Sonobe Yaso Advances to Junior Grand Slam Final in US Open

The US Open tennis tournament held the junior women’s singles semi-finals, where 7th seed Sonobe Yaso defeated 8th seed Michael Schue of Great Britain 6-4, 6-4 in straight sets to reach her first junior Grand Slam final.

This is the eighth time that 16-year-old Sonobe, ranked 10th in the junior world rankings, has participated in the junior division of a Grand Slam tournament. Her best result to date was making it to the round of 16, but in this tournament she won four matches and advanced to the semifinals for the first time.

In the semi-finals, Sonobe hit 22 winners throughout the match. Although she allowed her opponent to break twice, she managed to break four times herself, and advanced to the finals in one hour and 40 minutes.

Sonobe, who won the final, is aiming to become the second Japanese player in 55 years to win a Grand Slam junior title in the same event, following Kazuko Sawamatsu, who won the junior divisions at the French Open and Wimbledon in 1969.

Sonobe will face 15-year-old M. Stojvljevic (Great Britain), ranked 33rd in the junior world rankings, in the final. Stojvljevic advanced to the finals after defeating third-seeded Ivan Jovic (United States) in the semifinals.

Also, third seed Rei Sakamoto, who competed in the junior boys’ singles semi-finals on the same day, was defeated in straight sets by 12th seed J. Rodal (Spain) 3-6, 1-6 and was eliminated in the semi-finals.

Nevertheless, in the men’s doubles semi-finals that followed, Sakamoto teamed up with M. Mrba (Czech Republic) to defeat the third-seeded pair of H. Barnett (Switzerland) and N. Budkov-Kjaer (Norway) in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3, to advance to the finals.

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