Top Seeds Lee and Davletshina Win IMG Academy International Titles; Mrva and Santamarta Roig Advance to ITF J300 Boys Final; Kostovic and Krejcova Play Sunday for Girls J300 Bradenton Title
©Colette Lewis 2024--
Bradenton FL--
Six singles champions and three doubles champions received the first edition of the Bollettieri trophies Saturday at the IMG Academy International Tennis Championships, with the Oscar-sized replicas of the statue of late founder Nick Bollettieri a permanent reminder of both their accomplishments this week and Bollettieri's contribution to junior tennis development.
Former top pros, including Monica Seles, Tommy Haas, Max Mirnyi and IMG Academy Director of Player Development Jimmy Arias, were on hand to congratulate the winners during the trophy ceremony held on the hard court of the newly christened Bollettieri Stadium.
Two Americans were among those collecting the trophies: girls 12s champion Nikol Davletshina of Boca Raton Florida and boys 16s champion Jordan Lee, both of whom were the top seeds.
Davletshina won all six of her matches in straight sets, including her quick 6-2, 6-1 win over unseeded Minori Sato of Japan in the final, who was unable to employ her drop shot to maximum effect against Davletshina.
"She tried that a lot in all of her matches and I think she won because she kept dropping everyone," Davletshina said. "I knew she was going to drop shot off her forehand, so I was ready when I hit to her forehand. I wasn't ready on the first three ones, but then I understood and didn't give her a chance, and I would win the point."
Davletshina, who won the Easter Bowl 12s title in March, said this championship was "much more fun. Because last year here I lost in the quarterfinals, so this year I set a goal to win it."
Although the Bollettieri trophy will be prominently displayed and admired, Davletshina is even more excited about a new companion.
"My parents promised me if I win this we'd get a dog," said Davletshina, who already has one in mind. "It's a labrador, a black one."
Davletshina is playing the Junior Orange Bowl 12s next week, but is planning to move the 14s division after that event.
The boys 12s final, between two unseeded players, was also one of the shorter matches, all played simultaneously, on a chilly and breezy morning. Mingeon Choi of Korea defeated Saku Agui of Japan 6-3, 6-1, to become the second consecutive Korean to earn the title in that division.
Last year's 12s champion, Jang Junseo of Korea, was attempting to match the feat of Michael Antonius of the United States, who made history at the tournament when he won the 12s and 14s titles back-to-back in 2022 and 2023.
Lee was playing his boys 16s final on the adjacent green clay Bollettieri Stadium court, against wild card and No. 4 seed Emilio Camacho of Ecuador, securing the title by coping better in the tense moments of his 7-5, 6-4 victory.
Lee got the late break in the first set to win the set, then took the lead in the second when he broke Camacho at 2-3. After the two traded holds, Lee served for the match at 5-3, but didn't get to match point, with Camacho continuing to earn points with both his drop shot and excellent defense. Lee saved one break point with a forehand winner, but shanked forehand gave Camacho a second break point and when he returned a Lee overhead, forcing an error, he was back on serve.
Any momentum Camacho may have had didn't last however, with a couple of unforced errors and a Lee forehand that forced an error setting up two match points at 15-40. On the first, Lee broke a string mid-rally, losing the point, but rather than bemoan his bad luck, he calmly went to his bag and retrieved another racquet.
"The first thought that popped into my head was 'next point,'" said the 14-year-old. "It was really unfortunate, but I knew that if I kept calm and composed, I think I can do well in the next point, which I did."
Camacho hit a good first serve on the second match point, but Lee got it back deep, eventually drawing Camacho in with a slice. Camacho's drop shot wasn't his best and Lee sent his forehand reply so deep in the corner that Camacho had no play on it.
"He had really good feel, especially his drop shots," Lee said of his 15-year-old opponent. "Drop shotting he won most of the points; I won only two out of like eight. He played through the court and hit a really good ball, didn't really miss. You really had to hit a good ball off his shot, which is tough to do."
