Dunlop Orange Bowl Slide Show

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Tags: junior tennis, Dunlop Orange Bowl, Slideroll, Colette Lewis

Blackman Joins USTA Player Development; Happy Holidays from ZooTennis!

The USTA announced on Tuesday that Martin Blackman will be joining Player Development as Senior Director for Talent Identification and Development. I spoke to Blackman yesterday by phone for an assignment I have for the next issue of SMASH magazine, and I hope to have a more extended conversatin with him about his role when I return to Florida next month for one of the Futures, and the Plaza Cup. The USTA's full release can be found here.

I'm taking tomorrow off, but I hope to have my Dunlop Orange Bowl slide show ready for Friday and a Coaches Q and A post on hitting a heavy ball this weekend.

Happy Holidays!

Tags: junior tennis, Martin Blackman, Colette Lewis

Richmond Wins Boys 14s; Korea Takes Two Titles Tuesday at Junior Orange Bowl

©Colette Lewis 2008--
Coral Gables, FL--

Harrison Richmond is no stranger to big tennis occasions, reaching the Easter Bowl final in April and winning the USTA Nationals in San Antonio in August. So when the left-hander from Pawleys Island, South Carolina fell behind 3-1 in the opening set, losing his first two service games, he didn't panic, and less than an hour later, he had won 11 of the next 13 games to defeat Canada's Edward Nguyen 6-4, 6-1.

"I came out a little nervous, making some errors, but I knew I just needed to settle into the match a little more," said Richmond, a No. 9 seed. "Once I did, I was able to get a rhythm and make my shots, not do too much, and do what I needed to do to win."

If Richmond found his rhythm, Nguyen, also a No. 9 seed, never did, looking entirely unlike the player that had dominated his opponents in the quarterfinals and semifinals.

"I wasn't on my game today," Nguyen said. "I just couldn't make the shots I made all week. I was just a bit nervous at the beginning, but after I got into it, I still couldn't get my rhythm."

Nguyen's serve was the most obvious problem, as first serves were scarce and double faults appeared at inopportune times, such as on set point at 4-5 in the opening set.

In the second set, Richmond played much more aggressive and assured tennis, taking a 3-0 lead, and Nguyen's hope of comeback essentially ended when he was broken for a second time to put Richmond up 4-0. The racquet abuse point penalty Nguyen received after losing that game gave Richmond yet another free point, one of the many early Christmas presents Richmond received from Nguyen.

"I didn't have to do that much with the ball," Richmond admitted. "I just let him miss. He missed a lot, and I didn't have to hit that many winners. I thought it would be tougher to break him, but he didn't make many first serves. I thought at one point he might start picking it up, and I was ready, but I really didn't have to do too much."

Richmond joins Clancy Shields (2001) and Rhyne Williams (2005) as U.S. Junior Orange Bowl 14s champions this decade, and he ranks the accomplishment near the top of his tennis achievements.

"It's a great win, probably my best tournament ever," Richmond said. "It's a great feeling, and I'm definitely glad I could pull it off."



Junior Orange Bowl champions aren't unusual for the United States, but Korea isn't accustomed to dominating international junior tennis. On Tuesday, however, they claimed both the girls 14s and boys 12s titles, an accomplishment that delighted the dozen or so "team members" that cheered every point that their compatriots won.

Qualifier So Ra Lee was the first to claim a title for Korea, defeating Vicky Duval of the U.S. 7-5, 6-3.

The match was ultimately decided in two different eight-deuce games, both won by Lee. At 5-5 in the first set, Lee saved five break points to take a 6-5 lead, and after falling short so many times in that game, Duval, a No. 9 seed, couldn't survive the next one, hitting a backhand into the net at 30-40 to give Lee the first set.

"I felt like I was cursed on every break point," the 13-year-old Duval said. "I lost it every time. She played really well, and I thought she deserved it."

The second game of eight deuces came earlier in the second set, when Duval was serving, trying to extend her 3-2 lead. Winners alternated with errors, but again it was Lee who emerged with the game, and she took control after that.

Duval had had some success with short angles against Lee, but the Korean kept herself in every point with pace and precision from the baseline.

After losing in the second round of the Eddie Herr, Lee felt that the four qualifying matches she had to win to make the main draw were actually beneficial.

"She told me yesterday that she actually arrived in the U.S. just a couple of days before the Eddie Herr," said Daniel Yoo, a Korean touring professional based in Florida, who served as an interpreter. "Her confidence and her conditioning wasn't really a hundred percent. But here, she had to play the qualies, and little by little she built up the confidence and it ended up well, very well."

Lee may not have had too many expectations after her performance at the Eddie Herr, but that can't be said for Hyeon Chung, who became the first Korean to win an Eddie Herr title when he took the boys 12s championship without dropping a set earlier in the month.

