Southern Section

Saturday, Dec. 20

Individual Championships

Alexa Glatch, a 14-year-old from Newport Beach, won the girls’ 16 division championship of the Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Laura Vallverdu, a 16-year-old from Venezuela, on Saturday in Key Biscayne, Fla.

Glatch, a freshman enrolled in an independent-study program through Laurel Springs School in Ojai, posted the victory a day after an taking a grueling 4-6, 7-6 (14), 2-0 decision over Jennifer Stevens of Miami Fla.. Stevens retired in frustration and exasperation soon after losing a 5-3 lead and then 12 match points in the second set of their semifinal Friday night.Stevens is ranked eighth nationally in girls’ 16’s. Glatch, ranked No. 13 in the division, became the second American girl to win the Orange Bowl 16’s title in the past three years. Whitney Deason of Houston, Texas, won in 2001.

En route to the title, the No. 16-seeded Glatch beat No. 12 Natalia Rakhmanina of Russia, 6-1, 6-3, in the quarterfinals, and defeated wild-card entrant and Laguna Niguel resident Sarah Fansler, a sophomore at Dana Point Dana Hills High, in the third round.

The U.S. swept the 16’s singles titles as 14-year-old Donald Young Jr. of Chicago, Ill. defeated Aljoscho Thron of Germany, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, to become the first African-American to win a singles title in the 57-year history of the tournament.Glatch and partner Liberty Sveke of Sarasota, Fla. were quarterfinalists in doubles.
--Lauren Peterson