All-American Girls Final at Grade 2 in Canada; Kypson Replaces Ross on Junior Davis Cup; USTA Junior Boys Lose to Cal; Pro Circuit Update

The singles finals are set for the ITF Grade 2 in Montreal, Canada with a US champion a certainty in the girls draw.  All eight girls quarterfinalists were American, and in today's semifinals, top seed Maria Mateas defeated No. 3 seed Abby Altick 6-3, 6-3 and unseeded Jessica Livianu, who had beaten No. 2 seed Kariann Pierre-Louis in the quarterfinals, downed No. 4 seed Morgan Coppoc 2-6, 6-0, 6-3. It is the 17-year-old Livianu's first ITF final; Mateas won a Grade 3 title in Bolivia last fall.

The boys final will feature two 16-year-old Canadians, after all three remaining Americans fell in the quarterfinals.  Top seed Jack Mingjie Lin will play unseeded Alexis Galarneau for the title. Galarneau defeated Lin in their previous ITF junior meeting last year at a Grade 4 in Costa Rica.

The girls doubles final was also an all-American contest, with unseeded Safiya Carrington and Pierre-Louis defeating No. 4 seeds Carson Branstine and Taylor Johnson 6-3, 6-2.  The boys doubles champions are No. 2 seeds Lin and Joshua Peck, also of Canada, who beat Alafia Ayeni and Caleb Chakravarthi 5-7, 6-3, 10-5 in the final.

Patrick Kypson, who lost in the quarterfinals this week in Canada, has been named to the USA's Junior Davis Cup team to replace Gianni Ross. Ross is unable to travel to Madrid due to an illness.

The Porsche Napa tournament, which combines college players and a USTA team of juniors in a round robin event, is this weekend, and the tradition of the juniors playing Cal prior to the tournament continued. This year Cal won all six singles matches and three of the four doubles matches played.  Complete results are available at the Cal website.

At the $50,000 Columbus Challenger, seven of the eight quarterfinalists are American: Tim Smyczek(1), Sekou Bangoura, Ryan Harrison(4), Alex Kuznetsov, Bjorn Fratangelo(3), Dennis Novikov(8) and Chase Buchanan. Unseeded Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland plays Harrison Friday in the only mixed country match.

The United States is not as well represented in the $75,000 women's event in Albuquerque, with three quarterfinalists: Vania King, Anna Tatishvili(2) and wild card Julia Boserup advancing. King defeated No. 6 seed Alexa Glatch 0-6, 6-4, 7-5, Tatishvili beat Sanaz Marand 6-0, 6-3 and Boserup downing No. 8 seed Maria Sanchez 6-3, 6-3. Julia Jones fell to Naomi Broady of Great Britain 6-1, 7-6(7), while Robin Anderson lost to top seed An-Sophie Mestach of Belgium 6-4, 6-4. All three US women are in the bottom half, with Boserup and Tatishvili playing in the quarterfinals.

At the $15,000 Futures in Canada, three US men are through to the quarterfinals: Noah Rubin, Jared Hitzik and Winston Lin. No. 6 seed Rubin defeated Sami Reinwein of Germany 7-6(4), 6-2; No. 7 seed Hiltzik beat Raymond Sarmiento 6-2, 6-4 and the unseeded Lin downed Nicolas Podesta 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.  Lin and Hiltzik will play in the quarterfinals.  Top seed Frank Dancevic is going for his fourth straight Futures title this month in his home country.

Eighteen-year-old Alejandro Tabilo of Canada, a regular on the ITF Junior Circuit, received a wild card and has used it to earn his first quarterfinal appearance in a Futures tournament. Tabilo defeated lucky loser Alexander Centenari 7-6(5), 6-4 in today's second round.

The match between top seed Marcos Giron and Ernesto Escobedo is not yet complete today at the $10,000 Costa Mesa Futures, but six Americans are already through to the quarterfinals: Deiton Baughman(2), Wil Spencer(6), Jean-Yves Aubone(7), Junior Ore, Collin Altamirano and Ryan Shane.  Wild card Shane defeated Mackenzie McDonald, last week's finalist at the Claremont Futures, 6-4, 7-5.