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BRADENTON, Fla. - The United States had at least one finalist in six of the eight divisions in last week’s Eddie Herr International Tennis Championships at the IMG Academy. Only two managed to earn titles—Maximus Dussault in the Boys 12s and Elaine Chervinsky in the Girls 16s—but the local fans who flocked to the finals on championship weekend were treated to outstanding tennis in all eight finals.

Boys and Girls 18s:

The top seeds in the ITF Grade 1, the 18-and-under division, did not reach the weekend, with Alexa Noel of the United States falling to Latvia’s Kamilla Bartone in the quarterfinals and Adrian Andreev of Bulgaria losing to Emilio Nava of the United States in the third round.

Boys 18s Singles Champion Nicolas Mejia
© Zoo Tennis

Nava went on to reach the final against No. 2 seed Nicolas Mejia of Colombia, coming from a set down in both his quarterfinal and semifinal matches against unseeded Brazilians. Mejia lost his only set of the week in the semifinals against No. 3 seed Filip Jianu, and he proved too steady for Nava in the final, taking a 6-2, 6-4 victory on the Har-Tru courts of the IMG Academy, where he trains.

Mejia started both sets with a break of serve, so Nava was always under pressure to come up with winners, a tricky position with the gusty winds that strengthened during the afternoon.

"He has a really big game and in these conditions, it's really tough to play that kind of game," said Mejia, who won the 14s Eddie Herr title in 2014. "It was really windy and the conditions didn't really favor him at all. They were not helping him, but I don't think he played his best either. He played better during the week, but I can't control that. The conditions, they worked a little bit better on my side than on his side."