Collins Reaches Australian Open Semifinals; Five US Juniors Advance to AO Round of 16; Seven Americans Move into Round Two at Les Petits As; Volynets Posts Win at Newport Beach WTA 125

Collins working with Pat Harrison in off-season

Danielle Collins advanced to the semifinals of the Australian Open Tuesday, denying unseeded veteran Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia her first major semifinal by coming back to claim 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 victory. The 25-year-old from Florida, who won the NCAA women's singles titles in 2014 and 2016, rolled in the third set, hitting 13 winners and making just one unforced error.

Women's college tennis has not had a major semifinalist in singles since Stanford's Meredith McGrath reached the Wimbledon semifinals in 1996, although the WTA has not been particularly diligent in its research on the collegiate background of those in the late stages of slams.  At any rate, Collins has arrived, and while she received some recognition after reaching the semifinals at the Miami Open last year, this unexpected breakout at a slam is nearly unprecedented. See this blog post from Jeff Sackmann on Heavy Topspin, for more details on Collins' rare run.

Stephanie Myles at TennisLife has thoughts on Collins' win and the contrasting pathways of the Virginia graduate and Pavlyuchenkova, who won the Australian Open girls title twice.  Joel Drucker wrote about Collins' mental strength in this article for tennis.com.  Collins will play No. 8 seed Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in the semifinals, with Kvitova having beaten Collins in the first round of the WTA event in Brisbane earlier this month 6-7(6), 7-6(6), 6-3.

Frances Tiafoe could not join Collins in the final four, with No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal of Spain just playing too well, facing only two break points, neither converted, in a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory. 

Jennifer Brady(UCLA) and Allison Riske have moved into the women's doubles semifinals, defeating No. 7 seeds Hao-Ching and Latisha Chan of Taiwan 6-3, 7-6(3) in Tuesday's quarterfinals. They face No. 2 seeds and defending champions Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France in Wednesday's semifinals. 

Serena Williams[16] faces No. 7 seed Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, the 2010 Australian Open girls champion, in Wednesday's quarterfinals.

Five US juniors have reached the round of 16 at the Australian Open Junior Championships, with Tuesday's winners Emma Navarro, Zane Khan and No. 13 seed Emilio Nava. Khan defeated No. 5 seed Rinky Hijikata of Australia 6-4, 6-4.  No. 6 seed Lea Ma lost to Priska Nugroho of Indonesia 5-7, 6-3, 6-0.  No. 9 seed Cannon Kingsley and Toby Kodat has moved into the third round on Monday.  Kingsley and Nava, seeded No. 4, have advanced to the quarterfinals in boys doubles, to play No. 8 seeds Khan and Canadian Liam Draxl. Navarro and Chloe Beck, the No. 8 seeds, also have reached the doubles quarterfinals.

All round of 16 singles matches and doubles quarterfinals are on Wednesday (Tuesday night in the US).

Seven of the eight Americans competing at Les Petits As have advanced to the second round in singles, including all three seeds: Learner Tien[15], Kaitlyn Carnicella[11] and Katherine Hui[12]. Qavia Lopez, Kyle Kang, Cooper Williams and Joseph Phillips are the other four moving on to the second round.  Phillips defeated No. 6 seed Patrick Schoen of Switzerland 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-4 and Williams beat No. 8 seed Marc Majdandzic of Germany 6-2, 6-4. All seven are in second round action on Wednesday.  Live scoring is available at Tennis Ticker. Live streaming on three courts can be found here.

Although there are two ITF World Tennis Tour 25 events this week in Florida, with the men in Palm Coast and the women in Plantation, the big event is the Oracle Challenger in Newport Beach California. The women's tournament is a WTA 125 event and the men's tournament is an ATP 125 Challenger. These have different entry rules than lower level events, with no qualifying spots for ITF World rankings and two wild cards in the four-player qualifying draws.  Evan Song and UCLA senior Maxime Cressy advanced to the main draw and Cressy defeated Alex Sarkissian(Pepperdine) 6-3, 6-0 in the first round today.

Taylor Fritz, Bradley Klahn and Mackenzie McDonald are the top three men's seeds.

In the women's qualifying, 17-year-old Katie Volynets defeated Alexa Guarachi(Alabama) of Chile to make the main draw, and today she needed only 46 minutes to defeat Mari Osaka of Japan 6-0, 6-0 in the first round. Francesca Di Lorenzo(Ohio State), who has been out with an injury since the US Open last September, picked up a win in her first match back Monday. Rebecca Peterson of Sweden and Tatjana Maria of Germany are the top two seeds.

