Half of Orange Bowl J500 Seeds Gone After Thursday's Second Round, Ten US Boys Reach Round of 16; All-USA Semifinals Set for Friday in 16s Division; Junior Orange Bowl Begins Friday

©Colette Lewis 2025--

Fort Lauderdale FL--

Wednesday heat and humidity disappeared Thursday morning, with temperature in the 70s and a light breeze providing perfect conditions for a long day of Orange Bowl competition at the Jimmy Evert Tennis Center.

When the final match finished under the lights, ten US boys and four US girls had advanced to the round of 16 of the ITF J500, and all the semifinalists in both the boys and girls 16s divisions are Americans.

Exactly half the seeds in the 18s are out after two rounds, although both No. 1 seeds are through. Victoria Barros of Brazil defeated Antonina Sushkova of Ukraine 6-0, 6-3 and Yannick Alexandrescou, who has now officially switched countries from Romania to France, beating wild card Nikolas Stoot 6-3, 6-3.

No. 4 seed Thea Frodin was one of the first upset victims, with Tereza Hermanova of the Czech Republic defeating the 16-year-old American 6-4, 6-4.

Hermanova is now in her fourth week on North American clay, having competed at the J300 and J500 in Mexico and the J300 in Bradenton last week.

"I'm feeling great," said the 16-year-old from Prague, who counts this as her best win of the six she's posted on this trip. "I think it's better to play more matches, it's great."

Hermanova credited her variety with her success against Frodin today.

"I think I changed it up, some slices, some drop shots and I think that was the way that I did it," said Hermanova, who is playing in the Orange Bowl for the first time. "I think we knew before the match how to play the game and that was good. And today I was returning really well."

Frodin was hardly the only seed to fall, with No. 5 seed Luna Cinalli going out to 15-year-old Welles Newman 6-2, 6-0. Newman who picked up three main draw wins at USTA Pro Circuit W35s last month, is playing her first junior event since reaching the third round of the US Open in September.

The other three US girls to advance are wild card Lani Chang, Anita Tu and qualifier Sarah Ye. Chang, who turned 15 Tuesday, defeated Lyla Messler 6-4, 6-0; Tu defeated Noelia Manta of Switzerland 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-3 and Ye advanced when No. 13 seed Ha Eum Lee of Korea retired at 4-6, 5-2.

Keeping up with all the American boys was impossible, with 17 of the 32 players competing today from the United States. Ten of those advanced, with five winning over their countrymen.

Safir Azam defeated Agassi Rusher 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in a battle of wild cards, with Azam set to play top seed Alexandrescou Friday morning.

Wild card Marcel Latak defeated Gavin Goode 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 and No. 10 seed Noah Johnston beat wild card Tyler Lee 7-5, 6-0. The other two all-US second round matches were lengthy battles with No. 12 seed Michael Antonius defeating Vihaan Reddy 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-2 and Tanishk Konduri beating qualifier Navneet Raghuram 5-7, 6-0, 6-4.  The final game of the Konduri-Raghuram match was a classic, with Raghuram serving to stay in the match. After nine deuces and errors on his first two match points, Konduri converted his third on a Raghuram error.

Qualifier Benjamin Saltman pulled off the biggest upset of the day, defeating No. 3 seed Ryo Tabata of Japan 2-6, 6-2, 6-1, while Carel Ngounoue beat No. 13 seed Kuan-Shou Chen of Taiwan 7-6(4), 6-4.

Three other seeded Americans advanced, with No. 2 seed Jack Kennedy beating Volodymyr Gurenko of Canada 6-4, 6-1, No. 8 seed Ronit Karki rebounding for a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 win over Daniel Jade of France and No. 16 seed Andrew Johnson beating Juan Miguel Bolivar Idarraga of Colombia 6-0, 5-7, 6-1.

No. 4 seed Oskari Paldanius of Finland lost to qualifier Olive Sanders of the Czech Republic 6-1, 7-5; No. 5 seed Keaton Hance couldn't stop the momentum of ITF J300 Bradenton finalist Dimitar Kisimov of Bulgaria, who posted a 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory.

 

Yannik Alvarez of Puerto Rico defeated his doubles partner, No. 9 seed Ziga Sesko of Slovenia, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4, closing out the match with four straight games.

"I've been traveling with him for the past couple of weeks, playing doubles with him, so it's tough to play him," said the 17-year-old Georgia resident, who is with the ITF Grand Slam Development Touring Team on this trip. "He hits very fast, the ball comes super fast and I honestly wasn't mentally ready, I was late, lazy footwork. In the second set, I knew I had to start strong, got the early break and just held serve. He wasn't playing his best, I wasn't playing my best and I was down most of the third set, 3-1, 4-2. I played solid, he gave me some mistakes, which was pretty lucky."

Alvarez, a blue chip in the class of 2027, recently committed to the University of Georgia.

"I visited a lot of schools, but once I visited Georgia, I knew that's where I wanted to be," Alvarez said. "I fell in love."

Two rounds of singles will be played Friday, with the singles round of 16 and quarterfinals on the schedule, as well as the doubles quarterfinals.

The girls 16s division is still not quite caught up after the rain on Monday and Tuesday, but they will be playing their singles semifinals Friday, as well as two rounds of doubles. 

All four semifinalists in the boys and girls 16s are from the United States.

In the girls top half semifinal, Priscilla Sirichantho will face Alexandra Miroshnichenko; in the bottom half, Daniela Del Mastro will play No. 14 seed Julia Seversen.  

In the boys top half semifinal, No. 14 seed Colter Amey, who has reached the semifinals for the second straight week, will play No. 7 seed Daniel Malacek; in the bottom half, No. 12 seed Gadin Arun will play No. 2 seed Matias Reyniak.

Play will begin at 9:30 a.m. Friday, due to several late doubles matches, with the 18s third round and the girls 16s semifinals, followed by the 18s quarterfinals and boys 16s semifinals.

Live scoring is available at IonCourt, with live streaming at SaveMyPlay.

The Junior Orange Bowl begins Thursday at four sites in the Miami area. 

Below are seeds in each division:

B12s
1. Rui He

2. Oliver Baker

3. Evan Fan

4. James Borchard

5. William McGugin

6. Ethan Wang

7. Jobe Dikkenberg

8. Pranav Madamanchi

B14s

1. Mohamed Genidy

2. Tristan Ascenzo

3. Kazuki Nakajima

4. Siyun Kim

5. Evan Giurescu

6. Ishaan Marla

7. Alexander Anderson

8. Neve Upston

G12s

1. Fangqiao Zou

2. Lucy Dupere

3. Ann Sandru

4. Mila Mikoczi Spivey

5. Seungyeon Seo

6. Inie Toli

7. Summer Yang

8. Cataleya Brown

G14s

1. Nikol Davletshina

2. Isha Manchala

3. Tanvi Pandey

4. Isabella Yan

5. Olivia Lin

6. Yerin Lim

7. Ayaka Iwasa

8. Audrey Dussault

Due to the overlap with the Orange Bowl, I will not be covering the event in person, but will monitor the results when the tournament reaches the quarterfinal stage Monday.