Each year lots of Ontario Juniors spend early December in Florida at some
of the most prestigious tournaments in the world.
The first tournament is the Eddie Herr International Junior Tournaments,
which is held at the IMG Academy in Bradenton. Three young players from Ontario
reached the quarter-finals. Ilya Tirapolsky (boys’
under-12), William Tutecky (boys’ under-16), and Katarina Kopcalic (girls’
under-16) however none of these players were able to advance futher.
However, when it came to the Orange Bowl, Ontario players were able to come
home with Tiffany orange bowls again! In
the under 16s Bianca Andreescu (see photo) captured the esteemed singles title. Katarina Kopcalic
reached the quarters and the Ontario duo were paired and reached the semi-finals
in doubles.
On the boys side, Christian Lakoseljac (see photo left) won the doubles championship
under 16 with partner Basil Khuma of India. Jack Mingjie Lin, partnered by Benjamin
Segouin, reached the U16 doubles semi-final.
It looked as though 15 year-old Katherine Sebov might make it all
the way in the under 18 draw, but she was stopped in the quarters. Other
notable results in the Orange Bowl were delivered by Victor Krustev, who
reached the quarters in U16 singles, and Alejandro Tabilo who reached the quarters
in U18 doubles.
It looked like one Orange Bowl title wasn’t going to satisfy Bianca
Vanessa Andreescu when she played in the Junior Orange Bowl the following week.
She came just one win short of becoming the first girl to win both the U16
Orange Bowl and U14 Junior Orange Bowl singles titles in the same year after
she lost to Russian Anastasia Potapova 6-4, 6-3 in the U14 final. After taking out both the the No. 1 and No. 4 seeds, Andreescu, who
was seeded #5, had her amazing streak halted by Potapova, who had won the U14
Eddie Herr title and was the #2 seed in the event.
Andreescu, is part of Tennis Canada’s national junior training
program in Toronto. She was the fourth straight Canadian to win the U16 girls’
title after Erin Routliffe of Ontario (2011), Gloria Liang of Ontario (2012),
and Charlotte Robillard-Millette of Quebec (2013).
