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Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Osuigwe Opens ITF Junior Masters with Win; Li Ends Townsend's Streak, Kratzer Ousts No. 2 Seed in Macon; Di Lorenzo Gets First Top 100 Victory; Adamovic Moves to Basketball at Oklahoma State

The first day of round robin play at the ITF Junior Masters in China ended with Americans going 1-2.  Top seed and ITF World No. 1 Whitney Osuigwe defeated Maria Carle of Argentina 6-2, 6-4, while Sofia Sewing, also in Osuigwe's group, fell to Russia's Elena Rybakina 6-2, 6-1.  Trent Bryde, the only US boy in the field, lost his first round match to Hsu Yu Hsiou of Taiwan 6-3, 6-1.  There were not many close matches on the first day, but No. 2 seed Axel Geller of Argentina, the Stanford freshman, lost one, to Sebastian Baez, also of Argentina.  Wednesday's results are below.  The ITF Junior website has quotes from Osuigwe in its article on the girls, and the article on the boys matches mentions a 142 mph serve by Geller. The girls article also mentions that the reason for Taylor Johnson's withdrawal was a shoulder injury. A link to live scoring is available on the ITF home page; live streaming should be available Friday.

Group Liang:
Whitney Osuigwe[1](USA) def. Maria Carle(ARG) 6-2, 6-4
Elena Rybakina(RUS) def. Sofia Sewing(USA) 6-2, 6-1


Group Li:
Marta Kostyuk[2](UKR) def. Wang Xin Yu(CHN) 6-1, 6-0
Kaja Juvan(SLO) Maria Osorio Serrano(COL) 6-0, 6-1

Group Shuai:
Wu Yibing[1](CHN) def. Marko Miladinovic(SRB) 6-4, 6-3
Emil Ruusuvuori(FIN) def. Jurij Rodionov(AUT) 6-0, 6-2

Group Yong:
Sebastian Baez(ARG) def. Axel Geller[2](ARG) 7-6(3), 7-6(4)
Hsu Yu Hsiou(TPE) def. Trent Bryde(USA) 6-3, 6-1


This week's USTA Pro Circuit features just one tournament, the $80,000 Women's event in Macon Georgia, which is the first of three tournaments that will decide the USTA's Australian Open wild card.  Seventeen-year-old qualifier Ann Li got the biggest win in her limited pro experience, beating No. 7 seed Taylor Townsend 3-6, 7-6(2), 7-5.  The LSU recruit, who reached the Wimbledon girls final this year, served for the match at 5-3, had a match point with Townsend serving at 4-5 but didn't convert. She held for 6-5 and broke at 15-40 to end Townsend's 10 match winning streak, which included a 6-1, 6-2 win over Li last week in the first round of the $25,000 tournament in Florence. It's Li's first win on the ITF Professional circuit above the $15,000 level.

Also notable was USTA National 18 champion Ashley Kratzer's 6-4, 6-1 win over No. 2 seed and WTA No. 93 Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine. It was the first Top 100 win for the 18-year-old Kratzer, also a qualifier, whose only other match against at Top 100 player was a 6-1, 6-1 first round loss to Tatjana Maria of Germany at this year's US Open.  Danielle Collins, the 2014 and 2016 NCAA champion, beat 2012 and 2013 NCAA champion Nicole Gibbs, the No. 3 seed,  3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Top seed Francesca Schiavone of Italy and No. 8 seed and defending champion Kayla Day are the only two seeds remaining after the completion of the first round. 

At the $60,000 ITF Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Canada, Francesca Di Lorenzo earned her first Top 100 win, taking out WTA 96 and top seed Riza Ozaki of Japan 6-3, 6-3 in the first round.  The Ohio State junior, who was still considering a return to school for the dual match season this spring when I spoke to her during the ACI in New York, will face Tara Moore of Great Britain in the second round.  Maria Mateas, who has committed to Duke if she doesn't turn pro, defeated No. 8 seed Ysaline Bonaventure of Belgium 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-5.  No. 2 seed Bianca Andreescu, who recently signed an management contract with Octagon, lost to former ITF World Junior No. 1 Shilin Xu of China, a qualifier, 7-5, 0-6, 7-5(3).

Katarina Adamovic, an All-American at Oklahoma State who completed her tennis eligibility this past spring, has received a scholarship and will be a member of the women's basketball team in Stillwater this winter as she finishes her degree.  This feature about the 24-year-old from Serbia, who is 5-foot-8, implies that she will not be playing much, but it's always impressive when a student-athlete competes on the Division I level in two sports.

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