Eddie Herr Seeds with Main Draw Beginning Monday; Ngounoue Captures JA Merida Title; Shnaider Wins WTA 125 in Uruguay; Canada Claims First Davis Cup Title

©Colette Lewis 2022--
Bradenton FL--

The rain in the forecast held off until the evening, so all the Eddie Herr International qualifying matches were completed today, with main draw matches in all divisions set to begin Monday at the IMG Academy.

The Eddie Herr ITF J1, played on the HarTru courts, will begin with 42 first round singles matches, with those who played two qualifying matches today getting a welcome day off Monday. With temperatures in the low 80s and the humidity high, four sets of tennis (plus match tiebreakers for third sets) was no easy task, and neither of the top seeds in qualifying made it through to the main draw.

Girls No. 1 seed Antonia Vergara Rivera of Chile lost in the final round of qualifying to Anastasiia Firman of Ukraine 6-4, 4-6, 10-3, and boys No. 1 qualifying seed Gonzalo Zeitune of Argentina lost to Daniel Phillips of Bermuda 6-4, 6-3 in the second round. Phillips went on to qualify, saving a match point against No. 13 seed Simon Myslivec of the Czech Republic in a 6-1, 1-6, 12-10 victory.

"I was down 9-8 or 10-9 or something," said the 17-year-old, who trained at the Rafael Nadal Academy for three years and is now at Axis Tennis Academy in Delray Beach Florida. "I came with a different energy in that tiebreaker, left everything I had on the court, and I couldn't be happier with my performance."

Although Phillips has trained away from Bermuda for many years, it is still home for him, and he wants to represent it well.

"I love bringing my little island out," said Phillips, who has won three ITF Junior Circuit singles titles this year, including the J4 in Boca Raton earlier this month. "The people there all support and care for me, the community there is just amazing. It's a different atmosphere. I wouldn't trade Bermuda for anywhere else."

Phillips counts his competitive attitude as one of the keys facets of his game, which revolves around his serve.

"It's my ability to compete, to bring it every game every day," said Phillips. "My neutral balls, my forehand especially. I was injured a bit in my shoulder, but I've strengthened that. My serve and my forehand that's really the strength of my game."

The American boys who qualified are Jose Murariu and No. 9 seed Evan Wen. Girls qualifiers from the US are No. 2 seed Katie Rolls, Brianna Baldi, Taly Licht and No. 8 seed Piper Charney.

Charney and No. 16 seed Taylor Goetz closed out the qualifying on the new Stadium Court, after moving from court 3 due to darkness. Goetz had won the first set 6-4, Charney led the second set 4-2, but lost three straight games to give Goetz a chance to serve for the match. Goetz could get no closer than deuce however, and it was Charney who won the last three games of the set to force the tiebreaker under the lights. After a five-point stretch of the server being broken, Charney held for an 8-5 lead and closed it out 10-6 to reach the main draw.

The seeds for the Eddie Herr ITF J1:

Girls 

1.Tereza Valentova(CZE) 

2. Lucian Moyano(ARG)

3. Sayaka Ishii(JPN)

4. Ella Mcdonald(GBR)

5. Ena Koike(JPN)

6. Lucciana Perez Alarcon(PER)

7. Ranah Stoiber(GBR)

8. Sonja Zhiyenbayeva(GER)

9. Tatum Evans(USA)

10. Mingge Xu(GBR)

11. Charlotte Kempenaers-Pocz(AUS)

12. Darja Suvirdjonkova(SRB)

13. Mia Slama(USA)

14. Madeleine Jessup(TPE)

15. Amelia Waligora(BEL)

16. Theadora Rabman(USA)

Boys

1. Gerard Campana Lee(KOR)

2. Yaroslav Demin(RUS)

3. Rei Sakamoto(JPN)

4. Paul Barbier Gazeu(FRA)

5. Danil Panarin(RUS)

6. Paul Inchauspe(FRA)

7. Iliyan Radulov(BUL)

8. Cooper Williams(USA)

9. Juan Carlos Prado Angelo(BOL)

10. Arthur Gea(FRA)

11. Hayden Jones(AUS)

12. Kevin Edengren(SWE)

13. Alejandro Melero Kretzer(ESP)

14. Max Batyutenko(KAZ)

15. Alexander Frusina(USA)

16. Tiago Pires(FRA)

Campana Lee is still in Merida for the final, so he will not play until Tuesday.

