JAMAICA’S Blaise Bicknell yesterday moved into the second round of the 56th staging of the 2017 International Orange Bowl Juniors Tennis Championships being played at the Veltri Tennis Center in Miami, Florida.

He defeated Stefan Ivic of Serbia 6-2, 6-3 in the 16 and under boys’ singles. Ivic had won all four matches in the qualifying tournament.

Bicknell will face Hunter Heck of the United States in his second-round match today.

Meanwhile, Bicknell and Harris Gold of the United States won their first-round 16 and under boys’ doubles match in straight sets against Michael Francis of the USA and Phuong Vanuguyen of Vietnam in a hard-fought match, 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 in the supper tie-breaker set.

The Orange Bowl is one of the two biggest international junior tennis championships on the circuit, the other being the just-concluded Eddie Herr, also played in Florida.

The majority of those who played in the Eddie Herr last week will return here, as they seek to increase their world points rankings in order to qualify for the Australian Open Junior Championships.

Players are expected to come from the United States of America (USA), China, Japan, Chile, Iran, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Poland, Germany, Italy, Bolivia, Bermuda, Peru, Puerto Rico, Austria, Turkey, Philippines, Canada, Czech Republic, Venezuela, Spain, Ireland, Ecuador, Russia, Slovakia, and South Korea.

Bicknell was defeated by Ronald Hohmann of the USA 6-4, 6-4 in his quarter-finals of the Under-16 singles at the 2017 Eddie Herr International Junior Tennis Championships in Miami, Florida, last Thursday.

Hohmann, seeded number 13 in the boys 16 and under singles, is said to be one of the best junior players in the USA, but was seeded below the top 10 as he did not have enough ranking points. Bicknell was seeded at number five.