Roehampton Grade 1 Begins Sunday; Austin and Rubin Reach Finals in Baton Rouge and Tulsa; US Open National Playoffs Update

The extremely short junior grass court season begins on Sunday with the ITF Grade 1 in Roehampton, held at the Bank of England Sports Grounds, also the site of Wimbledon men's and women's qualifying.

Three of the top four seeds are US boys: ITF World junior No. 1 Taylor Fritz, No. 3 seed Michael Mmoh and No. 4 seed Tommy Paul.  William Blumberg is the No. 8 seed and Reilly Opelka is the No. 16 seed. The seeding for the Wimbledon juniors is likely to be similar, although current No. 5 Seong Chan Hong of Korea is not in Roehampton but is on the Wimbledon entry list. The other American boys in the draw are Nathan Ponwith, Emil Reinberg and Ulises Blanch.  Catalin Mateas lost in qualifying. 

Apparently there was a mistake by the ITF in the first boys draw, with the No. 13 seed, Argentina's Manuel Pena Lopez, left out of the field.  He was added, and the draw was redone, with the lucky loser vacating the place he was given in the first draw.

There are also eight US players in the girls draw, with No. 8 Sonya Kenin and No. 16 seed Caroline Dolehide the only American seeds.  Raveena Kinglsey drew ITF World No. 1 Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic in the first round, after losing to Vondrousova in the first round at Roehampton last year.  Kingsley also lost to Vondrousova in the first round of the French Open this year. Kayla Day, Francesca Di Lorenzo, Claire Liu, Ingrid Neel and Tornado Alicia Black, who qualified, are the other US girls in the draw. Usue Arconada, who lost in the semifinals of the Baton Rouge $25,000 tournament today, is playing Wimbledon Juniors but not Roehampton.

At the $15,000 Tulsa Futures, Noah Rubin defeated No. 2 seed Tennys Sandgren 7-6(5), 6-4 to reach his fourth career Futures final, but his first as a professional, having announced he would not return to Wake Forest for his sophomore year.  Rubin, who failed to serve out the match at 5-3 in the second but broke for the win, hopes to secure his first Futures title against top seed Darian King of Barbados.  King beat former Cal Poly star Andre Dome, the No. 8 seed, 6-4, 6-4 in Saturday's other semifinal. Dome did secure a winner's trophy however, teaming with Jean-Yves Aubone to take the doubles final 6-3, 7-6(6) over TCU teammates Nick Chappell and Will Stein.

Rain in Rochester, New York has caused that $10,000 Futures' semifinals to be pushed to Sunday.  Eighteen-year-old Alex Rybakov, seeded fifth, will play top seed Emilio Gomez, the former USC star in one semifinal, while No. 2 seed Sekou Bangoura will play qualifier Dominic Cotrone. Cotrone, who played at Florida State before transferring to South Florida, defeated former Virginia standout Michael Shabaz in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4.

In the women's Pro Circuit event in Baton Rouge, 19-year-old qualifier Brooke Austin has reached her first final at the $25,000 level, defeating No. 4 seed Samantha Crawford 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 in today's semifinal.  Austin will play Danielle Lao in the final, with the former USC star also in her first final at the $25,000 level.  Lao, who beat Usue Arconada 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals today, defeated Austin in the second round of the $25,000 tournament in Sumter last week 7-6(2), 6-3.

The Sectional Qualifying for the US Open National Playoffs wrapped up today with the completion of the Southern and Texas Sectional playoffs.  The results are below. I had already posted the results for those below the dashed line, but wanted to include them all in one place. Articles on those tournaments completed prior to today can be found at the US Open website, as can links to the complete draws for all events.  I'm not vouching for the accuracy of all of the articles however, as I don't think Southern Cal winner Megan McCray is a rising junior at Oklahoma and Florida winner Terrell Whitehurst's name is given as Whitehouse in the headline.

Grantland posted a humorous article by a writer who competed against Red Foo in the Northern California section's tournament.