Clervie Ngounoue, who led the United States to a Junior Billie Jean King Cup title early this month, closed out her banner month with the girls singles title at ITF Grade A in Merida Mexico tonight. Ngounoue, the No. 5 seed, defeated Ariana Pursoo 6-3, 6-2 in the battle of American 16-year-olds. Ngounoue is not playing Eddie Herr, but is expected to compete in the Orange Bowl. Pursoo is in the Eddie Herr ITF draw, unseeded, and will play Tuesday. 

North Carolina State freshman Diana Shnaider continued her march to the WTA Top 100 with the biggest title of her young career. The 18-year-old from Russia, who has yet to play a college match for the Wolfpack after enrolling this fall, won the WTA 125 in Montevideo Uruguay today, beating Leolie Jeanjean(Baylor/Arkansas/Lynn) of France 6-4, 6-4. Shnaider, who didn't drop a set this week, is now up to 109 in the WTA rankings, after being at 246 when she reached the semifinals of the US Open Junior Championships in September. 

Canada defeated Australia 2-0 in the Davis Cup final today in Spain, to win the prestigious team competition for the first time in the country's history. Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime delivered the singles victories for Canada, and they were the same two stars who won the Junior Davis Cup for Canada back in 2015. The ITF posted this tweet on that extremely rare double here.

The 12s, 14s, and 16s divisions of the Eddie Herr are scheduled to begin tomorrow at 8 a.m. on the IMG Academy hard courts. Below are the Top 8 seeds in those divisions. Some of the international players who train at IMG are listed as USA, rather than their home countries.

G12s 

1. Yeri Hong(KOR)

2. Andreea Olariu(ROU)

3. Haniya Minhas(PAK)

4. Sim Siyoen(KOR)

5. Yui Komada(JPN) 

6. Siah Kim(KOR)

7. Hannah Ayrault(USA)

8. Sun Xinran(USA)

G14s

1. Emerson Jones(AUS)

2. Ksenia Efremova(FRA)

3. Victoria Barros(BRA)

4. Luna Maria Cinalli(ARG)

5. Polina Kuharenko(ESP)

6. Thea Frodin(USA)

7. Nicole Okhtenberg(USA)

8. Maria Aytoyan(USA)

G16s

1. Claire Zhang(USA)

2. Hyunyee Lee(KOR)

3. Monika Ekstrand(USA)

4. Claire Shao(USA)

5. Katerina Shabashkevich(USA)

6. Amelie Hejtmanek(GER)

7. Katie Spencer(USA)

8. Allie Bittner(USA)

B12s

1. Michael Antonius(USA)

2. Taiki Takizawa(AUS)

3. Jae Jun Shin(KOR)

4. Tabb Tuck(USA)

5. Elliott Awomoyi(USA)

6. Tomas Laukys(USA)

7. Tavish Pahwa(IND)

8. Lucas Han(AUS)

B14s

1. Ivan Ivanov(BUL)

2. Sehyuk Cho(KOR)

3. Carel Ngounoue(USA)(withdrawn due to playing in ITF qualifying)

4. Jack Kennedy(USA)

5. Keaton Hance(USA)

6. Weiyi Kong(USA)

7. Ford McCollum(USA)

8. Pedro Henrique Chabalgoity(BRA)

B16s

1. Maxwell Exsted(USA)

2. Calvin Baierl(USA)

3. Abhishek Thorat(USA)

4. Naoya Honda (ESP)

5. Kase Schinnerer(USA)

6. Jagger Leach(USA)

7. Boxiong Zhang(CHN)

8. Noah Johnston(USA)