ITF Junior Finals Begin in Chengdu; Five USTA Pro Circuit Events This Week Attract Scores of College and Junior Players

The draws have been made and round robin play begins tonight (Wednesday in China) at the ITF Junior Finals. The only American in the draw, Hurricane Tyra Black, begins with a match against new ITF World No. 1 Diane Parry of France, while US Open boys champion Jonas Forejtek of the Czech Republic takes on France's Harold Mayot, who, like Parry, just claimed a Grade A title in Japan. The top two finishers in each group will move on to the semifinals.

Boys:
Group Shuai
Jonas Forejtek, Czech Republic
Holger Rune, Denmark
Harold Mayot, France
Bu Yunchaokete, China

Group Yong
Shintaro Mochizuki, Japan
Thiago Tiriante, Argentina
Liam Draxl, Canada
Valentin Royer, France

Girls:
Group Liang
Daria Snigur, Ukraine
Kamilla Bartone, Latvia
Elsa Jacquemot, France
Oksana Selekhmeteva, Russia

Group Li
Qinwen Zheng, China
Diane Parry, France
Natsumi Kawaguchi, Japan
Hurricane Tyra Black, United States

The order of play is here. I have not seen a live scoring or streaming link, but if I run across one I will pass it along.

Five USTA Pro Circuit events are on the calendar this week, one an $80,000 tournament, three at the $25,000 level and one a $15K tournament.

The $80,000 event in Macon Georgia is the first tournament in the USTA's Australian Open Wild Card Challenge.

Qualifying concluded today, with former collegians Irina Falconi(Georgia Tech), Sanaz Marand(UNC) and Ingrid Neel(Florida), and current collegians Elysia Bolton(UCLA) and Estela Perez-Somarriba(Miami) earning places in the main draw, as did junior Gabby Price. The 16-year-old USTA Clay Court 18s champion defeated No. 3 seed Suzan Lamens of the Netherlands 6-1, 3-6, 10-6 to qualify for an $80,000-level tournament for the first time. She had previously received a wild card into an $80,000 tournament in France this spring.

Perez-Somarriba and Katrina Jokic(Georgia) of Serbia had a rematch of May's NCAA Division I singles final, and as with their previous meeting, it was incredibly close, with Perez-Somarriba getting another win, this time by a 7-6(2), 6-4 score, in two hours and 40 minutes.  Falconi, a wild card, has been on a sabbatical recently, and she explains in this Behind The Racquet post why she left the game for nearly a year and why she is now back competing.

Wild cards into the main draw include US Open girls finalist Alexandra Yepifanova, Katarina Stewart, Coco Vandeweghe and Sophie Whittle(Gonzaga). Yepifanova has been drawn to play top seed Astra Sharma of Australia, the former Vanderbilt star. Whitney Osuigwe is the No. 2 seed.

Also part of the USTA's AO Wild Card Challenge is the $60,000 tournament in Saguenay Canada this week, where Kennedy Shaffer(Georgia) and Jessica Livianu(St. John's) are among the qualifiers. Top seed Francesca Di Lorenzo(Ohio State) won her first round match today against Emina Bektas(Michigan) 4-6, 6-0, 7-6(4).

Four Americans qualified for the $25,000 women's tournament in Dallas, part of the new Oracle Pro Series, with former collegians Lorraine Guillermo(Pepperdine) and Kate Fahey(Michigan) and juniors Vanessa Ong and Hadley Doyle earning places in the main draw. Wild cards were given to Ellie Douglas(TCU), Kayla Day, Emma Shelton and Chanelle Van Nguyen(UCLA). Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine is the top seed.

At the women's $15,000 tournament in Austin, the University of Texas twin sisters Bianca and Anna Turati of Italy are the top two seeds. Wild cards were given to Kylie McKenzie, and three UT players: freshman Lexi Ryngler, sophomore Tijana Spasojevic and sophomore Marta Perez Mur.  American qualifiers are: Gianna Pielet, Fiona Crawley, Madison Appel, Ashlyn Krueger, Malaika Rapolu, Jeanette Mireles and Mara Schmidt.

The two men's events this week are $25,000 tournaments, one in Fort Worth and one in Fayetteville. At the Oracle Pro Series event in Texas, Alfredo Perez(Florida), Kalamazoo 18s champion Zachary Svajda and Brian Cernoch(UNC) are the Americans who qualified with wins today.

Liam Broady and Jack Draper of Great Britain are the top two seeds, with wild cards going to juniors Logan Zapp and Eliot Spizzirri, Georgia freshman Tyler Zink and TCU senior Alistair Gray.

In Arkansas, junior Murphy Cassone and Georgia sophomore Trent Bryde are the two Americans who qualified with wins today. Wild cards were awarded to Vasil Kirkov, junior Tauheed Browning and University of Arkansas juniors Alexandre Reco and Joshua Howard-Tripp. Former South Florida All-American Roberto Cid of the Dominican Republic is the top seed.