Texas:
Women’s Singles: Ashley Weinhold
Men’s Singles: Josh Hagar
Mixed Doubles: Neil Kenner and Karina Traxler
Women’s Doubles: Liga Dekmeijere and Traxler
Men’s Doubles: Joshua Sheehy and Parker Wynn
   
Southern:
Women’s Singles: Kaitlyn McCarthy
Men’s Singles: Jesse Witten
Mixed Doubles: Richard Doverspike and Caroline Price
Women’s Doubles: Maya Jansen and Erin Routliffe
Men’s Doubles: Vahid Mirzadeh and Witten

New England:
Women’s Singles: Emma Davis
Men’s Singles: Hleb Maslau
Mixed Doubles: Maslau and Simona Weymar
Women’s Doubles: Carole Finke and Ree Ree Li
Men’s Doubles: Maslau and Daniel Sotomarino

Northern California:
Women’s Singles: Paige Cline
Men’s Singles: Victor Pham
Mixed Doubles: Lester Cook and Ayaka Okuno
Women’s Doubles: Yasmin Schnack and Katsiaryna Zheltova
Men’s Doubles: Brett Bacharach and Michael Meyer

Florida:
Women’s Singles: Yukako Noi
Men’s Singles: Terrell Whitehurst
Mixed Doubles: Vahid Mirzadeh and Amy Sergeant
Women’s Doubles: Lauren Proctor and Miranda Talbert
Men’s Doubles: Richard Doverspike and Korey Lovett

Northern:
Women’s Singles: Alexis Nelson
Men’s Singles: Felix Corwin
Mixed Doubles: Tony Larson and Nelson
Women’s Doubles: Jessie Aney and Nelson
Men’s Doubles: Jackson Allen and Toby Boyer
       
Middle States:
Women’s Singles: Jennifer Elie
Men’s Singles: Matija Pecotic
Mixed Doubles: Andrei Daescu and Anda Perianu
Women’s Doubles: Rima Asatrian and Katharine Fahey
Men’s Doubles: Ashley Fischer and Nathan Healey

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Midwest:
Women’s Singles: Sara Daavettila
Men’s Singles: Martin Joyce
Mixed Doubles: Tyler Faulkner and Simone Jardim
Women’s Doubles: Daavettila and Alyvia Jones
Men’s Doubles: Charlie Emhardt and Jeffrey B. Schorsch

Southern Cal:
Women’s Singles: Megan McCray
Men’s Singles: Henry Craig
Mixed Doubles: Danielle Lao and Jonny Wang
Women’s Doubles: Lorraine Guillermo and Lao
Men’s Doubles: Haythem Abid and Joel Kielbowicz (Kielbowicz also won men’s singles & mixed doubles in Southwest section competition)

Eastern:
Women’s Singles: Julia Elbaba
Men’s Singles: Nikita Kryvonos
Mixed Doubles: Rima Asatrian and Ilia Shatashvili
Women’s Doubles: Magda Okruashvili and Ketevan Okruashvili
Men’s Doubles: Daniel M. Cochrane and Phillip Simmonds

Southwest:
Women’s Singles: Jacqueline Cako
Men’s Singles: Joel Kielbowicz
Mixed Doubles: Cako and Kielbowicz
Women’s Doubles: Savannah Slaysman and Allie Sanford
Men’s Doubles: Ben Newell and Zachary Newell

Intermountain:
Women’s Singles: Gail Brodsky
Men’s Singles: Chris Wettengel
Mixed Doubles: Brodsky and Brian Wilson
Women’s Doubles: Jacqueline Cako and Keri Wong
Men’s Doubles: Jordan Kerr and Travis Parrott

Missouri Valley:
Women’s Singles: Sophie Chang
Men’s Singles: Dusty Boyer
Mixed Doubles: Boyer and Julia Schiller
Women’s Doubles: Katherine Cao and Jaci Cochrane
Men’s Doubles: Julio Peralta and Matt Seeberger

Mid-Atlantic:
Women’s Singles: Nika Kukharchuk
Men’s Singles: Mikelis Libietis
Mixed Doubles: Sydney Rider and Matt Stillwagon
Women’s Doubles: Lizzie Baker and Mackenzie Clark
Men’s Doubles: Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese