News & Features

by Colette Lewis, 20 December 2024

Special from Zoo Tennis

PLANTATION, Fla.–Four days of strong winds at the ITF J500 Orange Bowl couldn't blow Andres Santamarta Roig and Tereza Krejcova off course, with both continuing the form they had shown the previous week in reaching the finals of the International Tennis Federation's J300 in Bradenton.

Santamarta completed the rare junior Sunshine Double with a 7-5, 6-2 win over France's Moise Kouame in last Sunday's final, while Krejcova improved on her runner-up appearance in Bradenton with a 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-6(5) win over Elizara Yaneva of Bulgaria.

Despite being unseeded, Santamarta was one of the favorites in Plantation after his impressive results in Bradenton. The winning continued at the Veltri Tennis Center, with the 17-year-old from Spain beating four seeds, including No. 2 seed Charlie Robertson of Great Britain 6-3, 6-4 in the third round. In the semifinals, Santamarta defeated No. 14 seed Nathan Trouve of France 6-2, 6-2 for his 11th consecutive win on the Florida green clay.

Kouame, also unseeded, reached his first J500 final with victories over four seeds, including the last American contending for the title, No. 13 seed Jack Kennedy, in the semifinals. Kennedy had eliminated top seed Maxim Mrva of the Czech Republic 6-1, 7-6(4) in the third round and No. 6 seed Tomas Faurel of France in the quarterfinals before dropping a 7-5, 6-3 decision to Kouame.

Although he was attempting to unseat Frances Tiafoe as the youngest Orange Bowl boys champion, Kouame showed no signs of his inexperience in the final, serving for the first set at 5-4. But two double faults doomed his chances and Santamarta took advantage, winning the final four games of the set.

After a second brief rain delay during the set break, Santamarta ran his streak of consecutive games won to eight, with Kouame broken at love to open the set and again in third game, when his strategy of a more aggressive game style backfired with early errors and missed volleys.

Soon it was 4-0 Santamarta, but Kouame held to get on the board, raising hopes that he could fight back, a scenario he never doubted.

"It's not even a question," said Kouame, who turns 16 in March. "From the first to the last point I thought I was about to win, had confidence in my game. No, I never doubt about me. I just try to continue what I am doing the best. Today, it didn't work, but I hope in my next tournament it will work through all the tournament. But I'm really happy the level I had throughout the tournament."

Santamarta confessed that his run to close the first set and 4-0 and 5-1 leads in the second put premature thoughts of the championship in his mind.

"I started the second set with a lot of energy and he didn't play his best; he started missing a bit," said Santamarta, who finished a career-high No. 16 in the year-end ITF junior rankings with his stellar December results. "When it's second set and you're 4-1 up, playing really good, yeah, I was thinking, I'm going to win the match. I try not to, but you cannot help it."

Closing out a major title is never easy, even the second one in two weeks, and Kouame held, then saved two match points with Santamarta serving at 5-2, 40-15. But a good first serve gave Santamarta a third match point, and his backhand deep in the corner forced the error that gave him his 12th straight victory and the junior Sunshine Double.

Reflecting on his two championships during the fortnight, last accomplished by Argentina's Thiago Tirante in 2019, Santamarta admitted he did not expect to leave Florida with both titles.

"I came here for these two weeks to end the year with a better ranking, so next year I could play more tournaments without playing so many juniors," said the 17-year-old, who trains with Sergio Gallego at the GTennis Academy in Valencia. "I came here with energy, motivated, but I didn't know I was going to win both of them."

If Santamarta was wary of thinking too far ahead when up in the second set, girls champion Krejcova was Exhibit A in the perils of leading.

After winning a trio of three-set matches to reach the final, including a 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 semifinal victory over No. 4 seed and defending champion Hannah Klugman of Great Britain, the No. 8 seed found herself serving for the championship three times in the third set against No. 5 seed Yaneva, at 5-2, 5-4, and 6-5.

The 16-year-old Czech didn't get to match point in any of those games, with deuce as close as she could get to the finish line. Nerves and the subsequent errors were a factor, as was the wind, with Krejcova catching her ball toss so many times that she felt an apology was required.

The 100-odd fans gathered around Veltri's two show courts were dividing their attention between the simultaneous finals, but once Santamarta secured his title, Krejcova's struggles took center stage. When she netted a forehand to lose her third consecutive game, the crowd's murmurs grew louder, but Krejcova broke again, with Yaneva contributing two double faults and Krejcova pounding two forehand winners.

That shot let Krejcova down serving at 6-5, with two unforced errors after the second of the game's deuces sending the match to the tiebreaker.

