Scholl Wins 10K in Jamaica; Siegel, Crawford Win Titles at Evert ITF

Chalena Scholl has spent the past three weeks in Jamaica, where the ITF Women's Circuit has featured a trio of $10,000 events, and today Scholl ended her Caribbean swing with her first ITF women's title. Without a WTA ranking (that will change Monday, when her third result is added to the computers), Scholl was in qualifying for the first two Montego Bay tournaments, losing in the second round of the main draw each time, to the Czech Republic's Katerina Kramperova and fellow Floridian Kelsey Laurente. This week she received direct entry and the 16-year-old beat the No. 1, No. 4 and No. 2 seeds, the latter being Kramperova in the final, 6-2, 6-2.



Scholl and her partner Elizabeth Ferris reached the doubles final, where they were beaten by Laurente and Chanelle Van Nguyen 6-2, 6-4. Laurente and Van Nguyen, both from Florida, will be heading to the West Coast for college next year, with Laurente committing to Pepperdine and Van Nguyen to UCLA. It is the first Pro Circuit doubles title for either of the girls, who reached the semifinals at the Pan American Closed ITF junior tournament last month in Tulsa.

At the $10,000 ITF Women's Circuit event in Colombia, former Baylor All-American Lenka Broosova won her second title of the year, defeating unseeded US junior Nadia Echeverria Alam 6-3, 6-2 in the final. The fifth-seeded Slovakian had also won a $10,000 event back in August, in Bolivia, and also on clay.

Due to its location in the center of a several important Florida tennis communities, the Evert ITF in Boca Raton often draws a strong field despite its Level 4 designation, and this year the girls draw would certainly qualify for that description.



The top two seeds were on their home courts, with No. 1 Samantha Crawford, who trains with the USTA there, and No. 2 Jennifer Brady, who is at Evert's Academy on the same property, meeting in the final. Crawford won 7-6(4), 6-3, giving the 16-year-old her second ITF junior title of the year.


The boys title went to No. 2 seed Austin Siegel, who recently committed to the University of Louisville. The 17-year-old New Yorker defeated unseeded 14-year-old Seong Chan Hong of Korea 6-3, 6-1. (Hong won the Junior Orange Bowl 12s title in 2009).

The boys doubles championship went to No. 3 seeds Jordi Arconada of Argentina and Yifan Dang of China, who beat No. 6 seeds Alp Horoz of Turkey and Florin Bogdan Radu of Canada 6-2, 3-6, 10-8.

Eighth seeds Olivia Hauger of the US and Petra Uberalova of Slovakia won the girls doubles title, beating 13-year-olds Tornado Ali Black and Nicole Frenkel 2-6, 6-4, 11-9.

This is the last ITF event in the US until the Eddie Herr, and with only 2 Grade 5s scheduled on the entire world junior circuit calendar next week, I guess this is what you'd call the off-season for junior tennis.