Two American men and two American women will receive wild cards into the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells based on their performances in the four Oracle Challenger events. Two were played last fall, in Chicago and Houston, this is the third, with one more in Indian Wells this spring. Danielle Collins won that wild card last year and went on to make the fourth round. Bradley Klahn and Lauren Davis are the current leaders.  For more on this race, see the tournament website.

Junior Orange Bowl Videos; Kingsley, Kodat Advance to Australian Open Juniors Round of 16; UTR Announces Partnership with Tennis Australia and Djokovic

The last of the videos from last month's major junior events in Florida are below, with separate videos of the Junior Orange Bowl boys 12s finalists and one video each for the girls 12s, girls 14s and boys 14s. For other videos from the Orange Bowl and the Eddie Herr, see the tenniskalamazoo channel on YouTube.

The Australian Open is well into its second week now, with three Americans advancing to the quarterfinals after Serena Williams beat WTA No. 1 Simona Halep Monday.  Danielle Collins and Frances Tiafoe will attempt to earn spots in the semifinals Tuesday (tonight in the US), with Tiafoe certainly having the tougher road.

Monday’s fourth round matches:

Serena Williams[16] d. Simona Halep[1](ROU) 6-1, 4-6, 6-4
Elina Svitolina[6](UKR) d. Madison Keys[17] 6-2, 1-6, 6-1

Tuesday’s Round of 16 matches
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova(RUS) v Danielle Collins
Frances Tiafoe v Rafael Nadal[2](ESP)

In the second round of the Australian Open Junior championships, the first Top 8 seed lost on Monday, with Eddie Herr champion and No. 2 seed Qinwen Wang of China losing to Anastasia Tikhonova of Russia 7-5, 6-3. No. 8 girls seed Sohyun Park of Korea also lost, falling to Manon Leonard of France 6-4, 6-3.  In the boys draw, No. 9 seed Cannon Kingsley defeated Wojciech Marek of Poland 6-1, 6-2 and unseeded Toby Kodat beat No. 14 seed Harold Mayot of France in a thriller 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-6(10-7). No. 16 seed Eliot Spizzirri lost for the second time in two months to Lodewijk Weststrate of the Netherlands. Westrate beat Spizzirri at the Orange Bowl 6-4, 7-6(4) and 7-5, 6-4 Monday in Melbourne.  Americans in Tuesday's second round matches are Lea Ma[6], Emma Navarro, Emilio Nava[13] and Zane Khan.

In doubles, No. 4 seeds Nava and Kingsley advanced to the second round, as did No. 8 seeds Navarro and Chloe Beck. Spizzirri, who is playing with Lilian Marmousez of France, and Khan, who is playing with Liam Draxl of Canada, also advanced to the second round Monday. Spizzirri and Marmousez will face Nava and Kingsley Tuesday.  No. 7 seeds Tristan Boyer and Tyler Zink are also into Tuesday's second round in doubles.

The new ITF junior rankings out today reflect the great performances at last week's Grade 1s for the two 2018 Kalamazoo 16s finalists. Champion Martin Damm, who lost in the Coffee Bowl final, moved into the Top 100 for the first time, while Khan, who lost in the Traralgon final, moved into the Top 20 for the first time, with his current ranking 16. Although Coffee Bowl champion Abigail Forbes moved up 313 spots in the rankings, she is still outside the Top 100, at 108.

UTR announced Saturday that they had established "strategic partnerships" with Tennis Australia and Novak Djokovic. UTR has signed an impressive list of partners and investors in the past year and they are now establishing themselves as serious power broker in the tennis industry. Tennis may not need another one of those, but if there is a chance they can unite the sport, rather than fragment it, it's a positive development. I've been hearing that the ITF, rather than adopt the UTR, is looking at developing a similar system themselves, which strikes me as silly and dangerous. The ITF could see their circuit decline, and as noted in my article on the World Tennis Tour earlier this month, ignoring the college route, while Oracle continues to support that pathway, could backfire.

