My article on the first ITF J500 Orange Bowl at the Jimmy Evert Tennis Center in Fort Lauderdale is available today at the Tennis Recruiting Network, and the videos of the four finalists are below. I'm planning a post on my impressions of the first year at the new site soon, before many of the salient details fade. The 16s videos and all the IMG videos can be found at my tenniskalamazoo
about 2 months ago | 1 read
Learner Tien won the Next Gen ATP Finals today in Jeddah Saudi Arabia, beating Alexander Blockx of Belgium 4-3(4), 4-2, 4-1 in less than an hour of play. Blockx did not miss a first serve in the opening set, but Tien made 82% of his first serves, and was the steadier player in the tiebreaker. Tien had won the first set last year in the Next Gen final against Joao Fonseca of Brazil before
about 2 months ago | 4 reads
Nearly three years after they met in the Australian Open boys final, top seed Learner Tien(USC) and No. 2 seed Alexander Blockx of Belgium will play in another big final at the Next Gen ATP Finals in Jeddah Saudi Arabia.Tien returned to the Next Gen Finals championship match with a 4-2, 4-1, 4-3(3) win over Nishesh Basavareddy. Tien, who is now 4-0 in pro matches against the former Stanford
about 2 months ago | 6 reads
Six days ago the first Orange Bowl champions of 2025 were crowned at the newly renovated Jimmy Evert Tennis Center, and my article on the singles titles won by Matias Reyniak and Priscilla Sirichantho and the doubles titles claimed by Emery Combs and Olivia De Los Reyes and Sean Peng and Filip Djokic(the only non-USA champion) can be found today at the Tennis Recruiting Network.Below are the
about 2 months ago | 7 reads
I've been processing videos of the IMG Academy International Championships the past several days with videos of the champions in the 12s, 14s, and 16s available below. The links to the videos of the finalists are below each of the champion's videos. I posted the videos from the finals of ITF J300 Bradenton on Tuesday. G16s champion Adelina Iftime: G16s finalist London Evans Boys
about 2 months ago | 4 reads
Fourteen-year-old Texan Tristan Ascenzo broke through the domination of the IMG Academy International Championships at the Junior Orange Bowl, preventing a sweep by the IMG winners with a win over boys 14s top seed Mohamed Genidy of Egypt this morning in Coral Gables Florida.Ascenzo, a Dallas resident, lost to eventual IMG champion Genidy 7-5, 6-2 in the semifinals in Bradenton; today's final at
about 2 months ago | 6 reads
Two Americans are through to Wednesday's finals of the Junior Orange Bowl in Coral Gables Florida, with Tristan Ascenzo competing in the 14s and Evan Fan in the 12s.Ascenzo gave himself an opportunity to avenge his IMG Academy International semifinal loss to Mohamed Genidy earlier this month, while Fan has stepped up this tournament after a third round exit in Bradenton. Fan has also advanced to
about 2 months ago | 8 reads
The ITF has released the 2025 year-end junior rankings, with American Kristina Penickova and Bulgaria Ivan Ivanov finishing at the No. 1 spot.Penickova won two junior slam doubles titles this year, and finished as runnerup at the Australian Open Junior Championships, but her biggest singles title in 2025 was the J300 in San Diego, back in March. She barely beat out US Open singles and World
about 2 months ago | 5 reads
©Colette Lewis 2025--Fort Lauderdale FL--Thijs Boogaard of the Netherlands and Xinran Sun of China closed out a successful green clay swing in South Florida Sunday, becoming the first players from their countries to win prestigious Orange Bowl 18s titles in the tournament's 79th year.Spectators were required to choose which of the six 9 a.m. finals to watch at the newly renovated Jimmy Evert
about 2 months ago | 10 reads
©Colette Lewis 2025--Fort Lauderdale FL--Kristina Liutova had let one match point slip by, hitting a backhand wide at 5-3, 40-15 in the third set in her Orange Bowl semifinal match Saturday with No. 6 seed Anastasija Cvetkovic of Serbia. The second match point ended with a long rally and a mark check on the far sideline by the chair umpire with Cvetkovic pleading that Liutova's ball was wide.
