With Lendl in his corner, Riffice makes quarterfinals

PLANTATION — Sam Riffice is not fooling around when it comes to surrounding himself with the right people to help him transition from being a top junior tennis champion into a world-class, highranking professional.

So why not emulate Great Brittain’s Andy Murray, the recently crowned year-ending No. 1 who has won three Grand Slams and two Olympic gold medals?

Riffice swept the prestigious Eddie Herr International championships and Orange Bowl 16s’ titles in 2014, but he wasn’t progressing the way he wanted to. Now 17, Riffice recently spent three-anda-half weeks working with Murray’s former fitness guru, Jez Green, at the USTA training center in Boca Raton.

He then went to Vero Beach with a contingent of young Americans to train with tennis legend Ivan Lendl, a nine-time major champion, and the driving coaching force behind Murray’s success.

It seems to be all coming together for Riffice at this week’s Metropolia Orange Bowl International Tennis Championship where on Thursday with Lendl watching from the sidelines, the 13th seed advanced to the quarterfinals of the Boys’ 18s with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Sangeet Sridhar, a qualifier who knocked out the thirdseeded Benjamin Sigouin in the second round.

Riffice, a Northern Californian native who recently relocated from Boca Raton to Orlando to be near the new USTA Training Center in Lake Nona, was up 4-1 in the third set when Sridhar’s formidable forehand starting finding the lines to make it 3-4.

On a perfect day for tennis under an overcast sky in Veltri Tennis Center, Riffice calmly reeled off the next three games, serving the match out at love.

"A couple of months ago I wouldn’t have been able to stay that strong [so the training] helped a lot,’’ Riffice said. "Lendl is one of the smartest coaches I’ve ever worked with. He watches you play and immediately knows what you need to do and then he works on it. We’ll do the same three drills in two hours over and over.’’

Two other American hopefuls working with Lendl didn’t fare as well. Oliver Crawford and Vasil Kirkov were eliminated in their round-of-16 matches by Danny Thomas of Pickerington, Ohio, and Sebastian Baez of Argentina.

"Sam is making the transition into the man’s world and it’s been difficult for him because he’s been very successful playing junior tennis just by waiting for his opponent to miss,’’ Lendl said. "That doesn’t happen at a higher level so you have to force [the action].

"Sam can do it, but it’s not natural for him. So he needs to figure it out where the line is, how far he can push and when to back up. It comes with experience.’’

That sounds how Lendl guided Murray from multiple Grand Slam runner-up to the one hoisting the trophy.

The seeds are holding up in the Boys’ 18s, as topseeded Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia, who has already locked up the year-ending No. 1 junior in the world ranking, continued to buzz-saw through the draw in which he’s dropped five games in three matches. Also advancing is the (2) Yibing Wu of China, (4) Yuta Shimizu of Japan, and (5) Kenneth Raisma of Estonia.

The upset of the day in the Girls’ 18s was pulled off by Carson Branstine, a Southern California native who’s moving to Montreal to play under Canada’s flag. She used a tantalizing drop shot to set up her sixth and final match point to secure a 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 victory over childhood friend Claire Liu, the third seed.

"It seemed like a million [match points],’’ smiled Branstine, 16. "But I finally closed it out at the end.’’

Also advancing were seventh-seeded Usue Arconada of Puerto Rico, who will face top-seeded Anastasia Potapova, the 15-year-old Russian who also has clinched year-ending world No. 1 status. Potapova, winner of the Wimbledon Girls’ title, hasn’t dropped a set in her first three matches.

In the Girls’ 16s, three Americans reached the final four. Unseeded Katie Volynets of Walnut Creek, trailed 2-5 in the first set before reeling off the next 11 games to down Elvina Kalieva, who trains at this facility with Nick Saviano’s High Performance Academy.

Volynets, 14, who won the Eddie Herr last week, will have a rematch with Angelica Blake of Boca Raton, who she beat in a three-set quarterfinal after dropping the first set 6-0. Blake, 16, who also trains with Saviano, expects a battle.

"She’s really mentally strong,’’ Blake said. "She’s not going to break down and get upset. I need to stay positive.’’

They will be joined by 14th-seeded Imani Graham of Jacksonville, the only remaining seed, who will play Arabella Koller of Austria.

In the boys’ 16s, Eddie Herr champion Anton Matusevich of Great Britain, the highest seed left at No. 3, advanced with a threeset victory over wild card Trey Hilderbrand to set up a semifinal with unseeded Steven Sun of Walnut, Calif., who survived a 3-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5) marathon over Marcelo Garza Sepulveda.

India’s Vikash Singh, the 10th seed, used his speed and consistent groundstrokes to topple lanky, 15-year-old Drew Baird, 6-4, 6-7 (1), 6-1. In the other semi, Singh will face 12th-seeded Stefan Pelosi, after the Romanian knocked off the fourthseeded Brian Shi of Jericho, N.Y., 6-4, 6-4.