Monday marked the start of main draw action at the 2020 ITF J4 Orlando event, being contested at the USTA National Campus after originally scheduled to be held in Lexington, S.C. The day’s schedule was drastically altered by a delay of more than four hours when play was halted due to the ITF’s Extreme Heat Policy.

All four seeds from the bottom half of the boys’ draw were eliminated on Monday. As the clock was approaching 10 p.m. local time, second-seeded Nishesh Basavareddy (USA) was outlasted by American wild card John Kim in a marathon 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(8) contest. Kim’s next opponent will be Italian Giulio Perego of Italy, who is coming off earning the title last week at the Grade 4 event in Atlanta.

Ellis Short (USA), who took out No. 1 seed Adolfo Daniel Vallejo (Paraguay) as part of the Atlanta Grade 4, scored a 6-2, 7-6(4) victory over fourth seed Adit Sinha of the United States Monday. Additionally, No. 6 American Sam Scherer fell to lucky loser Wil Jenkins (Great Britain) 7-6(8), 6-4 and eighth-seeded Mark Dancuart (Peru) came up short against American wild card Kian Vakili 7-5, 6-4.

The only upset in the top half was turned in by Nedim Suko, who bested No. 5 seed Nate Bonetto 7-5, 7-5 in an all-American matchup. No. 1 seed Vallejo got his week started with a quick 6-2, 6-2 victory over Adam Duan (USA).

On the girls’ side the draw held much more to form, with the only upset coming from lucky loser Kathryn Treiber of the United States stunning fourth seed Madeleine Jessup (USA) by a 7-5, 7-5 score line; Treiber will be across the net from Sarah Hamner, who defeated Mary Stoiana 6-3, 6-0 in a matchup of American qualifiers, on Tuesday.

No. 1 Alexis Blokhina (USA) and No. 2 Ava Krug (USA) were both tested before coming through in straight sets. Blokhina held off American Sophie Williams 6-4, 7-5 while Krug put away wild card Sophie Llewellyn (USA) 6-3, 7-5. Atlanta finalist Ashlyn Krueger (USA), who was awarded a wild card into the main draw in Orlando, kept up her high level of play by cruising past Jingyi Li of China 6-0, 6-2.

Due to the extended suspension of play in the afternoon, no doubles matches were played on Monday, but the draws were published. The team of Scherer and fellow American Azuma Visaya has earned top billing for the boys’ doubles. Braden Shick (USA) will be looking to make it back-to-back doubles titles, as he has paired up with Ryan Colby (USA) to form the eighth-seeded duo; Atlanta finalists Lucas Brown (USA) and Stian Klaassen (Netherlands) are seeded seventh.

The French/Swiss team of Eva Elbaz and Chelsea Fontenel is seeded No. 1 in the girls’ doubles draw. Elisabeth Jones and Julia Fliegner of the United States, who took home the doubles crown in Atlanta, are back in action this week.

Tuesday’s slate of matches will begin at 8 a.m. with the second round of singles while doubles will get underway in the afternoon. For more information on the 2020 ITF J4 Orlando, click here.