Kuzuhara, Colby advance to semifinals of Orange Bowl Tennis Championships

Enjoying a hometown advantage, second-seeded Bruno Kuzuhara joined fellow American Ryan Colby in the final four of the boys’ 18s in the Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships Friday afternoon at Veltri Tennis Center in Plantation.

Kuzuhara, 17, who emigrated from Sao Paulo, Brazil, with his parents to Broward County when he was 1, eked out a tight first set before dispatching the 10th-seeded Coleman Wong of Hong Kong, 6-4, 6-1.

“I travel a lot to play so I rarely get to play and go back home every day,” said Kuzuhara, a longtime resident of Coconut Creek, whose parents have a Japanese background. “I have lots of friends and family cheering me on and giving me support.

“The first set was back and forth with very few break points, but at 4-5, I hit a good deep return and he missed it for the break. In the second set I kept telling myself to stay in there mentally and my opportunity will come.”

Kuzuhara would love to follow in the footsteps of his USTA Player Development coach Brian Baker, who won the Orange Bowl 18s in 2002.

“Bruno is an extremely hard worker, is humble and a really good kid who wants to be good so you put those three things together and I think he has a chance to be a good player at the next level,” said Baker, who reached the round of 16 at Wimbledon in 2012, won two ATP titles and reached a rank of 29 before a series of injuries derailed his career.

“He needs to understand his identity more as the level goes up to really understand his style of play, which shots to be more aggressive and which shots he needs to be more conservative. As he transitions through the Futures and Challengers next year he can learn that on the fly.”

Kuzuhara, who also reached the semifinals of the prestigious Level 2 Eddie Herr International Junior Championships in Bradenton last week, will play Kalin Ivanovski of North Macedonia. Ivanovski outlasted Gerard Campana Lee of Korea 7-6 (5), 6-3.

Kuzuhara reached the Junior Orange Bowl 12s final at Salvadore Park five years ago but was bounced in the second round of the Orange Bowl 18s last year.

“My strength is my movement and I like to find my forehand when I get my chances,” Kuzuhara said. “I’m pretty focused and keep a cool head throughout the match.”

Not keeping a cool head during his quarterfinal match was sixth-seeded Swede Leo Borg, who was frustrated by a combination of an apparent left elbow injury and his hard-hitting opponent, unseeded Ryan Colby of Alexandria, Virginia, who took out the son of tennis legend Bjorn Borg, 6-1, 6-3.

Borg drew a large crowd at a packed Veltri Tennis Center, but there was no sign of his famous father, who won 11 Grand Slam titles before his first retirement at 26. The elder Borg won the Orange Bowl 16s in 1971 and at 16, won the 18s in 1972 when the event was held at Flamingo Park in Miami Beach. Two years later Borg won his first of six French Opens.

Leo Borg, 18, who sports a similar sturdy build and long blonde hair of his iconic father but not his placid temperament, has had a solid junior career but would’ve liked to advance further this week.

“This is my last year of playing ITF [International Tennis Federation junior tournaments] so I wanted to see how my level was,” Borg said before briskly leaving the facility.

Colby, the top-ranked junior in Virginia, will face Adolfo Daniel Vallejo, the seventh seed from Paraguay, in the other semifinal on Saturday. Vallejo took out Kilian Feldbausch of Switzerland 6-1, 1-6, 6-1.

Although Vallejo recently routed Colby in a tournament in Mexico, the soon-to-be USC freshman is riding a confident wave after winning the USTA National Clay Championships in July and reaching the finals of a Level 1 hard-court tournament in College Park, Maryland, in August.

“[Borg] wasn’t making a ton of balls in the first set and had a lot of double faults,” Colby said. “He came out stronger in the second set, but I held with him and kept playing my game until I got that one break and that was it.”

Colby, who took out the fourth seed Viacheslav Bielinskyi earlier this week, had to overcome major elbow surgery at 15 before getting his junior career back on track.

However, Colby and his partner Dinko Dinev were sent packing in a thrilling doubles quarterfinal match 6-2, 7-6 (5) to Nicholas Godsick and Ethan Quinn.

Godsick, who won the Orange Bowl 16s doubles title last year with Quinn, was cheered on by his mother/tennis great Mary Joe Fernandez and father Tony Godsick, the longtime agent of Roger Federer.

Fernandez, who reached a career-high No. 4, is the only player to ever win all four age divisions of the Orange Bowl in four consecutive years.

“It was super cool to add another Orange Bowl title to the family,” smiled Godsick, 17. “It wasn’t a singles title, but we will take a doubles. Slowly but surely I’ve taken tennis after her and want to see how far I can go.”

Mary Joe Fernandez was beaming with pride after the match.

“I’m so proud of my son,” said Fernandez, a two-time major doubles champion and three-time major singles finalist with 17 WTA titles on her resume. “First of all he loves it and this has been a big goal for him because he’s heard so much about it. Last year he won the doubles and says, ‘Oh, I got the oranges, too.’ It’s really special.”

The girls’ 18s semis are set as well. Sixth-seeded Petra Marcinko of Croatia upset No. 3 Linda Fruhvirtova of Czech Republic 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, and will play unseeded Kristyna Tomajkova of Czech Republic, who eliminated an injured Celine Naef of Switzerland 6-4, 3-0, retired.

Fifth-seeded Diana Shnaider of Russia coasted past Kayal Cross of Canada 6-1, 6-2 and will take on 12th-seeded Laura Hietaranta of Finland, who defeated Mia Kupres of Canada 7-6 (5), 1-6, 6-2.