A No. 1 seed at the Junior Orange Bowl, Chung was a clear favorite, and in Tuesday's final he demonstrated why, taking his second major junior title with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Silas Cerqueira of Brazil, also a No. 1 seed.

"After he won Eddie Herr, he just told himself he was going to try hard," Yoo said, interpreting for Chung after the match. "He wasn't really thinking that he won Eddie Herr so he has to win Orange Bowl. He is very proud to win back to back and to share this day with Lee and our country."

The consolation final and third place matches were also played on Tuesday. Sachia Vickery of the U.S. defeated Christine Kandler of Austria 6-4, 6-2 for third in girls 14s; Jan Abaza of the U.S. took fifth place with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Rosalie Van Der Hoek of the Netherlands. In boys 14s, Liam Broady of Great Britain was awarded third place when Filip Peliwo of Canada was unable to compete due to injury. Fifth place in boys 14s went to Mitchell Krueger of the U.S., who defeated Alex Halebian of the U.S. 6-2, 7-6(3). In boys 12s, Borna Coric of Croatia downed Noah Rubin of the U.S. 7-5, 6-2 for third place. Fifth place in boys 12s went to Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia, a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 victor over Andre Biro of Hungary.

For complete results, visit the TennisLink site.

Tags: junior tennis, So Ra Lee, Hyeon Chung, Harrison Richmond, Colette Lewis

De Vroome Wins Girls 12s Title; Duval and Richmond Play for 14s Junior Orange Bowl Crowns Tuesday

©Colette Lewis 2008--
Coral Gables, FL--

Indy de Vroome of the Netherlands overcame a stiff test administered by Alexandria Stiteler of the U.S. to capture the girls 12s Junior Orange Bowl title Monday morning at Salvadore Park. In the 14s semifinals held at the Biltmore Monday afternoon, South Carolina's Harrison Richmond and Florida's Vicky Duval earned spots in Tuesday's finals.

De Vroome, a No. 1 seed, and the unseeded Stiteler battled for two-and-a-half hours on the green clay, and in the first set, neither girl could find a rhythm or sustain any momentum. After each held serve to open the match, there were six straight breaks of serve, until Stiteler finally held to take a 5-4 lead, although she didn't actually have to win the final two points, as at deuce, de Vroome received a game penalty for racquet abuse. De Vroome had flung her racquet at the end of the previous game, after two doubles faults and an unforced error had given Stiteler that game, and had received a point penalty, but she said after the match that she thought the umpire was unfair in his judgments against her. De Vroome's coach explained that under European rules, that punishment is unknown, but it actually seemed to help his young charge, as she regrouped and won the next three games.

De Vroome's first serve was giving her fits throughout the match, but when she was serving for the first set at 6-5, it became a weapon, not a liability, as she got 4 of 6 first serves in, forcing return errors from Stiteler. After an hour and ten minutes, the first set finally concluded, but nothing had been decided.

Stiteler, from Bradenton, Fla., took a 4-1 lead in the second set, but de Vroome came back to take a 5-4 lead, breaking Stiteler with a rifled backhand down the line winner on break point. When de Vroome took a 40-0 lead serving at 5-4, it looked to be her match, but Stiteler kept fighting, hitting a forehand winner on the first match point and getting several nervous backhand errors from de Vroome and eventually a double fault, to even the set at 5-5.

"I just wanted to keep playing that same way, get to the third set," said Stiteler, who had won her quarterfinal match in three sets on Sunday.

Stiteler did crack several more forehand winners in the next game, but they weren't enough to counteract the errors she made. De Vroome, on the other hand, kept the ball in play with depth and pace and gave Stiteler no free points, and again de Vroome earned an opportunity to serve for the match.

And again, Stiteler refused to go quietly. The left-hander hit two clutch forehand winners to put de Vroome in a 15-40 hole, but the tiebreaker that loomed never materialized. De Vroome saved one break point with another stunning backhand down the line, and three straight errors by Stiteler gave the title to de Vroome.

Asked what she was thinking on that fourth match point, de Vroome answered, "I have to win."

And win she did, with a trip back home to the Netherlands to celebrate both her win and the holidays scheduled for Tuesday.

The gritty Stiteler was disappointed in her level of play in the final--"I missed too much,"--she said, but overall was satisfied with her last two weeks of tennis, winning the Prince Cup and reaching the Junior Orange Bowl final. "I played good these two weeks."

