ZooTennis: Braswell's Last Junior Match is Eddie Herr ITF J1 Final, Top Seed Valentova Survives Four Hours, Three Tiebreakers to Advance to Girls Final; Third Time a Charm for Exsted in B16s; Antonius Breezes to B12s Eddie Herr Title

©Colette Lewis 2022--
Bradenton Florida--

Jonah Braswell was 12 years old when he made his first Eddie Herr final back in 2016. On Sunday, the unseeded 18-year-old from Sarasota will play for the ITF J1 title in the final match of his junior career against No. 10 seed Arthur Gea of France.

Braswell was on the court for less than an hour Saturday afternoon, with No. 16 seed Tiago Pires of France retiring trailing 6-1, 2-0. Pires, who appeared to have a back injury, was not moving well and made way too many unforced errors to stay with Braswell.

After Braswell held for 1-0 in the second set, Pires went down 0-40, but fought his way back to deuce, with two aces helping his cause. But once Braswell got the break, on his fifth opportunity, Pires walked to the net to shake hands.

"I'm excited, because I think I'm playing my best tennis at the end of the tournament," said the University of Florida freshman, who is not competing at the Orange Bowl due to final exams next week. "It's my home courts, I've practiced a lot here these past few years and I've always played well on these courts because I'm used to them. They're really slow, and I think that suits my game well, because I can really play aggressive and play free."

Although pleased with his performance in his first J1 semifinal, Braswell is not satisfied with reaching the final.

"I'm excited, and I'm proud of myself, but my goal was to win the tournament, so I'm not too happy yet," Braswell said. "I'll be happy once I win the tournament. Just one more match, one more match in my junior career."

Gea had a contrasting experience in his semifinal with No. 7 seed Iliyan Radulov of Bulgaria, with the 17-year-old from Paris the one who was not feeling well, although he managed to prevail 6-2, 5-7, 6-4. Leading by a set and 5-2, Gea left the court for a long bathroom break, which was obviously related to the physical discomfort he was feeling, and it certainly didn't help him. He did have two match points on Radulov's serve at 3-5, but ended up losing the set.

"I was sick before the match and during the match," Gea said. "I was very mad during the match, saying I can't lose leading 5-2."

Gea, who had lost to Radulov in three sets in the European Championships this past summer, was determined to change his game style, and thought his illness actually helped him in that regard.

"I was very aggressive today, and before [in Klosters] I was a bit defensive," said Gea, who won the Belgium J1 in May. "Today, not feeling great, I had to make some winners, to go to the net, to change the situation, because when I moved a lot, I was not good."

The boys final, at 9:30 a.m. on the new Stadium Court, will be the first meeting between Braswell and Gea.

One of the girls semifinals also ended with a retirement, with unseeded Mayu Crossley of Japan advancing to her second J1 final when No. 5 seed Ena Koike of Japan retired with Crossley leading 6-2, 3-1.

"Her back was injured," said the 16-year-old Crossley, who reached the final of the J1 in San Diego this spring, losing to Liv Hovde. "I was up 2-1 in the first set and she started feeling her back, and then she called the physio."

Crossley did not make any adjustments to her game plan, preferring to ignore any issues Koike was having.

"I didn't want to change because if I think about it, I can't play my tennis, so I just didn't think anything," Crossley said. "It was good for me to think nothing."

Crossley had a long wait to find out who her opponent in the final would be, with top seed Tereza Valentova of the Czech Republic and No. 3 seed Sayaka Ishii of Japan playing four hours and 23-minutes before Valentova emerged with a 7-6(6), 6-7(3), 7-6(6) victory.

The first two sets took three hours and 15 minutes, so the final set was relatively brief at an 68 minutes, with so little separating the two that the possibility of an even longer third set tiebreaker seemed possible.

Valentova took a 4-1 lead, but tried an ill-advised drop shot that Ishii got to and hit a winner to make the score 5-5. Despite that result, Valentova went to the drop shot again on the next point, and this time executed a perfect drop shot, lob winner combination to give herself a match point. She missed a forehand return just wide to make it 6-6, but Ishii made a forehand error off a good return to give Valentova another match point, and she converted it when Ishii's backhand went a few inches long.

The doubles partners met at the net and embraced, with Valentova sobbing as they left the court together.

"The match was so emotional, I think that's the reason why I cried," said the 15-year-old, who was unable to play in the doubles final with Ishii. "It's so hard. I was down and then I was up, and yes, it was so emotional."

Valentova was given two hours and 15 minutes prior to the doubles final, but when the match time came, she had not recovered enough to play, still experiencing a headache and dizziness. She did attend the doubles trophy ceremony, and hopes to be recovered for Sunday's final, which follows the boys final on Stadium Court.

Ishii, who appeared less physically and emotionally drained than Valentova, was proud of her performance, although she admitted to a range of feelings she concealed well.

"I think I did really good today," said the 17-year-old, who trains at the IMG Academy. "She was a little bit better than me in the final set, and I was mad after the match, but now I think it was one of best matches ever. We hugged, it was so tough match. I said why you crying? I wanted to cry but no."

Valentova, who has won two J1s this year, and Crossley will be meeting for the first time in Sunday's final.

The girls doubles title went to No. 5 seeds Isabelle Lacy and Ella McDonald of Great Britain, who were waiting on Stadium Court when the ITF Supervisor Scotty Moore informed them that Valentova was unable to play.

"Of course we were ready to play, but she needs to do what's best for her, especially with singles probably coming first," said McDonald, who won the doubles title last week at the JA in Merida with Mingge Xu of Great Britain. "It would have been a great match, but we'll just take the win."

"It's so much fun playing with her," Lacy said of her partner. "We're so close off the court, we have great fun on the court."

"Every match we got better, just went into the week with no pressure, playing our normal games, and it paid off," McDonald added.

