Alabamas Tuck, 12, advances to the finals of the junior OB tournament

Tabb Tuck credits thousands of ping-pong battles with her father back home in Birmingham, Alabama, for helping her shape her calm demeanor on the court during important tournaments.

These basement battles have also fueled his competitive fire. Tuck, the second-ranked boys 12-year-old, has shown both in this week’s USTA Level 2 Junior Orange Bowl International Championship finals on the clay courts of Salvadore Park.

The self-confessed super-competitive Tuck dominated Tavish Pahwa, the silky-smooth No. 3 seed from India, in a 6-0, 6-1 victory Sunday under cloudy skies. He will play Dongjae Kim on Monday morning after the Korean ninth seed was stunned by seeded southpaw Taiki Takizawa, a native of Japan who plays for the Australian national team, 6-3, 6-2 in tough basic conditions.

“I’m playing the best tennis of my life right now,” said Tuck, 12, who reached the USTA National Hard Courts 12s final and recently the Level 2 Eddie Herr International Championship in Bradenton. I’m really determined to win the Orange Bowl. That has been my goal since the beginning of the year.

I’m broke like eight [ping-pong] paddled this year as I play my dad almost every day. I think it gets the anger out, so I don’t have it on the tennis courts. We brought a big white board and we are monitoring the situation. It’s really good for me and really bad for my dad.

The score is about 800-600 in favor of Tabbs, and if this board were to follow his dominance this week, it would show him allowing a total of 14 games in six games, an average of 2.3 games per game.

I break them down physically and mentally, said Tuck, who beat Kim 7-5, 6-0 at Herr in the round of 16. He’s a really good player, but I just have to stay consistent, stay steady and keep everybody deep. on the field and try to move him.

Pahwa, who lost to eventual champion Michael Antonius in Herr’s quarterfinals, couldn’t match Tucks’ ability to track every shot and then turn it into an attack with his favorite arm. Despite the poor result, the high-IQ Pahwa mixed up her game with drop shots and at the net in the second set, but Tuck still won all the big points.

In the first set, I couldn’t play my game; I played his game and was very defensive, said Pahwa, 12, no. 1 in his country. In the second set, I tried to use my variety, but I lost a lot of break points.

He has all kinds of games. If I play defense, he knows how to intervene with a good shot and then we come to the net. If I play offensively, he defends well. If I push him out of bounds, he hits it high and heavy and neutralizes the point.

A laid-back Tuck said his losses in two grand finals helped prepare him for Monday’s challenge.

“In the Eddie Herr final, I was a little nervous and missed shots that I don’t usually miss,” he said. But now I’m ready for the big stage.

Every night after his match, Tuck goes to Chipotle for a burrito bowl. He hopes his next bowl is full of oranges.

Kim, 12, withstood the 5-foot-10 Takizawa’s long baseline rallies, occasionally throwing down an effective drop shot. Takizawa’s left-hander found the net repeatedly amid unforced errors.

I’m going to hit the handle with more confidence [Tuck]Kim said through Google Translate.

Both Crandon Park Tennis Center’s 12-year-old girls and Biltmore Hotel’s 14-year-old girls, and on the hard courts, the top four have reached the semifinals, which is a rare occurrence, especially in the junior divisions of international tournaments. (14-year-old boys, 12-year-old girls and 14-year-old girls will all finish at the Biltmore Hotel over the next two days.)

However, the boys’ 14-year-old tie at Crandon has seen upheaval at the top since the second and fourth seeds withdrew just before the tournament began. Taiwanese Kuan-Shou Chen (7) upset Korean Sehyuk Cho 6-3, 6-1 on Sunday.

Cho, who has been training at the IMG Tennis Academy in Bradenton all month, won her first 14s Wimbledon tournament in July and then the 14s championship at Herr. Cho, the top ranked player in the Asian Tennis Association, had dropped just one set in his last 10 matches and knocked out Chen Herr 6-1, 6-1 in the semifinals.

Chen plays Ivan Ivanov, the third seed from Bulgaria, who beat Jack Secord of Lake Forest, Illinois in a dramatic marathon 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (15-13). Apparently Secord, whose mother, Linda Wild, placed 23rd^rd On the WTA in 1996 with five singles titles, thought she had won the match in the semi-finals. It was called and Ivanov, who trains at Rafael Nadals Academy in Spain, won.

The only American hope in the boys’ 14s is sixth-seeded Jack Kennedy, who has gained confidence and momentum in each round as he dispatched New Zealand’s Jamie Mackenzie (17), 6-3, 6-1. It opened the semi-final against China’s Weiyi Kong (17), who defeated Egypt’s Eyad Ezzad 6-2, 6-1.

No surprises for the 12-year-old girls, as No. 1 seed Christina Lyutova of Russia, who plays in America at the Gorin Tennis Academy in Redmond, Washington, guided Boca Raton’s Caroline Shao to advance to the semifinals.

Lyutova lost in last years 12s final. He plays No. 4 Yui Komada of Japan after the Herr 12s finalist beat Romania’s Andreea Olariu (6) 6-4, 6-1.

No. 2 Yeri Hong, the Herr 12s champion, allowed three games to No. 8 Hannah Ayrault (whose father Brian is the agent for Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and NFL defensive brothers Joey and Nick Bosa) and will play No. 3 Hiniya. Pakistan’s Minhas defeated Bradenton’s Sun Xinran (5) 6-4, 6-3.

In the 14-year-old girls’ division, top seed Hannah Klugman, a Wimbledon-born-and-bred Briton, continued her all-player title run with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Brazil’s Victoria Barros. Klugman, who seems to have no weaknesses and elegant technique, hasn’t dropped a set, but is allowing eight games in five appearances.

I feel really confident, I’m playing solid, really well, said Klugman, 13, who hopes to follow her role model Great Britain’s Emma Raducanu, who won the US Open as an 18-year-old in 2021.

I try to stay as relaxed as possible. If I stress too much, I can’t finish the points.

Klugman will play training partner and third-seeded Aussie Emerson Jones together in the quarter-finals after the Herr finalist overcame a lopsided first set to defeat American Maria Aytoyan (9) 6-4, 6-0. A native of Los Angeles, Aytoyan trains at the Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton.

The other quarter-final will pit China’s second seed Yihan (Sophia) Qu against Latvia’s Adelina Lachinova, who is part of the ITF Grand Slam Player Development Programme. Lachinova, 14, reached a critical break in the first set at 5-6 before escaping to beat Russia’s Ksenia Efremova (6) 7-5, 6-1.

Efremovas’ coach Kevin Boumlin of the Patrick Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in France praised Lachinova: She doesn’t miss and runs everywhere.

The 6-foot-6 left-hander Qu struggled against the looping topspin shots of Argentina’s Maria Luna Cinalli (7) before eventually sealing a 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) victory in an error-strewn semifinal.

Boasting a rare one-handed backhand, Cinalli is number one in Argentina, where he plays only on clay. He had never played in a hardcourt tournament before this week, so his inability to slide hurt him against Qus’ steady warp speed two-handed backhands.

Cinallis’ consolation prize came when her fitness coach, Claudia Castillo, told her that Argentina had won the World Cup during her match.

I was happy about the Argentine championship, but I lost my match in anger, he said with a smile.