Nakashima and Boyer Make it Five Americans in Roland Garros Juniors Round of 16; Keys and Stephens to Meet in Women's Semifinals; Chen and Steinbock Named to New D-I Coaching Positions; Women's Bethany Beach $25K Underway

Unseeded Brandon Nakashima and No. 11 seed Tristan Boyer won their second round matches today at the French Open Junior Championships, to join Sebastian Korda[2], Coco Gauff[16] and Caty McNally, who won on Monday, in the round of 16.

Nakashima defeated unseeded Rinky Hijikata of Australia 6-3, 6-2, while Boyer had to come from behind to beat unseeded Sergey Fomin of Uzbekistan 5-7, 6-2, 6-3.  While both Nakashima and Boyer had reached the second round of a junior slam previously, this is the first time either has advanced to the third round.

All five Americans are on the singles schedule for tomorrow, with McNally and Gauff taking on the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds.

In doubles, Gauff and Maria Carle of Argentina advanced to the second round, as did No. 6 seeds Andrew Fenty and Uisung Park of Korea and No. 4 seeds Drew Baird and Nicolas Mejia of Colombia; both teams will play second round matches on Wednesday. Tyler Zink, who won his first round doubles match with Juan Cerundolo of Argentina yesterday and Alexa Noel, playing with Ana Makatsaria of Georgia, play again on Wednesday, as does Caty McNally, partnering with Iga Swiatek of Poland, and Chloe Beck, playing with Taisya Pachkaleva of Russia. The Roland Garros website schedule is here.

Tuesday's singles results featuring Americans:

Elisabetta CocciarettoC(ITA)[9] def. Lea Ma 6-3, 7-5

Tristan Boyer[11] def.  Sergey Fomin (UZB) 5-7, 6-2, 6-3

Brandon Nakashima[SE] def. Rinky Hijikata (AUS) 6-3, 6-2
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Wednesday singles matches featuring Americans:

Brandon Nakashima[SE] vs Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc(FRA)

Tristan Boyer[11] vs Thiago Seyboth Wild(BRA)[8]

Coco Gauff [16] vs Xinyu Wang(CHN)[2]

Caty McNally vs En-Shuo Liang(TPE)[1]

Sebastian Korda[2] vs Deney Wassermann(NED)

The two Americans left in the pro draws both advanced today, with
No. 10 seed Sloane Stephens defeating No. 14 seed Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-3, 6-1 and Madison Keys beating unseeded Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan 7-6(5, 6-4.  They will now repeat their 2017 US Open final, with the winner advancing to her second slam final.

A couple of head coaching positions were filled this week. Yesterday, Arkansas announced Courtney Steinbock as the head women's coach, replacing Michael Hegarty, who was dismissed last month.  Steinbock has been the head coach at the University of Houston the past three seasons.

Late this afternoon, SMU announced Grant Chen as their men's head coach, replacing Carl Neufeld, who stepped down last month after 25 years leading the Mustangs. Chen, currently the associate head coach at UCLA, has been synonymous with Bruin tennis the past 15 years, having started as the team manager while a student back in 2001. The UCLA release, with comments from head coach Billy Martin is here. The SMU release, with comments from Paul Annacone, Peter Smith and others, is here. SMU athletic director Rick Hart is not tempering expectations, as this quote indicates:

"With the investments we have made in our tennis program and facilities in recent years, we expect to compete for national championships, and that is an expectation Grant embraces. I have no doubt that we will quickly return to our position as one of the nation's elite tennis programs with Grant at the helm."

The USTA Women's Pro Circuit is in Bethany Beach Delaware this week for a $25,000 prize money tournament, with qualifying completed today.  UCLA recruit Elysia Bolton advanced to the main draw, as did UNC's Alexa Graham, Georgia Tech's Rasheeda McAdoo, Iowa's Shelby Talcott, Michigan's Amy Zhu and Texas Tech's Gabriela Talaba of Romania.  Grace Min, who qualified for the French Open but lost in the first round, is the top seed.  Min won her first round match today, as did North Carolina recruit and wild card Cameron Morra and wild card Raveena Kingsley, who recently won a $15K in Sweden and appears to be healthy again.