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BRADENTON, Fla. – There’s not much to talk about on the boys’ side, in terms of the future of Canadian tennis.
But on the girls’ side, there at least is a little volume, as evidenced by the draws at last week’s Eddie Herr International Championships.
The tournament, held at the IMG Academy and sort of a double-header on Har-Tru with this week’s Orange Bowl, has categories from 12-and-under all the way up to 18-and-under.
And on the girls’ side, there were a number of players who made runs, notably in doubles.
Mboko the only seed
The youngest of them is Victoria Mboko, a player who had been training at the IMG Academy – until the pandemic hit and the place basically shut down. At that point, she returned to Canada.
So she certainly felt at home.
Mboko, the youngest of the girl squad (as far as we can determine, with the ITF information on dates of birth etc. being pretty sketchy), was the only seeded player in the singles, at No. 15.
She made her seeding, reaching the third round and running up against No. 2 seed Diana Schnaider of Russia, a lefty.
It was a good battle, with Mboko down 1-4 in the third set before she rallied (with some help from Schnaider) to tie it at 5-5. Schnaider broke Mboko when she was serving to stay in the match at 5-6, and that was it.
Here are a few highlights.
Canadian Eddie Herr Singles Results
Girls’ 18 singles
Mia Kupres
1st rd: def. [8] Clervie Lgounoue (USA) 51 retd
2nd rd: def. Tatjana Nikolenko (KAZ) 61 63
3rd rd: def. Kristyna Tomajkova (CZE) 63 61
QF: lost to [2] Diana Shnaider (RUS) 61 61
[15] Victoria Mboko
1st rd: def. Amelie Van Impe (BEL) 63 63
2nd rd: def. Alejandra Cruz (MEX) 61 61
3rd rd: lost to [2] Diana Shnaider (RUS) 61 36 75
Reece Carter
1st rd: def. Qavia Lopez (USA) 63 61
2nd rd: lost to [6] Solana Sierra (ARG) 16 76 (5) 63
Dasha Plekhanova
1st rd: def. Nevena Carton (USA) 75 75
2nd rd: lost to [11] Laura Hetaranta (FIN) 40 retd
Kayla Cross
1st rd: lost to [14] Alexis Blokhina (USA) 26 64 75
Annabelle Xu
1st rd: lost to [7] Mirra Andreeva (RUS) 63 62
Boys’ 18 Singles
Jaden Weekes
1st rd: lost to [WC] Sebastian Gorzny (USA) 62 62
Good doubles run for Mboko-Cross
In doubles, the team of Kayla Cross and Victoria Mboko reached the semifinals, narrowly losing to the sister team of Brenda and Linda Fruhvirtova.
Here is some action from the quarterfinals on Thursday.
Canadian Eddie Herr Doubles Results
Girls’ 18 Doubles
[8] Kayla Cross / Victoria Mboko
1st rd: def. Ranah Stojber (GBR) / Kristyna Tomajkova (CZE) 76 (3) 75
2nd rd: def Krystal Blanch / Madeleine Jessup (USA) 63 63
QF: def. [3] Kristina Dmitruk (UKR) / Laura Hietaranta (FIN) 64 67 (4) [10-6]
SF: lost to [2] Brenda Fruhvirtova / Linda Fruhvirtova (CZE) 63 57 [10-8]
[5] Annabelle Xu / Mirra Andreeva (RUS)
1st rd: def. Eva Elbaz / Maelie Monfils (FRA) 63 61
2nd rd: def Emma Charney / Tatum Evans (USA) 61 26 [10-3]
QF: lost to [4] Lucija Ciric Bagaric (CRO) / Johanne Christine Svendsen (DEN) 16 75 [10-8]
Dasha Plekhanova / Alejandra Cruz (MEX)
1st rd: lost to [4] Lucija Ciric Bagaric (CRO) / Johanne Christine Svendsen (DEN) 64 46 [13-11]
Mia Kupres / Tijana Sretenovic (SRB)
1st rd: lost to [7] Céline Naef (SUI) / Amelie Van Impe (BEL) 61 63
Reece Carter / Rozalia Gruszczynska (POL)
1st rd: lost to Alexis Blokhina / Katja Wiersholm (USA) 61 61
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Enjoy:-) We’ll kindly need you in Oz, as practically the whole Canadian girls team (Victoria Mboko, Marina Stakusic, Annabelle Xu, Kayla Cross, Mia Kupres) is in the main draw of junior AO. The Fruhvirtovas are out, perhaps for greener professional pastures (thanks for the piece on Papa Bencic).
Fruhvirtova (the elder) has long been past the junior stages. I guess this was a final opportunity to play with her sister, make some good memories.
I hope that the younger one takes a long break. She’s played a ridiculously excessive amount of tennis in the last nine months. Maybe focusing on school for a bit would be smart.
Don’t know how much time I’ll have for the juniors in Melbourne, but we’ll see how it goes. None of them (except Xu, who hasn’t won much lately) were able to get through the junior qualifying in New York. It’s tough out there.
But looks like a weak field – the one Canadian boy (the only player left at the national centre I think) is barely inside the top 100. But he’s No. 31 on the entry list. Which tells you how many will be missing. And only three of the top 10 and 6 of the top 20 on the girls’ side. Brutal.
Hello, Any streaming from Orange Bowl, anywhere? Thanks.
Sorry, no idea.
I’m on vacay 🙂