Again Krejcova took a lead, with two forehand winners putting her up 5-2, only to have another shower interrupt play. Just four minutes passed, but Yaneva won the first point after resumption, with Krejcova's forehand landing wide. On the next point, Yaneva thought she had pulled within a point after Krejcova's return, but the chair ruled it caught the line, giving the Czech her first three match points, with two serves to come. She lost them both on forehand errors, but when Yaneva missed her first serve at 5-6, Krejcova moved halfway to the service line for the second serve. She retreated before Yaneva struck the ball, but after a short rally hit a forehand deep in the corner to force the error from Yaneva that gave her the title.

"It was a very difficult match," said Krejcova, playing in her first J500 final. "She plays very good, but it was tough, mentally. I try to stay in the match, but I barely win."

After coming all the way back to reach the tiebreaker, Yaneva, who had won her semifinal over Ksenia Efremova of France 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-6(3), was inconsolable after the match.

"I couldn't play well in this match," said the 17-year-old, who won the ITF J500 in Merida, Mexico two weeks before and had rolled through her first three matches with the loss of only two games. "She played well; I mean, some points I also played well, but I made more mistakes. Of course I'm upset, 7-5 in the tiebreak, it's not like it was 6-1, 6-2. It was the final, and I couldn't play how I want in the important points."

Krejcova's loss in the Bradenton J300 final made the dramatic championship victory even sweeter.

"I'm so proud of me, so grateful for this title," said Krejcova, who is coached by Simona Heinova and David Kunst, who did not make the trip to the United States. "It's a very special moment for me, for my team and my family."

As for her plans to celebrate, Krejcova is contemplating a time-honored tennis tradition.

"I like champagne, so maybe that, and I will spend Christmas with my family," said Krejcova, who finishes the year with a career-high ITF junior ranking of 11.

DOUBLES:

In the girls doubles final, unseeded Deniz Dilek of Turkey and Beatrise Zeltina of Latvia not only halted the winning streak of No. 2 seeds Jana and Alena Kovackova of the Czech Republic, but claimed the first Orange Bowl titles for their countries (doubles records go back only to 1993, not 1947, as with singles).

Seventeen-year-olds Dilek and Zeltina were aware that they were up against a team of sisters that had won their last four tournaments and 22 straight matches, and were at a loss to explain how they were able to end that streak in their 2-6, 6-4, 10-6 win.

"I don't know how, but I think we were really positive on court, we were laughing on court, making fun jokes and playing point by point," said Zeltina. "That's the key for the match, for the whole week, actually," added Dilek.

After breaking late in the second set, Zeltina and Dilek got off to a good start in the match tiebreaker, but the Kovackovas won four straight points from 6-2 to 6-all to seize the momentum.

"It was a little bit panic," Dilek said, "when I'm hitting a second serve at 6-all."

But the next four points went to the underdogs, keeping their record as a team unblemished after winning a J200 in Switzerland in their only other tournament together.

"It's crazy," said Dilek. "We're going to play grand slams next year and we want to have these results." "This is a big tournament, a big win," Zeltina said.

Boys doubles champions Timofei Derepasko of Russia and Amir Omarkhanov of Kazakhstan added a second J500 title on the year-ending North American ITF junior clay swing, with the Merida champions claiming the winners' bowls of oranges with a 3-6, 6-1, 10-1 victory over unseeded Henry Bernet of Switzerland and Denis Petak of the Czech Republic.

The No. 5 seeds got off to a slow start, but found their rhythm early in the second set.

"I was nervous and shaky in the first set," said the 17-year-old Omarkhanov, the first Orange Bowl champion from Kazakhstan. "He supported me and we started playing much better, how we were playing in previous days."

"We didn't play that aggressive, didn't have energy in first set, but still we have our chances," said the 17-year-old Derepasko, who has won three J500 doubles titles this year. "In the second set, we kept calm and more focused, and the result is here."

Once they found that level, it didn't drop, dominating the tiebreaker, the only one they played throughout the week.

"From the beginning until the last point, we were very focused, played very good," Derepasko said. "We were going to the net, returning perfectly, were serving perfect."

Omarkhanov and Derepasko, who reached the semifinals at Roland Garros this year, are looking forward to competing as a team in Australia next month.

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About Colette Lewis

Colette Lewis has covered topflight U.S. and international junior events as a freelance journalist for over a decade. Her work has appeared in Tennis magazine, the Tennis Championships magazine and the US Open program. Lewis is active on Twitter, and she writes a weekly column right here at TennisRecruiting.net. She was named Junior Tennis Champion for 2016 by Tennis Industry Magazine.

Lewis, based out of Kalamazoo, Michigan, has seen every National Championship final played since 1977, and her work on the tournament's ustaboys.com website led her to establish ZooTennis, where she comments on junior and college tennis daily.