Qualifying Complete in 12s, 14s and 16s Divisions at IMG Academy International Championships; Kennedy Advances in ITF J300 Qualifying; Grant Wins W50 in Italy; USA Reaches Master'U BNP Paribas Collegiate Team Final

©Colette Lewis 2024--
Bradenton FL--

The final day of qualifying for the 12s, 14s and 16s divisions of the IMG Academy International Championships started with temperatures in the low 50s and a chilly breeze, but there were certainly no complaints from the 48 players who made it through to the main draw. Below is the list of qualifiers, with their countries, which is now impossible to ascertain from the draws. The Asian contingent is strong again this year, as has traditionally been the case at these late year Florida tournaments. A full list of main draw wild cards, which also are not identified as such on the draws, can be found in my Friday post.

Tomorrow is an off day for the qualifiers, all of whom won three or four matches to reach the main draw. Monday is the first day of play in the 12s, 14s and 16s. Due to damage around the seven hard courts on the north side of the IMG campus, the 16s were moved to to clay for this year, and they will have to split the first round over two days and double up later in the week in order to finish on Saturday. They will be playing primarily on the new Legacy Hotel courts on the west campus for at least the first three rounds, which are lighted.

B12s qualifiers: 
Rei Sakai(JPN)
Jingheng Cao(CHN)
Liu Lv Yang(CHN)
Tajesh Reddy Bomma(USA)
Minchan Kwon(KOR)
Julian Toshev(USA)
Tyler Tani(JPN)
Seung Yu Hong(KOR)

B14s qualifiers:

Luka Radosavljevic(CAN)

Yida Liu(CHN)

Jaime Gomez Lopez(USA)

Zhantore Sanzharyly(KAZ)

Simon Stoyanov(CAN)

Max Becerra(CHI)

Antonio Costantini Marques(ESP)

Thomas O'Neill(CAN)

B16s qualifiers:

Charles Pettinelli(USA)

Qi Ao(USA)

Kurt Sayan(USA)

Bernardo Tedesco(BRA)

Eldar Greinert(UKR)

Eita Mishima(JPN)

Noa Cakaric(USA)

Lucas Hoyos(COL)

G12s qualifiers:

Alexie Duclair(CAN)

Ana Paula Vega Alvarez(DOM)

Uma Malika Ngo Bogso(CMR)

Siyun Xiao(CHN)

Yeonkyung Lim(KOR)

Hartley Milne(USA)

Jingyue Zhang(CHN)

Fangqiao Zou(CHN)

G14s qualifiers:

Montserrat Temprana(MEX)

Amina Nurmakhan(KAZ)

Maja Sobiesiak(POL)

Kuzivaishe Charlene Chapepa(ZIM)

Tamina Saken(KAZ)

Mia Tanasoiu(USA)

Eve Thibault(CAN)

Camille Michel(CAN)

G16s qualifiers:

Asia Sundas(ITA)

Chukwunoneeru Smarty(USA)

Clara-Marie Priemer(GER)

Leyla Kilgour(USA)

Zixin Lyu(CHN)

Charlotte Ballarin(USA)

Payton Seidle-Lubowitz(USA)

Daniela Shubianok(USA)

I spent the day watching the first round of ITF J300 qualifying, putting names with faces I've seen in draws throughout the year. In this scenario, I don't watch any match start to finish, but I did see the end of two matches that were memorable, for different reasons.

In the first, Joanna Kennedy was playing the No. 13 seed in qualifying Ichino Horikawa of Japan, on the Stadium clay court, with the deciding tiebreaker in lieu of a full third set just beginning. Kennedy had lost the first set 6-3, but adjusted to Horikawa's depth and pace, taking the second set 6-1.

"I think she started missing more, but I started pressurizing her more in the second set," said the 16-year-old from Colorado, playing in just her fourth ITF junior event. "I wasn't playing super powerful in the first set, I could have started faster and she started big, she was playing well. I think she also trains here, so I knew she was going to be comfortable in the environment. I wasn't pleased with the slow start but I'm happy I could pull out the win."

