December's Orange Bowl Adds COVID-19 Testing Requirement; ITA Fall Circuit Week Ten Winners

Although the CDC has recommended avoiding travel at this time, the ITF Grade A Orange Bowl, scheduled to begin with 16s qualifying on December 4 at the Frank Veltri Tennis Center in Plantation Florida, is still on as of today. A new requirement has been introduced however, with everyone who is approved to be on site needing to produce a negative COVID-19 test before their initial entry.

Initially, a player was allowed two guests, but that has now been reduced to one, and it must be the same guest. From the Safety Protocols section of the tournament website:

Tournament site access and daily health screening:

• everyone accessing the tournament site is required to have their temperature checked and to answer a health questionnaire

• a player may only designate one person as their "plus one" for the entirety of the tournament

• players will not be permitted to access the site after they are eliminated from the tournament

Today is the last day to withdraw from the tournament; as of this evening, both No. 1 ITF Junior players, Elsa Jacquemot and Harold Mayot of France, are still expected to compete. The highest profile player to drop out since the initial entries were announced is ITF No. 3 Alexandra Eala of the Philippines. 

The entries in the 16s division are available here.

The tenth and final week of the  ITA Tour: Fall Circuit by UTR has concluded with results from nine tournaments around the country listed below. I counted 126 events over the 10 weeks (174 were initially announced), and many were not close to attracting full fields; those held in Southern California and the Atlanta area seemed to have the best participation.  Lisa Stone of Parenting Aces attended the tournament in Newport Beach California and spoke to director Sean Bollettieri-Abdali about the event; that interview can be viewed on YouTube. The ITA recap of Week 10 is here.

ITA Fall Circuit Week Ten Winners:

Williamsburg: Men, Dillon Sykes

Lawrenceville: Men, Kweisi Kenyatte; Women, Mackenzie White

Lawrence: Men, William Gleason; Women, Malkia Ngounoue

San Diego: Men, Maxim Groysman; Women, Kaytlin Taylor

Chagrin Falls: Men, Brandon Wall; Women, Nora Catanzarite

Newport Beach: Men, Colton Smith; Women, Kayla Day

Cincinnati: Men, Jacob Bickersteth; Women, Abby Nugent

Waco: Men, Matias Soto

Hershey: Men, Jorge Rodriguez Rey