Hotard and Yu Win ITF Grade 4 Tournament in Atlanta; Kim Sweeps Titles in Barbados Grade 5; Lucky Losers Abound at This Week's ITF Grade 4 in South Carolina

It's time for an update on last week's ITF Junior Circuit events involving Americans, with results from the Grade 4 in Atlanta leading the way.

It's unusual for a Grade 1 champion to go back to a Grade 4, but Welsh Hotard, who won the B1 Pan American Closed earlier this month in Nicholasville Kentucky, went to Atlanta as the top seed and came out with his second consecutive ITF singles title.

Due to rain in the area, both the semifinals and the finals were moved indoors to the University of Georgia courts, and I'm sure that didn't hamper Hotard in the least. In the final, the 18-year-old defeated unseeded 14-year-old Nishesh Basavareddy, the reigning 14s Clay Court champion, 7-5, 6-3. With the title, Hotard boosted his ranking 20 points to 109, and getting into the Top 100 before year end is important for him, as that provides another method of entry into ITF World Tennis Tour $15,000 events he might like to play in 2020, before joining Oklahoma in the fall.

Hotard also won the doubles title, with JJ Tracy. The top seeds beat the second-seeded team of Samuel Paquette of Canada and Giulio Perego of Italy 3-6, 7-5, 11-9 in the final.

Unseeded Eleana Yu, who turns 15 next month, won the girls singles title, her first on the ITF Junior Circuit. Yu defeated No. 2 seed Lan Mi of China 6-1, 6-3 in the second round and No. 13 seed Ava Hrastar in the third round before defeating three unseeded players in the quarterfinals, semifinals and final. Yu downed Ellie Pittman 6-3, 6-1 in the championship match.

No. 7 seeds Allie Gretkowski and Carson Tanguilig won the girls doubles title, beating the unseeded team of Pittman and Katherine Weber 6-3, 6-3 in the final.

At the Grade 5 in Barbados, 14-year-old Aidan Kim swept the titles, his first two titles on the ITF Junior Circuit. Kim, the No. 5 seed, defeated No. 4 seed Oscar Tejera Ecenarro of Spain 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 in the singles final. In the doubles final, Kim and partner Nicholas Godsick, who were unseeded, beat No. 3 seeds Donte Armbrister of the Bahamas and Freddie Ridout of Great Britain 6-3, 6-0 in the final.

Victoria Mboko of Canada, the 2018 Junior Orange Bowl 14s finalist who just turned 13 in August, won the girls singles title, her first on the ITF Junior Circuit in just two tournaments played. Daniela Livson and Sophie Williams won the girls doubles title, with the unseeded pair defeating No. 3 seeds Gabrielle Leslie of Barbados and Miu Yabuta of Japan 6-3, 6-3 in the final.

This week's tournament in the United States is a Grade 4 in Lexington South Carolina, with Jack Anthrop and Nevena Carton the top seeds. There are more lucky losers in the two singles draws than I can ever recall, with 10 boys and 9 girls getting in after losing in qualifying. Since the last round of qualifying is only eight matches, all those losers got in and three players received main draw entry after falling in the second round of qualifying, which was the only qualifying match for many of them.

The USTA provides a monthly Honor Roll for top performances from 20-and-under players from the United States. The September edition is out, with a long list of players and their coaches.