ITF J500 Orange Bowl Unkind to Eddie Herr ITF Finalists; Eddie Herr 16s Champion Secord Drops No. 8 Seed; Both 16s Top Seeds Fall in Second Round

©Colette Lewis 2023--
Plantation FL--

Three of the four Eddie Herr finalists made their way from the IMG Academy to the Veltri Tennis Center in Plantation after Sunday's finals in Bradenton, but their success last week did not extend to this week's ITF J500 Orange Bowl, with all suffering first round losses today.

Qualifier Trinetra Vijayakumar defeated Eddie Herr finalist Teodora Kostovic of Serbia, the No. 7 seed this week, 6-4, 2-1 with Kostovic retiring with a foot injury.

Eddie Herr finalist Theo Papamalamis couldn't summon his best tennis in his fourth consecutive week of tournament play, and wild card Noah Johnston took full advantage, earning a 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 victory over the 17-year-old from France.

Johnston is also playing his fourth tournament in succession, but had yet to post a win until today, while Papamalamis went 10-3 in the two J300 and the J500 that preceded the Orange Bowl.

Johnston built a two-break lead in the third set, but was well aware of Papamalamis's comeback credentials, having won from a set down twice to reach the Eddie Herr final.

"The hardest part of the match is finishing," said Johnston, a 16-year-old left-hander from South Carolina. "I knew he had a lot of comebacks, so I just tried to picture it at zero-zero and just kept going."

Serving at 1-5 in the third, Papamalamis was down three match points, but saved them all, including the third with a tricky stop volley. Johnston went up 40-15 serving for the match at 5-2, but again Papamalamis forced a deuce game, with a bullet of a backhand pass on match point No. 5.  But Johnston showed no frustration despite the missed opportunities and landed a forehand on the baseline to give himself match point No. 6. After seeing all of Papamalamis's creativity, Johnston displayed some of his own, hitting a perfect lob winner that Papamalamis could only track with the hope that it would go out. It did not, landing well inside the baseline, with a smiling Johnston celebrating his first singles win in the past four weeks.

"I wasn't counting," Johnston said of the number of match points that Papamalamis fought off. "I was trying to finish, but I didn't really think about the score, but just tried to get the job done in the fastest way possible, because I knew what he could do."

Part of that knowledge came from his hitting sessions with Papamalamis during this junior circuit swing.

"The last few tournaments we've gotten to know each other pretty well," Johnston said. "We've been hitting with each other, practicing with each other a lot. He's a really nice kid. Since those practices I had a little bit of a game plan, but it was still a battle to get through."

Johnston will face No. 15 seed Timofei Derepasko of Russia in Wednesday's second round.

Eddie Herr ITF champion Wakana Sonobe of Japan, seeded No. 8 this week, started her first round match with Nellie Taraba Wallberg by taking a hard-fought first set, but couldn't come up with the shots at big moments that had seen her through last week's title run, falling 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(5) to the 16-year-old from Sweden.

Sonobe fell behind 4-1 in the tiebreaker, but got the two minibreaks back and held for 4-all. But two shaky points gave Taraba Wallberg two match points, and she converted the first when Sonobe's forehand sailed long.

"I know she's a good player; I played her before and I lost," said Taraba Wallberg, who dropped a 6-3, 6-4 decision to Sonobe last month at the Junior Billie Jean King Cup competition in Spain. "I knew it would be a tough match."

Taraba Wallberg was up 5-3 in the third, but was able to halt the Sonobe comeback by holding easily to force the tiebreaker, which she was happy to win.

"I was really nervous, I was shaking, but I knew she felt the same, so I just tried to do my best," Taraba Wallberg said. "Everything and anything can happen in a tiebreaker, you never know, so I just fight for every point."

Taraba Wallberg's second round opponent will be wild card Akasha Urhobo. 

While the Eddie Herr ITF finalists and champion didn't fare well in their first round match, 16s champion Jack Secord picked up the biggest win of his ITF Junior Circuit career after switching surfaces, beating No. 8 seed Maxim Mrva of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-4.

Mrva led his team to the Junior Davis Cup title last month in Spain, going undefeated during that ITF 16-and-under team competition, but he looked much less formidable in Tuesday's match, with his dubious shot selection and lack of commitment giving Secord opportunities.

"His engagement definitely goes in and out," the 15-year-old left-hander said of Mrva. "I was down a break most of the first set, but I stayed engaged and he lost it a little bit."

Secord, who had never played an ITF Junior Circuit match above the J200 level until today, had heard from a friend that Mrva's level and effort could fluctuate, so he was ready to accept any gifts that Mrva might give him.

Two of those came with Mrva serving at 4-5 in the second set. He double faulted at 30-all and then hit a drop shot early in the rally that went into the net, giving Secord the victory and a second meeting with fellow American Jagger Leach.

Unlike the ITF finalists, Secord played his Eddie Herr final on hard courts and, as a Chicago resident, doesn't have a lot of affinity for Har-Tru. 

"The draw didn't help me a lot, but I'm glad I could get my first big win," Secord said. "I was a little worried about that, green clay was not my favorite surface coming into this match, but it's definitely going up on my list."

Other notable matches today in boys draw saw top seed Iliyan Radulov of Bulgaria defeat lucky loser Santiago Padilla Cote of Mexico 6-3, 7-5, and No. 2 seed Juan Carlos Prado Angelo of Bolivia beat Luis Ferraz Sandoval Carvalho of Brazil 7-5, 6-3 despite being less than 48 hours removed from winning a $15K title in Bolivia.

No. 9 seed Kaylan Bigun won a three-hour and 29-minute first round match with Matthias Kask of Canada, saving five match points in his 7-6(5), 5-7, 7-6(3) win. After brushing aside the first match point at 15-40 with an overhead putaway, Bigun was facing another, which he miraculously saved with a desperation volley two feet from the net, which he hit while falling to court. The volley traveled over the net with so much spin that it bounced sideways when it landed on Kask's side, although Bigun still had to save three more match points before finally holding for 5-5. Bigun broke Kask to serve for the match, but played a shaky game to get broken, although he was the more solid player in the tiebreaker, avenging his loss to fellow left-hander Kask in the first round of the J500 two weeks ago in Merida Mexico.

In the first round of doubles, Jagger Leach and Nikita Filin added to the first round woes of Eddie Herr champions, beating No. 7 seeds Derepasko and Daniil Sarksian of Russia 7-5, 6-1, who took the title in Bradenton. All the seeded girls teams advanced to the second round, including Eddie Herr champions Alisa Oktibreva of Russia and Iva Ivanova of Bulgaria, the No. 4 seeds, who beat the wild card team of Alba Martinez and Athena Posas-Pacifico 6-2, 6-0.

The Orange Bowl 16s championships lost both their top seeds today in singles, with Madhav Binu of the United States defeating Kerem Yilmaz of Turkey 7-6(4), 6-4 and Nicole Weng of the United State beating Zhang-Qian Wei of China 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.

The doubles quarterfinals in the 16s championships are Wednesday, with just one seeded girls team and four seed boys teams remaining. Results of all of today's matches and Wednesday's order of play can be found at https://www.ustaorangebowl.com/draws.