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| 08 Dec 2006 - Tim Curry | |
| Top seeds Santos, Young Move One Step Closer to Boys Final at Orange Bowl |
Three of the top four seeds advanced to the semifinals at the Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships at the Crandon Park Tennis Center in Key Biscayne, Fla., on Friday. No. 2 Ksenia Milevskaya was the only player to advance in straight sets to the girls’ semifinals and will face No. 3 Sharon Fichman next.
Top-seeded Nicolas Santos of Brazil easily dispatched American qualifier Brennan Boyajian, 6-0, 6-1, in just over an hour and will face the only unseeded player in the final four, Canada’s Peter Polansky. Polansky, the singles runner-up at the US Open this summer, rallied to beat No. 5 Pavel Chekhov, a hard-hitting Russian, 6-7 (7), 6-1, 6-4.
In the other semifinal, No. 2 Donald Young of Atlanta will look to level the series against No. 4 Petru Alexandru Luncanu of Romania, having lost their only prior meeting a year ago.
Luncanu, who defeated No. 9 Bassam Beidas in straight sets, seems to save his best tennis for the end of the season each year. Last year, he won the Yucatan Cup the week after the Orange Bowl, defeating Young in the final and Marin Cilic in the semifinals. His win in the semifinals in Mexico thwarted the much anticipated showdown for the year-end No. 1 ITF World Junior Ranking between Young and Cilic, clinching the top ranking for the American.
In the quarterfinals, Young took his time feeling out his opponent No. 10 Daniil Arsenov of Russia. The two players held serve until Young broke at 5-4 in the first set. Young then cruised in the second set, yielding only one game. Coincidently, Arsenov, who had never won a match in a Group A tournament before this week, played Americans in each of his four matches here.
Milevskaya held off No. 11 Anastasia Pivovarova, who took two medical timeouts during their quarterfinal match. Pivovarova lost the first set easily then had her right thigh taped before the start of the second set and jumped out to a 5-1 lead. Milevskaya weathered the storm and mounted her comeback with strong defensive play from the baseline and by taking advantage of Pivovarova’s inability to finish points.
Serving at 5-all, 30-30 Pivovarova took a second medical timeout for a right ankle injury. She held serve after receiving treatment, but could not break Milevskaya to close out the set. In the tiebreak, Pivovarova hit winners on the first three points and led 4-2 before Milevskaya won four straight points. Milevskaya converted her third match point in the tiebreaker to advance to the semifinals and now has won 14 of her last 15 matches on the ITF junior circuit.
The other Girls’ 18s quarterfinals were also battles of attrition. Fichman rallied against No. 10 Reka Zsilinszka 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. Milevskaya is 2-1 against Fichman, having won the last two meetings including their only match on hard courts at the final of the Group 1 Canadian Open this summer.
No. 9 Nikola Hofmanova of Austria battled with No. 4 Julia Cohen of nearby Boca Raton for over three hours before posting a 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 win, avenging a loss earlier this season. The Czech-born Hofmanova looks to improve to 2-0 against American Madison Brengle in a rematch from last week’s Eddie Herr International.
Brengle advanced today when unseeded Petra Martic of Croatia turned her ankle after winning the third game of the final set and was forced to retire. The tenth game of the second set was a pivotal point in the match. Brengle served out the set after holding off three break points and converting on her fourth set point. The players were on serve in the third before Martic retired.
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