News & Features

by Colette Lewis, 11 December 2024

Special from Zoo Tennis

BRADENTON, Florida – The former Eddie Herr International Championships debuted a new name last week, with the tournament now known as the IMG Academy International Tennis Championships. The location is the same sprawling sports complex in Bradenton, with nearly 1,300 players from around the world again gathering to compete for the titles and the newly introduced Bollettieri trophies awarded to the champions.

Two Americans were among those adding their names to the lists of champions that include Maria Sharapova, Madison Keys, Grigor Dimitrov, Andy Roddick, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Reilly Opelka.

Top seed Nikol Davletshina took the Girls 12s title and top seed Jordan Lee claimed the Boys 16s title last Saturday in the cool and sunny conditions that accompanied the tournament throughout the week.

Davletshina did not drop a set in her run to the final, but was required to win three tiebreakers along the way. No such tension existed in the final however, with Davletshina in control from the beginning in her 6-2, 6-1 victory over unseeded Minori Sato of Japan.

Davletshina was ready for the drop shot barrage that had played a key role in Sato's appearance in the final.

"She tried that a lot in all of her matches and I think she won because she kept dropping everyone," said the 11-year-old left-hander from Boca Raton, Florida. "I knew she was going to drop shot off her forehand, so I was ready when I hit to her forehand. I wasn't ready on the first three ones, but then I understood and didn't give her a chance, and I would win the point."

Davletshina, who won the Easter Bowl 12s title in March, said this championship was "much more fun. Because last year here I lost in the quarterfinals, so this year I set a goal to win it."

Former top pros, including Monica Seles, Tommy Haas, Max Mirnyi and IMG Academy Director of Player Development Jimmy Arias, were on hand to congratulate the winners during the trophy ceremony held on the hard court of the newly christened Bollettieri Stadium. But her Bollettieri statuette, a tribute to the Academy's late founder, was not the only prize Davletshina earned.

"My parents promised me if I win this we'd get a dog," said Davletshina, who already has one in mind. "It's a labrador, a black one."

Davletshina is playing the Junior Orange Bowl 12s, which concludes next week, but is planning to move the 14s division after that event.

The 14-year-old Lee also did not lose a set in his six victories, defeating No. 4 seed Emilio Camacho of Ecuador 7-5, 6-4 in the final. The 16s division usually plays on the East Campus hard courts, but due to hurricane damage at the facility in October, the 16s were moved to green clay, with the first four rounds played at the campus's six Legacy Hotel courts.

Lee and Camacho, playing on the Bollettieri Stadium's green clay court, treated the spectators to some outstanding shotmaking throughout, with Lee coping with adversity a bit better in the late stages of the match.

Lee got a late break in the first set to take it, then built another lead in the second set when he broke Camacho at 2-3. After the two traded holds, Lee served for the match at 5-3, but didn't get to match point, with Camacho continuing to earn points with both his drop shot and excellent defense. Lee saved one break point with a forehand winner, but a shanked forehand gave Camacho a second break point, and when he returned a Lee overhead, forcing an error, he was back on serve.

Any momentum Camacho may have gained didn't last however, with a couple of unforced errors and a Lee forehand that forced an error setting up two match points at 15-40. On the first, Lee broke a string mid-rally, losing the point, but rather than bemoan his bad luck, he calmly went to his bag and retrieved another racquet.

"The first thought that popped into my head was 'next point,'" said the right-hander from Orlando, who trains at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona. "It was really unfortunate, but I knew that if I kept calm and composed, I think I can do well in the next point, which I did."

Camacho hit a good first serve on the second match point, but Lee got it back deep, eventually drawing Camacho in with a slice. Camacho's drop shot wasn't his best and Lee sent his forehand reply so deep in the corner that Camacho had no play on it.

"He had really good feel, especially his drop shots," Lee said of his 15-year-old opponent. "Drop shotting, he won most of the points; I won only two out of like eight. He played through the court and hit a really good ball, didn't really miss. You really had to hit a good ball off his shot, which is tough to do."

