American 12-and-Under Teams Win Coupe Le Blanc; Corley and Johns Claim ITF Titles in Mexico and St. Vincent; Austin, Lovett Take ITA Summer Championships

Owensby, Gauff, Mayo and Kittay
photo courtesy Gary Kittay

Coupe Le Blanc, a competition for 12-and-under players annually in Quebec, Canada is one of the biggest international tournaments of the year for that age group, but it often gets lost in the shuffle of the USTA National Championships and the ITF's World Junior Tennis 14U team competition in the Czech Republic, also held in August.

Unlike the 14U teams, only two players make up a country's team, and this year the USA was represented by girls Cori Gauff and Charlotte Owensby and boys Aidan Mayo and Benjamin Kittay.  As was the case in both 2013 and 2014, the US finished first in both competitions.

Gauff and Owensby defeated Canada 3-0 in Monday's final, while Kittay and Mayo took out Brazil 2-0, with the final match not played due to travel considerations.

The results from yesterday's finals are below:

Cori Gauff (USA) defeated  Daria Tomashevskaya(CAN)  6-2, 0-6, 6-1

Charlotte Owensby (USA) defeated Mélodie Collard(CAN) 6-4, 6-2

Gauff/Owensby (USA) defeated Collard/Tomashevskaya (CAN) 8-2

Aidan Mayo (USA) defeated Pedro Boscardin (BRA) walkover

Benjamin Kittay (USA) defeated João Victor Couto (BRA) 6-1, 6-4

Mayo/Kittay (USA) defeated Boscardin/Couto (BRA) 8-6

Richard Ashby of the USTA coached both teams.

For a complete list of all the countries and players who participated, see the tournament website. Under the history tab, you can see the players who have taken part in the competition, dating back to 2007.

In ITF Junior tournaments last week, four US players collected titles. At the Grade 5 in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, 14-year-old Garrett Johns won his first ITF title, as a qualifier.  The only set Johns lost in his seven victories came in the final, where he defeated unseeded Andrew Rozanov of Great Britain 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.  The top-seeded US team of Kianah Motosono and Zoe Spence won the doubles title, beating Isis Gill of the US and Kiana Marshall of Barbados, the No. 2 seeds, 4-6, 6-3, 10-3.

At the Grade 4 in Mexico, unseeded Paris Corley won her first ITF singles title, with the 17-year-old from Mexico beating the No. 3 seed in the second round and the top seed in the semifinals.  In the final, Corley defeated No. 4 seed Alexia Coutino Castillo of Mexico 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.

Another event I am not able to follow as closely as I would like given its place on the calendar is the ITA Summer Championships in Bloomington, Indiana.  The prize on the line there is a wild card into the All-American Championships this fall, but this year's women's winner, Brooke Austin, will not need hers after finishing her freshman year at Florida ranked fourth in the country. Austin didn't drop a set in her six victories, beating Maddie Lipp of Northwestern(9) 6-1, 6-3 in the final. Alabama's Korey Lovett(9) defeated Jeffrey Schorsch(9) of Valparaiso 7-5, 1-6, 10-7 to take the men's singles title.

Links to the final results and draws can be found at the Indiana website.