Wimbledon Junior Draws; Keys Reaches Third Round at Wimbledon; Scholl Signs with Duke

The Wimbledon Junior championships begin Saturday, and unlike the other junior slams, who wait until the qualifying is complete, the draws are already out, without the qualifiers placed.  As expected, Switzerland's Belinda Bencic, the  ITF's top-ranked girl, and Australia's Thanasi Kokkinakis, the boys finalist at this year's Australian Open, received wild cards, with the full list below.

GIRLS:
Belinda Bencic (SUI)
Karin Kennel (SUI)
Isabelle Wallace (GBR)
Lana Rush (GBR)
Anna Brogan (GBR)
Gabriella Taylor (GBR)
Freya Christie (GBR)
Maia Lumsden (GBR)

BOYS:
Alexander Sendegeya (GBR)
Evan Hoyt (GBR)
Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS)
Thomas Colautti (GBR)
Samm Butler (GBR)
Peter Ashley (GBR)
Billy Harris (GBR)
Joshua Sapwell (GBR)

The seeds:

GIRLS:
1. Belinda Bencic (SUI)
2. Ana Konjuh (CRO)
3. Katerina Sinakova (CZE)
4. Barbora Krejcikova (CZE)
5. Taylor Townsend (USA)
6. Elise Mertens (BEL)
7. Katy Dunne (GBR)
8. Ching-Wen Hsu (TPE)
9. Carol Zhao (CAN)
10. Camila Giangreco Campiz (PAR)
11. Karin Kennel (SUI)
12. Anhelina Kalinina (UKR)
13. Anett Kontaveit (EST)
14. Nina Stojanovic (SRB)
15. Louisa Chirico (USA)
16. Ipek Soylu (TUR)

BOYS:
1. Nick Kyrgios (AUS)
2. Nikola Miljevic (SRB)
3. Alexander Zverev (GER)
4. Laslo Djere (SRB)
5. Kyle Edmund (GBR)
6. Gianluigi Quinzi (ITA)
7. Christian Garin (CHI)
8. Borna Coric (CRO)
9. Fillipo Baldi (ITA)
10. Johan Tatlot (FRA)
11. Pedro Cachin (ARG)
12. Maxime Hamou (FRA)
13. Clement Geens (BEL)
14. Guillermo Nunez (CHI)
15. Frederico Silva (POR)
16. Wayne Montgomery (RSA)

None of the four American boys in the main draw are seeded, and only one drew a seed for their first round opponent.  Luca Corinteli plays No. 10 seed Johan Tatlot of France, Spencer Papa plays Hyeon Chung of Korea, Noah Rubin drew Great Britain's Luke Bambridge and Stefan Kozlov faces wild card Joshua Sapwell, also of Great Britain.

Taylor Townsend, the No. 5 seed, has drawn Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus, who is in the final at Roehampton, so obviously playing well right now.  No. 15 seed Louisa Chirico plays Helen Ploskina of Ukraine, who is ranked just a few spots behind her.  Jamie Loeb has drawn Viktoriya Lushkova, also of Ukraine, and Johnnise Renaud will play Anastasia Komardina of Russia in an all-lefty battle.

Due to the late afternoon rain, not all the boys qualifying matches were completed, but Martin Redlicki did advance to the second and final round.  In the girls qualifying, Katrine Steffensen and Dasha Ivanova won their opening matches; Tornado Alicia Black and Mira Ruder-Hook lost in their first round qualifying matches.

All the Americans are out at the Roehampton Grade 1, with No. 3 seed Townsend losing to Bencic 7-5, 6-2 in the singles semifinals. She is no doubt happy to be in the opposite half of the Wimbledon draw from Bencic, who has beaten her twice this month.  Loeb and Black lost in the doubles semifinals to No. 2 seeds Bencic and Petra Uberalova 6-1, 6-3.  No. 6 seeds Rubin and his partner Clement Geens of Belgium lost to No. 4 seeds Nicolas Jarry of Chile and Frederico Silva of Portugal 6-3, 5-7, 10-8 in the boys semifinals.

For the draws and orders of play for both Roehampton and the Wimbledon qualifying, see the LTA home page.

The US men had a historically bad performance at Wimbledon this year, with none of them making the third round for the first time since 1912, when no one played the tournament.  Denis Kudla, James Blake and Bobby Reynolds all went out in straight sets, Reynolds closing out the rainy evening under the Centre Court roof against top seed Novak Djokovic.  It was up to the US women to provide victories, with top seed Serena Williams and 18-year-old Madison Keys providing victories. Keys was again impressive, beating No. 30 seed Mona Barthel of Germany 6-4, 6-2 with no drama and no fuss.  For more on the Americans in action Thursday, see this article from Greg Garber of espn.com.

There was big news on the college front today was Duke's announcement that Chalena Scholl would be joining them for the upcoming school year.  Scholl is currently the top-ranked blue chip in the Tennis Recruiting Network's class of 2013.  Scholl, who has not played any junior tournaments this year, reached the final of a $25,000 Pro Circuit tournament last month in Raleigh, NC.  She is a French Open and Orange Bowl quarterfinalist who has been as high as No. 8 in the ITF junior world rankings.  For comments from Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth and Scholl, see this article from the Duke athletic website.