Girls: Junior Orange Bowl, USA, hard/clay, U14/U12 (Week 51)

DavidC · Tennis legend

Girls: Junior Orange Bowl, USA, hard/clay, U14/U12 (Week 51)

DavidC · Tennis legend

Mingge lost out to a Chinese qualifier today, leaving Hephzibah to keep up British interest in the under 12s

U12 R2

(Q) Yifei Huang (CHN) d. (1) Mingge Xu 6-3 6-2
(3) Hephzibah Oluwadare d. Valentina Vargas (ECU) 6-2 6-1

R3

(3) Hephzibah Oluwadare v Abriez Marie Rose Wong (SIN)

U14 R1 (L128)

(LL) Aida Oviedo (USA) d. Jadesola Cole 6-3 6-2
Sophya Devas v Emma Roeck (USA) 6-2 6-1
(17) Hannah Read d. Abby Lee (USA) 6-2 6-0

R2

(9) Mio Mushika (JPN) d. Sophya Devas 6-2 6-0
Victoria Zhao (USA) v (17) Hannah Read

DavidC · Tennis legend

A win for Hannah. I gather from Colette (Zootennis) that the Chinese qualifier who ousted Mingge reached the semis of the Eddie Herr

U14 R2

(17) Hannah Read d. Victoria Zhao (USA) 6-2 6-3

R3

(17) Hannah Read v (Q) Ariana Pursoo (USA)

DavidC · Tennis legend

Hannah comfortable through to round 4. Next up is last year's under 12 runner-up Brooklyn Olson

R3

(17) Hannah Read d. (Q) Ariana Pursoo (USA) 6-2 6-2

R4

(9) Brooklyn Olson (USA) v (17) Hannah Read

DavidC · Tennis legend

Hephzibah makes it 6/6 wins in round 3 here

U12 R3

(3) Hephzibah Oluwadare d. Abriez Marie Rose Wong (SIN) 6-2 6-1

R4

(3) Hephzibah Oluwadare v (9) Lyn Fernandez (MEX)

Strongbow · All-time great

(3) Hephzibah Oluwadare d. Abriez Marie Rose Wong (SIN) 6-2 6-1

I tried (without luck ) to get any info about Hephzibah from the new ITF website.

They have gone to enormous lengths to hide any useful information, and any approach is counter-intuative.

I'm sure it all was Reassuringly Expensive. Money well spent

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

To be fair, there was never any info about Hepzibah on the old ITF website either - she's too young.

But she's brilliant. She's been my stand-out player in that age group since 12-18 months ago when I saw them all together.

I know paulisi was really impressed recently by Mingge but, honestly, at the moment at any rate, Hepzibah knocks Mingge for six.

She's a strong girl, athletic, sometimes a little gangly in her placement but with very good timing and acceleration through the ball. Left-handed. Use her legs in her shots. Just very exciting player all round.

There's some video streams of her in the U12 event earlier this year in Auray.

She's at the new Stirling academy.

She's also black and so part of the BAME group that the LTA are making a bit of a hoo-hah about, see:

www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2019/07/09/lawn-tennis-associations-plans-break-away-traditional-middle/

DavidC · Tennis legend

They attempted to play two matches yesterday to catch up, and Hephzibah just lost out. If you are looking for information about under 14s then Tennis Europe is generally a better bet than the ITF (always for under 13s as they are not allowed to play ITFs until then), though limited - the entry for Hephzibah is here . Hannah also lost out - she will start next year as our top ranked TE14, just outside the top 20

U12 R4

(9) Lyn Fernandez (MEX) d. (3) Hephzibah Oluwadare 6-4 5-7 [10-8]

U14 R4

(9) Brooklyn Olson (USA) d. (17) Hannah Read 6-4 6-1