Arcila becomes first Junior Orange Bowl tennis champ from Colombia after Blanch retires
Two years ago, Alejandro Arcila lost in the Junior Orange Bowl 12s final to a much smaller opponent, Benjamin Gusic-Wan.
On an overcast, breezy Tuesday morning, Arcila was not about to lose another Junior Orange Bowl final, albeit the 14s, and to a much taller, 6-foot Darwin Blanch, a native of Deerfield Beach, now based in Orlando.
So instead of repeating history, Arcila made history, becoming the first Colombian boy or girl to win this 60-year tournament with a 2-6, 7-6 (5), 3-0 victory when the third-seeded Blanch couldn’t continue after first experiencing a sharp pain in his right knee following the first point of the second-set tiebreaker.
It was a sudden ending to a high-quality match on the hard courts at the Biltmore Tennis Center.
“I just wanted to win very badly because two years ago I felt I had a chance, but I played horribly in the final,” said the fifth-seeded Arcila. “I’m extremely proud to be the first [Colombian to win].”
Blanch was overpowering in the first set with huge, left-handed serves and a forehand weapon down the line for a relatively routine win.
However, at 1-2 of the second set, Blanch called for a medical timeout because he felt sick and lethargic.
An ailing Blanch staved off several break points and two set points at 5-6 to force the tiebreaker. Despite his sore knee, Blanch went up 5-3 before four unforced errors handed the set to Arcila.
The 10-minute break before the third set did nothing to slow Arcila’s momentum or heal Blanch’s ailments. He retired after quickly losing the first three games.
“This morning I felt a little sick, my whole body was weak, and I had no energy,” Blanch said. “The knee was killing me. He was finding his heavy forehand and defended well.”
History was also made in the Girls’ 12s final when Lia Belibova, the third seed, was just too consistent for top-seeded Russian Christina Lyutova in a 6-3, 6-1 victory to become the first from Moldova to win this tournament. She didn’t allow more than four games in six of her seven matches.
“It’s a big step for me and I want to continue to practice to be stronger,” said Belibova, who trains in Istanbul. “At 3-3, I started to play smarter and more stable, play a point at a time.”
In the all-American Girls’ 14s final between 2021 Easter Bowl champions, top-seeded Iva Jovic of Torrance, California, rode a critical break at 4-3 of the first set to reel off the final eight games for a 6-3, 6-0 victory over fourth-seeded Shannon Lam of East Brunswick, N.J.
“That was a long game, but I came away in the long rallies and that game gave me confidence,” said Jovic, the fourth American girl to win this division in the past five Junior OBs.
“Two years ago, I lost in the first round so this means a lot to me because I could always look back on it and say I did this.”