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Sunday, July 9, 2017

Dadaciu Wins Grade 2 in Netherlands; Hilderbrand, Zein Earn Grade 3 Titles in Canada; Han, Blake Sweep Grade 4s in Bahamas; Harrison Wins Another Futures Title in Wichita

With no play today at Wimbledon, there's time to catch up on what's been happening on the ITF Junior Circuit away from the grass courts of Southwest London. Americans have claimed five singles titles in this week's tournaments (not including Claire Liu's win at Roehampton), with Sabina Dadaciu breaking through for her highest level title at the Grade 2 in the Netherlands.


The 16-year-old from Florida had been in something of a drought after winning two ITF junior singles titles back in 2015, both level 5s. Playing mostly Grade 1 and 2s, Dadaciu made a semifinal appearance at a Romanian Grade 2 in April, but had lost in the first round in two recent Grade 2s on European clay. That slump is over now, with the unseeded Dadaciu reaching the final without losing a set, and beating an in-form Margaryta Bilokin of Ukraine, the No. 7 seed, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 to earn the title.

William Grant also reached the final in the same Grade 2, but the No. 15 seed lost there to unseeded Titouan Droguet of France 7-5, 6-7(4), 7-5.  Grant did earn the doubles title, with Lorenzo Musetti of Italy, with the No. 4 seeds beating No. 2 seeds Igor Gimenez and Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida of Brazil 6-3, 7-5.

Americans won all the titles available at the Grade 3 in Canada and the Grade 4 in the Bahamas. No. 2 seed Trey Hilderbrand beat unseeded Brandon Nakashima in the Vancouver final 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 for his fifth ITF junior singles title, having won two Grade 4s earlier this year and the Austin Texas Grade 5s in both 2015 and 2016.  No. 6 seed Marlee Zein won the girls singles title, beating No. 4 seed Dalayna Hewitt 6-4, 7-6(5) in the final. That's back-to-back titles for the 17-year-old Zein, who won the Grade 5 last week in Edmonton.

The unseeded team of Diego and Emilio Nava, who are brothers, won the doubles title, beating No. 2 seeds Jaycer Lyeons and Joshua Bode 6-3, 6-7(3), 10-8 in the final.  The girls doubles title in Vancouver went to top seeds Hewitt and Peyton Stearns, who beat the unseeded team of Ivana Corley and Zein 7-6(5), 6-1 in the final.

In the Bahamas, Nathan Han won both the singles and doubles titles, as he had done last month at the Grade 4 in Guatemala.  Seeded No. 4 in singles, the 16-year-old beat No. 3 seed Keenan Mayo 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-0 in the final.  In doubles, Han and Pierce Rollins, the No. 2 seeds, won the title with a 3-6, 6-1, 10-7 victory over unseeded Kemal Karagozoglu of Turkey and Sebastian Murillo.

Sixteen-year-old Angelica Blake won both girls titles, capturing the doubles title with Kylie Collins. The No. 4 seeds beat the unseeded Canadian team of Jada and Mya Bui 6-0, 6-4 in the final.  Blake, seeded No. 5, took the singles title with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over top seed Niluka Madurawe.

Doubles at the Wimbledon Junior Championships don't begin until Tuesday, but the draws are out.  The top seeded team in the boys draw is Yibing Wu of China and Zsombor Piros of Hungary.  Trent Bryde and Alafia Ayeni are the No. 6 seeds, and Gianni Ross, playing with Brazil's Thiago Seyboth Wild, is part of the fifth-seeded team.  Top seeds in the girls draw are Roehampton champions Carson Branstine of Canada and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine. Roehampton finalists Claire Liu and Taylor Johnson are the No. 2 seeds, and Caty McNally and Whitney Osuigwe are seeded fourth.  Kayla Day, playing with Great Britain's Katie Swan, is seeded third, and Ellie Douglas, playing with Colombia's Emiliana Arango, is seeded eighth.

At the $25,000 Futures in Wichita Kansas, No. 2 seed Christian Harrison defeated top seed Michael Mmoh 1-6, 6-2, 7-5 to claim his second consecutive USTA Pro Circuit title, doubling his career total in the span of two weeks.  Top seeds Luke Bambridge of Great Britain and David O'Hare of Ireland won the doubles title, beating unseeded Nathan Ponwith and Harrison Richmond 6-0, 6-3 in the final.

No. 4 seed Filip Peliwo of Canada won the $25,000 Futures in Saskatoon Canada, with the 2012 boys Wimbledon champion taking out No. 3 seed Marcos Giron 7-6(7), 6-7(5), 6-1.  It's Peliwo's sixth Futures singles title of the year. The doubles championship went to Alex Sarkissian and Alexios Halebian, the No. 2 seeds, who beat the unseeded team of Peliwo and Ronnie Schneider 6-3, 7-6(0) in the final.

The only USTA Pro Circuit event this coming week is the $75,000 Winnetka Challenger, where Tennys Sandgren and Taylor Fritz are the top two seeds.  The final round of qualifying is Monday, with six first round main draw matches also on the schedule.

The women's event attracting most of the Americans this coming week is a $25,000 ITF Pro Circuit tournament in Winnipeg Canada, with Nicole Gibbs, Danielle Collins and Caroline Dolehide on the entry list.

1 comments:

Water Finds It's Level said...

Dennis Nevolo, Illinois Alum, takes out Valpo Alum, Jeffrey Schorsch 0,5 at the Winnetka Challenger Qualifier