Blanch and Williams Reach Wimbledon Boys Final Four; Ngounoue Reaches First Slam Semifinal, Korneeva's Junior Grand Slam Quest Continues; U14 Tournament Underway

©Colette Lewis 2023--
Wimbledon--

Americans Darwin Blanch and Cooper Williams have reached the boys semifinals at the Wimbledon Junior Championships, while Clervie Ngounoue also earned a place in her first junior semifinal on a cool and occasionally damp Thursday at the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

The 15-year-old Blanch reached his second consecutive boys singles semifinal at a slam, defeating fellow American left-hander Kaylan Bigun 7-6(3), 6-3.

Blanch was up two breaks serving at 4-1 in the first set on Show Court 18, when Bigun began to get more balls in play and Blanch contributed a handful of unforced errors, including three in succession when serving for the opening set from 5-4, 15-all. 

The subsequent tiebreaker was the fourth for Blanch this week in a first set, and having won two of the previous three, he expected to rebound from the dip in his form again today.

"I feel like in that moment I'm pretty relaxed, and I lost a little bit of focus, but I'll make sure that it doesn't happen again," said Blanch, who again had Juan Carlos Ferrero courtside watching his performance. "I was confident going in to the tiebreak, since I've played a lot of tiebreaks and the one I lost was pretty close too."

After a solid performance in the tiebreaker, Blanch took another 4-1 lead in the second set, and although this time he had just one break, he made it stand up, with Bigun unable to generate a break point in the second.

Blanch will face No. 5 seed Yaroslav Demin, who defeated No. 15 seed Tomasz Berkieta of Poland 7-6(5), 7-6(6). All four first sets in the boys quarterfinals were decided in tiebreakers, but that result was the only match featuring a second set tiebreaker.

Demin defeated Blanch in the second round of the US Open Junior Championships last September 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, but Blanch avenged that loss this year 6-4, 6-3 at the J300 in Brazil on clay.  

Not only has Blanch grown several inches since that meeting in New York, but he believes he has added important facets to his game.

"We've been working on the volleys and the slice," said Blanch, who trains at the JC Ferrero Academy in Spain. "Those were the worst things I had at the time, and obviously we've improved that a lot. I think I'm a pretty complete player, but we're going to keep on working."

The other boys semifinal will have a local angle, with unseeded Henry Searle of Great Britain defeating No. 8 seed Joao Fonseca of Brazil 7-6(3), 6-3 to set up a meeting with Williams.

Williams, at No. 4 the highest seed remaining, fought past No. 6 seed Iliyan Radulov of Bulgaria 7-6(4), 6-3, saving a set point serving at 5-6 in the opening set.

"He had an ad on my serve and we had like a 30-ball rally," said Williams, a rising freshman at Harvard. "It was not easy from 4-3 on. He was up 3-1 in the breaker as well; I had a clutch serve and volley at 3-2 that kind of changed the momentum and I ended up winning five points in a row. Once the first set got over, my serve started popping a little more, I had a couple of more aces, and got more free points. At 4-3, he didn't play a great game; I hit a good pass, a great return, he played two bad points and that's all it takes on grass."

Williams, who is being followed by the ITF social media team in these two weeks of grass court play, then had to serve it out to reach his first junior slam semifinal in singles.

"It's never easy serving out a match, no matter where you are," Williams said. "Obviously, there's a little bit of nerves the deeper you get in the tournament, but I think I managed it pretty well. I played a good game, played solid, went for my shots, controlled the nerves and stuck to the game plan."

Williams knows that the 17-year-old Searle, who took out top seed Juan Carlos Prado Angelo of Bolivia in the first round, is an accomplished grass court player, but doesn't have much familiarity with his game.

"I haven't played him and haven't seen him play much either," Williams said. "I watched him a little last week, and he's a good player. He has a good serve and he's fired up to win Wimby on British soil. I'll have to return well and serve well, but it's going to be fun."

Like Williams, second seed Ngounoue will be contesting her first junior slam semifinal in singles Friday, after avenging her Roehampton loss last week to No. 7 seed Sayaka Ishii of Japan 6-4, 7-5.

Ngounoue served well, hitting seven aces and not facing a break point, and she was pleased with her level throughout.

"It brought the best out of both of us again," said Ngounoue, who turns 17 next week. "I think we were both hoping the rain wasn't going to roll in for too long, because that happened [in Roehampton] last time, we had a lot of rain delays. So we were laughing, saying the weather doesn't like us. But it was a really good match from both of us. I don't know how she feels, but I thought I played better, she played better, I think we both learned from the last match."

