Top Boys Seeds Fall at ITF G2 in Canada; Buckeye Wild Cards Advance at Columbus Challenger; Lubbock, Laguna Niguel Pro Circuit Events Underway; Tseng Signs with IMG

The quarterfinals are set at this week's ITF Grade 2 in Montreal, with both the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds missing from the last eight.  No. 2 seed Ronan Jachuck lost in the first round Monday, and in today's second round top seed Eliot Spizzirri fell to Canada's Cleeve Harper. Harper, who has committed to Texas and is scheduled to join the team in January, defeated Spizzirri 6-2, 6-4 and will play fellow Canadian Joshua Lapadat in the quarterfinals Wednesday. Eleven US boys began the tournament in singles, but only two unseeded Americans remain: unseeded Andres Martin and Alex Kiefer. Canada has the other six boys in the quarterfinals.

The US girls, 19 strong in the 32-player draw at the start, have six remaining, including top seed Chloe Beck and No. 2 seed Emma Navarro. No. 4 seed Kylie Collins, No. 6 seed Sanyukta Gawande and unseeded Tara Malik and Elvina Kalieva are the other four, with Canada's Ariana Arseneault and Puerto Rico's Lauren Anzalotta joining them in the quarterfinals.

There are three events on the USTA Pro Circuit this week, with a $75,000 ATP Challenger in Columbus Ohio, a $25,000 women's event in Lubbock Texas and a $15,000 Futures in Laguna Niguel California. The $80,000 tournament in Albuquerque, which was on the Pro Circuit fall schedule for 20 years, is not being held this year.

In Columbus, Buckeye sophomore John McNally received a wild card into the main draw and won his first round match today, beating 2015 NCAA champion Ryan Shane(Virginia), a qualifier, 7-6(5), 7-5. Ohio State junior JJ Wolf defeated Jan Choinski of Germany 7-5, 6-4 and will face former Buckeye and fellow wild card Mikael Torpegaard of Denmark, who won this Challenger title back in 2016. Torpegaard defeated No. 8 seed Maverick Banes of Australia Monday.  In addition to McNally and Wolf, other Americans advancing to the second round are Michael Mmoh[3], Tommy Paul and qualifier Thai Kwiatkowski(Virginia).

In Laguna Niguel, the top seeds are again Joao Reis da Silva of Brazil and Henry Craig(Denver). Sixteen-year-old Emilio Nava won four qualifying matches and will play for his first ATP point against 18-year-old Igor Gimenez of Brazil. Former UCF standout Korey Lovett is the only other American to qualify.  Kalamazoo 18s finalist Brandon Nakashima received a wild card, as did Cal sophomore Jacob Brumm, 17-year-old Govind Nanda and 15-year-old Zachary Zvadja, who beat Reis da Silva in the first round last week in Claremont.

Six of the seven seeds in action today in Lubbock posted victories, with only No. 5 seed Jovana Jaksic of Serbia suffering a first round loss. Jaksic lost to qualifier Jennifer Elie 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-2, and yesterday, No. 6 seed Katerina Stewart fell to Nadia Podoroska of Argentina 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. Top seed Naomi Broady of Great Britain, No. 2 seed Grace Min, No. 3 seed Vicky Duval and No. 4 seed Victoria Rodriguez of Mexico all advanced. Other Americans reaching the second round include qualifier Hayley Carter(UNC), No. 8 seed Emina Bektas(Michigan), Sanaz Marand(UNC) and Robin Anderson(UCLA).

IMG announced the signing today of Chun Hsin (Jason) Tseng of Taiwan. The 17-year-old won the French Open and Wimbledon boys singles titles this year and is No. 1 in the ITF World Junior rankings.

We continue to build on our expertise in Asia.

We’d like to welcome 🇹🇼 Jason Tseng to the #IMGTennis family!

Jason is the ITF No. 1 junior and a 2x Junior Grand Slam champion (Roland Garros and Wimbledon 2018). He’s also part of the Chinese Taipei Davis Cup team.

Welcome! pic.twitter.com/tip12yoyE8

— IMG Tennis (@IMGTennis) September 18, 2018