Blanch, Bigun and Williams Reach Wimbledon Junior Championships Round of 16 Wednesday; Rain Impacts First Round of Girls Doubles; Penickova Twins Top Seeds in 14 and Under Tournament

©Colette Lewis 2023--
Wimbledon--

After two days without any precipitation, the Wimbledon Junior Championships had gotten back on schedule, but an afternoon shower on Tuesday, in the midst of the second round of boys singles, led to the cancellation of five first round girls doubles matches. The boys second round did finish, however, allowing the third round for both boys and girls to proceed as anticipated Wednesday.

Two of the three American boys advancing to Wednesday's third round were able to complete their matches before the rain ushered in a two-hour delay, with No. 9 seed Darwin Blanch and unseeded Kaylan Bigun doing so in contrasting fashion.

Bigun was in the zone throughout his 7-5, 6-3 victory over Fabio De Michele of Italy, hitting 36 winners while making just 18 unforced errors. The 16-year-old left-hander admitted that his serving was responsible for many of those winners, which included 11 aces.

"I definitely thought it was my serve, setting up the forehand," Bigun said. "I started to catch a rhythm middle of the first; the match before I had lower percentages on the first serve, so the goal was to keep my toss high and keep pushing with my legs and I was able to do that. I was just lighting up first serves, especially the slice T on the deuce side; I was looking at my racquet like, whoa, what's going on here?"

Despite those impressive stats, Bigun struggled in the opening game, dropping serve and falling behind. Although he doesn't consider himself superstitious, he blamed his twin brother Meecah for the slow start.

"My first service game I played pretty poor, but I blamed it on my brother, because he wasn't sitting with my dad," Bigun said. "He's always supposed to be there with my dad, but he wasn't there, so I looked at him like, what are you doing, go sit with dad, what's going on here? There are just a few things I'm superstitious about and that's one of them."

Bigun had played the two grass court warmups last year, but not Wimbledon, so he was experiencing the atmosphere of the All England Lawn Tennis Club for the first time.

"It's awesome. Everyone's so polite and courteous, the grounds are so nice to walk around," Bigun said.  I thought my mom's garden had flowers, but it's nothing like this."

With mostly cloudy skies and temperatures in the low 70s during his match, Bigun felt comfortable on a surface that makes many players anxious.

"I like the surface, it's really pleasant to play on, out here with nature," Bigun said.  "Compared to a hard court, when it's hot, you feel the heat coming off and you're baking on the court. But here it's really pleasant. And playing outside of Centre Court it's really cool. I try not to look around too much, but sometimes during the changeover I'll take a look, and, whoa, I'm at Wimbledon."

Bigun will face doubles partner and No. 3 seed Yi Zhou of China, who barely survived against British wild card Henry Jefferson in a match that was 4-5 in the third set when the rain shower interrupted play. Zhou returned to hold serve twice to force the tiebreaker and through the first eight points played flawlessly, taking a 7-1 lead. But Jefferson, who contributed his share of unforced errors to give Zhou his big lead, stopped making them, and he won four points from 8-3 down to get back on serve. But he couldn't pull even and Zhou ended up escaping with a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(7) victory.

British wild card Viktor Frydrych gave Blanch a serious challenge on Court 12 Tuesday morning before the 15-year-old rebounded from a set and a break down to earn a 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-3 win.

Blanch didn't face a break point in the first set, which was decided by the slimmest of margins, as the two left-handers traded big serves and booming groundstrokes. Blanch saved two set points at 6-4 in the tiebreaker, but a good return of a Blanch first serve forced Blanch's forehand reply long. On his third set point the 17-year-old hit one of his many excellent first serves with Blanch's return sailing long to end the well-played set.

Frydrych converted his only break point of the match in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead, but Blanch raised his level, while Frydrych's serving steadily declined. He couldn't survive three double faults in the fifth game and once Blanch got the break back, his confidence grew. Serving at 2-3, he held at love, including a 126 mph ace, and he broke Frydrych twice more, winning six consecutive games before Frydrych held for 1-1 in the third.