Ngounoue will face No. 5 seed Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia, who defeated 14-year-old wild card Mika Stojsavljevic of Great Britain 7-6(6), 6-1. Jamrichova defeated Ngounoue in the semifinals of the J500 in Milan 6-1, 2-6, 6-1 back in May, so she has another loss to avenge.

Ngounoue is excited to be experiencing her success in the company of other Americans this week.

"I'm so proud of all us," said Ngounoue, who won junior slam doubles titles in Australia in 2022 and last month in Paris. "I try to express that, that I'm so grateful to be among them, and I'm so happy that we're all here and able to battle it out together."

Ngounoue didn't have a major rain delay to contend, but top seed Alina Korneeva, who followed Ngounoue and Ishii on Court 8, did. It may not have been a bad thing for the Australian Open and Roland Garros girls champion however, as she returned from a 30-minute rain delay trailing No. 8 seed Ena Koike of Japan 4-1 and promptly won six of the next seven games. Korneeva took a 4-0 lead in the second set, but couldn't hold it, and failed in her attempt to serve out the match at 5-4.  But as she has done throughout the week, Korneeva buckled down when necessary, to earn a 7-5, 7-6(4) victory.

Korneeva has now surpassed Magdalena Maleeva, who came into Wimbledon having won the first two junior slams, but lost in the quarterfinals in 1990, the last time a girl had won the first two in a calendar year. In Friday's semifinal, she will face unseeded Nikola Bartunkova of the Czech Republic, who defeated Ranah Stoiber of Great Britain 1-6, 6-1, 6-2. Korneeva, 16, and the 17-year-old Bartunkova, who has been as high as 267 in the WTA rankings, will be playing for the first time Friday.

The doubles semifinals are also scheduled for Friday, with an American team in both the girls and boys final four.

The unseeded team of Alanis Hamilton and Tatum Evans defeated No. 3 seeds Ishii and Koike 6-4, 4-6, 10-7 in a match that was disrupted for over an hour by a late evening downpour, with Hamilton and Evans leading 6-4, 3-4. They will play the unseeded team of Hannah Klugman and Isabelle Lacy of Great Britain, who defeated unseeded Alexia Harmon and Valeria Ray 6-4, 7-5 on Court 3.

The only seeded team remaining is No. 2 Jamrichova and Federica Urgesi of Italy, who defeated No. 5 seeds Hayu Kinoshita and Sara Saito of Japan 6-3, 4-6, 10-6. They will play Alena Kovackova and Laura Samsonova of the Czech Republic, who beat No. 8 seeds Ella McDonald of Great Britain and Luciana Moyano of Argentina 6-3, 6-3.

No. 7 seeds Blanch and Roy Horovitz ousted No. 1 seeds Williams and Demin 6-3, 7-5. Williams and Demin had won the last two boys slam doubles titles, Williams with Learner Tien in Australia, and Demin with Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez of Mexico in Paris. Blanch and Horovitz will play No. 6 seeds Branko Djuric of Serbia and Arthur Gea of France, who defeated No. 3 seeds Alejandro Melero Kretzer of Spain and Pacheco Mendez 6-3, 7-6(3).

No. 2 seeds Fonseca and Prado Angelo defeated No. 8 seed Berkieta and Searle 6-3, 6-4 and will face unseeded Jakub Filip of the Czech Republic and Gabriele Vulpitta of Italy in Friday's semifinals. Filip and Vulpitta defeated the unseeded Italian team of Federico Bondioli and Federico Cina 7-5, 3-6, 11-9.

Thursday's quarterfinal singles results of American juniors:

Cooper Williams[4] d. Iliyan Radulov[6](BUL) 7-6(4), 6-3

Darwin  Blanch[9] d. Kaylan Bigun 7-6(3), 6-3

Clervie Ngounoue[2] d. Sayaka Ishii[7](JPN) 6-4, 7-5

Round robin group play began today in the 14-and under tournament, with the girls playing two rounds and the boys one round. Twin sisters Kristina and Annika Penickova, the top two seeds, both won their first two matches today and will play one more round robin match Friday. Marcel Latak, the No. 4 seed won his first round, while No. 7 seed Izyan Ahmad lost his first round.  The boys are scheduled for two matches in round robin play on Friday.