Special to the Miami Herald
Rising teen star Max Exsted already has his personal web site and emblem for hats and T-shirts, to not point out clothes and racket offers.
Wearing his inexperienced hat with the letters: M-A-X intertwined in a triangle, the top-seeded Exsted coasted previous Tim Vaisman of Israel, 6-1, 6-0 to advance to the second spherical of the 60th Junior Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships on Wednesday afternoon at Crandon Park Tennis Center.
Exsted, who possesses a candy, step-away, highly effective forehand and a classy serve-and-volley assault, has collected so many USTA gold, silver and bronze balls and trophies that his father, Chris, says his son typically leaves them behind on the event. In all, he has 12 championship balls, six golds, 5 silvers and a bronze. Many have been acquired this 12 months because the nation’s second-ranked 14-year-old and a number of other got here in doubles titles together with his accomplice Maximus Dussault, the eighth seed right here, from Stuart, together with the doubles title on the lately concluded Level 2 Eddie Herr International Championships in Bradenton.
“We’re the M-and-M [boys],’’ said Exsted, who has mostly relocated from his home in Savage, Minnesota, with father Chris and mother Jodi, to nearby Miramar to train with private coach Courtney Scott as well as his USTA development coach Jon Glover at the USTA national campus in Orlando. Scott is a former hitting partner for Delray Beach’s rising WTA star Coco Gauff before coaching Exsted.
Decked out in all yellow, Exsted, who admitted that he, “hates to lose any point,’’ more than he loves to win, displayed that when he angrily blew the 5-0 game only to win the last seven games.
“I’m very fast, can make a lot of balls and feel like I can hit any shot,’’ Exsted said.
However, he does shake off losses in a similar way that tennis icon Roger Federer is able to. Two weeks ago, Exsted lost a tough three-set final to Russian Timofey Derepasko — the second seed here — only to join his U.S. teammates in Orlando last week to lead the 14s’ squad to a victory in the coed America’s Cup over South America, Central America and Canada.
Exsted said the recent U.S. Open women’s final that pitted a pair of 18-year-olds, with Emma Raducanu (now 19) over Leylah Fernandez — who was in a photo shoot in the Stadium Court at Crandon — inspired him to achieve his dream earlier than expected. Just five years ago Raducanu finished third in the Junior Orange Bowl 14s.
“I want to go straight to the pros, be No. 1 and win Grand Slams, especially, the U.S. Open,’’ said Exsted, a solid, 5-7, 140-pounder. “Those young kids definitely inspired me 100 percent to keep on going, just to get bigger and stronger.” His father Chris, who takes notes on his cellphone after each level in his son’s matches, has two older youngsters, who each performed school tennis (Alex, 22, at Northern Colorado, and Isabelle, 19, at North Carolina Central), however: “Max is my star.” Chris Exsted additionally added that successful at this stage isn’t the whole lot.
“This is important; the next one is important; they’re all important, but they’re all not important,” he mentioned.
South Florida individuals Rafael Ferreira of Boca Raton coasted previous Gianluca Mondini, 6-1, 6-0; whereas Noah Miremberg of Sunny Isles bought previous Finn Sulugiuc with the identical rating. Fourth-seeded Nicolas Patrick of Coal Valley, Illinois, who’s ranked first within the nation by Tennis Recruiting, blitzed Markus Valtson of Estonia, 6-2, 6-0.
In the Girls’ 14s, top-seeded Iva Jovic of Torrance, California, downed Carrington Brown, 6-1, 6-3 and Marcella Roversi of Doral pulled out a three-setter over Katherine Zhang. Delray Beach’s Monika Ekstrand dispatched Reese Calvo of Hallandale, 6-3, 6-0.
Rain delayed all matches in any respect three websites by at the least three hours, and one other afternoon bathe ended play on the exhausting courts at Crandon Park and Biltmore at about 4 p.m., for anybody who had a 2 p.m. match or later. Play continued on the clay at Salvadore Park.
Earlier Wednesday, a few tennis greats watched their respective sons win their first-round matches. Lleyton Hewitt, who was the youngest man to achieve No. 1 when he was 20 years outdated, and his Aussie actress spouse Bec Cartwright watched unseeded Cruz Hewitt, 13, function his dad’s pinpoint, flat groundstrokes and his fiery spirit in a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Minato Koido of Bradenton by way of Hong Kong.
A number of hours later, Lindsay Davenport, a year-ending No. 1 on the planet 4 occasions and three-time Grand Slam champion, didn’t have to attend too lengthy as her son Jagger, the 17th seed, received 6-0. His opponent, Bercel Sandor Takacs, No. 1 within the Hungary 12s, retired with a sprained ankle sustained within the second recreation of the match after a nasty fall.
“He has an enormous serve and in addition an enormous forehand,’’ Takacs mentioned mentioned of the 6-2 Leach.