"It was a really tight moment and I was on the brink," Blanch said. "He really had me. But I knew I had to keep on going, because he was eventually going to break down. He was serving very well, but I knew he was not going to service like that the entire match, so I knew I had to be there."

With Frydrych serving at 2-3, 30-all, he made an unforced error that gave Blanch the only break point of the set. Frydrych missed his first serve and Blanch rifled a forehand return for a clean winner, anticipating the wide serve from Frydrych.

"I knew he was going to go either forehand or body," Blanch said. "I was kind of moving in that direction already, because I could tell by his toss. And I just went for it. Obviously, it was a way better shot than I expected, but yeah, it was a really good shot and I'm happy I made it."

Juan Carlos Ferrero was seated with the Blanch team in the players seating area for the first two sets of the match, with Blanch training now at his academy in Spain.

"It's obviously a huge honor that such a player was in my box," said Blanch, who has grown several inches since last summer and is now 6-foot-2. "It's really nice of him to watch my matches and he gives me his feedback, it helps a lot."

Blanch also hits occasionally with ATP No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz, who is coached by Ferrero, and has gained insight from training with the reigning US Open men's champion.

"It's crazy, I'm really blessed," said Blanch, who has heard from Alcaraz regularly this fortnight. "It's not really normal to be training with the world No. 1 so often. It obviously really helps and sometimes he even gives me feedback himself and I really take it in my mind. He's a really nice guy and he motivates me. We're pretty good friends, he obviously helps me a lot. I look up to him and yeah, we have a nice connection."

Blanch will face unseeded Lorenzo Sciahbasi of Italy in Wednesday's third round. 

The third American boy into the round of 16 is No. 4 seed Cooper Williams, who led Sebastian Eriksson of Sweden 6-1, 3-0 before finding himself in a battle. Williams lost six straight games to drop the second set, but got a break at 3-all in the third and finished off the 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 victory. Williams plays No. 16 seed Alejandro Melero Kretzer of Spain for the third time, with Williams winning their second contest in ITF junior competition last December 6-4, 6-0 in the third round of the Orange Bowl.

Two girls doubles teams from the United States advanced to Wednesday's second round: Valeria Ray and Alexia Harmon, and Tatum Evans and Alanis Hamilton. Top seed Kaitlin Quevedo and her partner Lucciana Perez Alarcon of Peru were one of the five first round doubles matches cancelled due to the rain, so they will play two matches Wednesday if they win the first.

Tuesday's second round singles matches featuring Americans:

Darwin Blanch[9] d Viktor Frydrych[WC](GBR) 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-3

Cooper Williams[4] d. Sebastian Eriksson(SWE) 6-1, 3-6, 6-4

Nicolai Budkov Kjaer(NOR) d. Roy Horovitz 6-3, 6-3 

Kaylan Bigun d. Fabio De Michele(ITA) 7-5, 6-3

Tomasz Berkieta[15](POL) d. Kyle Kang 6-2, 6-2

Wednesday's third round singles matches featuring American juniors:

Clervie Ngounoue[2] v Rositsa Dencheva(BUL)

Darwin Blanch[9] v Lorenzo Sciahbasi(ITA)

Kaylan Bigun v Yi Zhou[3](CHN)

Cooper Williams[4] v Alejandro Melero Kretzer[16](ESP)

Jessica Pegula lost to Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 Tuesday afternoon in the Wimbledon women's singles quarterfinals.  Madison Keys and Christopher Eubanks will play their quarterfinals on Court One Wednesday.

The round robin draws for the second annual Wimbledon 14-and-under tournament were published this evening, with play beginning Thursday. Thirteen-year-old twins Kristina and Annika Penickova are the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds for the girls, while the US will be represented in the boys field by Marcel Latak, seeded No. 4, and Izyan Ahmad, seeded No. 7. Vihaan Reddy, the USTA 14s Winter Nationals champion, who represents India, is the No. 2 seed, with Mark Ceban of Great Britain the No. 1 seed.