News & Features

Share:

BRADENTON, Fla. - Fourteen-year-old Kristina Penickova and 13-year-old Michael Antonius are just getting started in their junior tennis careers, but they are already on a short list of players who have won two Eddie Herr singles championships after securing titles last week at the IMG Academy.

Penickova, the 2021 girls 12s champion, defeated Katerina Shabashkevich 6-2, 6-4 for the girls 16s title, while Antonius followed up his boys 12s title last year with the 14s championship, beating Matei Chelemen of Romania 6-2, 6-1 in the final.

Girls 16s Singles Champion Kristina Penickova
© Zoo Tennis

They were joined in the winner's circle by two other Americans, with Caroline Shao taking the girls 12s title and Jack Secord claiming the boys 16s title.

Penickova, the No. 2 seed, had breezed through the draw, losing only 12 games in her first four matches, then earning a 6-0, 6-3 win over No. 7 seed Ava Rodriguez in the semifinals. Penickova was expected to meet her top-seeded twin sister Annika in the final, but Annika's foot injury led to a walkover into the final for No. 8 seed Shabashkevich.

Penickova was impressed with Shabashkevich's game, and with her own response to it.

"My opponent was really good, but I problem-solved really well," said the 14-year-old right-hander from California, who won the doubles title with Annika on Friday. "I hadn't played anyone like her before, she had a really interesting game. She was more aggressive and she also chipped and sliced, which I wasn't used to, but I'm happy how I solved that."