Saville Reaches Second Junior Slam Final, Plays Broady for Boys Wimbledon Crown; Buffalo 10K Semis Feature Four US Teens; Tournament Tips

For the second consecutive year, an Australian boy has reached the Wimbledon junior final, but unlike Ben Mitchell, who lost to Hungary's Marton Fucsovics last year, Luke Saville has experience in a grand slam final. The 17-year-old was runner-up in his own country's junior slam back in January, and he is no doubt hoping his opponent tomorrow, Great Britain's Liam Broady, suffers the same fate in his first junior slam singles final, as Saville did when he was the home favorite.

In today's semifinals, neither boy faced too much stress, with Saville taking out unseeded Kaichi Uchida of Japan 6-4, 6-1, and Broady easing past an out-of-sorts Jason Kubler of Australia, also unseeded, 6-4, 6-3. Broady, the No. 15 seed, who has won 11 straight singles matches on grass the past two weeks, is also still in doubles, and on Saturday, he will first play the final against No. 16 seed Saville on Court 1, and then play the semifinals with Filip Horansky of Slovakia in the doubles. Broady and Horansky, the No. 4 seeds, will face No. 2 seed George Morgan of Great Britain and Mate Pavic of Croatia.

For more on the boys final, see wimbledon.com.

The girls quarterfinals saw the end of the American junior hopes for a Wimbledon singles title, with No. 16 seed Vicky Duval falling to No. 12 seed Ashleigh Barty of Australia 6-3, 6-2. The match took only 58 minutes, and nearly a quarter of that time was in fourth game of the first set, when Duval was trying to hold on to her break, leading 2-1. Duval saved 5 break points, but Barty took the sixth, and from there the young Australian provided few chances for Duval, and didn't surrender another break of serve after losing the first game of the match. Barty will play Roehampton champion Indy De Vroome of the Netherlands in Saturday's semifinal, a clash of two of the most promising 15-year-olds in the world. The unseeded De Vroome beat 2010 US Open girls finalist Yulia Putintseva of Russia 6-3, 6-1, a performance that drew praise from Andy Murray's mother Judy, who is a development coach in Scotland.

No. 3 seed Irina Khromacheva had a surprisingly easy time with No. 5 seed Eugenie Bouchard of Canada, taking their quarterfinal 6-2, 6-2, and the 16-year-old Russian will face No. 2 seed Caroline Garcia of France in the other girls semifinal Saturday. Garcia had the one nail-biter of the day, defeating No. 6 seed Montserrat Gonzalez of Paraguay 6-1, 6-7(2), 8-6. I don't see any articles on Wimbledon.com on the girls semifinals, but the ITF junior website daily article has some quotes from De Vroome.

The US does have one junior still vying for a Wimbledon title, with Grace Min in the girls doubles semifinals. Min and her partner Bouchard, the No. 2 seeds, will play unseeded Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil and Mayya Katsitadze of Russia on Saturday.

For complete draws, see wimbledon.com.

In the $10,000 Pro Circuit women's event in Buffalo, four American teens have advanced to the semifinals. Unseeded Danielle Collins will play No. 5 seed Nicole Gibbs in one semifinal, and unseeded Robin Anderson faces No. 2 seed Lauren Davis in the other. For draws and results, see the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.

My weekly piece for the Tennis Recruiting Network is a summer rerun, but it's been years since the Twelve Tips for a Better Tournament Experience was first published on the site, so with all the summer tournaments in the next couple of months, it's an appropriate refresher.