Eight Qualifiers Advance, Top Boys Seed Out at ITF J300 Bradenton; Upsets Continue in 12s, 14s, 16s Division at IMG Academy International Championships

©Colette Lewis 2025--
Bradenton FL--

Rain has been an infrequent visitor the first week of December at the IMG Academy International Championships and ITF J300 this decade, but a morning shower on Tuesday left the hard courts needing several hours to dry, sending the 12s divisions second round singles matches indoors and postponing the first round of doubles until Wednesday.

Because the ITF J300 is being played on green clay, disruptions were minimal, allowing that tournament to stay on schedule. But the upsets that began Monday continued, with five more seeds, including No. 1 Yannick Alexandrescou, eliminated.

Alexandrescou, who played in the singles semifinals and the doubles final Saturday night at the ITF J500 in Merida, looked unwell throughout the opening games of his match with Lucas Yunez of Ecuador, and eventually requested an immediate visit from the trainer at 5-all in the first set, saying he was struggling to breathe. He attempted a few more points but could not continue, with the 17-year-old from Romania, a quarterfinalist here last year, retiring. He and Ryo Tabata, the No. 1 seeds in doubles, gave a walkover to the team of Juan Miguel Bolivar Idarraga of Colombia and Pedro Chabalgoity of Brazil, with no other team signing in as alternates.

No. 16 seed Linus Lagerbohm of Finland, also a semifinalist last week at Merida, retired from his match with wild card Jordan Lee, the 2024 16s champion here. Lee was leading 5-1 when Lagerbohm could not continue due to illness. Lagerbohm also withdrew from doubles, with partner Stefan Haita of Romania, but there was one alternate team signed in to take their place, the twin brothers Max and Jan Frolich of the Czech Republic. The Frolichs lost to Lee and his partner Jerrid Gaines Jr. 6-0, 7-5.

The other two boys seeds to fall today were No. 14 seed Tito Chavez of Spain and No. 15 seed Ryan Cozad. Chavez lost to wild card Samim Filiz of Turkey 7-5, 5-7, 6-4, while Cozad was beaten 6-1, 6-1 by qualifier Tim Vaisman of Israel.

The only girls seed to lose today was No. 11 seed Capucine Jauffret, who was beaten by qualifier Lingling Zhu of China 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4). 

Zhu, who won both of her qualifying matches Sunday in straight sets, had a couple of chances to finish the match without a tiebreaker with Jauffret serving at 5-6, but Jauffret held and Zhu double faulted on the opening point of the tiebreaker. 

That unfortunate start didn't prove costly, as she got the next two points and led 4-2 at the first change of ends. Jauffret got the minibreak back for 4-4, but Zhu was more locked in during the last three points, with Jauffret making three errors to end it.

"I wanted to play every point, focus on every shot and didn't think too much," said the 16-year-old, who has recently trained in Naples Florida. "I tried to focus on what I worked on in practice."

Zhu hadn't played a tournament on green clay until this one, just an occasional practice, so the two qualifying matches were helpful to her, and to her doubles and training partner, Avery Alexander of Canada, who defeated IMG student Ava Rodriguez 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 on the IMG Stadium Court.

Alexander, who also won two qualifying matches in straight sets on Sunday, was happy to have those matches as preparation, as she had not played during the clay swing in Mexico.

"At my academy we did train on green clay, that was one of the main surfaces," said the 16-year-old, who during the past six months has been training and traveling with a private coach, sharing him with Zhu. "But over the past six months or so, I haven't had much training on green clay. So the qualifying matches were good experience, good practice before the main draw. They tough matches, good players, strong players in the qualifying and I got used to the surface a little bit more."

Alexander said that playing an IMG student on Stadium Court was "a good experience."

"I was blocking out the noise after the points, just focusing on myself, my own serves, point by point," Alexander said. "I was sticking to my patterns, so I didn't have to worry too much about what was going on, who was there or any of that."

Zhu will play Tereza Hermanova of the Czech Republic in Wednesday's second round, with Alexander facing No. 16 seed Nancy Lee.  Zhu and Alexander lost their first round doubles match to Canadians Clemence Mercier and Andrea Cabio 6-3, 2-6, 10-6.

The other qualifier to advance to the second round was Ana Avramovic, who beat Rira Kosaka of Japan 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, while lucky loser Sena Yoon also posted a win.

Yoon, who defeated Kori Montoya 6-3, 6-3, contemplated leaving for her home in Boca Raton after losing her final round qualifying match Sunday to Armira Kockinis 5-7, 6-4, 10-3, But she decided to spend another night in Bradenton after drawing the No. 2 lucky loser spot and when the girl who drew the top spot could not play due to injury, Yoon went in for Victoria Barros of Brazil, who was the No. 2 seed before she withdrew after making the J500 Merida final. 

"The next day I came to sign in, thinking, oh, I'm not going to play and I wasn't even ready to play tennis," said the 17-year-old Columbia recruit, who did not have to play Monday with Barros  receiving a Tuesday start. "But the girl in front of me at No. 1 didn't sign in, so I got the spot."

Yoon had lost three times to Montoya this year at ITF Junior Circuit events, most recently at October's J300 in Houston, so she was especially pleased with today's result. 

"I think I played pretty good today, some funky shots here and there, but it was good," said Yoon, who will face Kristina Liutova, the 2025 ITF J300 College Park champion, Wednesday. Liutova defeated qualifier Yilin Chen 6-2, 6-3.

Five qualifiers reached the second round in the boys draw. In addition to Vaisman, Koki Nara of Japan, Tyler Lee, Noble Renfrow and Kamil Stolarczyk advanced with wins today.

Lee cruised past Merida quarterfinalist Olivers Sanders of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-2; Nara, an IMG student, beat wild card Nick Stoot by the same score. At the Legacy Hotel courts, Renfrow beat Max Frohlich of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-4 and Stolarcyzk defeated Dani Szabo of Canada 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

The first round of ITF doubles finished at dusk, with top seeds Laima Vladson of Uzbekistan and Nadia Lagaev of Canada advancing, as did No. 2 seeds Ansastasija Cvetkovic of Serbia and Sol Ailin Larraya Guidi of Argentina. The only seeded team to lose was No. 6 Sofia Bielinska of Ukraine and Sofia Meabe of Argentina. They fell to Nancy Lee and Kaya Moe 6-2, 6-2.

Two-time junior slam champions Alan Wazny of Poland and Oskari Paldanius of Finland, the No. 2 seeds, advanced, as did all seeded teams with the exception of those who did not play: No. 1 Alexandrescou and Tabata and No. 5 Lagerbohm and Haita.

The girls 12s lost their No. 1 seed in today's second round play, with Xiaoke Li of China beating Lucy Dupere 3-6, 6-4, 10-8. No. 3 seed Darcy Basist of Australian also lost, to Yoonseol Choi of Korea 6-0, 6-2.

No. 2 seed Yerin Lim of Korea lost in the second round of the Girls 14s, with Aiym Kanagatova of Kazakhstan posting a 1-6, 6-2, 7-5 win. 

No. 2 seed Daniella Sales, the USTA National 14s champion, was beaten in the second round of the girls 16s by London Evans 6-1, 6-0.

The top four seeds in the boys 16s and boys 12s are all still alive going into the round of 16; boys 14s No. 2 seed Kazuki Nakajima of Japan lost in the first round Monday.

All draws can be found at the USTA tournament website. 

A Question and Answer session with former ATP Top 5 player Kevin Anderson, hosted by IMG's Jimmy Arias, is scheduled for 3 p.m. Wednesday at the IMG Academy's Champions Room.