The boys 12s semifinals were played at the Biltmore tennis center at the same time as the girls final was played at Salvadore Park, with No. 1 seeds Hyeon Chung of Korea and Silas Cerqueira of Brazil earning berths in Tuesday's final, and ending the streak of U.S. boys claiming the 12s title at three (Christian Harrison 2005, Reo Asami 2006, Joseph Di Giulio 2007). Chung, who won the Eddie Herr three weeks ago, came back to down Borna Coric of Croatia 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, while Cerqueira subdued unseeded Noah Rubin of the U.S. 6-4, 6-2.


In the girls 14s, 13-year-old Vicky Duval will take on qualifier So Ra Lee of Korea. Lee surprised Sachia Vickery 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, staying with the quick and consistent Vickery thoughout the second set, and maintaining a high level of play in the third, while Vickery began to make unforced errors when she could not control the point.

Duval's 6-4, 6-2 win over the feisty Christine Kandler of Austria was not an easy one, but Duval's superb defense and emotional stability contributed to her victory.

"When she starts screaming that actually motivates me," said Duval, a No. 9 seed, who trains at IMG/Bollettieri's Tennis Academy. "If she gets down, I think I can get her even more mad. I try to show as little emotion as I can myself."

After breaking Kandler at 4-4, Duval served for the set, and after six deuces and four set points, Duval finally took the game, when Kandler couldn't return a second serve. Kandler missed several swinging volleys in that game when she had earned control of the point, and demoralized, she couldn't counteract the practically error-free tennis that Duval played in the second set.

A quarterfinalist in the Junior Orange Bowl 12s last year, Duval was aiming toward the 14s thoughout the year.

"Me getting to the quarterfinals in the 12s gave me motivation to win the 14s," Duval said. "So I've been training really hard, and I'm so excited to be in the finals."

Harrison Richmond also has positive memories of the Junior Orange Bowl, as he was a semifinalist two years ago in the 12s, losing to champion Reo Asami. This year the No. 9 seed from South Carolina has gone a step further, reaching the final with a 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 win over unseeded Filip Peliwo of Canada.

Richmond played lethargically in the first set, staying back and rallying with Peliwo. After taking an early 4-2 lead in the second set, Richmond was broken, and Peliwo briefly led when he held for 5-4, but Richmond broke at 5-5 and came up with some good serves to earn a third set.

In the third, Peliwo was a step slower than he had been, and Richmond played his shots with more conviction, constructing shorter points by closing the net more often. He took a quick 4-1 lead and Peliwo, who showed signs of being in pain in the last three games, never mounted a serious threat to Richmond's lead.

Richmond will face Canada's Edward Nguyen, also a No. 9 seed, after Nguyen beat Liam Broady of Great Britain 6-3, 6-3. Nguyen, who lost to Asami in the 2006 12s final, will be seeking his second major international 14s title of 2008, having won the Les Petits As in February.

Against Broady, whom he defeated for the Les Petits As title, Nguyen displayed his aggressive all-court game, pressuring Broady to come up with passing shots as he moved relentlessly forward. Nguyen also returned Broady's left-handed serves well, practice he no doubt will find pertinent against Richmond, another lefty.

The consolation finals are also set for Tuesday. Americans Alex Halebian, who lost to Richmond, and Mitchell Krueger, who lost to Nguyen, both in exciting third-round matches, will meet for fifth place in the boys 14s.

The girls 14s consolation title will be decided between Jan Abaza of the U.S. and Rosalie Van Der Hoek of the Netherlands. The boys 12s consolation final features Andre Biro of Hungary against Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia.

Brooke Austin of the U.S. won the girls 12s consolation title Monday afternoon.

For complete draws, visit the TennisLink site.

Tags: junior tennis, Vicky Duval, Indy de Vroome, Junior Orange Bowl, Colette Lewis

Isner Wins Australian Open Main Draw Wild Card Tournament

©Colette Lewis 2008--

John Isner has won the USTA-sponsored playoff in Boca Raton to determine the recipient of the main draw wild card for next month's Australian Open. Isner defeated Jesse Levine 6-3, 7-5 on Saturday to put his record at 2-0, and because Donald Young beat Wayne Odesnik 7-5, 7-5, there was no need for Isner to play a third match today, as he held the head-to-head tiebreaker over both Young and Levine, who were 1-1, while Odesnik was 0-2.

Tags: college tennis, John Isner, Australian Open wild card tournament, USTA, Colette Lewis

Stiteler to Play for Junior Orange Bowl Girls 12s Title Monday: Semifinalists in Boys 12s & 14s and Girls 14s Set

©Colette Lewis 2008--
Coral Gables, FL--

Few would have blamed Alexandria Stiteler if she had resigned herself to a loss in the semifinals against No. 1 seed Donna Vekic of Croatia. The 12-year-old left-hander from Bradenton had survived a nearly three-hour quarterfinal match with Valeria Patiuk of Israel, another No. 1 seed, Sunday morning, and under the hot afternoon sun was down 3-0, two-breaks to Vekic to open the match.

