Top Seeds Advance to Finals In Junior Davis and Fed Cups; Juniors Rule at Ameila Island; Dennis vs. Denis In Laguna Niguel 10K Final

The teams are set for the finals of the Junior Davis and Junior Fed Cup championships, with the top two seeds in both deciding the title.

Top Junior Fed Cup top seeds Australia beat the fifth-seeded Czech Republic team 2-1, with Wimbledon girls champion Ashleigh Barty winning her singles and teaming with Belinda Woolcock to take the doubles point after Woolcock had lost in singles. The fact that Canada, the No. 2 seed, has made the final has to be painful for the US team that beat them in North American qualifying, but credit to Canada for getting to the final without any wins from their star Francoise Abanda, who didn't play the first three ties and lost in her singles match today. Carol Zhao and Erin Routliffe have been terrific all week, and today they won the doubles point from No. 3 seeds Italy 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 to put them in the final. If you missed my post earlier this week, the USTA decided not to send their girls team due to US State Department travel advisories, and Canada took their place in the competition.

In the Junior Davis Cup, Great Britain, the top seed, beat No. 6 France 3-0, with Evan Hoyt and Kyle Edmund continuing to dominate, although Hoyt did have to come back from a set down against former Les Petits As champion Quentin Halys. No. 2 seeds Italy took out surprising South Africa, which wasn't seeded in the top eight, 2-0 with straight-set wins from Gianluigi Quinzi and Stefano Napolitano. Quinzi, who is 15, was on the Italian team that made the ITF U14 World Tennis championships final last August, losing to Chile.

According to this story from the ITF junior site, Great Britain beat Italy in the final of the European Summer Cup this year on the strength of a win in the deciding doubles match. A link to the complete results can be found at the end of that story.

When it finishes on Sunday, the $10,000 Pro Circuit event in Amelia Island will have produced a second champion from the junior ranks. Unseeded Allie Kiick will face unseeded Chalena Scholl for the title in singles, while Jennifer Brady and Kendall Woodard have won the doubles championship. In today's semifinals, the 16-year-old Kiick beat 23-year-old Tereza Hladikova of the Czech Republic 6-7(3), 7-5, 7-6(4), with Scholl, also 16, reaching the final based on her 6-4, 6-0 win over 22-year-old Frederica Grazioso. In the doubles final, Brady, 16, and Woodard, 17, beat Erin Clark and Xin Wen 5-7, 6-1, 10-7. Brady and Woodard were semifinalists at the Easter Bowl this year. Woodard had reached the final in doubles at Amelia Island last year, playing with Alexandra Haney.

At the $10,000 Futures in Laguna Niguel, California, top seed Denis Kudla will meet unseeded Dennis Lajola for the title. Lajola, who completed his eligibility for the University of Hawaii this spring, received a special exemption into the draw this week, after reaching the semifinals in Costa Mesa last week. Kudla, who has yet to lose more than four games in a set, beat unseeded Takanyi Garanganga 6-4, 6-3, while Lajola took out qualifier Sanam Singh 6-2, 6-3.

In Las Vegas, Alexa Glatch gives the US a chance for three singles titles in the week's three Pro Circuit tournaments when she takes on top seed Romina Oprandi of Italy at the $50,000 tournament. For more on today's action in Las Vegas, see this story from Steve Pratt.

The qualifying for the $100,000 Sacramento Challenger has begun, with Steve Johnson defeating top seed Raven Klaasen of South Africa 6-1, 6-2 and Rhyne Williams advancing over Kevin Kim in two tiebreakers.

The qualifying draws for next week's $50,000 Kansas City women's challenger and $10,000 Williamsburg tournament are available at the Pro Circuit results page at usta.com.