Parry, Fernandez Head Orange Bowl and Eddie Herr ITF Acceptances; Oracle Pro Series in Malibu This Week; Subhash Qualifies at Las Vegas $60K

The question of who is seriously pursuing the year-end ITF World Junior Championship was answered today, at least in part, when both Diane Parry of France and Leylah Fernandez of Canada entered next month's Grade 1 Eddie Herr and Grade A Orange Bowl. Parry, who is currently No. 1 in the ITF junior rankings after winning the Osaka Grade A and the ITF Junior Finals, pulled out of the Grade A in Mexico, where she is the defending champion, but entered the last two tournaments of the year.  Fernandez, currently No. 3 in the ITF Junior rankings, is the surprise entry, as the French Open girls champion has not played a junior event since taking the title in Paris. It's possible that one or both will pull out, of course, but it does add some intrigue to the two events, with those two the only Top 10 players currently in the field.

Shintaro Mochizuki of Japan is currently No. 3 in the ITF Junior rankings, and the Wimbledon champion has entered both events, as well as the Grade A in Mexico. Current No. 1 Holger Rune of Denmark, who took over the top spot when he won the title at the Junior finals last month, is still entered in Mexico, but did not enter the Eddie Herr or Orange Bowl. 

Martin Damm, currently No. 5, has entered both tournaments, but the other two Americans in the Top 10, Emilio Nava and Toby Kodat, are not entered in either event. Zane Khan, who reached the final of the Orange Bowl last year, is playing the Mexico Grade A, but did not enter the US tournaments.

Here are the American boys who received direct entry into the Orange Bowl main draw, with the cutoff at 130:

Martin Damm
Dali Blanch
Andrew Dale
Welsh Hotard
Micah Braswell
Alex Bernard
Aidan Mayo

The same seven American boys are entered in the Eddie Herr, which has a cutoff of 126, with three boys, none of them Americans, entered in the Eddie Herr but not the Orange Bowl. ITF No. 14, Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic, is entered in the Eddie Herr, but not the Orange Bowl.

As far as the US girls go, quite a few of the top Americans are not playing either US event, with Emma Navarro[4], Alexa Noel[5] and Hurricane Tyra Black[11] all of whom played the tournaments last year, not entered.

Two US girls, Robin Montgomery and Katrina Scott, are playing the Orange Bowl but not the Eddie Herr. Both are playing the Grade A in Mexico and are taking a week off in between that tournament and the Orange Bowl. The Orange Bowl cutoff for the girls is 108, and at the Eddie Herr it's 111.

In addition to Montgomery and Scott, these are the US girls in the Orange Bowl:
Alexandra Yepifanova
Savannah Broadus
Skyler Grishuk
Charlotte Chavatipon
Charlotte Owensby
Jenna DeFalco
Kailey Evans
Emma Jackson
Elvina Kalieva

All nine are also entered in the Eddie Herr. Ellie Coleman is in the main draw at Eddie Herr and next in at the Orange Bowl. Including Coleman, there are 16 US girls in Orange Bowl qualifying, but just six US boys.

The USTA Pro Circuit this week features a joint event in Malibu, with both the men's and women's tournaments at the $25,000 level. Several collegians who could be competing at the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships, which begin tomorrow in Newport Beach California are playing here instead, including Stanford's Axel Geller, USC's Brandon Holt and Pepperdine's Ashley Lahey. 

Matias Descotte of Argentina was the top men's seed, but he was beaten in today's first round match by Alexander Cozbinov(UNLV) of Moldova 7-6(7), 6-2.  Wild cards were given to Pepperdine sophomore Corrado Summaria of Italy, Alexander Lebedev(Notre Dame), Alexandre Rotsaert(Stanford) and Pepperdine senior Adrian Oetzbach of Germany. Americans qualifying today are Spencer Papa(Oklahoma), Joshua Ortlip(Cal Poly), Reese Stalder(TCU), Drew Baird(UCLA) and Michael Shabaz(Virginia). 

In addition to Lahey, wild cards went to Pepperdine sophomore Anastasia Iamachkine of Peru (they play each other), Pepperdine graduate student Jessica Failla and North Carolina recruit Reilly Tran. The top seed is 18-year-old Olga Danilovic of Serbia. Americans Anastasia Nefedova, Kylie McKenzie, Sarah Lee(Michigan), Ellie Douglas(TCU) and Katrina Scott qualified for the main draw with wins today.

The top seed at the $60,000 USTA Pro Circuit women's event in Las Vegas is Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium, with wild cards going to Fanny Stoller of Hungary, Grace Min, Jamie Loeb(North Carolina) and Katerina Stewart.

Virginia freshman Natasha Subhash, who was scheduled to compete in the ITA Fall Nationals beginning tomorrow, qualified today by beating No. 3 seed Giuliana Olmos(USC) of Mexico 2-6, 6-1, 10-6.

Other Americans qualifying for the main draw today in Las Vegas are Charlotte Chavatipon, Alycia Parks and Quinn Gleason(Notre Dame).