Coppejans, Uberalova Win European Championships; Kudla Wins Lexington Challenger; USTA National 18s Team Championships Underway

I'll have more on the two winners of the ITF B1 European Closed champions in my July Aces, which will be out Wednesday at the Tennis Recruiting Network, but I wanted to post a bit about all of the European Championships tonight. Top seed Kimmer Coppejans of Belgium, the Roland Garros boys champion,  won the 18s in Switzerland, defeating No. 2 seed Frederico Silva of Portugal 6-2, 6-3, and took over the top spot in the ITF Junior rankings from Wimbledon boys champion Filip Peliwo of Canada. Petra Uberalova of Slovakia, the No. 4 seed, won the girls 18s title, beating unseeded Basak Eraydin of Turkey 6-3, 6-2.  For more on the 18s, including links to full draws, see the Tennis Europe site.

The 16s were held in Moscow, with No. 12 seed Lucas Miedler of Austria taking the boys title and unseeded Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain taking the girls title. Fifteen-year-old Sorribes Tormo was a runner-up last year, so that probably wasn't the upset it seems, and she had not played a junior event all year until this one, playing only ITF women's circuit events and winning a $10K in March.  For more on the 16s tournament, see this article at the Tennis Europe site.

The 14s championships, held in the Czech Republic, went to Mikael Yemer of Sweden, the No. 3 seed, and top seed Olga Fridman of Ukraine. Fridman, who is the first girl from Ukraine to win the 14-and-under championship, has had an impressive year, with this her fourth grade 1 win so far.  According to this article at Tennis Europe, the boys final was moved indoors due to heavy rain, but it should be noted that all the European Championships are played on clay.

I'll also have more on the winners of this week's $10,000 events on the Pro Circuit in the upcoming Aces column, with Julia Elbaba and Jason Jung getting their first titles in New Orleans and Godfrey, Ill. respectively.  Denis Kudla won his first Challenger title last week in Lexington, and he is now tied for the lead in the race for the US Open wild card with Michael Yani, who won the Binghamton Challenger. Yani and Kudla are both playing the $100,000 Challenger in Vancouver this week, but Yani has already lost, with wild card Bradley Klahn taking their first round match 4-6, 6-0, 7-6(5). Kudla is playing Peter Polansky of Canada in his first round match, probably Tuesday. There is one other tournament left on the men's side, the Aptos Challenger next week, so the wild card is still very much up for grabs.  On the women's side, Vancouver is the last tournament, and although Shelby Rogers is in the lead, she lost today in qualifying to Jacqueline Cako, so Madison Keys, who received entry into the main draw and is seeded No. 8 and controls her own destiny now. Keys' first round opponent is Canadian junior Carol Zhao, who received a wild card. Center court matches in Vancouver are being streamed live, for free, on usta.com.

The USTA 18s National Team Championships are held the week leading up to the National Championships, and this year the boys are again in Champaign, Ill., while the girls are at Claremont, Calif. Unfortunately, the TennisLink site makes it extremely difficult to follow the action or even figure out the draw, but the girls site does post a quick overview on its TennisLink home page. Southern California is the top seed.  The boys TennisLink home page is here. They started Saturday and should finish Tuesday, the girls started today and should finish Thursday.