ITF Grade A Underway in Milan; Di Lorenzo, Blumberg Win Plantation Grade 4 Titles; Pro Circuit Update; West Florida Men, Barry Women Win D-II Championships
Before the start of the Division I semifinals today in Athens, I'll try to catch up on some of the other junior and Pro Circuit news I've missed the past five days.
But before recapping those results, a look ahead to this week's Grade A Trofeo Bonfiglo in Milan, one of the biggest junior tournaments of the year outside the junior slams.
The American girls in the main draw are Tornado Alicia Black, the No. 2 seed, CiCi Bellis, the No. 7 seed, Michaela Gordon, Jessica Ho and Dasha Ivanova, the latter three already out in the first round of singles today.
The American boys in the main draw are lucky loser Walker Duncan, Alex Rybakov, Michael Mmoh, the No. 4 seed, qualifer Dennis Uspensy and Logan Smith, who lost today.
Live scoring for the tournament is available here.
Last week at the Grade 1 in Santa Croce, Bellis, seeded third, reached the final, losing to No. 2 seed Darya Kasatkina of Russia 6-4, 6-1. Bellis picked up enough points to enter the ITF Top 10 at the No. 8 position, and at age 15, she is its youngest member.
Smith had the best showing among American boys, reaching the quarterfinals, and with that result entered the ITF Top 50 for the first time. Japan's Naoki Nakagawa, who won the ITF Grade 1 in Carson last month, won the boys title, defeating Joao Menezes of Brazil 6-3, 7-5 in the final.
Here in the US, the third of three ITF Grade 4s in Florida concluded over the weekend, with Francesca Di Lorenzo and William Blumberg taking the titles in two all-American finals in Plantation.
Di Lorenzo, the No. 9 seed, ripped through the draw, never giving up more than three games in any set, and she defeated top seed Mia Horvit 6-1 6-1 in the final to win her first ITF title.
Blumberg, the top seed, beat No. 4 seed Alfredo Perez 6-4, 6-4 in the final, giving him four ITF singles titles.
Perez and Trent Bryde beat Blumberg and Patrick Kypson, the No. 8 seeds, 3-6, 7-6(4), 10-5 to win the doubles championship. The girls doubles title went to top seeds Horvit and Jenna Friedel, who defeated No. 5 seeds Dominique Schaefer and Sofia Sewing 6-3, 4-6, 10-6 in the final.
At the El Salvador Grade 4, top seed Abi Altick beat No. 3 seed Claudia Wiktorin, also of the US 6-1, 6-1 for the title. Wiktorin won the doubles with Karla Portalatin of the Dominican Republic.
At the Tampa $10,000 Futures, No. 4 seed Bjorn Fratangelo, the 2011 French Open boys champion, beat No. 3 seed Christian Garin of Chile, the 2013 French Open boys champion, 6-2, 6-3 in the final. It's Fratangelo's fourth Futures title, all on clay. No. 4 seeds Nicolas Jarry of Chile and Tiago Lopes of Brazil won the doubles title, beating No. 3 seeds Fratangelo and Mitchell Krueger 7-5, 6-1 in the final.
American Evan Song swept the Futures titles in Israel, the first two titles of his career. The third-seeded Song defeated No. 4 seed Yannick Jankovits of France 6-2, 1-6, 7-5 in the singles final, and teamed with Sam Barry of Ireland for the doubles title.
At the Bordeaux Challenger, two-time NCAA singles champion Steve Johnson reached the final, losing to top seed Julien Benneteau of France 6-3, 6-2. At the Heilbron Challenger Germans Andre Begemann(Pepperdine) and Tim Puetz(Auburn) won the doubles title playing together for the first tim. Begemann, 48th in the ATP doubles rankings, will be playing with Robin Haase of the Netherlands at the ATP tournament this week in Nice and at Roland Garros according to this Tennis Panorama article.
The Division II men's and women's championships are over, with the West Florida men and the Barry women taking the titles in exciting matches Saturday in Altamonte Springs, Florida.
For more on West Florida's 5-3 win over Hawaii-Pacific, see this article.
For more on Barry's 5-4 victory over Armstrong Atlantic, see this article.
6 comments:
7 AMERICAN BOYS IN THE QUALIFIER FOR THE GRADE A AND ONLY ONE BOY MADE IT THROUGH?????
Colette, the American boys are doing terrible on Red clay, when is the USTA going to realize that they need to spend some $ on building a few red clay courts in this country?
Amerian Boys?
CHILL OUT!! Those boys are not even close to being America's best juniors. Are Tiafoe, Kozlov, Wiersholm, Rubin, Baughman, etc playing? NO. Only Top American junior there are Michael Mmoh and Alex Rybakov.
Those boys in qualifying barely go far at Kalamazoo.
I agree that red clay courts should replace 100% of green clay in this country. Green clay is a bluff for training, it is not even close to the same service as red clay.
Colette
Why is a Semifinal Team match of NCAA championship played on the side courts?
I understand two matches are going on at the same time BUT both matches should be played on the stadium court. They deserve that honor.
It's a shame and awful scheduling by the committee.
What fantasy world do you folks live it where kids even play on green clay? All we have is hard.
Nowadays I guess you can call Florida a fantasy world.
Red Clay- the young boys are playing a 10k in Europe on red clay. Taylor Fritz has qualied both weeks. USA had three boys all born 1998 in the top 5 in the world. Better than any nation. I would say the future is looking up for boys in America.
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