Kennedy took an early lead in the tiebreaker, with the 17-year-old Horikawa unable to win her first four points on serve. But despite Kennedy's mostly error-free play, she couldn't quite pull away, and it was 7-5 at the second change of ends. Kennedy held her serve for 8-5, but on the point, Horikawa had fallen, scraping her leg. With the roving umpire on the court encouraging her to towel off the leg, Horikawa did clean up the scratch, but before the point could start the umpire detected blood, so play was stopped and a trainer was called to tape the leg.

Kennedy returned to her chair during the wait for the trainer and then the treatment, but she said she had been in a similar situation before in a match tiebreaker and knew how to handle it.

"I think you just have to stay mentally positive, keep energized," said Kennedy, who had played the vast majority of her junior matches on the USTA circuit, which features many match tiebreakers in lieu of the third set. "Stay focused on your game and not worry too much what's going on with them. It wasn't ideal, but I was just focused on getting those two points, playing my game."

Horikawa lost the next point to give Kennedy four match points, but she escaped the first when Kennedy made a rare unforced error. But with two serves coming, Kennedy could stay aggressive and eventually her pace and depth drew a forehand error from Horikawa that ended the match.

Kennedy will face Sophia Cedeno of Florida next, with two wins necessary Sunday to advance to the main draw.

All of the awnings and bench areas on each court were damaged by the recent hurricanes and removed, so umbrellas are now taking their place, making for a more wide-open feeling on the nine clay courts outside the Stadium court. The four red clay courts are the only practice courts available onsite, so that area was always buzzing with players waiting for the matches before theirs to finish, hoping to time their warmup well. That wasn't possible for the players last on court 7, where the third match on that court was still in the second set six hours after the first match had gone on that court at 8:30 a.m.  I decided to end my afternoon there for no other reason than a vacancy on a bench to sit on, and the quality of the match between Luiz Felipe Silva of Brazil and Iker Ibarrondo Suarez of Spain rose and fell throughout the second set that I watched. 

Ibarrondo had taken the first set 7-5 and Silva the second 6-2, but the tiebreaker was riveting, with the level, which although still uneven at times, peaking on occasion. Silva looked to be in the best position when he took a 10-9 lead with two serves, but he lost both serves. He recovered however to save that match point, and they changed ends for the fourth time at 12-12. Silva produced a double fault, the only one of the tiebreaker, to give Ibarrondo another match point, but he couldn't convert it. With both players obviously exhausted as the match ticked past three hours, Ibarrondo had another match point at 15-14, but lost it. He hit the balls back to the other side, perhaps instinctively knowing there should be another change of ends, but he did not move towards the chairs.  The roving umpire on the court told him he had another serve, and he took it from the same end, won it, then won the next when Silva tried a desperation serve and volley which he could not execute. 

Whether Ibarrondo can win two matches on Sunday after that ordeal will be one of the more interesting questions answered at the end of qualifying tomorrow.

Sixteen-year-old Tyra Grant is not competing on this Florida junior swing, staying in Europe after the Junior Billie Jean King Cup title to compete in ITF women's World Tennis Tour events. 

Today she won her second title on the women's WTT, coming through qualifying to earn the championship at the W50 in Italy. Grant is known for her prowess on clay courts, with her W15 title in March coming on that surface, but this was indoor hard, and against much stronger competition.

Grant won close match after close match in her seven wins, advancing via third-set tiebreakers in both the quarterfinals and semifinals. It today's final, against No. 9 seed and former University of Washington standout Stacey Fung of Canada, Grant  fought back to claim a 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 win in the two-hour and 44-minute final. 

At the Master'U BNP Paribas international collegiate team competition in Riems France, the defending champion United States team has advanced to the final, where they will play Great Britain. The US team of Michael Zheng(Columbia), Gavin Young(Michigan), Sebastian Gorzny(Texas), Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) Amelia Honer(UC-Santa Barbara) and Savannah Broadus(Pepperdine) will take on the British team which features some familiar names to those who follow Division I tennis: Amelia Rajecki(NC State), Esther Adeshina(Tennessee), Eliz Maloney(Loughborough) Jake (Finn) Bass(Baylor), Johannus Monday(Tennessee) and James Story(South Carolina).

There is live scoring, but no draws or any results archive that I can find.