Wimbledon Resumes Monday; Loeb, Rola Sweep Pro Circuit Titles; Kerznerman and Gould Win Bahamas Grade 4

It's middle Sunday at Wimbledon, and it was an odd day of weather, with sun, rain, wind, and skies both clear and cloudy. I spotted several locals in winter clothing on the first day of July.  If the weather forecasts are to be believed, it will be even worse throughout the week, but getting half the junior singles draw played on Saturday will ease the pressure that the weatherman is currently applying a bit.

I plan to watch as much as I can of the ten US juniors scheduled to play their first round matches Monday, but with that many, I probably won't see any match from start to finish. Roehampton finalist Carol Zhao of Canada against No. 13 seed Allie Kiick is intriguing, but I wonder how much I'll be able to see of top seed Taylor Townsend, who is playing Maria Constanza Vega of Argentina on court 8, which has only a dozen or so benches and spectators usually standing three and four deep as they wait for the show court action to begin. In addition to Kiick and Townsend, Chalena Scholl(10), Jennifer Brady, Christina Makarova, Kyle McPhillips and qualifier Catherine Harrison are scheduled for first round matches on the girls side.  Noah Rubin(14) and qualifiers Stefan Kozlov and Thai Kwiatkowski are the US boys playing first round matches Monday.

Monday's order of play is available at the Wimbledon website, which, bless their hearts, also has two junior first round stories available. This one is a review that leads with an account of two-time 2012 junior slam finalist Filip Peliwo's match, and this one wraps up the British juniors lackluster day (but has the score wrong in the Edmund - Krueger paragraph, as Edmund won the first set and lost the second in the tiebreaker).

In the Pro Circuit finals played in the US, 17-year-old Jamie Loeb won her first event(s) on the professional circuit, taking the singles and doubles titles at the $10,000 tournament in Buffalo, while Blaz Rola, the Ohio State All-American who just completed his sophomore year, swept the titles at the $10,000 Futures tournament in Innisbrook, Florida.

Loeb, playing in only her second Pro Circuit event, received a wild card into the singles draw and beat No. 4 seed Jacqueline Cako and No. 2 seed Alexis King in the quarterfinals and semifinals before defeating 14-year-old qualifier Tornado Ali Black 7-6(5), 6-2 in today's final. Loeb teamed with Nika Kukharchuk of Russia to win the doubles. The unseeded pair defeated the second-seeded team of Fatma Al Nabhani of Oman and Cako 1-6, 6-3, 10-8. For the complete draws, see the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.


Rola breezed through the draw unseeded, beating top seed Greg Jones of Australia and No. 3 seed Alex Bogdanovic of Great Britain en route to the final. Rola never lost more than four games in a set, defeating unseeded Luis Martinez of Venezuela 6-2, 6-1 in the final. Rola and Chase Buchanan, the 2012 NCAA doubles champions, won their first doubles title on the professional circuit, never needing a match tiebreaker in their four victories. The No. 4 seeds defeated No. 3 seed  Keith-Patrick Crowley and Josh Zavala 6-4, 6-2 in the final.  Complete draws are at the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.

Both tournaments on the Pro Circuit this week are $50,000 Challengers. The men are in Winnetka and the women are in Denver and qualifying is underway in both.

At the ITF Junior Circuit Grade 4 in the Bahamas, top seed Dan Kerznerman won his second straight Grade 4 tournament, beating unseeded Danny Farzin Amiri, also of the US, 6-1, 6-3 in the final. Unseeded Mariana Gould of the US took the girls title, her first in ITF junior play, beating top seed Valeria Salazar of Mexico 7-5, 6-3 in the championship match.  Nicolas Jarry of the US teamed with Juan Marino of Colombia to win the boys doubles and Dasha Ivanova of the US won the girls doubles with Yolimar Ogando of Puerto Rico.