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Sunday, May 9, 2010

Bolender, Austin Win Plantation ITF; French Acceptances; Sarasota Challenger; Other Pro Circuit Notes

Brooke Bolender won her second consecutive title this weekend in Plantation, Fla., claiming the ITF Grade 4 singles title a week after winning the singles and doubles titles in Naples. Bolender, the second seed, beat unseeded Jennifer Brady 6-4, 6-3 in the final. The girls doubles title went to Spencer Liang and Amanda Lin, who beat another unseeded U.S. team, Mara Schmidt and Alexandra Tachovsky, 6-3, 6-7(5), 10-6. Top seed Gonzales Austin won the boys title, defeating unseeded Luke Bambridge of Great Britain 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the final. It is Austin's second ITF title; he captured the South Carolina Grade 2 ITF last November. The top-seeded Canadian team of Filip Peliwo and David Vieyra won the boys doubles. For complete draws, see the ITF junior website.

The third and final ITF Grade 4 in Florida is in Daytona Beach, where qualifying is already underway.

The acceptances for the French Junior Championships have been posted on the ITF junior website, and as usual, the fields are excellent, with the cutoffs in the 40s for both boys and girls. The U.S. girls who have been accepted into the main draw are: Monica Puig (Puerto Rico), Beatrice Capra, Lauren Davis, Sloane Stephens, Ester Goldfeld and Christina McHale. Entered in qualifying are: Monica Turewicz, Chanelle Van Nguyen, Grace Min and Robin Anderson. The U.S. boys in the main draw are: Denis Kudla, Mitchell Frank, Junior Ore, Raymond Sarmiento, Nick Chappell and Andrea Collarini. The boys listed in qualifying are: Dennis Novikov, who lost in the Grade 2 final in Italy today, Dane Webb and Bjorn Fratangelo.

Although top ITF junior Kristina Mladenovic isn't defending her girls title this year, Sweden's Daniel Berta, who won the boys title at Roland Garros last year, is taking a shot at another junior slam. Marton Fucsovics of Hungary and Bernard Tomic of Australia are the only top 10 boys not entered. Four Top 10 girls are missing: Mladenovic, Heather Watson, Sachie Ishizu, and Yulia Putintseva, but six girls received direct admission to the main draw based on their WTA rankings, which must be 350 or better, including McHale, whose 166 ranking is the best of the six.

Shelby Rogers lost in today's final in the $50,000 Indian Harbour Beach tournament, falling to top seed Edina Gallovits of Romania 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. The South Carolina teen actually led 2-0 in the final set, but lost three straight games to make it 3-2 Gallovits. Serving at 4-5 in the final set, Rogers double faulted at 30-40 to give Gallovits the win. As a qualifier, Rogers had won seven matches before losing the final set today.

The men's Sarasota Challenger is up next, and Mic Huber of the Sarasota Herald Tribune talked with Ridley Seguso and his family, which now includes infant sister Lennon Shy, after his qualifying match. For some reason 12 of the 32 spots in the qualifying were wild cards, with Seguso being one of them. He lost in the first round.

There is a Futures event in Tampa this week for the men, while the women move north to Raleigh, NC, for a $50,000 tournament. Draws can be found at the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.

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