Forbes, Mochizuki Win Titles at ITF Grade 1 Coffee Bowl; Collins, Tiafoe Make Australian Open Quarterfinals; Second Round of AO Juniors Features Seven Americans; Bangoura Claims WTT M15 in Naples; Les Petits As Begins Monday

Abigail Forbes won her first ITF Grade 1 title Saturday night, at the Coffee Bowl in Costa Rica.  The 17-year-old from North Carolina, who has committed to UCLA, defeated unseeded 15-year-old Melodie Collard of Canada 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 in the championship match.  Martin Damm fell short in his quest for a first Grade 1 title, falling to top seed and fellow 15-year-old Shintaro Mochizuki of Japan 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

Mochizuki had already captured one title earlier in the day, partnering with Spencer Whitaker.  The No. 8 seeds defeated Damm and Will Grant, the No. 6 seeds, 4-6, 6-3, 10-6 in the final.  No. 5 seeds Michaela Kadleckova of Slovakia and Shavit Kimchi of Israel beat unseeded Jenna DeFalco and Hibah Shaikh 6-4, 6-1 to capture the girls doubles title.

Danielle Collins and Frances Tiafoe advanced to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open Sunday with wins over seeds.  Collins annihilated No. 2 seed and former champion Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-0, 6-2 in 56 minutes, with 29 winners against one of the best defenders in women's tennis. Two-time NCAA champion Collins, who will play unseeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia Tuesday, is the first college woman to reach the quarterfinals of a slam since Lisa Raymond made it that far in Australia in 2004.  For more on Collins' win, see this article from the Australian Open website.

On his 21st birthday, Frances Tiafoe defeated No. 20 seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 7-5, 7-6(6), 6-7(1), 7-5 to reach the quarterfinals of a major for the first time. Tiafoe, the 2015 Kalamazoo 18s champion, is the first Kalamazoo 18s champion to reach a slam quarterfinal since Michael Chang, who won Kalamazoo at age 15 in 1987 and the French Open two years later. For more on Tiafoe's win, see this AO website article.

Amanda Anisimova and Sloane Stephens lost their fourth round matches Sunday:

Petra Kvitova[8(CZE)] d. Amanda Anisimova 6-2, 6-1
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova(RUS) d. Sloane Stephens[5] 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-3
Danielle Collins d. Angelique Kerber[2](GER) 6-0, 6-2
Frances Tiafoe d. Grigor Dimitrov[20(BUL) 7-5, 7-6(6), 6-7(1), 7-5

Monday's fourth round matches featuring Americans:

Simona Halep[1](ROU) v Serena Williams[16]
Madison Keys[17] v Elina Svitolina[6](UKR)

At the Australian Open Junior Championships, four of the six US players in action Sunday advanced, with only No. 12 seed Tristan Boyer and lucky loser Sasha Wood suffering defeats.  No. 13 seed Emilio Nava, unseeded Zane Khan, No. 6 seed Lea Ma and unseeded Emma Navarro join Cannon Kingsley[9], Eliot Spizzirri[16] and Toby Kodat in Monday and Tuesday's second round. Six seeds lost in the first round, but none were among the top eight seeds.

Sekou Bangoura kept an impressive streak going for American men today. The former University of Florida star won the title at the $15,000 ITF World Tennis Tour in Naples Florida, becoming the fifth American to win a title in five tournaments held in the United States this month. The 27-year-old from Florida, seeded No. 4, defeated No. 3 seed Pedro Sakamoto of Brazil 7-6(6), 6-0 to join Marcos Giron, JJ Wolf, Brandon Holt and Govind Nanda in the winner's circle.

At the women's $25,000 WTT event in Daytona Beach, top seed Francoise Abanda of Canada fell in the final, with No. 6 seed Anna Bondar of Hungary claiming a  6-7(3), 7-6(5), 7-5 decision after more than three hours of play.

At the women's $25,000 WTT event in Guadeloupe, Quinn Gleason(Notre Dame) and Luisa Stefani(Pepperdine) of Brazil won the doubles title. The top seeds defeated unseeded Vladica Babic(Oklahoma State) of Montenegro and Rosalie Van Der Hoek of the Netherlands 7-5, 6-4 in the final.  No. 2 seed Urszula Radwanska won the singles title, beating No. 6 seed Ana Sofia Sanchez of Mexico 6-1, 2-6, 6-1 in today's final.

The draws for Les Petits As are out, with eight Americans, four boys and four girls, competing in Tarbes France.  Learner Tien is seeded No. 15, while Bolton semifinalist Kyle Kang, Cooper Williams and Joseph Phillips are unseeded.  Bolton semifinalist Katherine Hui is the No. 12 seed, while Kaitlyn Carnicella, who did not play Bolton, is seeded 11th. Qavia Lopez and Liv Hodve, who also did not play Bolton, are the other two US girls in the draw.  Clervie Ngounoue, who did play Bolton, is not in the draw, nor is Brenda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic, who beat Ngounoue in the Eddie Herr 14s final. (Correction: Brenda is in the draw). Brenda's older sister Linda is the top seed in the girls draw. The top seed in the boys draw is Bolton champion Alexander Blockx of Belgium.

Junior Orange Bowl 14s champion Melisa Ercan of Turkey, who was initially in qualifying when the entries were announced, did get into the main draw, but is not seeded. That's odd, because Bolton champion Victoria Mboko of Canada, who Ercan beat convincingly in the Junior Orange Bowl final, is the No. 5 seed.

Top eight girls seeds:
1. Linda Fruhvirtova(CZE)
2. Sofia Costoulas(BEL)
3. Maria Sara Popa(ROU)
4. Anastasiia Gureva(RUS)
5. Victoria Mboko(CAN)
6. Cadence Brace(CAN)
7. Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva(AND)
8. Kristyna Tomajkova(CZE)

Top eight boys seeds:
1. Alexander Blockx(BEL)
2. Branko Djuric(SRB)
3. Maxim Zhukov(RUS)
4. Mihai Alexandru Coman(ROU)
5. Yaroslav Demin(RUS)
6. Patrick Schoen(SUI)
7. Georg Eduard Israelan(GER)
8. Marc Majdandzik(GER)

Live scoring is available at Tennis Ticker.  Live streaming is available at the tournament website.

Unseeded Damm, Forbes Reach ITF G1 Finals in Costa Rica; Three US Boys Advance at Australian Open Junior Championships; College Dual Matches in Australia; US World Tennis Tour Update

Unseeded Americans Martin Damm and Abigail Forbes have advanced to their first ITF Grade 1 finals with victories Friday at the Coffee Bowl in Costa Rica.  The 15-year-old Damm, who has yet to drop a set this week, defeated unseeded Alex Martinez of Spain 6-4, 6-4 last night. The reigning Kalamazoo 16s champion will face top seed Shintaro Mochizuki of Japan, also 15, in tonight's final.

The 17-year-old Forbes, who has signed with UCLA for this fall, defeated No. 2 seed Gabby Price 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in yesterday's semifinals and will play unseeded 15-year-old Melodie Collard of Canada for the title. Collard derailed an all-US final by defeating No. 14 seed Charlotte Owensby 6-1, 6-7(0), 7-5.

Before the final, Damm will compete for the boys doubles title, with Will Grant. The No. 6 seeds will face No. 8 seeds Mochizuki and Spencer Whitaker later today.  Unseeded Jenna DeFalco and Hibbah Shaikh defeated top seeds Price and Argentina's Anna Geller in the semifinals and will play No. 5 seeds Michaela Kadleckova of Slovakia and Shavit Kimchi of Israel for the girls doubles title.

In the past there has been live streaming on the tournament website, but I haven't seen any this year.

The first day of the Australian Open Junior Championships resulted in three wins for the seven Americans in action.  No. 9 seed Cannon Kingsley, No. 16 seed Eliot Spizzirri and Toby Kodat advanced to the the second round, while Tyler Zink, Kacie Harvey, Chloe Beck and Kylie Collins lost their matches. Americans in first round action Sunday are Lea Ma[6], Emma Navarro, Sasha Wood, Tristan Boyer[12], Emilio Nava[13] and Zane Khan.

Doubles will begin today, with half the draw scheduled, including the team of Collins and Harvey and No. 7 seeds Boyer and Zink.  Kodat is playing with Gustaf Strom of Sweden and they are also on Sunday's schedule.  Rinky Hijikata of Australia and Otto Virtanen of Finland are the top boys seeds, with Sohyun Park of Korea and Hong Yi Cody Wong of Hong Kong the No. 1 seeds in the girls draw. Beck and Navarro are the No. 8 seeds and Kingsley and Nava are the No. 4 seeds.

