Shame that Amalia's not here in the end - she's been doing so well in the ITFs, would have been good to see how she got on against the top players of her age.
With Martha's loss, that means we've just got Hollie and Hannah left. But as they're our two big guns, so to speak, that's not too bad....
A detailed account of Hannah's match from Zoo tennis:
"I stayed at the girls 14s all day today, determined to see the match between No. 6 seed Hannah Klugman of Great Britain and Akasha Urhobo. For some reason Urhobo, who qualified at the J1 Eddie Herr two weeks ago, was not given entry into the main draw despite a UTR similar to Klugman's, and she had to qualify.
It was an unfortunate first round draw for both players, but it was great for tennis fans to have such an exciting matchup so early in the tournament, and the grounds were buzzing with anticipation in the hours before they took the court.
When Klugman emerged with a 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-2 victory two and a half hours after the match began, most of the industry reps, agents, coaches, players and fans agreed that it had lived up to expectations.
The 12-year-old Klugman, who made the semifinals of the Les Petits As in September as an unseeded wild card, took a 4-1 and 5-2 lead in the first set, and had the easier service games, but Urhobo's aggressive game began to fall into place. When Klugman failed to serve out the set at 5-4, Urhobo seized the momentum, holding and breaking at love for a 6-5 lead. Then, when the 14-year-old from Ft. Lauderdale seemed to have figured out the most effective patterns against Klugman, the errors of the first half of the set resurfaced and she was broken. Klugman got a mini-break early in the tiebreaker and made it stand up, hitting an ace for 6-3 and closing out the set when Urhobo sent a backhand long.
The second set started well for Klugman, who went up 2-0, but a five-deuce service game that she lost was the turning point, and Urhobo reeled off six straight games to send the match to a third set.
Once again Klugman took the lead to open the final set, going up 4-1 and then 5-1, as Urhobo's first serve percentage dropped and her overhead, problematic all day, continued to let her down. Klugman was unable to serve out the match at 5-1, but she broke Urhobo for the third time in the set to end it.
Klugman was one of 16 players in the girls 14s draw who had their second round matches postponed until Friday morning. She will face Kiko Inoue of Japan in that match, scheduled for 8 a.m."
One result from yesterday. The observant will have noticed a number of seeding changes. They originally listed a full range of seeding numbers, but all the seeds below 8 appear to have been bunched into joint 9 or 17
U14 R1 (L128)
(2) Rositsa Dencheva (BUL) d. Allegra Korpanec Davies 6-2 6-3
R3
(17) Leena Friedman (USA) v (6) Hannah Klugman (GBR)
A 6-1 6-0 win for Hollie against Nikita's conqueror. I don't much about the girls in the U12 draw, especially the Americans, but that looks a really good win for Hollie.
One result from yesterday. The observant will have noticed a number of seeding changes. They originally listed a full range of seeding numbers, but all the seeds below 8 appear to have been bunched into joint 9 or 17
U14 R1 (L128)
(2) Rositsa Dencheva (BUL) d. Allegra Korpanec Davies 6-2 6-3
R3
(17) Leena Friedman (USA) v (6) Hannah Klugman (GBR)
U12 R3
(17) Hollie Smart v (9) Abigail Gordon (USA)
Not sure about the seedings in the U14. I noticed in the draw in round 3 two people with 17 next to their name close to each other. If you go back to round one you find 11 in total!
I've no idea about UTRs but Rosista has a junior ranking of 450, and a pretty impressive results sheet (with wins at a J1, amongst other things)
She's two years older than Hannah (who has no ranking and hasn't been allowed to play in ITF junior events yet).
And, of course, she was coming off her excellent win last week:
"Bulgarias Rositsa Dencheva also won the title in the Eddie Herr singles in Bradenton, Florida. The competition is among the most prestigious tournaments in the world for the 12 to 18 year-olds. In the under-14s finals, Dencheva defeated Eva Oxford, USA by 6-1,6-1. The 14-year old tennis player from Pleven is to play at the Orange Bowl next week the unofficial junior world championship."
So I don't think it was a surprise that Hannah lost.