Pro Circuit and ITF Junior Update

I'll begin my onsite coverage of the USTA Girls 18s Clay Courts on Monday, which began today with the first round of singles and doubles. The seeded players and teams will see their first action Monday, and the draws are available here at the TennisLink site. Before I turn my focus to that event, I wanted to catch up on the week's Pro Circuit and ITF Junior results of note.

At the $50,000 Women's Tournament in Yakima, Washington, two unseeded US teens reached the final, with Shelby Rogers defeating Samantha Crawford 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-3 for her first ITF women's circuit singles title. The 19-year-old Rogers beat top seed Irina Pavlovic of France in the quarterfinals, and the 17-year-old Crawford beat No. 2 seed Madison Brengle in the same round.  Crawford did go home with a title, however, teaming with Madison Keys to take the doubles championship with a 6-3, 2-6, 12-10 win over Yi-Fan Xu and Yi-Miao Zhou of China.

At the men's $10,000 Futures in Rochester, NY, Great Britain's Alex Bogdanovic won his second straight Futures tournament, beating No. 7 seed Chase Buchanan 6-3, 6-4 in today's final. Bogdanovic, the top seed, won the Pittsburgh Futures last week, beating Buchanan in the semifinals there. Ohio State's Buchanan, the 2012 NCAA doubles champion won the doubles title in Rochester today, with 2010 NCAA doubles champion Drew Courtney of the University of Virginia. Buchanan and Courtney, the No. 3 seeds, beat No. 2 seed Sekou Bangoura and Vahid Mirzadeh 6-3, 6-0 in Sunday's final.

This week the men are at a $50,000 Challenger in Binghamton, New York, and a $10,000 Futures in Joplin, Mo., while the women's Pro Circuit event is a $10,000 tournament in Evansville, Ind. See the Pro Circuit page at usta.com for draws. That link will also provide information on the US Open wild card that will be decided by the results at several of this month's Pro Circuit events, much as the French Open wild cards were decided.

In the ITF Junior events, there were two Grade 1s last week, one in Germany and one in Morocco. Two Germans won the Berlin Grade 1, Antonia Lottner and Maximilian Marterer. Jordi Arconada and Katrine Steffensen were the only US juniors in that draw, and they lost in the first and second rounds respectively.

In Morocco, Christina Makarova of the US, who suffered a broken wrist in Belgium and returned to action for the first time at Wimbledon, reached the final as the No. 2 seed. She was beaten in the final by No. 5 seed Ioana Ducu of Romania 7-6(2), 6-1.  No. 5 seed Clement Geens of Belgium won the boys title, beating top seed Franko Miocic of Croatia 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-2 in the final.

Fifteen-year-old Dasha Ivanova of the US collected her second consecutive ITF title in Western Canada, winning the Grade 4 this week in Vancouver after taking the Grade 5 last week in Edmonton. Ivanova, the top seed, beat No. 2 seed Charlotte Petrick of Canada 7-6(4), 6-1 in the final.  Ivanova and Petrick also won the doubles title.