Bradenton’s Osuigwe wins Orange Bowl crown

Whitney Osuigwe put a cap on an outstanding 2017 with a victory in the Orange Bowl tennis tournament Sunday in Plantation.

Osuigwe, 15, defeated Margaryta Bilokin of Ukraine 6-1, 6-2 in the Girls 18s final, completing a season in which she’s ranked as the top girls junior player in the world.

“I’m really happy,” Osuigwe said in a press release. “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.”

Osuigwe is the fourth American junior in the last six years to be ranked No. 1 in the world, joining Taylor Fritz (boys, 2015), CiCi Bellis (girls, 2014) and Taylor Townsend (girls, 2012).

This story was originally published December 10, 2017 at 6:15 PM with the headline "Bradenton’s Osuigwe wins Orange Bowl crown."