Lee lost in the Eddie Herr 12s final in 2021, to Teodor Davidov, who he beat 6-2, 6-2 yesterday in the semifinals, and as he heads to the Orange Bowl in two days, he is confident, but also looking to improve.
"This one means a lot, I played really well this week, and I'm happy with what I did, but I've got to keep working," said Lee, who lost in the Wimbledon U14 final in July. "You take from what you learn from a final for the next final, or even the next tournament, and you deal with it better."
Like Camacho, Hanne Estrada of Mexico was also a seeded wild card, with the 15-year-old seeded No. 12. Although she had doubts about her chances at the outset, Estrada finished as the girls 16s champion, defeating No. 6 seed Paige Wygodzki of New York 6-3, 6-4.
"I'm very happy with my results, because when I saw the draw, I was like, oh no, I don't want to lose first round, because I got really hard opponent," Estrada said of Xiaotong Wang of China. "But I played really good tennis and I got my confidence up and started doing better each match."
Estrada said her strategy against Wygodzki was to take the ball early to rob Wygodzki of time to hit her deep left-handed topspin forehands. She was also aware that Wygodzki had played a five-hour semifinal match against Londyn McCord, and didn't want to get into a similar war of attrition.
Wygodzki admitted that she wasn't as fresh for the final as she had hoped.
"I didn't feel as great as I did the rest of the tournament, a little more tired each day," said the 16-year-old. "Today I just didn't have the spring in my shots that I normally do. The biggest takeaway for me this week is making sure to be as efficient on court as possible. Yesterday there were moments when I could have definitely closed out faster, which definitely would have helped in today's match. But getting this experience here, when last year I wasn't even able to come to these tournaments because I was in school and I wasn't even getting in to these tournaments, now being here is a great experience; I loved every minute of it."
Both Wygodzki and Estrada will be playing the Orange Bowl 16s, which begin Sunday, with first round play for 16s also on Monday.
The girls 14s champion is unseeded Daniel Baranes of Israel, who defeated top seed Tea Kovacevic of Bosnia Herzegovina 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
Baranes, the 2023 Junior Orange Bowl 12s champion, was a bit surprised to be unseeded this week with her 47-18 record this year, but despite those numbers, she was experiencing a title drought.
"I'm really excited because this year was a lot of ups and downs for me," said the 13-year-old, who trains in Israel and Switzerland. "The last tournament I won was in the winter. And I won singles and doubles, the first time in my life I win both singles and doubles. I was fighting every match, every match here was really hard and the girls here was amazing."
Baranes was particularly happy with her win in the final over Kovacevic.
"She is one of my best friends and plays amazing tennis, and it was really good match," Baranes said. "Usually by the final I am tired, but this week I had a lot of energy, and I think I make my coach and my family really proud."
Baranes will try to win a second consecutive Junior Orange Bowl title next week in the 14s, and then is setting her sights on the Les Petits As tournament next month in Tarbes.
The boys doubles final was played Saturday afternoon, with unseeded Maddox Bose and Noah Bayon taking out top seeds Lee and Mason Vaughn 6-4, 6-2 in an all-USA contest.
Complete draws can be found at the USTA tournament website.
The ITF J300 finals are set for Sunday morning, with two Czech players, one boy and one girl, still alive for the title. Top seed Maxim Mrva defeated unseeded Dominick Mosejczuk of the United States 6-3, 6-1 and will play No. 16 seed Andres Santamarta Roig, who beat No. 5 seed Jagger Leach 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
Mrva, who lost in the second round of the J500 in Merida Mexico last week as the top seed, was ready to go home after that disappointing loss. But he was convinced to travel to the United States for these two events, in hopes of securing an Top 10 ITF junior ranking and the ATP Challenger wild cards that ranking earns via the ITF/ATP Accelerator Program.