Two US women advanced to the fourth round with wins Saturday:

Serena Williams[16] d. Dayana Yastremska(UKR) 6-2, 6-1
Madison Keys[17] d. Elise Mertens[12](BEL) 6-3, 6-2
Simona Halep[1](ROU) d. Venus Williams 6-2, 6-3

Sunday's fourth round matches featuring Americans:

Petra Kvitova[8(CZE)] v Amanda Anisimova
Sloane Stephens[5] v Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova(RUS)
Danielle Collins v Angelique Kerber[2](GER)
Frances Tiafoe v Grigor Dimitrov[20(BUL)

Division I college tennis dual match season is in full swing now, but not all of them are taking place on college campuses in the United States. Four teams are playing Monday at the Australia Open in a new initiative for college tennis. The University of Southern California's men's and women's teams and the University of South Carolina's men's and women's teams are in Melbourne for matches that will be broadcast on ESPN 3.  For more on this, see this release from the ITA.

There are two ITF World Tennis Tour events in Florida this week, with just one American in Sunday's finals.  At the W25 in Daytona Beach, No. 2 seed Grace Min lost 6-1, 6-1 today to No. 6 seed Anna Bondar of Hungary. Top seed Francois Abanda will play Bondar for the title.  Hailey Baptiste and Emina Bektas(Michigan) reached the doubles final, but lost today to No. 4 seeds Bondar and Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway 6-3, 5-7, 11-9.

At the M15 in Naples, Sekou Bangoura(Florida), the No. 4 seed, will face No. 3 seed Pedro Sakamoto of Brazil in the final. Bangoura defeated No. 7 seed Pietro Rondoni of Italy 7-6(2), 6-1 and Sakamota took out 18-year-old Nicolas Mejia of Colombia 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Strong Kirchheimer(Northwestern) and Julian Bradley(North Florida) of Ireland won the doubles title, beating Gonzalo Lama and Alejandro Tabilo of Chile 6-4, 6-2 in the final between two unseeded teams.

My Eight Intriguing Questions for 2019; Anisimova, Collins, Tiafoe, Stephens Advance to Australian Open Round of 16; Thirteen US Juniors in AO Junior Draws

Every January I come up with eight questions about college and junior tennis that I'm eager to have answered in the next 12 months. This year's Tennis Recruiting Network column looks at the impact of the ITF's World Tennis Tour, and that is no doubt the No. 1 question to be answered in 2019, but I was surprised how many times I referenced the USTA's role in the issues I'm interested in, from the heat rule, to the Les Petits As, to the NCAA Championships and elsewhere.

Friday was quite a day for young Americans at the Australian Open with 17-year-old Amanda Anisimova, 20-year-old Frances Tiafoe, and 25-year-olds Sloane Stephens and Danielle Collins posting third round victories. Only Taylor Fritz lost, with the 21-year-old Californian going out to defending champion Roger Federer 6-2, 7-5, 6-2.

Two-time NCAA champion Collins defeated No. 19 seed Caroline Garcia of France 6-3, 6-2, hitting 26 winners with just 11 unforced errors. For more on what Collins had to say after the match, see this article from the WTA website.

As impressive as Collins was in her win, the talk of the women's results Friday was Anisimova's 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 11 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus. The 2017 US Open girls champion also had an impressive winner to unforced error count at 21-9, and she faced only one break point in the match. Sabalenka was the trendy dark horse pick of many tennis pundits, but it was the teenager who looked more composed and focused throughout the match.  Anisimova is the first player born this century to reach the fourth round of a slam and is the first youngest American woman to advance that far in a slam since Serena Williams in 1998. For more on Anismova's win, see this WTA article.

The third American reaching the fourth round of a slam for the first time is Tiafoe, who came back to defeat Italian veteran Andreas Seppi 6-7(3), 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. For more on his win, see the ATP website.

Stephens, the 2017 US Open champion, is obviously at a different stage in her career than the other three, but she had struggled recently in Australia, with first round losses in three of the past four years. Stephens, the No. 5 seed, defeated No. 31 seed Petra Martic of Croatia 7-6(6), 7-6(5) Friday.

Saturday's third round matches featuring Americans:
Dayana Yastremska(UKR) v Serena Williams[16]
Elise Mertens[12](BEL) v Madison Keys[17]
Simona Halep[1](ROU) v Venus Williams

The Australian Open Junior Championships begin Saturday, with seven of the 13 Americans in the draw on the schedule.  Kacie Harvey, Chloe Beck and Kylie Collins are the girls playing Saturday, with Lea Ma[6], Emma Navarro and lucky loser Sasha Wood not scheduled. Cannon Kingsley[9], Eliot Spizzirri[16], Tyler Zink and Toby Kodat are the US boys on Saturday's schedule, with Tristan Boyer[12], Emilio Nava[13] and Zane Khan not scheduled.