McDonald, who did not play singles this week due to a late arrival from Mexico, will not play doubles next week at Orange Bowl.

The boys doubles title went to Cooper Williams and Yaroslav Demin of Russia, with the top seeds defeating No. 4 seeds Andrin Casanova of Switzerland and Kevin Edengren of Sweden 7-5, 6-4.

Williams and Demin, who won the J1 in Brazil in February, decided to pair up again for the last two major ITF junior tournaments of the year this week and next.

"We talked about playing some tournaments together in the future because we had a good result together in February," Williams said of his fellow 17-year-old. "It just worked out and we decided a couple of months ago to play here; we know we have good chemistry and we're good friends, so it definitely helps."

"We've played really well together from the beginning of this tournament," said Demin, who won the JA Offenbach doubles title this spring. "I feel so comfortable to play with him, it helps a lot."

Williams pointed to their serving as a key to the win today, although they took both sets by breaking, including on a deciding point to end it.

"I think we both served really well," said Williams, who has now won four J1 titles this year, as well as the JA in Brazil. "We came back from 0-40 once or twice on Yaro's serve, had a couple of aces. We didn't return nearly as well as we wanted to until 6-5 in the first and 5-4 in the second. Overall we played a very solid match, served well, volleyed well."

While the 18s were competing on the HarTru courts at the IMG Academy, the finals in the 12s, 14s and 16s divisions were being contested on the hard courts. Sunny skies, low humidity and little wind made for ideal playing conditions, with six singles and five doubles champions crowned.

Two top-seeded Americans collected titles, with Michael Antonius winning the boys 12s and Maxwell Exsted claiming the boys 16s championship.

For Exsted, the third time was the charm in an Eddie Herr final. The 15-year-old from Minnesota had reached the 12s final in 2019 and the 14s final last year, but it looked as if he was going to go 0-3 in finals, trailing No. 2 seed Calvin Baierl 5-2 in the final set before roaring back for a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory.

Exsted said that deficit helped him loosen up and start going after his shots.

"In the beginning of the third my legs were bothering me a little bit, but I started to feel better, get more energy," said Exsted, who avenged his loss to Baierl in the Junior Orange Bowl 14s last year. "Everybody tends to play better when they're behind, because they're looser. You have nothing to lose. So I could have lost 6-2, but I loosened up, played well."

Baierl agreed that Exsted picked up his game, but was disappointed in his response to that.

"I just lost my concentration when I went up 5-2," said the 15-year-old from Florida. "He started playing better, and that's all it takes. One level drops, he raises it, and it just switches like that. I was getting too aggressive and overhit a lot when I didn't need to."

Both Exsted and Baierl are entered in the Orange Bowl, but Baierl is not sure if a glute injury will allow him to compete. Exsted is tired, but is not fazed by the thought of changing to clay.

"I play a lot on clay, I've been to Spain twice, and I prefer clay over hard, so it will be a nice switch," Exsted said.

Antonius spoke of himself as a bully this week, and none of his opponents were likely to contradict him. With his 6-2, 6-1 win in today's final over Tabb Tuck, Antonius took the title with the loss of just eight games in six matches.

Antonius, who won the Easter Bowl 12s title this spring, decided to stay in the 12s division for the last time, pointing out that there is no back draw here and plenty of more mature players in the 14s to contend with.

"I felt like I had a better chance to win the 12s," said the 12-year-old from Buffalo, who trains with the USTA at the National Campus. "Not playing as many kids who are big and strong, like in the 14s, I was able to work on more things, being more aggressive, having more chances to be the bully out there. In the 14s, more people can be the bullies compared to me."

Antonius admitted he was aware of how few games he had lost in the tournament.

"I was trying to limit as many points and games as possible from the opponent," said Antonius. "So I could get with the lead and stay with the lead. I made sure to keep the foot on the pedal, not having a great first set and a loose second but, keeping that same mentality throughout the match."

No. 4 seed Tuck, who, like Antonius, comes from an area not known for its tennis in Alabama, had nothing but praise for Antonius, while also appreciating his own performance in his first Eddie Herr.

"He's so consistent from the baseline, never misses a ball, and if you give him anything short, he's always going to take advantage and rip his forehand," said Tuck, who trains with former University of Alabama-Birmingham coach Derek Tarr. "I'm really pleased with myself, I had a great week here playing at IMG, it's a really nice facility and I was playing great all week long."

The third final featuring an American was in the boys 14s, with No. 5 seed Keaton Hance falling to No. 2 seed Se Hyuk Cho of Korea 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 after serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set.

Hance, who had been down 4-1 in the second set, admitted that nerves played a role in his inability to close out the match.

"Obviously there were a lot of nerves," said the 14-year-old from California, who had lost to Cho in the ITF World Junior Tennis 14U team competition in August. "When I was down 1-4, I was just focusing on getting as many games as I could in that set, make him work for the second and I ended up getting a lot more than I was expecting. The nerves hit me, I guess, made some quick errors, he played a good game also."

Down 4-1 in the third set, Hance wasn't able to mount another comeback, with Cho appearing physically fresher and buoyed by the Korean cheering section applauding his winners.

"I think he just had more energy coming on the court today, most of his matches were a little shorter than mine," said Hance, who needed three and a half hours to defeat top seed Ivan Ivanov in the quarterfinals Thursday. "It was a very competitive set, but I think he was just a little more energized."

Hance did get an Eddie Herr title in his first appearance at the tournament, partnering with Jack Kennedy for the boys doubles championship.

The three girls singles finals did not feature any Americans.

In the girls 12s, top seed Yeri Hong was one of three Koreans to capture singles titles; she earned the title when No. 5 seed Yui Komada of Japan retired with an injury trailing 6-2, 1-0.