Britain's Searle Ousts Top Seed Prado Angelo in First Round of Wimbledon Junior Championships, US Boys Claim Four Victories; Grant Withdraws with Fractured Tibia; Pegula Advances to Women's Quarterfinals

©Colette Lewis--
Wimbledon--

Rain stayed away Sunday, allowing the Wimbledon Junior Championships to get back on schedule, and with 46 matches around the grounds of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, upsets were bound to happen.

The most gratifying for the English fans was the 7-6(6), 6-3 victory by 17-year-old Henry Searle, who held his nerve when it mattered late in both sets to oust top seed and Roland Garros finalist Juan Carlos Prado Angelo of Bolivia. 

Playing on Court 4, Searle had the support of the crowd throughout, and he needed it after falling behind 4-1 in the first set.

"It was a pretty tense first five games," said Searle, a left-hander from Wolverhamption in the West Midlands. "I actually felt quite good in terms of how I was moving, but the ball striking wasn't quite there in the first few games. I managed to switch back on, and the crowd definitely helped."

Searle wasn't able to convert his first set point with Prado Angelo serving at 5-6, or with Prado Angelo serving at 5-6 in the tiebreaker, but an excellent return set up his third set point, which he claimed with a sizzling forehand winner.

Up an early break in the second set, Searle had to save three break points serving at 4-2, but he continued to hit winners when he needed them and held for 5-2. Prado Angelo kept the pressure on by holding for 5-3, forcing Searle to serve out the upset, but he started with an ace and ended the match with another, his ninth of the match.

"There's a lot of self-belief that goes into it," Searle said of performing his best on crucial points late in a match. "Confidence that I can trust my game, trust my shots. It was an unbelievable atmosphere and great, great to get the win. To have so many family and friends here, it was pretty cool to win in front of them.

Searle admitted that he had the advantage of the surface over Prado Angelo, who had lost to Luca Pow of Great Britain in the first round at Roehampton last week. 

"There definitely was a little bit of confidence going into the match, obviously, playing three, four, five weeks on the grass beforehand, which maybe the other players don't do as often," so it was a confidence boost for me."

Next up for Searle is qualifier Manas Dhamne of India, who defeated Australian Hayden Jones 6-2, 6-4.

No. 4 seed Cooper Williams lost his first match at the Wimbledon Junior Championships last year, and was facing wild card Pow, whose win over Prado Angelo last week had marked him as another dangerous British player on grass. Pow, an incoming Wake Forest freshman, tested Williams, but it was the Harvard incoming freshman who came away with the victory 7-5, 6-1.

Williams broke Pow in the first game, but was not able to make that break stand up, dropping serve for the only time in the match at 5-4 in the first. Although his forehand was shaky throughout that set, he broke Pow in the next game and closed out the set with an ace.

Williams had to save four break points to hold serve in the second game of the second set, but once he cleared that hurdle, he was too much for Pow.

"I just wasn't making good contact in the beginning, honestly off both wings," Williams said. "I wasn't hitting unbelievable from the back. But I served well and I came foreward well and kind of stole it, hit a couple of good forehands, a couple of good backhands at 5-all, but to be honest the first set was decided by a couple points."

After dispensing with his nerves with that first set in his column, Williams began to play more freely.

"In the second set, I found my level, I just committed to more shots, was taking the ball a little earlier," Williams said. "I played a pretty near perfect set."

The juniors are allowed to be coached here, and USTA National Coach Brian Baker was provided a few tips, but there are no discussions or conversations allowed.

"I don't think you're allowed to talk back," Williams said. "I think you can get tidbits and stuff, but it can't be a full sit down and talk session. But it's definitely helpful. It's not extensive, but every now and then [Baker] would say, be aggressive here, step forward on some second serve returns, hit some more body serves, slice a little more, just reminding me I'm not playing on a hard court or a clay court, I have to play a little bit different, out of my comfort zone sometime. But it's good to be reminded of that."

Williams will start his collegiate career at Harvard after the US Open, but he already is feeling like a part of the team.

"Some of the guys are here as well, Masato(Perera) and Henry(von der Schulenburg), a lot of guys are here. I saw Henry at Roland Garros too, coming out to watch my matches there. Just awesome guys; I'm absolutely thrilled to be on the team, and we're going to be a force to be reckoned with next year."

