Just making a lot of balls and pressuring his backhand side, using my leftiness and making a lot of first serves was big. So I was just staying solid most of the time, letting him make the errors, beat himself on the court, was the big key today."
McCollum and Lee are friends and recall a practice set at the USTA National Campus several years ago, but they have not met in competition.
"He's on a run right now, won Eddie Herr and is in the finals now, so it's going to be a tough match," McCollum said. "He's got a lot of confidence, but I'm feeling good, so it'll be fun. I'm excited."
The girls 16s final will feature unseeded Kaia Giribalan and No. 4 seed Xiaotong(Bella) Wang of China.
Wang trailed No. 9 seed Sophie Triquart of Germany 5-1 in the first set before winning the next 11 games of the match.
"I didn't think too much, just find some solutions and play my tennis," said the 15-year-old, who trains in Barcelona and China. "In the first few games I played too short and soft and she attacked, but I find solution."
Wang, who had never played on green clay until these two events, but won an ITF J60 on red clay last month, said she has adjusted to it, although she lost in the first round in Bradenton to eventual champion Hanne Estrada of Mexico. "It's faster than red clay and I'm already used to it." Should she win Saturday, Wang will be the first Orange Bowl champion from China.
Giribalan trains at the Evert Academy in Boca Raton, so she had no adjusting to do, and with her 6-0, 6-2 win over unseeded Sarah Ye in an all-US final, she avoided the pitfalls of a third set for the first time since the third round.
"I came in more prepared this time, physically and mentally," said Giribalan, who won an ITF J60 in October. "I had a strategy, and I was happy with the way I executed it. I practice with her, so I knew her game style, and she tries to be very aggressive, so I was prepared to be consistent and getting the balls deeper."
Giribalan will be playing in her second Orange Bowl final Saturday, after she and partner Isabelle DeLuccia, seeded No. 3, lost in the doubles championship match Friday afternoon to Montserrat Marron of Mexico and Nicole Okhtenberg 2-6, 6-2, 10-7.
Marron and Okhtenberg, the No. 4 seeds, were first-time partners who got together because both of their previously arranged partners withdrew.
"We decided to play doubles like a day before the tournament ," said Okhtenberg, who knew Marron only as a fellow competitor in ITF tournaments. "Both of our partners had canceled."
"It was just meant to be," said Marron, also 16.
The match tiebreaker in the final was the third in their five victories, so they were comfortable in that situation.
"It helped that we had played a few tiebreaks before," said Marron. "So the nervousness, it wasn't a new feeling, and we were able to come through."
"We were laughing most of the time, happy, so that helped," Okhtenberg said.
Boys 16s doubles champions and top seeds McCollum and Augustin were also competing as a team for the first time this week, with their 6-4, 6-2 win over No. 2 seeds Samim Filiz of Turkey and Jerrid Gaines Jr. setting McCollum up for a sweep of the boys 16s title.
"This was probably our best match today," said McCollum, noting that they had advanced in their previous three courtesy of match tiebreakers. "We probably could have closed out those matches a little better, but we played well in the breakers."
Augustin attributed their success in today's final to their serving.
"We served really, really well," said Augustin. "We did not miss a first serve. We also stayed in our cross rallies really well, so we let the baseline guy do his job."
"We definitely played better together as a team than the other days," McCollum said. "Trusting each other better and allowing ourselves to play our shots rather than rushing points."
"I loved playing with Ford, it was really fun, and it's something I'll never forget," said Augustin. "We weren't stressed out and I enjoyed every moment. But I'm very, very tired, exhausted, and I really want to just rest."
The 18s doubles finals are set for Saturday, with an unseeded team versus a seeded team in each.
In the girls final, No. 2 seeds Alena and Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic will face unseeded Deniz Dilek of Turkey and Beatrise Zeltina of Latvia. The Kovackova sisters defeated No. 4 seeds Wakana Sonobe of Japan and Laima Vladson of Lithuania 6-4, 2-6, 10-6 to extend their winning streak as a team to 22 matches. Dilek and Zeltina beat their third straight seeded team, preventing a replay of the Bradenton final by defeating No. 3 seeds Krejcova and Julie Pastikova of the Czech Republic 7-6(5), 6-3.
The boys championship will be decided when No. 5 seeds Timofei Derepasko of Russian and Amir Omarkhanov of Kazakhstan face unseeded Bernet and Denis Petak of the Czech Republic. Derepasko and Omarkhanov defeated No. 3 seeds Maxwell Exsted and Colombia's Miguel Tobon 6-3, 7-6(4), while Bernet and Petak beat No. 6 seeds Oskari Paldanius of Finland and Alan Wazny of Poland 6-4, 6-4.
Draws and order of play for Saturday:
Live scoring:
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