Special from
Zoo Tennis
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SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The second week of the San Diego fortnight, which featured two of the biggest events on the US junior tennis calendar, concluded with the Easter Bowl ITF and 16s championships at the Barnes Tennis Center. Collecting the first gold balls awarded since the 2019 Winter Nationals were Juncheng “Jerry” Shang and Liv Hovde, who claimed the ITF championships, and Alexander Razeghi and Theadora Rabman, who took the 16s titles.
ITF Boys Champion Juncheng "Jerry" Shang
© Zoo Tennis
At the International Open of Southern California, the ITF Grade 1 tournament held the first week, the top-seeded girl, Alexandra Yepifanova, and an unseeded boy, Ethan Quinn, earned the titles. At the Easter Bowl, that status flipped, with top seed Shang taking the boys title by way of a 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-2 win over Quinn and qualifier Hovde defeating No. 3 seed Elvina Kalieva 4-6, 7-5, 6-1.
Shang did not play the IOSC, after receiving a wild card into qualifying at the Miami Open and taking ATP No. 158 Liam Broady to a third-set tiebreaker, but the 2019 Easter Bowl 14s champion was eager to face the challenge presented to him as the top seed in the ITF Grade B1 tournament.
"This tournament is known like the big seeds never win it," said Shang, a 16-year-old from China, who lives and trains at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. "It's always wild cards or qualifiers, so coming here must be really challenging, so it must be a good tournament.”
