Eddie Herr 12s, 14s, 16s Recap; Roh Ousts No. 2 Seed Prado Angelo to Reach Orange Bowl J500 Quarterfinals; US Girl Guaranteed to Reach Final; 16s Semifinals, Doubles Finals Friday

©Colette Lewis--

Plantation FL--

Before the Orange Bowl moves into the weekend's last few matches, check out what happened last week in the 12s, 14s, and 16s divisions at the Eddie Herr in my Tennis Recruiting Network recap posted today. Michael Antonius and Kristina Penickova of the United States made history with their second Eddie Herr titles, and Americans Caroline Shao and Jack Secord also claimed titles at the IMG Academy. My review of the Eddie Herr ITF J300 will be posted Friday.

The debate on red clay versus green clay, the latter the surface of the Orange Bowl the past 13 years at the Veltri Tennis Center, isn't likely to end, but Hoyoung Roh of Korea showed Thursday that the surface a match is played on isn't always relevant. The 17-year-old from Korea played first strike tennis against No. 2 seed Juan Carlos Prado Angelo of Bolivia, the 2023 Roland Garros boys finalist, never backing down in his 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3 victory in the third round of the Orange Bowl J500.

Roh was certainly the underdog coming into the match, with his ITF junior ranking at 87, while Prado's is 10. Prado won his second $15,000 ITF men's World Tennis Tour tournament on Sunday on red clay in Bolivia, and is up to 609 in the ATP live rankings, but the 18-year-old was on his heels from the beginning and needed to take a tense tiebreaker to send the match to a third set.

Roh wasn't fazed when he didn't finish Prado off in two sets, holding and breaking to take a 2-0 lead in the third. Leading the entire third set, Roh just kept firing, resisting the tendency to protect his lead by playing more conservatively.

"I tried to be really aggressive from the baseline, tried to dictate on every ball," said Roh, who trains at the IMG Academy in Bradenton. "I thought it was going to be a really hard match, of course, didn't expect I'd win today's match, but my forehand was really working a lot. Fortunately I got a great result today, and I'm so happy about it."

Roh knew that keeping a positive frame was necessary, so when it came time to serve out the match at 5-3, he didn't mope even when two double faults--one at 30-0 and the second on his first match point at 40-15--betrayed his nervousness.

"I was kind of tight at 5-3, because it's the biggest win in my career," said Roh, who has reached one other J500 quarterfinal, in Offenbach Germany in April. "I'm kind of excited in the moment, so I think next time I need to calm down a little bit more in that moment."

If the second double fault bothered him, it didn't carry over to the next point, when he hit a huge first serve and a blistering forehand that landed on the line to earn the victory.

Roh will face fellow IMG student Danil Panarin of Russia, who defeated No. 10 seed Charlie Camus of Australia 6-4, 7-5.

Top seed Iliyan Radulov needed just 55 minutes to dispatch No. 15 seed Timofei Derepasko of Russia 6-0, 6-1 to set up a rematch of his Eddie Herr quarterfinal with Sebastian Eriksson of Sweden. Eriksson, the No. 7 seed, defeated Roger Pascual Ferra of Spain 6-2, 7-5 and will look to avenge his 6-3, 6-3 loss to Radulov last week in Bradenton.

Two American boys advanced to the quarterfinals, with No. 5 seed Alex Frusina defeating No. 11 seed Lasse Poertner of Germany 6-4, 6-4 and No. 9 seed Kaylan Bigun rolling past wild card Jack Secord 6-0, 6-0 in forty minutes.

Frusina plays unseeded Luca Preda of Romania, who beat Nikita Filin 6-0, 6-2, while Bigun takes on No. 3 seed Nicolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway, who advanced when No. 16 seed Charlie Robertson retired trailing 6-1.

An American girl will reach the final from the bottom half of the draw after six of them contested third round matches Thursday.

No. 6 seed Tyra Grant defeated No. 12 seed Elizara Yaneva of Bulgaria 6-2, 6-3 and will face 2022 Orange Bowl 16s champion Alexis Nguyen, who won the battle of the wild cards 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 over Elizabeth Inonescu. Nguyen was up 4-3 in the second set over the 15-year-old from Pennsylvania, who won the girls 18s USTA Indoor Championships two weeks ago, but lost her next two service games and the set.

Nguyen went up 4-0 in the third set, countering Ionescu's big forehand by staying in the long rallies and keeping the ball deep. Although Ionescu was vocally frustrated with her own level, she managed to get one of the breaks back when Nguyen served for the match at 5-2, with her backhand doing the damage. After an easy hold it was 5-4, but Nguyen didn't falter in her second opportunity, hitting a forehand winner for her first match point and converting it when Ionescu's forehand went long.

