Hong, Stewart Win 50th Junior Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships

By: Michael Seff
Katerina Stewart, Claire Liu, and Seongchan Hong all withstood increasingly hot temperatures and persevered to become champions at the Junior Orange Bowl in Coral Gables.

The most polarizing figure on display was Stewart, who also happened to be the most dominating one as well. The Miami native, seeded sixth, had a strong backing from spectators as she cruised to a surprisingly easy, 6-1, 6-3 win over top-seeded Tornado Ali Black of Boca Raton in the girls 14 & under field.

“It feels great, and everyone supported me today and I'm thankful for that,” Stewart said of winning in her hometown.

On the adjacent court in the girls 12 & under, Liu of Thousand Oaks bested No. 1 Catherine Bellis of Atherton in a battle of Californians, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3.

“I just wanted to stay calm and keep playing my game,” said Liu. “I had to be brave and focus to win. Winning here means all my hard work paid off.”

And then there was Hong, the Korean whose boys U14 title match with Pembroke Pines' Stefan Kozlov was full of drama and emotion. The ninth-seeded Hong rallied from a first-set defeat in which he squandered a 3-0 lead to defeat No. 4 Kozlov, 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-4.

The three-set affair was a rematch of the boys U12 finals from 2009, which also went Hong's way. It appeared early as if Kozlov would earn his retribution, but Hong had other ideas.

“I was aggressive, because I knew if I was defensive I would lose,” he said.

A day earlier, Artem Dubrivnyy of Russia was crowned boys U12 champion when he defeated unseeded qualifier Albert Lim, 7-6 (3), 6-1. Dubrivnyy ended up being the only No. 1 seed to win this year's Orange Bowl.