Local tennis player falls in fairy tale bid to win at Orange Bowl Tennis Championships
Bruno Kuzuhara’s adventure through the 18s’ draw of the 75th Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships came to a screeching halt in Sunday’s final at the Veltri Tennis Center in Plantation as he was unable to solve the silky-smooth groundstrokes of Adolfo Daniel Vallejo.
Vallejo, 17, simply refused to miss from the baseline, and after notching a break in the first game of the match he cruised to a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Kuzuhara, the second-seeded hometown favorite from Coconut Creek. Vallejo became the first player from Paraguay to win the Orange Bowl 18-and-under silver bowl of oranges.
“It just wasn’t my day. It’s not that I played bad. I was happy with the way I played, but it was just that he was the better guy today,’’ said Kuzuhara, 17, who was born in Brazil but emigrated to South Florida when he was 1. “It was amazing making it to the final here, so many great names, great players who reached the finals on this exact court are where someday I want to be, top 100, top 50 level, so it’s a great honor.”
Kuzuhara was referring to past champions such as Roger Federer, Bjorn Borg, Andy Roddick, Dominic Thiem, John McEnroe, Ivan Lendl, Jim Courier, and even his USTA development coach Brian Baker won it in 2002.
Although the Orange Bowl has been held at Veltri Tennis Center for the past 11 years, the contract with the USTA is up, but multiple sources believe the tournament will stay put so it wouldn’t lose the historical connection to the Orange Bowl brand.
Vallejo rode an early break to a routine 6-2 first-set victory, but a speedy Kuzuhara began to defend better and find the range on his big forehand. He stayed on serve until 3-3 in the second set when the seventh-seeded Paraguayan got the critical break and eventually prevailed. No American has won the Orange Bowl since Pembroke Pines’ Stefan Kozlov in 2014.
Vallejo, known on the junior circuit as Danny, was a backboard on the baseline.
“I did what I did the whole week,’’ Vallejo said. “I was very solid. I was very good mentally. I didn’t miss at all basically. It means a lot; it’s the biggest title of my career. I’ve been working very hard to have this title but I never imagined I would actually get it to be honest.”
Kuzuhara, who grew up on these clay courts, was overwhelmed by the support from the packed galleries all week.
“It’s kind of a surreal experience,’’ he said. “It’s kind of like a mini version of Davis Cup for me.”
Kuzuhara didn’t get the biggest bowl of oranges, but he did receive the inaugural Lew Brewer Award, given to the boy or girl who best represented character, grit and mental toughness over their junior career. Brewer has been the Orange Bowl tournament director since 1998, but is retiring after this tournament.
While Kuzuhara and Vallejo had never played each other, the girls’ 18s final pitted doubles partners, fifth-seeded Diana Shnaider of Russia and sixth-seeded Petra Marcinko of Croatia. Marcinko shook off a slow start to prevail 3-6, 6-1, 6-3, to become the first Croatian girl to win the Orange Bowl since Anna Konjuh won in 2012 (now ranked 66th in the world). Marcinko, 16, snaps a streak of four consecutive American winners.
“It was so unexpected. It feels amazing,’’ Marcinko said. “Last year I lost in the first round, so winning this match is really difficult. … Every match is like a battle so all together I feel really good.”
A few hours later Marcinko pulled off the rare double, winning singles and doubles in the Orange Bowl 18s, to become the first girl to do that in the past 28 years or since doubles records were kept. They knocked off top-seeded sister duo of Brenda and Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic 7-6 (7-5), 6-0, the same pair they beat in last week’s final of the Level 2 Eddie Herr International Tennis Championships in Bradenton.
“That was so weird,’’ Marcinko said of playing her doubles partner. “It didn’t feel like it’s a real match, I feel like it’s practice, and then after I realized I’m in the final right now.”
The Fernandez family was unable to add another Orange Bowl title as Nicholas Godsick (son of tennis great Mary Joe Fernandez) and Ethan Quinn, were unable to follow up last year’s OB 16s’ title as they fell to the No. 7 seeds Edas Butvilas of Lithuania and University of Florida freshman Abedallah Shelbayh of Jordan, 6-2, 6-4. Fernandez is the only player to win all four age divisions in four consecutive years.
It was a clean sweep for the Americans in the 16s’ division Saturday. Leading the way was Kate Kim of Lake Worth, who downed fellow unseeded finalist, Stephanie Yakoff 6-4, 3-0, as the New Jersey resident was forced to retire with a knee injury. It capped off an amazing month for Kim, 16, who just a week ago also won Eddie Herr. She’s the first girl to pull off the impressive sweep since Katie Volynets in 2014.
“When it got to 5-4 [after a 4-0 start] I knew I had to close it out,’’ Kim told Zootennis.com. “I played my base game, trusted it and it paid off in that moment.’’
After getting routed in the opening set, fourth-seeded Quang Duong, 15, of Manhattan Beach, California, settle his nerves and went on to defeat fellow American, second-seeded Alexander Frusina, 15, of Conroe, Texas, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Andrew Delgado of High Point, North Carolina, and Tanney Povey of Indian Rocks Beach, won the boys’ 16s doubles title, while Anya Murthy of Fremont, Calif., and Piper Charney of Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, captured the girls 16s’ doubles crown.
This story was originally published December 12, 2021 at 10:09 PM.