Campana Lee and Crossley make East Asian history at Orange Bowl
There was plenty of East Asian promise on show at JA Plantation as Gerard Campana Lee of Korea, Republic and Japan’s Mayu Crossley conquered all before them to be crowned Orange Bowl champions.
The Orange Bowl is a prestigious junior tournament with a highly impressive list of former winners, while it is also the final Grade A – the highest classification of event on the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors calendar – of the season.
In previous years, the race to be anointed a year-end junior world No. 1 and subsequently an ITF World Champion has gone to the wire and been determined by results at the Orange Bowl.
While topping the podium this year had no bearing on the year-end No. 1 accolade, victory still boosted Campana Lee and Crossley’s ranking and continued their fine end-of-season form ahead of the 2023 campaign.
Irrespective of any ranking implications, lifting Grade A silverware is always a major coup for aspiring players and Campana Lee and Crossley join an illustrious group of former Orange Bowl winners, providing both inspiration and motivation for their future careers.
Incidentally, the list of past Orange Bowl champions includes Bjorn Borg, Chris Evert, John McEnroe, Mary Joe Fernandez, Ivan Lendl, Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Dominic Thiem, Bianca Andreescu, Sofia Kenin and Coco Gauff.
The winners’ roster will now forever include Campana Lee and Crossley following their impressive showings in Florida which culminated in defeats of Rodrigo Pacheco and Clervie Ngounoue in their respective finals.
By defeating Pacheco, Campana Lee not only gained revenge for his defeat in last month's JA Merida final, but also continued his staggering run of form which has seen the 18-year-old win four of his five previous tournaments.
This translates to 28 match-wins from a possible 29, while Campana Lee, who won his first main draw match at an ITF World Tennis Tour Men’s event in March, has suffered just three defeats since August.
“I am so tired, I don’t feel any emotion but in a couple of hours I think I will realise that I have won a very big tournament and I will be very happy,” said Campana Lee, who is the first player from Korea, Republic to win the Orange Bowl.
“Before my first match, I saw the list of former champions here and didn’t see any Korean players, so I told my coach it would be funny to see my name up there. Now, I guess it's going to be. It’s amazing to see more Asian players competing against the world’s best.”
Crossley also sealed a piece of history by becoming the first Japanese player to top the Orange Bowl podium and she did it in style by overcoming Ngounoue, who was seeking back-to-back Grade A titles after winning in Merida last month.
“I didn’t think I would win the tournament, I was just happy to make the final,” said Crossley, who trains in Boca Raton. “I had no pressure on me. I’m always the challenger so that’s good for me. I was able to play relaxed tennis.”
Victory ensured the 16-year-old, who represented Japan at November's Billie Jean King Cup Juniors by BNP Paribas Finals in Antalya, secured something of a ‘Sunshine Double’ after victory at J1 Bradenton seven days earlier.
While Campana Lee had won a Grade A event previously, this was Crossley’s first and the biggest title of her fledgling career, although it is her third of an extremely progressive season.
In the doubles, meanwhile, there was home success as Tyra Caterina Grant and Iva Jovic of the United States defeated Great Britain pair Ranah Stoiber and Mingge Xu in the girls’ final. In the boys’ equivalent, Bulgaria’s Adriano Dzhenev and Iliyan Radulov defeated Campana Lee and France’s Paul Inchauspe.