Ma, Mayo Reach G1 Coffee Bowl Finals; Day Two of Australian Open Juniors Features Eight Americans; Sandgren, Keys Make AO Second Week; Junior Orange Bowl 12s Photos, Videos

Keenan Mayo and Lea Ma, both No. 7 seeds, will play in their first Grade 1 finals tonight at the Coffee Bowl in Costa Rica.  Ma defeated No. 9 seed Alexandra Vagramov of Canada 6-3, 6-4 in last night's semifinals and will face top seed Maria Osorio Serrano of Colombia in tonight's final after Orsorio Serrano defeated No. 4 seed Elli Mandlik 6-4, 6-2.  Mayo's big serving helped him win a hard-fought battle with No. 8 seed Brandon Nakashima 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-4, earning him a meeting with 15-year-old Harold Mayot of France.  Mayot cruised past No. 3 seed Mateus Alves of Brazil 6-2, 6-1 late last night.

Before he plays in the singles final, Mayo will play for the doubles championship with partner Tomas Kopczynski, with the No. 4 seeds taking on top seeds Govind Nanda and Tyler Zink in an all-American final.  The unseeded team of Kylie Collins and Shelly Yaloz will face unseeded Natsumi Kawaguchi of Japan and Shavit Kimchi of Israel for the girls title.

See the tournament website for live streaming.

The first day of the Australian Open Junior Championships saw Americans go 4-2.  US Open finalist Coco Gauff suffered the first first round exit of her brief ITF Junior Circuit career, losing to unseeded Elisabetta Cocciaretto of Italy. Sunday's schedule includes eight more American first round singles matches, as well as first round doubles matches.  There are no US girls seeded in doubles, but interesting to note that Marta Kostyuk, who reached the third round in the women's draw this week, is in the girls doubles draw with Viktoriia Dema, also of Ukraine. They are seeded fourth.  In the boys doubles draw, Tristan Boyer, playing with Argentina's Juan Cerundolo, is seeded No. 5, and Sebastian Korda, playing with longtime partner Nicolas Mejia of Colombia, is seeded No. 2.

Sandy Harwitt spoke with Alexa Noel about her first junior slam win in this feature for the ITF junior website.

American junior results Saturday(Friday night in US)

Alexa Noel[7] def. Stefania Rogozinska Dzik(POL) 7-6(1) 6-1
Elisabetta Cocciaretto(ITA) def. Coco Gauff 2-6, 6-2, 6-2
Nicole Mossmer def. Myah Petchey(RSA) 6-0, 6-1
Tristan Boyer def. Lorenzo Musetti(ITA) 6-3, 6-1
Drew Baird def. Juan Cerundolo[10](ARG) 6-2, 6-2
Daniela Vismane[13](LAT) def. Niluka Madurawe 6-3, 6-4

American juniors in action Sunday (Saturday night in US)

Jaycer Lyeons v Yeongseok Jeong(KOR)
Peyton Stearns v Gergana Topalova(BUL)
Andrew Fenty[13] v Yanki Erel(TUR)
Sebastian Korda[7] v Clement Tabur(FRA)
Dalayna Hewitt v Maria Carle[4](ARG)
Sangeet Sridhar v Alexander Crnokrak(AUS)
Hurricane Tyra Black v Viktoria Morvayova(SVK)
Elysia Bolton[12] v Ivana Popovic(AUS)

Just two Americans have advanced to the second week of the Australian Open, No. 17 seed Madison Keys and Tennys Sandgren. Keys is no surprise, of course, having reached the final of the last slam, but Sandgren won his first grand slam match Tuesday, so his run has been unexpected.  Here's a tennis.com feature on Sandgren, who will face No. 5 seed Dominic Thiem of Austria next.  And hats off to Lauren Davis, who fell just short in an epic match with No. 1 seed Simona Halep of Romania 6-4, 4-6, 15-13.  For more on that, see the WTA website.

American results Saturday (Friday night in US)
Saturday(Friday night in US)

Simona Halep[1](ROU) def. Lauren Davis 4-6, 6-4, 15-13
Madison Keys[17] def. Ana Bogdan(ROU) 6-3, 6-4
Tennys Sandgren def. Maximilian Marterer(GER) 5-7, 6-3, 7-5, 7-6(5)
Barbora Strycova[20](CZE) def. Bernarda Pera 6-2, 6-2

I've been working on the Junior Orange Bowl photos and videos, and today's post features the 12s division.

Biltmore Tennis Center, site of girls 12s through quarterfinals

Salvadore Park, boys 12s site