"After I lost in Merida, I was like, ok fine, I go home," said the 17-year-old, who lost in the quarterfinals here last year. "I don't want to be here, I want to be with my family at home. But they said I have to stay, I will get better, so we practice every day, we figured out some things, and yeah I think I played a lot better now."
Mrva didn't give Mosejczuk much of an opportunity to add to his list of upsets this week, serving well and keeping the 17-year-old New Yorker on defense.
"I think I was better at the key moments, I was focused and I wanted to win," Mrva said. "He has a good serve, good forehand, good backhand, but my serve, my forehand and my backhand, I was better in every aspect, so I'm happy for that."
Mrva is planning on closing out his junior career with this North American clay swing, and he knew exactly what points would secure that Top 10 year-end ranking.
"I'm not going to Australia, and we said with my team that these are my last junior tournaments," Mrva said. "Now for sure I'm Top 10, had to make final, so I'm happy for that."
Santamarta had a much longer battle with Leach, who had rebounded from a set down in his quarterfinal win over Yannick Alexandrescou of Romania, but couldn't quite pull off the comeback today.
Down a break after dropping the first game of the third set, Leach got it back to 3-3, but continued to have difficulty getting easy holds. At 4-all, Leach saved one break point with a service winner, but hit a backhand long on the second, and Santamarta held at love to book his spot in the final.
"It was a match that both could have won it," said the 17-year-old, who said he has been working on developing his physical strength in the past year. "I try to hit forehand, serve, backhand with energy, every ball, but in the last games of the match, you try to be more focused on getting the ball in, not hitting lots of winners."
Santamarta and Mrva played in the second round at Wimbledon this year, with Mrva winning 6-4, 6-2, but Santamarta is pleased with his level of play this week, likes the green clay, and is ready for a rematch.
"I trust in myself, let's play and go for it," Santamarta said.
The Czech in the girls final is neither of the Kovackova sisters, but rather No. 4 seed Tereza Krejcova, who beat 14-year-old No. 2 seed Jana Kovackova 6-4, 7-5.
Krejcova, 16, had not played Jana before, despite their geographic proximity.
"I tried to play very aggressive, hit winners and my serve was good today," said Krejcova, who will be seeking her first J300 title in her second final at that level Sunday morning. "I tried to come forward too."
Krejcova, who said she likes green clay just as well as red, is looking forward to playing top seed and 2023 finalist Teodora Kostovic of Serbia for the first time in the final.
"It's a very good atmosphere here and so good a place," Krejcova said. "I play very well this week and I hope tomorrow I play good and it will be a good match."
Kostovic defeated No. 3 seed Alena Kovackova for the second straight year here, coming from behind for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory. Kostovic, who was originally planning to play the W50 this week in Tampa, took a wild card here when she was reminded that the winner is awarded a qualifying wild card to the WTA 500 in Abu Dhabi in February.
The Kovackovas got some revenge in the girls doubles final, with the top seeds winning their 18th straight match, all at J300s or higher events, with a 6-4, 6-0 victory over No. 2 seeds Krejcova and Julie Pastikova.
The boys doubles title went to unseeded Matteo Morazzi of Spain and Nathan Trouve of France, who defeated unseeded Glib Sekachov of Ukraine and Dmitry Suboch of Slovenia 6-3, 6-3 in today's final.
Morazzi and Trouve required only one tiebreaker all week, with their ability to hold serve leading to their dominance.
"We played a very high level match with no breaks against, yesterday and today," said Morazzi, who is heading to USC, as is Trouve, for the spring dual match season. "Yesterday in semis, we didn't face a single break point," said Trouve. "So it was great, pressure off."
Morazzi and Trouve have won doubles titles at a J60, two J100s and this J300, so they are obviously looking to cap their junior careers next week with a title at the J500 Orange Bowl.
"We've been going step by step for a while now," said Morazzi. "Hopefully next week too. This week went very well, a postive week in both singles and doubles, so we go for more next week." "Back-to-back wins on green clay would be good," Trouve added.
0 comments:
Post a Comment