Top Four Seeds in Both Junior Fed and Junior Davis Cup Advance to Saturday's Semifinals: Riviera All-American PreQualifying Draw; McCall Jones Feature
After some surprising upsets in the first two days of action at the Junior Fed Cup and Junior Davis Cup in San Luis Potosi Mexico, the expected teams advanced to Saturday's semifinals. Junior Davis Cup top seed France, which was shut out by Latvia on Tuesday, earned a spot in the semifinals by beating No. 8 seed China today. Argentina also finished 2-1 in the A Group, but France had a head-to-head win over Argentina on Wednesday and that decides a two-way tie. No. 2 seed Canada lost today to No. 7 seed Australia, but Canada advanced to the semifinals because in a three-way tie (South Africa was also 2-1), head-to-head isn't relevant, and with a 7-2 matches won tally, they beat out Australia and South Africa, who were 5-4. No. 3 seed Japan and No. 4 seed Great Britain did not lose a match in their respective groups, but there is certainly no clear favorite among the four teams remaining. With Australia bowing out today, there will be a new Junior Davis Cup champion on Sunday. Great Britain was runner-up last year. Japan plays France and Great Britain takes on Canada in the semifinals.
In the Junior Fed Cup, the fourth-seeded United States girls have been the most impressive team, winning all of their ties by 3-0 scores. They are the only undefeated team in Mexico as of tonight. On Saturday, they will play No. 1 seed China, who got by unseeded Belarus by winning two tiebreakers in the clinching doubles point.
No. 3 seed Ukraine squeezed by No. 6 Uzbekistan 2-1, winning the doubles point in three sets. Ukraine's Elina Svitolina, the French Open girls champion, was beaten in her singles match today by Sabina Sharapova, who lost, badly, to Brooke Austin in the first round of the U.S. Open juniors a few weeks ago. Ukraine will play No. 2 seed Russia, the defending Junior Fed Cup champions, who beat Australia 2-1, winning both singles matches.
For more on today's action, see the ITF junior website.
The prequalifying draws for the ITA Women's Riviera All-American are up at the ITA tournament website. Many of the top freshman in the country are in prequalifying, including Penn's Connie Hsu, Georgia's Lilly Kimbell, Florida's Alex Cercone and Sophie Oyen, USC's Kaitlyn Christian and UCLA's Courtney Dolehide.
Speaking of UCLA, in addition to Dolehide, the Bruins have a new player in BYU transfer McCall Jones. The UCLA website has this story explaining why she left Brigham Young and how she ended up at UCLA, which was initially her second choice. The scholarship that Jones took is not spelled out in the story, but Stephanie Hoffpauir, a freshman last season, is not on the roster for this school year. Jones is in the pre-qualifying for doubles and the qualifying for singles of the All-American.
2 comments:
Hoffpauir left to try out the pro tour so I would assume that is the spot Jones is taking
Supposedly Hoffpauir turned pro, but she didn't play at all this summer. Rumors have her at UCI and will be on the roster by the dual season.
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