The top seeds are the same as this week's Grade 1 in Traralgon: Clara Tauson of Denmark, who won the title there, and Lorenzo Musetti of Italy, who lost in the third round.  Traralgon boys champion Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic is not seeded.   Ma and boys No. 2 seed Bu Yunchaokete of China are among the players in the Australian Open draw who did not play in Traralgon.

Draws can be found here, with live scoring available on the Australian Open website.

Singles champions were crowned at the Tennis Europe Category 1 tournament in Bolton, with 12-year-old Victoria Mboko of Canada and 13-year-old Alexander Blockx of Belgium taking the titles. Mboko, the finalist at the Junior Orange Bowl 14s last month, defeated No. 5 seed Cadence Brace, also of Canada, 6-4, 6-3 in the final. Mboko did not drop a set all week.  Blockx, the top seed, also breezed through the draw, defeating No. 9 seed Antoine Ghibaudo of France 6-1, 6-2 in the final.

Attention now turns to Les Petits As in Tarbes France, where qualifying is already underway for next week's event.

Orange Bowl Videos; Tien and Phillips Win Bolton Doubles Title; Americans Advance to Semis in ITF Costa Rica G1; Three More US Women Advance to Third Round in Australia

The videos of the Orange Bowl finalists are processed, with those of the four champions below.  For the runners-up, click on their names below to go to the tenniskalamazoo YouTube channel.

Qinwen Zheng
Zane Khan
India Houghton
Dali Blanch

At Tennis Europe Category 1 in Bolton England, both unseeded Americans fell in the semifinals.  Katherine Hui lost to No. 5 seed Cadence Brace of Canada 6-3, 6-2 and Kyle Kang was beaten by top seed Alexander Blockx of Belgium 6-1, 6-3.  That ends the streak of US girls champions at four: Caty McNally, Alexa Noel, Coco Gauff and Katja Wiersholm.  Brace will play compatriot Victoria Mboko[2] of Canada in the final. Blockx's opponent in the final is No. 9 seed Antoine Ghibaudo of France, who beat No. 2 seed Luca Pow of Great Britain in three tiebreakers.

The US did pick up a title in the boys doubles, with unseeded Joseph Phillips and Learner Tien winning the championship today with a 6-2, 7-5 win over top seeds Blockx and Gilles Bailly. An unseeded team also won the girls doubles, with Zoe du Pasquier Jensen of Denmark and Sade Scharlin of Finland defeating Hui and Clervie Ngounoue[5] in the semifinals and No. 6 seeds Emma Jouy and Maelle Monfils of France 6-2, 6-1 in the finals.

At the ITF Grade 1 Coffee Bowl in Costa Rica, four Americans have advanced to the semifinals, with the possibility of another getting through in a quarterfinal match later tonight.  Martin Damm is the only US boy in the semifinals; the unseeded 15-year-old defeated No. 10 seed Alex Lee 6-3, 6-4 in today's quarterfinals.

Three US girls have moved into the semifinals, with Abigail Forbes set to take on No. 2 seed Gabby Price in the bottom half. In the top half, No. 14 seed Charlotte Owensby will face the winner of tonight's match between Melodie Collard of Canada and qualifier Rosie Garcia Gross.

Updated draws can be found at the tournament website.

All three Americans in the final round of Australian Open Junior Championships qualifying--Skyler Grishuk, Sasha Wood and Blaise Bicknell--lost Thursday. The complete qualifying draws are finally available at the ITF Junior Circuit's website.

Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Madison Keys advanced to the third round of the Australian Open with wins Thursday. Below are Thursday's results and Friday's matches for Americans.

Thursday's second round:
Simona Halep[1](ROU) d. Sonya Kenin 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4
Serena Williams[16] d. Eugenie Bouchard(CAN) 6-2, 6-2
Venus Williams d. Alize Cornet(FRA) 6-3, 4-6, 6-0
Karolina Pliskova[7](CZE) d. Madison Brengle 4-6, 6-1, 6-0
Madison Keys[17] d. Anastasia Potapova(RUS) 6-3, 6-4

Daniil Medvedev[15](RUS) d. Ryan Harrison 6-3, 6-3, 6-3

Friday’s third round:
Taylor Fritz v Roger Federer[3](SUI)
Amanda Anisimova v Aryna Sabalenka[11](BLR)
Sloane Stephens[5] v Petra Martic[31](CRO)
Danielle Collins v Caroline Garcia[19](FRA)
Frances Tiafoe v Andreas Seppi(ITA)