Orange Bowl Acceptances Feature World No. 1s; Hamner, Smith Reach Daytona Beach Grade 4 Finals; Top Seeds Through at ITA Fall Nationals; Covid Complications at Fayetteville $15K

The acceptances for next month's Orange Bowl were posted yesterday, and, as of now at least, both of the No. 1s in the ITF Junior rankings, both from France, have entered. French Open champion Elsa Jacquemot and Australian Open champion Harold Mayot top the entry lists, with the girls field also including No. 2 Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva of Andorra and No. 3 Alexandra Eala of the Philippines. In all, six of the Top 10 girls are currently entered.

The boys field, on the other hand, drops off precipitously, with No. 26 Martin Krumich of the Czech Republic the next highest entrant. There are no players receiving entry based on their ATP or WTA rankings.

There are a dozen Americans on the entry list, with the six boys Dali Blanch, Bruno Kuzuhara, Alexander Bernard, Jack Anthrop, Aidan Mayo and Benjamin Kittay. The six girls Alexa Noel, Alexandra Yepifanova, Elvina Kalieva, Ellie Coleman, Madison Sieg and Sofia Camila Rojas. When I spoke to Noel this summer about her decision to sign with Iowa, she told me she was considering playing Orange Bowl, just for a chance to complete her junior career in some sort of normal fashion.

My intention is to cover the event, scheduled for December 5-13 at the Veltri Tennis Center in Plantation Florida, in person, but as everyone knows, many plans made to travel for events in the past eight months have not come to fruition, so things are necessarily tentative right now.

At the Grade 4 in Daytona Beach, qualifier Sarah Hamner, who reached the finals at last week's Grade 4 in Orlando, has advanced to another final, beating No. 5 seed Luciana Moyano of Argentina 6-4, 6-2. Hamner, who has has now won 14 of the 15 matches she has played in the past 13 days, faces No. 4 seed Chelsea Fontenel of Switzerland, who defeated unseeded Leyden Games 1-6, 6-0, 6-3.  In the boys final, top seed Adolfo Daniel Vallejo of Paraguay will aim for his second consecutive title, with the Orlando champion taking on No. 8 seed Colton Smith. Vallejo beat No. 3 seed Nishesh Basavareddy 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, while Smith ended the run of wild card Ethan Quinn 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(5). 

Jasmin Makela and Sophia Wang defeated Sophie Llewellyn and Brooklyn Olson for the girls doubles title, winning the all-US match between unseeded teams 6-3, 3-6, 10-8. Top seeds Aidan Kim and Adit Sinha won the boys doubles championship, defeating Quinn and his partner Nicolas Godsick 6-3, 6-2 in the final. 

The ITA National Fall Championships began today at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, with top seeds Ashley Lahey(Pepperdine) and James Trotter(Ohio State) through with straight-sets wins, as did No. 2 seeds Jessica Failla(Pepperdine) and Kyle Seelig(Ohio State). The only seed to lose today was No. 4 seed Alexandre Rotsaert of Stanford, who retired with Gavin Young of Minnesota leading 1-6, 6-3, 2-0. 

The ITA announced recently that the finals, scheduled for Sunday, will be broadcast on ESPNU beginning with the women's final at 4 p.m. Eastern, followed by the men's final. Mark Bey and Kevin Skinner will be the broadcast team, with Bey reprising his role at last month's ITA Masters.

Live scoring is available via TennisTicker, and links to that site and the draws can be found here.

Covid-19 protocols are responsible for two walkovers in today's second round of the USTA men's Pro Circuit $15,000 event in Fayetteville Arkansas. According to Alex Gruskin of Cracked Racquets, Justin Butsch, who was scheduled to play No. 8 seed Brandon Holt, tested positive for the virus and was removed from the tournament. His doubles partner, No. 4 seed Alex Rybakov, was removed due to his close contact with Butsch, although his test was negative. Rybakov was scheduled to play qualifier Charlie Broom of Great Britain, who now advances to the quarterfinals.  Top seed Thai Kwiatkowski, Patrick Kypson and Martin Damm join Holt in the quarterfinals, with Kypson and Holt facing off on Friday. Kypson defeated No. 3 seed Nicolas Mejia of Colombia 6-0, 6-4 today.

At the $100,000 USTA Pro Circuit women's tournament in Charleston, top seed Shelby Rogers withdrew with an injury, which means qualifier Gabriela Talaba of Romania is through to the quarterfinals. Sara Errani of Italy also forfeited her second round match today, with No. 4 seed Misaki Doi advancing. Qualifier Claire Liu beat wild card Emma Navarro 6-4, 6-1 and No. 8 seed Ann Li, last week's champion in Tyler, defeated qualifier Magdalena Frech of Poland 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. Lauren Davis is the third American in the quarterfinals, with the No. 2 seed beating qualifier Hailey Baptiste 6-2, 6-1. 

Marcos Giron's run at the ATP Masters in Paris ended today with a 7-6(1), 6-2 loss to No. 10 seed Milos Raonic of Canada.