Slama Claims Girls 12s Singles at USTA National Clay Courts, Top Seeds Fall in 18s; Gawande Earns Grade 4 Title in Dominican Republic; Sharma, Klahn Reach Finals in Gatineau; All-US Final in Berkeley $60K

The first champion has been crowned at the USTA National Clay Court Championships with Mia Slama capturing the girls 12s title today in Boca Raton Florida. Slama, the No. 14 seed, defeated Alexia Harmon, the No. 4 seed, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 in the championship match.

The finals are set in the other seven divisions, with 2017 boys 18s champion Axel Nefve returning to the final after defeating top seed Siem Woldeab 6-2, 7-6(8).

Due to rain Friday in Charleston SC, the girls 18s had to play two matches today, with Angelica Blake knocking off top seed Abigail Forbes in the quarterfinals, but falling to Chelsea Kung in the semifinals. Kung will play local star Emma Navarro, who has yet to drop a set in her six wins and has won three matches 6-0, 6-0, including today semifinal. Tennis Channel is scheduled to broadcast the final tomorrow at 10:30 a.m., but weather has caused the final at the ATP Dell Hall of Fame Open in Newport Rhode Island to be moved up to 11:00 a.m., so I'm not sure what will happen with that scheduling conflict.

Below are today's Clay Court results, with links to complete draws in the headings.

Girls 12s:
FINAL:
Mia Slama[14] def. Alexia Harmon[4] 6-4, 5-7, 6-2

Girls 14s:
Semifinals:
Vivian Ovrootsky[1] def. Tsehay Driscoll 6-2, 6-1
Clervie Ngounoue def. Lan Mi[2] 6-3, 6-4

Girls 16s:
Semifinals:
Valenica Xu[1] def. Madison Sieg[4] 6-4, 6-0
Allura Zamarippa[8] def. Elise Wagle[33] 1-6, 6-1, 6-3

Girls 18s:
Semifinals:
Chelsea Kung[6] def. Angelica Blake[17] 6-3, 4-6, 7-5
Emma Navarro[5] def. Hibah Shaikh[17] 6-0, 6-0

Boys 12s:
Semifinals:
Rudy Quan[1] def. Alexander Razeghi[4] 7-5, 6-2
Lucas Coriaty[6] def. Zhengqing Ji 6-3, 6-1

Boys 14s:
Semifinals:
Nicholas Heng[3] def. Lucas Brown[7] 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(4)
John Kim[2] def. Braden Shick[4] 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-2

Boys 16s:
Semifinals:
Logan Zapp[4] def. Aidan Mayo 7-6, 6-1
Ryan Fishback[2] def. Daniel Labrador 6-1, 6-4

Boys 18s:
Semifinals:
Axel Nefve[8] def. Siem Woldeab[1] 6-2, 7-6(8)
Neel Rajesh[33] def. Marcus Ferreira[17] 7-6, 3-6, 6-3

In ITF Junior Circuit play this week, Sanyukta Gawande won her fourth career singles title at the Grade 4 in the Dominican Republic. The No. 2 seed defeated another 16-year-old American, Jordana Ossa, who was playing in her first ITF Junior Circuit tournament, 6-2, 6-3 in the final.  No. 4 seed Russell Berdusco lost in the boys singles final to top seed Eric Vanshelboim of Ukraine 6-2, 6-3.  The girls doubles champions are top seeds Amy Kaplan and Sasha Wood, who defeated Ossa and Estefania Gonzalez of Venezuela 7-6(2), 1-6, 10-6 in the final.

At the ITF Grade 5 in Colombia, Caroline Cook won the doubles title, with Antonia Samudio of Colombia. The unseeded pair defeated No. 2 seeds Remika Ohashi of Japan and Maria Torres Murcia of Colombia 6-0, 6-4 in the final.

Evgeny Karlovskiy of Russia and Lloyd Glasspool of Great Britain will play for the title at the $25,000 Futures in Iowa City Sunday.  Top seed Karlovskiy defeated No. 3 seed Collin Altamirano 6-4, 6-4 and No. 6 seed Glasspool downed qualifier Alex Brown 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.

At the $75,000 ATP Gatineau Challenger, Bradley Klahn has advanced to the final. The No. 5 seed defeated No. 2 seed Jason Kubler of Australia 6-2, 6-3 and will play unseeded Ugo Humbert of France for his first Challenger singles title since he won three in 2014.  Klahn will also take the lead in the USTA's US Open Wild Card Challenge.

The women also are competing in Gatineau, at a $25,000 ITF Women's Pro Circuit tournament, and Vanderbilt graduate Astra Sharma has advanced to the final.  The unseeded Australian defeated former Northwestern Wildcat Alicia Barnett of Great Britain, a qualifier, 6-1, 6-2 and will face No. 8 seed Victoria Rodriguez of Mexico in Sunday's final. Sharma is seeking her second $25,000 title since graduating from
Vanderbilt this spring.

2017 Australian and French Open girls doubles champions Carson Branstine and Bianca Andreescu of Canada won the Gatineau doubles title today, with the No. 3 seeds beating unseeded Connie Hsu of Taiwan and Marcela Zacarias of Mexico 4-6, 6-2, 10-4.

The top two seeds will face off in the final of the $60,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit event in Berkeley, with No. 1 Sonya Kenin facing No. 2 Nicole Gibbs for the title.  Kenin defeated No. 3 seed Nao Hibino of Japan 7-6(6), 6-2, while Gibbs beat unseeded Ashley Kratzer 6-4, 6-2 in today's semifinals.

Steve Johnson will play Ramkumar Ramanathan of India in the final of the ATP Dell Technologies Hall of Fame Open Sunday. The unseeded Ramanathan, 23, defeated Tim Smyczek 6-4, 7-5 to reach his first ATP final, while No. 3 seed Johnson downed Marcel Granollers of Spain 6-3, 6-3 to reach his fifth ATP final; he has won three ATP singles titles.