Kuzuhara Faces Borg's Son in Third Straight Grade 1 Final; Qualifying Delayed for Grade A Banana Bowl; Liu, Lepchenko in Boca Raton $25K Final; Harrison Advances at Naples $25K; Krawczyk and Guarachi Claim Adelaide Doubles Title

Bruno Kuzuhara avenged his loss to Juncheng Shang of China in the Ecuador Grade 1 final--the only loss Kuzuhara has suffered in the past three South American Grade 1 tournaments--today in Brazil, defeating No. 2 seed Shang 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals. The 16-year-old No. 3 seed, who won last week's Asuncion Bowl in Paraguay, will face 17-year-old Swedish qualifier Leo Borg in Sunday's final, after Borg defeated No. 5 seed Pedro Boscardin Dias of Brazil 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(2). Borg, who will be playing in his first Grade 1 final, is the son of tennis legend Bjorn Borg. 

Sunday's girls final will feature the top two seeds, with No. 1 Natalia Szabanin of Hungary facing No. 2 Diana Shnaider of Russia.

The first Grade A of 2021, next week's Banana Bowl in Brazil, has run into difficulties with local Covid protocols and the qualifying, which was scheduled to begin today, will not begin until Monday, according to this announcement. The qualifying draws have been posted on the ITF junior website, but nothing else has been communicated there regarding the schedule. With draws consisting of just 32 players, instead of the usual 64 for Grade As pre-pandemic, the tournament can begin on Wednesday with no serious affects, but those in qualifying are facing a lot of tennis in the first three days of the week. Americans competing in the qualifying are Timothy Phung, Aidan Kim, Azuma Visaya, Joseph Phillips and Clervie Ngounoue. 

Twenty-year-old Claire Liu and 34-year-old Varvara Lepchenko will meet Sunday for the singles championship at the $25,000 USTA women's Pro Circuit event in Boca Raton Florida. The unseeded Liu defeated No. 4 seed Usue Arconada 7-5, 6-2 and the No. 8 seed Lepchenko beat wild card Hailey Baptiste 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-2 in over three hours to reach the final. 

Arconada did leave the tournament with a winner's trophy, partnering with Caroline Dolehide for the doubles title. The top seeds defeated the unseeded team of Maria Osorio Serrano of Colombia and Conny Perrin of Switzerland 6-3, 6-4 in today's final. 

Christian Harrison has advanced to the final of the $25,000 USTA men's Pro Circuit tournament in Naples Florida after defeating unseeded Cristian Rodriguez of Colombia 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in today's semifinals. Harrison, the No. 8 seed, will face No. 6 seed Corentin Denolly of France in Sunday's championship match.

Mackenzie McDonald is through to the final at the ATP Challenger 100 in Kazakhstan after defeating No. 5 seed Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland 6-2, 6-1 today. UCLA's 2016 NCAA singles and doubles champion will face No. 6 seed Jurij Rodionov of Austria for the title. 

In the doubles final, former Oklahoma State star Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan and his partner Denys Molchanov of Ukraine took the title, with the top seeds defeating No. 2 seeds and former collegians Nathan Pasha(Georgia) and Max Schnuur(Columbia) 6-4, 6-4 in the final. 

At the ATP Challenger 80 in Spain, 2015 NCAA doubles champion Lloyd Glasspool(Texas) of Great Britain partnered with Harri Heliovaara of Finland for the title. The No. 2 seeds defeated unseeded Kimmer Coppejans of Belgium and Sergio Martos Gornes of Spain 7-5, 6-1 in the final. 

Adelaide champions Krawczyk and Guarachi won 
their second WTA title last September in Istanbul

The all-collegiate battle at the WTA 500 in Adelaide went to No. 3 seeds Alexa Guarachi(Alabama) of Chile and Desirae Krawczyk(Arizona State), who defeated Luisa Stefani(Pepperdine) and Hayley Carter(North Carolina) 6-7(4), 6-4, 10-3 in the final. It's the third WTA title for the French Open finalists. 

Nineteen-year-old Iga Swiatek of Poland won the singles title, beating Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 6-2, 6-2 in the final.