Williams will face Sebastian Eriksson of Sweden in Tuesday's second round.

The most impressive player I saw Sunday was Kyle Kang, who defeated qualifier Filippo Romano of Italy 6-2, 6-4 on the strength of his serve and his forehand. Although his first serve percentage wasn't high, Kang closed out the first set with four unreturnable first serves, and never looked in danger of losing.  The Stanford rising freshman was taking the ball early and stepping into his lethal forehand with regularity, requiring Romano, who had beaten Williams in the first round at  Roehampton, to play defense on nearly every point.

Kang will face No. 15 seed Tomasz Berkieta of Poland on Tuesday.

No. 9 seed Darwin Blanch got off to a slow start in his match with qualifier Petr Brunclik of the Czech Republic, but found his form in the second set to take a 7-6(2), 6-1 victory in his Wimbledon debut. 

Like Blanch, Kaylan Bigun was the sixth match on, but he too came away with a straight-sets victory, beating No. 13 seed Maxim Mrva of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-3 to close out a long day of junior matches.

Qualifier Cooper Woestendick had four match points at 3-5 in the second set, but qualifier Ignacio Parisca of Venezuela fought them off and went on to a 3-6, 7-6(4), 7-5 victory.

In girls matches that were held over from Saturday, both Kaitlin Quevedo and Tatum Evans finished off their wins, while Ariana Pursoo and qualifier Alanis Hamilton advanced to Monday's second round in straight sets.

There was bad news for No. 15 seed Tyra Grant, who was diagnosed with a fractured tibia after she limped to her first round victory Saturday. Grant, who played the last 12 games of the match with the injury, was forced to withdraw from both singles and doubles, and will not be able to compete in next month's USTA National Championships in San Diego.

The boys do not play their second round matches until Tuesday, but they are on Monday's schedule for the opening round of doubles. Williams and his partner Yaroslav Demin are the No. 1 seeds. Blanch and Roy Horovitz are the No. 7 seeds.

Sunday's first round matches featuring Americans:

Cooper Williams[4] d. Luca Pow[WC](GBR) 7-5, 6-1

Darwin Blanch[9] d. Petr Brunclik[Q](CZE) 7-6(2), 6-1

Ignacio Parisca[Q](VEN) d. Cooper Woestendick[Q] 3-6, 7-6(4), 7-5

Kaylan Bigun d. Maxim Mrva[13](CZE) 6-2, 6-3

Kyle Kang d. Filippo Romano[Q](ITA) 6-2, 6-4

Sayaka Ishii[7](JPN) d. Valeria Ray 6-0, 6-1 

Ariana Pursoo d. Daniela Piani[Q](GBR) 6-2, 3-6, 6-2

Charo Esquiva Banuls[16](ESP) d. Alexia Harmon 6-4, 6-1 

Alanis Hamilton[Q] d. Sonja Zhiyenbayeva(GER) 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2

Malak El Allami(MAR) d. Anya Murthy[Q] 6-3, 7-5

Kaitlin Quevedo[6] d. Lily Taylor(AUS) 7-6(6), 6-3

Tatum Evans d. Alessandra Teodosescu(ITA) 7-6(1), 1-6, 6-2

Monday's second round matches featuring Americans:

Kaitlin Quevedo[6] v Mingge Xu(GBR)

Clervie Ngounoue[2] v Isabelle Lacy[WC](GBR)

Alanis Hamilton[Q] v Ena Koike[8](JPN)

Tatum Evans v Emerson Jones[13](AUS)

Ariana Pursoo v Renata Jamrichova[5](SVK)

Jessica Pegula advanced to the women's singles quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine Sunday. Madison Keys[25] will face 16-year-old Russian qualifier Mirra Andreeva in the fourth round Monday. Christopher Eubanks will take on No. 5 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece for a spot in the men's quarterfinals.

Sunday's third round matches featuring an American:

Grigor Dimitrov[21](BUL) d. Frances Tiafoe[10] 6-2, 6-3, 6-2

Sunday's fourth round match featuring an American:

Jessica Pegula[4] d. Lesia Tsurenko(UKR) 6-1, 6-3

Monday's fourth round matches featuring Americans:

Madison Keys[25] v Mirra Andreeva[Q](RUS)

Christopher Eubanks v Stefanos Tsitsipas[5](GRE)