Qualifiers Advance at ITF JB1 Pan American Closed; Back-to-Back ITF Junior Circuit Singles Titles for Americans Last Week; Michelsen Qualifies for Tiburon Challenger

©Colette Lewis 2022--
Nicholasville Kentucky--

The first day of the ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed featured an unusually large number of three-set matches, with 14 of the 32 contests going the distance.  With the seeds receiving byes, there were no upsets, but three qualifiers did advance to the second round.

Adam Bojkovic got a taste of a pressure situation in the qualifying, winning his first match in a 10-point tiebreaker, and that experience may have paid off today, with the 17-year-old from New Jersey defeating wild card Rudy Quan 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(4). He will face No. 13 seed Armando Sotelo of Mexico in Tuesday's second round. Sixteen-year-old Matthew Forbes, who lost only four games in his two qualifying matches, defeated David Krasner 6-2, 6-4 to set up a second round match with No. 5 seed Kaylan Bigun.

The only one of the six qualifiers to advance to the second round in the girls draw is 16-year-old Jessica Bernales, who today defeated Maya Dutta 6-4, 6-1.

Bernales, who is from Las Vegas Nevada, said her two qualifying wins, the second in a match tiebreaker, helped her get comfortable with the indoor conditions at the Top Seed Tennis Club.

"It helped me get used to indoors, feeling the ball more, and I feel that it really helped me in this match too," Bernales said. "There's actually not many indoor courts in Vegas, but I like playing indoors. It's faster, and I like that."

Bernales' game style is eclectic, with a lob, an angle, a slice, and her favorite, a drop shot, likely to come off her racquet at any moment.

"Today, I took the ball early and moved forward when I had the chance," said Bernales, who is coached by Tim Blenkiron and Karl Jones at the No Quit Academy in Las Vegas. "I used my variety too, like drop shots, slices. Ever since I was younger, I liked playing differently."

Bernales has played a half dozen ITF Junior Circuit events in the past two years, but this is her second tournament at the Grade 1 level after qualifying and reaching the third round at the J1 in College Park in August. 

But those five wins in College Park did not prompt her to raise her expectations for this week.

"I was just hoping to get through qualies and go as far as I can go," Bernales said. "I think I'm playing pretty good right now, but there's a lot of room for improvement--my serves and my returns. We're working on my style and trying to improve it even more."

Bernales will play No. 9 seed Ashton Bowers in the second round Tuesday.

In addition to the second round of singles, the first round of doubles will be played Tuesday.

Kaylan Bigun and Mexico's Rodrigo Pacheco are the top seeds in the boys draw and Tatum Evans and Valeria Ray are the No. 1 seeds in the girls draw. As with the singles, the seeds have first round byes and will play their first matches in Wednesday's second round.

I covered the finals of the ITF J4 in Corpus Christi in my Saturday post, but there were six other titles for Americans in addition to those last week on the ITF Junior Circuit.

At the J5 in Lyon France, 15-year-old Leena Friedman swept the titles, earning her first singles and second doubles title on the ITF Junior Circuit. Friedman, who was unseeded, beat top seed Ophelie Boullay of France 7-5, 6-2 in the singles final, then partnered with Judith Attias of France to take the doubles title. The unseeded pair defeated No. 2 seeds Lila Grace Bachour of France and Francesca Saroli of Switerzland 6-2, 6-2 in the final.

At the J5 in Albania, 17-year-old Kate Mansfield won her second tournament in as many weeks, with the top seed defeating No. 2 seed Zeynep Erbakan of Turkey 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-0 for her third ITF Junior Circuit singles title.

At the J5 in Managua Nicaragua, 16-year-old Jacob Golden is now undefeated in two weeks of competition there. A week after sweeping the titles, Golden did it again, although he did have a different doubles partner for last week's championship. In the singles final, the unseeded Texan defeated unseeded Elias Sumann of Austria 6-2, 7-6(3). In the doubles final, No. 3 seeds Golden and Alfredo Gallegos of Ecuador defeated No. 4 seeds Fabrizio Fallas and Adrian Quiros Monterrey of Costa Rica 7-6(3), 7-6(9).

Lucia Donnelly didn't quite match Golden's fortnight in Nicaragua, but the 16-year-old from New York did win back-to-back singles titles. Unseeded this past week, Donnelly defeated No. 1 seed Nicole Alfaro of Costa Rica 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 in the final.

Qualifying was completed today at the ATP Challenger 80 in Tiburon California, with 18-year-old Alex Michelsen advancing to the main draw. Michelsen defeated No. 6 seed Gage Brymer(UCLA) 6-2, 7-5 in the first round of qualifying yesterday and today beat Simon Carr of Ireland 6-2, 4-6, 6-1. He will make his Challenger debut Tuesday against a player even younger than he is: No. 4 seed Juncheng Jerry Shang of China. 

Other Americans qualifying for Tiburon are Christian Langmo(Miami), Evan King(Michigan) and Nick Chappell(TCU).  Wild cards into the main draw went to Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M), Jonas Ziverts(Arizona) and Sam Riffice(Florida).  Denis Kudla and Stefan Kozlov are the top two seeds.

Free live streaming is available at the ATP Challenger TV site, with Mike Cation providing commentary.