Australian Junior Qualifying Draws Out; Florida Women Beat USTA National Team; Sock vs. Fratangelo for USTA Weston WC; Teen Tennis Update

The qualifying draws for the Australian Open Junior Championships have been posted on the ITF junior website, and it was just a few days ago that I realized that Australia is the only junior slam to have a 64-draw in the qualifying. The other three all have 32 draws. They didn't fill their 64 spots, and as I mentioned a few days ago, a player didn't need an ITF ranking to get in qualifying. There are two American girls playing in the qualifying that I'm unfamiliar with, Stephanie Hazell and Miriam Lane. Neither has so much as a birth date in the ITF junior system, but I've linked to their Tennis Recruiting Network accounts. There are three American boys in qualifying: Emmett Egger, Mac Styslinger and Shane Vinsant, who is the No. 2 seed in qualifying and has bye.

Marcia Frost is in Australia and is filing reports on collegeandjuniortennis.com. Her first report is available at that site, and she mentions the possibility of going to the junior qualifying site, which is not in Melbourne Park.

At the Loy Yang in Traralgon, another player I'm not familiar with, Andres Artunedo Martinavarr of Spain, won the boys title. George Morgan of Great Britain and Mate Pavic of Croatia won the boys doubles, with Monica Puig of Puerto Rico and Eugenie Bouchard of Canada taking the girls title. Complete draws can be found at the Tennis Australia site.

After beating the Miami women on Tuesday, the USTA National team went north to Gainesville to take on Florida, and the Gators came out on top this time 5-2. I was not at the match, but the scores are as follows.

Lauren Embree and Joanna Mather (FLA) def. Lauren Herring and Taylor Townsend 8-4
Vicky Duval and Krista Hardebeck def. Alex Cercone and Caroline Hitimana (FLA) 8-5
Olivia Janowicz and Sofie Oyen (FLA) def. Samantha Crawford and Caroline Doyle 8-6

Hardebeck def. Janowicz 6-2, 6-2
Mather def. Vickery 6-2, 6-3
Oyen def. Herring 6-3, 6-0
Cercone def. Duval 6-3, 2-6, 10-8
Hitimana def. Crawford 6-4, 6-1
Townsend def. Brittany Borsanyi 6-3, 6-4
Mia King def. Borsanyi 8-3

I will be at the USTA Training Center in Boca Raton tomorrow when the USTA Boys National Team plays its first match of the season, which is against the University of Alabama. The juniors scheduled to compete are: Jack Sock, Bjorn Fratangelo, Nathan Pasha, Alexios Halebian, Thai Kwiatkowski, Nikko Madregallejo, Spencer Papa and Casey Kay. The Alabama players participating can be found in this article from rolltide.com.

But prior to that match, Jack Sock and Bjorn Fratangelo will play for the USTA's wild card into the upcoming Futures event in Weston. I will also be a that match, scheduled for 8:30 a.m.

At the Aegon International Teen Tennis tournament in England, three U.S. boys have reached the semifinals, and No. 9 seed Henrik Wiersholm will play No. 14 seed Francis Tiafoe in one of them. In the other, defending champion and No. 3 seed Stefan Kozlov will play No. 8 seed Domagoj Biljesko of Croatia. Wiersholm and Kozlov are in the doubles final. In the girls draw, the top four seeds advanced to the semifinals, with No. 4 seed Julia O'Loughlin of the U.S. the only American to win of the four who played in today's quarterfinals. O'Loughlin and Nicole Frenkel lost in the doubles semifinals today. For complete draws, see the LTA website.