Roland Garros Junior Championships Qualifying Begins Thursday; US Open National Playoffs Update

The qualifying draws are out for the junior championships at Roland Garros, which start Thursday and will finish Friday, leaving a day off between for the qualifiers before the start of play in the main draw Sunday.

The only US player in qualifying is Martin Redlicki, who is the No. 4 seed. He will play Jay Andrijic of Australia in the opening round.

The Thursday start for qualifying makes it difficult for juniors who are playing in the Grade 1 warmup tournament in Belgium this week, with a bunch of walkovers and odd scores from those who deemed French qualifying more important.  Katrine Steffensen of the US was in the acceptance list in qualifying, but she advanced to the quarterfinals in Belgium today, and is not in the qualifying draw, so she must have elected to forego Paris.  Louisa Chirico of the US is also not in the qualifying draw, but she may have received one of the two special exemptions into the French main draw based on her ranking, as she also has reached the quarterfinals in Belgium. Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine should be the other player in the Belgium quarters who received a special exemption into the French main draw. To follow the results from the Astrid Bowl, the Grade 1 in Belgium, see the tournament website.

Ken Onishi of Japan is likely receiving one of the two boys special exemptions, as he is in the Astrid Bowl quarterfinals and not in the French qualifying. Evan Hoyt of Great Britain may also receive one if he moved into the qualifying after the freeze deadline; he is currently still showing as an alternate (as is Onishi), but Luke Bambridge and Lucas Miedler appear to have moved into the main draw, leaving Redlicki, with a ranking of 48, outside the cutoff, which is an extraordinary number.  Last year the cutoff was 76.

The US Open National Playoffs are underway, with the Southwest Section and Florida Section the first to determine their entrants for the National Playoff, to be held at the Yale Open August 16-19.  Sixteen-year-old Robert Seby won the men's tournament in the Southwest, while former Arizona State All-American and current New Mexico assistant women's coach Kelcy McKenna won the women's tournament and the mixed tournament, with former Boise State Bronco Stephen Robertson.  The usta.com article on the Southwest finals is here.

The Florida section playoffs were completed last week, with former Texas A&M All-American Jeff Dadamo taking the men's singles tournament and Florida State senior Amy Sargeant taking the women's singles tournament. Jesse and Sarah Witten, both former Kentucky Wildcats, won the mixed doubles. USTA's coverage of the Florida tournament is here.

The Southern section's tournament is nearing its conclusion, with the Middle Atlantic section's tournament beginning Saturday.  Entries are still open for the remaining nine tournaments, with applications closing Thursday for the Eastern section's always  popular tournament, due to its location at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, and Friday for the Southern California section's tournament at the Claremont Club.

For more information on the upcoming dates and locations, as well as links to register, click here.