The second wild card in the quarterfinals is Akasha Urhobo, who has had played four tiebreakers and two matches over three hours to reach her first J500 quarterfinal. Today the 16-year-old from Fort Lauderdale took out Victoria Osuigwe 7-6(9), 5-7, 7-5 in three hours and 20 minutes, while her opponent in the quarterfinals, No. 2 seed Kaitlin Quevedo, needed only an hour and 22 minutes to defeated Rositsa Dencheva of Bulgaria 6-1, 6-2.

The only American in the top half of the girls draw is No. 4 seed Iva Jovic, who battled No. 16 seed Monika Stankiewicz of Poland for two hours before coming away with a 6-4, 6-4 victory. Stankiewicz, who had beaten Jovic in the first round of the Eddie Herr in 2022, played at a high level throughout the match, keeping her ball deep and her errors to a minimum. But when she let up just a bit, Jovic took advantage, and closed out both sets.

Jovic's opponent in the quarterfinals is qualifier Jeline Vandromme of Belgium who defeated No. 9 seed Iva Ivanova of Bulgaria 6-1, 6-1. Vandroome won the European 16s championships in September and the Tennis Europe 16s Masters last month. 

After her scare in the second round, top seed Laura Samsonova had no trouble in the round of 16, beating No. 13 seed Gloriana Nahum of Benin 6-0, 6-2. She'll face No. 5 seed Hannah Klugman of Great Britain, after the 14-year-old defeated No. 11 seed Alisa Oktiabreva of Russia 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in just under three hours. Samsonova defeated Klugman in the quarterfinals of the 2023 US Open Junior Championships, with Klugman retiring trailing 6-0, 3-0.

Friday's boys doubles semifinals feature just one seeded team: No. 3 seeds Poertner and Budkov Kjaer, who defeated Maxwell Exsted and Cooper Woestendick 6-2, 6-4.  They will play Andrew Delgado and Matthew Forbes, who got a walkover from No. 5 seeds Camus and Robertson.

In the bottom half, Kalamazoo 18s champions and No. 2 seeds Adhithya Ganesan and Frusina lost to Eddie Herr finalists Roh and Atakan Karahan of Turkey 6-7(7), 6-1, 10-7. They will play Bernardo Munk Mesa of Spain and Panarin, who beat No. 8 seeds Keegan Rice of Canada and Bigun 6-3, 6-2.

Three of the teams in the girls doubles semifinals are seeded, with the exception Kaitlyn Rolls and Norway's Emily Sartz-Lunde. Rolls and Sartz-Lunde, who beat Valerie Glozman and Aspen Schuman 7-6(5), 7-6(2), will play top seeds Samsonova and Alena Kovackova, who saved two match points in the 6-3, 6-7(4), 11-9 win over Mia Yamakita and Urhobo.

Defending champions Jovic and Grant, the No. 3 seeds, beat Trinetra Vijayakumar and Sophia Webster 6-7(5), 6-2, 10-4. They will play No. 2 seeds Quevedo and Klugman, who defeated No. 7 seeds Wakana Sonobe of Japan and Tatum Evans 6-4, 6-4.

The singles semifinals of the 16s are also on Friday's schedule, along with the doubles finals. The results of today's quarterfinals:

Girls 16s:

Aoife Kuo(USA) d. Eva Oxford[13](USA) 7-5, 6-3 

Thea Frodin[3](USA) d. Nancy Lee[9](USA) 7-5, 6-3

Polina Sleptsova[6](KAZ) d. Avery Nguyen(USA) 6-4, 7-6(2)

Leena Friedman[2](USA) d. Sobee Oak(USA) 6-1, 7-6(4) 

Boys 16s:

Jack Satterfield(USA) d. Madhav Binu(USA) 6-1, 6-2

Ronit Karki[8](USA) d. Roshan Santhosh(USA) 6-3, 6-3

Gavin Goode(USA) d. Nicholas Patrick(USA) 6-3, 6-3

Dominick Mosejczuk[2](USA) d. Jon Gamble[11](USA) 6-4, 6-4

The girls doubles final will feature No. 3 seeds Aleksandra Kyselova of Ukraine and Zhang-Qian Wei of China against the unseeded American team of Anna Bennett and Emerey Gross. Kyselova and Wei defeated Berlie Simmering and Katie Spencer 6-0, 3-6, 10-4 in today's semifinals, while Bennett and Gross defeated Nola Jones and Calla McGill 6-3, 4-6, 10-4.

In the boys doubles final, 2023 14s Easter Bowl champions Ryan Cozad and Yannik Alvarez, the No. 5 seeds, will face No. 6 seeds Simon Caldwell and Zachary Cohen. Cozad and Alvarez defeated No. 8 seeds Mark Krupkin and Ilija Palavestra 6-4, 6-4; Caldwell and Cohen beat Nathan Germino and Jack Satterfield 7-5, 6-2.

See the ustaorangebowl.com website for draws and the order of play for Friday.