Rain Disrupts Boys 14s Qualifying at Junior Orange Bowl; Berankis Finishes No. 1

©Colette Lewis 2007--
Coral Gables, FL--
The rain predicted for the weekend finally arrived on Sunday, and the Boys 14s qualifying will not be completed until Monday morning. Many of the round of 64 matches were unfinished when the late morning rain arrived, and even with late afternoon clearing, heavy humidity made for slow-drying courts, with many matches finished under the lights at the University of Miami.

The boys 12s qualifying was completed by early afternoon, and eight players from the U.S. made the main draw, which begins Monday at 8 a.m. EST at Tropical Park: Sebastian Beltrame, Thai Kwiatkowski, Carter Lin, Juan Padilla, Tommy Paul, Mac Roy, Thomas Tenreiro and Daniel Weiner. The other eight boys 12s qualifiers are: Alexis Gervais and Antoine Mailloux of Canada, Matteo Donati and Stefano Napolitano of Italy, Elliot Carnello of Sweden, Mert Dinc of Turkey, Chanwhi Shin of Korea and Milen Ianakiev of Germany.

Seven U.S. girls have advanced to Monday's 12s main draw at Salvadore Park: Jan Abaza, Marie Babayan, Jennifer Brady, Liz Jeukeng, Courtney Meredith, Evgenia Rostarchuk and Alanna Wolff. India Hart of the Bahamas, Jaspreet Johl of Great Britain, Joy Yaich and Estelle Cascino of France, Mijeong Kwon of Korea, Jasmin Jebawy of Germany, Tatiana Guskova of Russia, Verleria Salazar of Mexico and Marika Akkerman of Canada also earned spots in the main draw.

The girls 14s has nine U.S. players from the weekend's qualifying: Tristan Dewar, Sophia Dzulynsky, Kourtney Keegan, Kelsey Laurente, Riqui McCoy, Sarah Means, Leeza Nemchinov, Manuela Velasquez and Holly Verner. Canada had four qualifiers: Elizabeth Bolpois, Maja Jovic, Rokia Sacko and Chanel Steben. Violetta Tosmuk of Russia, Viktoryia Kisialeva of Belarus and Natalie Beazant of Great Britain fill the remaining spots.

For complete draws, visit the Junior Orange Bowl TennisLink site.

I have signed on to do the media reporting for the Junior Orange Bowl, so I will be writing a daily release that may double as my zootennis post.

Early today, I received a brief email from Ben Crandell of IMG, who represents Ricardas Berankis, saying that the Lithuanian had won both the singles and doubles titles at the Yucatan World Cup, sealing his spot atop the ITF World rankings for 2007.