Special from
Zoo Tennis
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PLANTATION, Fla. - When a tournament has a 75-year history, any first occurrence is rare. At the 2021 Orange Bowl, the ITF Grade A tournament produced two such accomplishments, with Adolfo Daniel Vallejo of Paraguay becoming the first player from his country to claim an Orange Bowl title and Croatia's Petra Marcinko the first girl to sweep the singles and doubles titles.
Boys Singles Champion Adolfo Daniel Vallejo
© Zoo Tennis
With the tournament's schedule disrupted just once by rain, the Veltri Tennis Center, host of the tournament since 2011, drew hundreds of local tennis enthusiasts eager to see the ATP and WTA stars of the future. They also had a local favorite to support, with No. 2 seed Bruno Kuzuhara, a resident nearby Coconut Creek, among the favorites.
Kuzuhara reached the final after a scintillating 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(4) semifinal victory over unseeded Kalin Ivanovski of Macedonia, but his run ended there, with Vallejo capturing one of junior tennis's most prestigious titles by a 6-2, 6-3 score.
The seventh-seeded Vallejo had a bumpy road to the championship match, needing three sets on four occasions, including his 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win over unseeded American Ryan Colby in the semifinals. But when he grabbed the first four games from an obviously nervous Kuzuhara, the prospect of another long contest receded.