about 2 months ago | 5 reads
©Colette Lewis 2025--Fort Lauderdale FL--The Orange Bowl is heading into its championship weekend, but if you missed any of last week's daily coverage of the ITF J300 in Bradenton, you can find my recap of the titles for Jordan Lee and Kristina Liutova today at the Tennis Recruiting Network. A third straight jam-packed day of tennis was on the menu at the Jimmy Evert Tennis Center, but when
about 2 months ago | 6 reads
©Colette Lewis 2025--Fort Lauderdale FL--Wednesday heat and humidity disappeared Thursday morning, with temperature in the 70s and a light breeze providing perfect conditions for a long day of Orange Bowl competition at the Jimmy Evert Tennis Center.When the final match finished under the lights, ten US boys and four US girls had advanced to the round of 16 of the ITF J500, and all the
2 months ago | 7 reads
©Colette Lewis 2025--Fort Lauderdale, FL--Before I get into the action today at the Orange Bowl, which finally dried out after a day and a half of rain, take a minute to look at my Tennis Recruiting Network article on the 12s, 14s and 16s tournaments at the IMG Academy International Championships last week in Bradenton. These weeks in Florida and Mexico that close out the junior calendar are not
2 months ago | 4 reads
©Colette Lewis 2025--Fort Lauderdale FL--Sunshine has been in short supply at the Orange Bowl, with play canceled on Monday at 3:30 p.m. due to rain and lightning and Tuesday's matches starting in light drizzle with barely three hours of action on court before heavy rains ended all hope of competition at 1:30 p.m. at the Jimmy Evert Tennis Center at Holiday Park.This is my 20th Orange Bowl, and
2 months ago | 4 reads
©Colette Lewis 2025--Fort Lauderdale FL--In the 20 years I've been attending the Eddie Herr, now known as the IMG Academy International Championships, I've made the trip to the other side of the state for the Orange Bowl Championships. The first six years of my coverage of that event were at Crandon Park's hard courts on Key Biscayne; the next 13 years, the historic event was held at the Veltri
2 months ago | 6 reads
©Colette Lewis 2025--Bradenton FL--Last year Jordan Lee received one of the inaugural Nick Bollettieri trophies presented the IMG Academy International champions after he claimed the Boys 16s title. A year later, on the same court, Lee earned another Bollettieri statuette by defeating unseeded Dimitar Kisimov of Bulgaria 6-3, 7-6(3), capping off a improbable return from injury with a historic
2 months ago | 5 reads
©Colette Lewis 2025--Bradenton FL--When the dense fog cleared and the IMG Academy hard courts dried, the six finals of the IMG Academy lnternational Championships proceeded, with history on the line for the countries of Greece, Venezuela and Egypt. Those three countries had never had a singles champion at the prestigious tournament, formerly known as the Eddie Herr International, and the
2 months ago | 5 reads
©Colette Lewis 2025--Bradenton FL--Before I get into all the action at the IMG Academy International Championships and ITF J300 here in Bradenton, it's that time of month when I highlight the top performances of the previous month by current and former collegians and juniors for the Tennis Recruiting Network. It's another huge international collection of accomplishments, which includes
2 months ago | 5 reads
©Colette Lewis 2025--Bradenton FL--Jordan Lee had a difficult 2025, with a wrist injury keeping him out of competition for more than eight months. Yet on the green clay courts of the IMG Academy, the 15-year-old wild card is back to winning again, with the 2024 16s champion advancing to the ITF J300 quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-0 thumping of No. 4 seed Alan Wazny of Poland Thursday morning."After
2 months ago | 5 reads
©Colette Lewis 2025--Bradenton FL--I decided to make the trip to the Legacy Hotel Courts on the West Campus of the IMG Academy, and although only 11 matches were played on the six courts, I was there for more than six hours, with three-setter after three-setter prolonging the second round of the ITF J300.Seven of those 11 matches (No. 4 seed Alan Wazny of Poland got a walkover due to Carel
2 months ago | 5 reads
©Colette Lewis 2025--Bradenton FL-- Rain has been an infrequent visitor the first week of December at the IMG Academy International Championships and ITF J300 this decade, but a morning shower on Tuesday left the hard courts needing several hours to dry, sending the 12s divisions second round singles matches indoors and postponing the first round of doubles until Wednesday.Because the ITF J300 is
2 months ago | 4 reads
©Colette Lewis 2025-Bradenton FL--The IMG Academy was buzzing all day Monday with over 500 players, as well as their coaches and families, on site for the first round of singles in the 12s, 14s and 16s divisions and the first day of main draw competition for the ITF J300. It didn't take long for a major upset to be recorded, with ITF No. 93 Alisa Terentyeva of Russia defeating top seed and
2 months ago | 8 reads
©Colette Lewis 2025--Bradenton Florida--A beautiful day to end the holiday weekend was even more enjoyable for the 16 players who won two matches on the green clay to qualify for the ITF J300 Bradenton main draw, while eight players in the younger age divisions earned their spots in Monday's first round with victories on the hard courts of the IMG Academy. (A list of all 12s, 14s and 16s
2 months ago | 5 reads
©Colette Lewis 2025--Bradenton FL--This year's qualifying for the ITF J300 at the IMG Academy in Bradenton Florida is back to being played on the ten green clay courts on the East Campus and the six green clay courts at the IMG Legacy Hotel on the West side of the sprawling sports complex. Last year, the 16s were moved to green clay due to hurricane damage to the hard courts they usually play on,
2 months ago | 3 reads
The USTA National Indoor Championships began this morning at eight sites across the country, with two rounds of singles scheduled for the four-day tournament, which has 64-player draws.Below are the seeds for all eight divisions, along with a note if they lost a match today, although many have not yet completed their second match of the day. Click on the headers to see the draws.SEEDS:B12s
2 months ago | 2 reads