Osuigwe wraps up season with Orange Bowl title

If this was the last junior tennis match Whitney Osuigwe ever plays, consider it a proper sendoff.

Osuigwe, 15, cruised by Ukrainian Margaryta Bilokin, 6-1, 6-2, to win the Orange Bowl Girls’ 18s singles title on Sunday at the Frank Veltri Tennis Center in Plantation, Fla. The weather was brisk and so was the match, a fitting end to an extraordinary, whirlwind season for the Bradenton, Fla., native.

The 2017 French Open girls’ champ ends 2017 as the world’s No. 1-ranked junior – the third American girl to hold that distinction in the last six years, following CiCi Bellis in 2014 and Taylor Townsend in 2012 – and likely has enough junior ranking points cached to be able enter the junior Grand Slams in 2018 without playing another junior event until then, should she so choose.

“I’m just going to transition further into the pro level,” Osuigwe said after her title win. “I still have limitations on tournaments, on what I can do next year, so I’m just going to have a couple of training blocks, maybe play some 25Ks. I know I’m going to play the Miami Open [in the spring].”

Osuigwe doesn’t turn 16 until April and is therefore limited by the WTA’s Age Eligibility Rules in the number of professional matches she can play. Her plan for the immediate future is to take some time off, then begin her preseason training back at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, where she trains primarily with her father, Desmond.

“I’m really happy,” Osuigwe said. “I’ve always done pretty well here, getting to the semis last year and winning the time I played before that (Girls’ 12s, in 2014), so I was really excited to win this tournament and finish off my – maybe this is my last junior match, I don’t know – but to finish off my junior career like this, it’s amazing.”

Frenchman Hugo Gaston won the Boys’ 18s final, over Kazakhstan’s Dostanbek Tashbulatov, 6-2, 6-3.

The Czech team of Ondrej Styler and Tomas Machac won the Boys’ 18s title over Colombian Nicholas Mejia and Uisung Park, of Korea, 6-4, 6-4.

Taiwan’s Joanna Garland and Japan’s Naho Sato beat France’s Yasmine Mansouri and Japan’s Yuki Naito, 6-4, 6-3, for the Girls’ 18s doubles crown.

Click here for complete draws and scores from the 2017 Orange Bowl.