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Monday, March 24, 2014

Bourguignon Wins ITF Grade 3 Costa Rica Bowl; Eleven US Juniors Competing In Brazil Grade A This Week; Junior Fed and Davis Cups Return to Mexico


Two young Americans won Pro Circuit titles over the weekend, with Grace Min and Marcos Giron capturing champioships at $25,000 and $15,000 tournaments in the United States, but US ITF junior results outside the country were mixed last week.

Madison Bourguignon won her second ITF title of the month, following up her win at the Grade 4 in Guatemala with another at the Grade 3 Costa Rica Bowl.  Bourguignon, the No. 3 seed, defeated Great Britain's Anna Brogan 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 in the final. Brogan was the only girl from outside the US to make the quarterfinals.  Brogan did collect the doubles title, partnering Gabriella Pollner of the US. In the final, the unseeded team defeated Bourguignon and Rafaella Baquerizo of Ecuador, the No. 1 seeds, in a walkover.

Walker Duncan had the best showing of the US boys in Costa Rica, with the Georgia recruit reaching the semifinals in singles and winning the doubles title with Emil Reinberg of the US.  Duncan and Reinberg, unseeded, beat No. 2 seeds Runhao Hua of China and Stephen Madonia of the US 6-2, 7-6(1) in the final.  No. 2 seed Luis Valero of Colombia won the boys singles title, 6-3, 6-2 over No. 3 seed Hua.

At the two Grade 1s--the Banana Bowl in Brazil, and the Mitsubishi-Lancer International in Philippines--there were no US winners in singles or doubles. Raveena Kingsley reached the semifinals in singles, losing to eventual champion Gloria Liang of Canada. Liang, the No. 14 seed, defeated No. 3 seed Kimberly Birrell of Australia 6-2, 7-5 in the final. No. 4 seed Ku Keon Kang of Korea won the boys title, beating unseeded Rhett Purcell of Great Britain 6-3, 6-4.

In Brazil, Orlando Luz continued his outstanding play, earning his second consecutive sweep of Grade 1 titles.  The 16-year-old Brazilian, seeded No. 8, defeated doubles partner and No. 7 seed Joao Menezes, also of Brazil, 6-3, 7-5 in the final. It was Luz's tenth consecutive straight-set win in Grade 1 competition this month. Luz and Menezes, the No. 2 seeds, won the doubles title with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over unseeded Naoki Nakagawa of Japan and Lautaro Pane of Argentina.

No. 13 seed Aliona Bolsova Zadoinov of Spain won her first Grade 1 title, with the 16-year-old defeating No. 9 seed Renata Zarazua of Mexico 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 in the final. Zarazua won the doubles title, with Luisa Stefani of Brazil.

This week's major ITF junior tournament is indeed a major, with the
Campeonato Internacional in Porto Alegre Brazil the first Grade A of the year.   Four US boys and seven US girls are in the draw: Ulises Blance, Henrik Wiersholm(14), Alex Rybakov(13), Myles Schalet, Nicole Frenkel, Usue Arconada(8), Olivia Hauger(16), Dasha Ivanova(10), Sofia Kenin(4), Madison Bourguignon and Raquel Pedraza(15).   The top seeds in the girls draw are Fanny Stollar of Hungary and Fiona Ferro of France. The top two seeds in the boys draw are Quentin Halys and Johan Sebastien Tatlot of France.

The California ITF circuit has begun with the Grade 4 in Claremont, California this week. As expected, Taylor Fritz withdrew after reaching the quarterfinals at the Calabasas Futures, so there are no ITF Top 100 players in the field. The boys top seed is Harrison Scott of Canada, and the girls top seed is Ellyse Hamlin of the US. 

The ITF announced today that the ITF Junior Fed and Junior Davis Cup, the 16-and-under international team competition will be in San Luis Potosi Mexico again this year. In 2012, the competition was in Barcelona, but it has been in San Luis Potosi for six of the last seven years now.  Because the host country gets an automatic bid, this limits the North American qualifying tournament to just one team berth in the final, meaning only the US or Canada, traditionally the strongest two countries, can advance.

7 comments:

Stephen said...

Colette,

This is off-topic, but I was wondering if the 2007 NCAA semi-finalists might end up being the best ever. Isner is now Top-10 in the world, Anderson is #18, Devvarman is at 76 now, but has been as high as 62, and Levine reached as high as 69 when he wasn't injured.

That's a pretty impressive group by NCAA standards.

It's also amazing that Isner is now the top-ranked American, Anderson is the highest-ranked player in the whole continent of Africa, and Devvarman is the highest ranked player in India.

Colette Lewis said...

@Stephen:
The fourth semifinalist wasn't Levine. He lost in the quarterfinals to Alex Slovic of Washington

Alaska said...

Stephen

I would think the players from the 80s/70s who have actually won Grand Slams would be considered the best ever. Stan Smith, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors played in college.

Jay Berger got to Top 10 in the World and played number 3 at Clemson. Do not forget all the Stanford players, like David Wheaton and Tim Mayotte who were Top 10. Mikael Pernfors, Steve Denton, Kevin Curren were Top 10. There were plenty of players in the Top 50 in the world during those times.

It is always tough to say best ever for a certain generation but if you are going just on ranking, I would research the college players in the 70s and 80s and their best pro ranking before making a "best ever" comment.

College Fan said...

Isner and Klahn are now the top 2 Americans in the ATP rankings. When the next release comes out, two four year college guys will the best Americans.

I wonder when the last time we could say that.

Sure, it would have been nice for Klahn to win a match during March to take the spot as Querrey continues to struggle, but BK's done more than anyone else in the past year.

Go College Tennis!

College Fan said...

Alaska and Stephen,

You almost have to break college tennis into two eras. The time where basically everyone went to college prior to the pro tour: Smith, McEnroe, Connors, Ashe, etc. and more recent times when the top American juniors typically do not go to college.

How about call it the Before Al Parker era and the After Al Parker (AAP) era. He was probably the last top junior to go to college, while Agassi, Courier and Sampras turned pro.

In the AAP era, 2007 probably is the best year for singles guys. While Levine lost in the quarters, it was his only loss of the year.

Interesting that the two best American college guys in the AAP era, Isner and Blake both lost in the finals of the NCAA singles.

Colette Lewis said...

@College Fan
I would put Todd Martin in the Isner and Blake AAP group, probably at the top of it.

College Fan said...

Good point Colette. I forgot Martin.