The chair umpire had called the score wrong several times early in the match and had missed an out ball by Vekic, depriving Stiteler of a point she had clearly earned, but even that failed to ruffle her.

"I got upset, but then I calmed down when I saw he wasn't going to change it back," Stiteler said. "I just kept playing and came back."

Stiteler, who trains at Sarasota's Celsius Tennis Academy, came all the way back, taking the first set 7-5 and rolling past a demoralized Vekic 6-1 in the second set. Vekic, who had beaten Eddie Herr champion Estelle Cascino of France 7-5, 6-2 in the morning quarterfinal, showed her first sign of cracking when she double faulted on break point at 4-3 in the first set. With Stiteler serving at 5-5, an overrule by the chair umpire against Vekic at 30-30 gave Stiteler a game point, but the game went to four deuces, and Stiteler saved a break point before finally securing a 6-5 lead.

Vekic seemed to lose confidence after the overrule, and serving at 5-6, 15-30, she overruled herself on a baseline call to give Stiteler two set points. A Vekic forehand into the net gave Stiteler the first set, and despite the subsequent bathroom break, Vekic couldn't stall Stiteler's momentum.

Stiteler held in the first game of the second set and had Vekic down 0-40 in the next game, but the Croatian, who trains at Bollettieri's, came back to hold. It was the last game she would win, as the relentlessly positive self-talk coming from Stiteler--several times she could be heard saying let's finish this--propelled her through the next five games.

"I used to be negative," Stiteler admitted. "and I've controlled that, figured out how to work that. I used to lose a lot of matches because of that, because of getting too angry."

The unseeded Stiteler, who won the Prince Cup in Miami last week and was a quarterfinalist at the Eddie Herr earlier in the month, will play Indy de Vroome of the Netherlands for the championship Monday morning. De Vroome, a No. 1 seed, handled two No. 1 seeds on Sunday, taking out Brooke Austin of the U.S. 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinals and Eleanor Dean of Great Britain 6-4, 6-1 in the semifinals.

In the girls 14s, unseeded Sachia Vickery and Vicky Duval, a No. 9 seed, advanced to the semifinals with wins over Americans. Vickery had a battle on her hands in the second set against qualifier Jan Abaza of Florida, but Vickery got a break at 4-4 and stayed patient in the final game, waiting for an opening. When she finally got it, often after 20 or 30 balls, Vickery took her shot, and with two forehand winners closed out the match 6-2, 6-4. Duval, who is now the only seed remaining in the main draw, came back from a set down against No. 17 seed Ashley Dai, playing excellent defense in a 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory.

No. 3 seed Kyle McPhillips was tripped up by qualifier So Ra Lee of Korea 6-3, 6-3. Lee will play Duval in Monday's semifinals, while Vickery meets Austrian Christine Kandler, who beat No. 4 seed Ganna Poznikhirenko of Ukraine 4-6, 6-1, 7-5.

The U.S. has two boys still vying for titles in the 12s and 14s. Unseeded Noah Rubin of the U.S. outlasted Christian Garin of Chile 1-6, 7-5, 6-4 in one of the 12s quarterfinals at Tropical Park. Rubin plays Brazil's Silas Cerqueira (1) in one semifinal, while Eddie Herr champion Hyeon Chung of Korea (1) takes on Borna Coric (1) of Croatia in the other. Coric, a quarterfinalist last year, continues to roll through the draw; he hasn't lost more than two games in any of his five matches, including today's 6-0, 6-1 rout of Daniel Kerznerman of the U.S.

In the 14s, Harrison Richmond of the U.S. overcame a hiccup in the second set to down fellow No. 9 seed Filip Veger of Croatia 6-3, 5-7, 6-2. Richmond was up 5-2 in the second set, lost five straight games, then completely dominated the third set to earn spot in the semifinal against Filip Peliwo of Canada. The unseeded Peliwo surprised top seed Moos Sporken of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-1. Great Britain's Liam Broady and Canada's Ed Nguyen, both No. 9 seeds, will meet in the other semifinal, which is a rematch of the Les Petits As final back in February, won by Nguyen. Broady beat No. 8 seed Julien Cagnina of Belgium 6-3, 6-1 and Nguyen ended the run of U.S. qualifer Alexander Ritschard 6-2, 6-3.

Except for the girls 12s, which will stay on the Har-Tru of Salvadore Park, the other three divisions will play semifinals and finals at the Biltmore Tennis Center Monday and Tuesday.

For complete results, including consolation draws, see the Tennis Link site.

Tags: junior tennis, Junior Orange Bowl, Alexandria Stiteler, Colette Lewis