New Name for March's ITF Grade 1 in Carson; Six Americans Advance to Quarterfinals at El Salvador Grade 3; Paul Earns First ATP Top 10 Win over Zverev in Acapulco

The site of the ITF Grade 1 in Carson has changed names several times in the
past 15 years, but the location has remained the same.

The ITF Grade 1 in Carson California has been known as the USTA International Spring Championships since its inception in 2005, but that is changing this year. The USTA's Southern California section has taken over the tournament from USTA Player Development, and it is now known as International Open of Southern California. Former ATP doubles standout Scott Lipsky, who is employed by the section, is the new tournament director, replacing Lew Brewer.

The tournament's new website doesn't mention anything about a 16s tournament, which had been part of the event for the past 15 years, and the USTA's TennisLink site for the tournament also makes no reference to a 16s event.  Another change will be in the officiating, which had featured chair umpires from the first round; the website now says chair umpires will be used from the quarterfinals on, which is typical for Grade 1 events. The USTA had used Carson as a training ground for officials, which is why chairs started from the first round matches.

The past two years, the Easter Bowl had been before the Grade 1 in Carson, but this year's calendar has Carson before the Easter Bowl Grade B1, as it was from 2005-2017.

Entries closed Tuesday for the tournament, and the acceptance lists were up briefly on the ITF website, but they are not currently available. I did note that Robin Montgomery, Alexa Noel and Katrina Scott did not enter, but that Australian Open girls finalist Weronika Baszak of Poland did. Alexandra Yepifanova, Elvina Kalieva, Madison Sieg, Ellie Coleman, Savannah Broadus, India Houghton and Sofia Rojas are the ITF Top 100 American girls entered.

The highest-ranked Americans, Martin Damm and Toby Kodat, did not enter, nor did 2019 Carson finalist Zachary Svajda, the Kalamazoo 18s champion. I was surprised to see Shintaro Mochizuki of Japan on the entry list, as the Wimbledon boys champion has not played a junior event since leading his team to the Junior Davis Cup title last September. I will be even more surprised if he actually plays the tournament, as he did not compete at the Eddie Herr, which was held at IMG Academy, where he lives and trains.

Top 100 American boys entered are Dali Blanch, Bruno Kuzuhara, Alex Bernard, Aidan Mayo, Jack Anthrop and Benjamin Kittay.

At the ITF Grade 3 in El Salvador this week, four of the eight boys in the quarterfinals are Americans: top seed Max McKennon, No. 3 seed Jake Krug, unseeded Ryan Colby and No. 8 seed Sam Scherer. Colby and Scherer play each other Thursday.  Two US girls have advanced to the quarterfinals, and they face off on Thursday, with No. 9 seed Qavia Lopez playing No. 2 seed Tara Malik.

The third round is not yet complete at the Grade 4 in Tampico Mexico, but unseeded qualifier Sebastian Sec has beaten top seed Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez of Mexico 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals. Other American boys into the quarterfinals are Tauheed Browning and Ekansh Kumar[6], who play each other, and Jameson Corsillo[4] and Maxim Groysman[11], who play each other.

At the ATP 500 event in Acapulco, Tommy Paul earned his first Top 10 win tonight, beating No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-3, 6-4. Although both are 22 years old, the only time I can remember a match between them was back in 2011, in the Eddie Herr 14s, when Paul won that round of 16 match in a third set tiebreaker. Next for Paul is No. 5 seed John Isner, who beat qualifier Marcos Giron 6-3, 7-6(4) today.