Lee, who lost in the Eddie Herr 12s final in 2021, is the fifth consecutive American to win the boys 16s title in Bradenton.

"This one means a lot, I played really well this week, and I'm happy with what I did, but I've got to keep working," said Lee, who lost in the Wimbledon U14 final in July. "You take from what you learn from a final for the next final, or even the next tournament, and you deal with it better."

The Girls 16s title went to 12th-seeded wild card Hanne Estrada of Mexico, who defeated Paige Wygodzki of New York 6-3, 6-4 to become her country's first Eddie Herr/IMG Academy girls champion.

"I'm very happy with my results, because when I saw the draw, I was like, ‘oh no, I don't want to lose first round,’ because I got really hard opponent," Estrada said of Xiaotong Wang of China. "But I played really good tennis and I got my confidence up and started doing better each match."

Estrada said her strategy against Wygodzki was to take the ball early to rob Wygodzki of time to hit her deep left-handed topspin forehands. She was also aware that Wygodzki had played a five-hour semifinal match against Londyn McCord, and didn't want to get into a similar war of attrition.

Wygodzki admitted that she wasn't as fresh for the final as she had hoped.

"I didn't feel as great as I did the rest of the tournament, a little more tired each day," said the 16-year-old, who was seeded No. 6. "Today I just didn't have the spring in my shots that I normally do. The biggest takeaway for me this week is making sure to be as efficient on court as possible. Yesterday, there were moments when I could have definitely closed out faster, which definitely would have helped in today's match. But getting this experience here, when last year I wasn't even able to come to these tournaments because I was in school and I wasn't even getting into these tournaments, now being here is a great experience; I loved every minute of it."

The Boys 14s title went to No. 7 seed Qi Hongjin of China, who defeated 2023 Boys 12s champion Jang Junseo of Korea, the No. 12 seed 7-6(7), 6-2.

Unseeded Mingeon Choi of Korea defeated unseeded Saku Agui of Japan 6-3, 6-1 to capture the Boys 12s championship.

The first girl from Israel to win an Eddie Herr/IMG title is unseeded Daniel Baranes, who won the Girls 14s championship with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win over top seed Tea Kovacevic of Bosnia Herzegovina.

Baranes, the 2023 Junior Orange Bowl 12s champion, was a bit surprised to be unseeded this week with her 47-18 record this year. But despite those numbers, she was experiencing a title drought.

"I'm really excited because this year was a lot of ups and downs for me," said the 13-year-old, who trains in Israel and Switzerland. "The last tournament I won was in the winter. And I won singles and doubles, the first time in my life I win both singles and doubles. I was fighting every match, every match here was really hard and the girls here were amazing."

Baranes was particularly happy with her win in the final over Kovacevic.

"She is one of my best friends and plays amazing tennis, and it was a really good match," Baranes said. "Usually by the final I am tired, but this week I had a lot of energy, and I think I make my coach and my family really proud."

DOUBLES:

B12 Doubles Final:

Ethan Jake Frans(INA)/Mingeon Choi(KOR)[3] d. Max Smith/Evaan Mohan(USA)[4] 6-1, 6-2

B14s Doubles Final:

Heaton Pann/Ethan Domingo(AUS)[1] d. Victor Pignaton/Gadin Arun(USA)[4] 6-1,6-2

B16s Doubles Final:

Maddox Bose/Noah Bayon(USA) d. Mason Vaughan/Jordan Lee(USA)[1] 6-4, 6-2

G12s Doubles Final:

Ayaka Iwasa/Shina Okuyama(JPN) d. Christina Li(USA)/Shangran Cai(CHN)[4] 6-1, 6-4

G14s Doubles Final:

Daniel Baranes(ISR)/Sofiia Bielinska(UKR)[3] d. Jaili Dong/Jaiya Lu(CHN)[2] 6-1, 5-7, 10-3

G16s Doubles Final:

Ciara Harding/Lyla Messler(USA)[3] d. Oliwia Sybicka(POL)/Hanne Estrada(MEX)[6] 7-5, 1-6, 10-3

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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.