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Monday, June 7, 2021

Gauff Reaches French Open Quarterfinals; Montgomery, Sieg Move into French Juniors Third Round, Second Seed Eala Out; Three ITF Junior Titles for Americans; Stanford Tops Women's Recruiting Class Rankings

Two former French Open girls champions faced off today in the fourth round of the women's draw, with 2018 winner Coco Gauff breezing past 2011 winner Ons Jabeur of Tunisia 6-3, 6-1 to reach her first slam quarterfinal and become the youngest player to reach that stage in 15 years. No. 24 seed Gauff, who is on a nine-match winning streak, will face unseeded Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic, who rolled over Sloane Stephens 6-2, 6-0, in the quarterfinals. Krejcikova is also on a nine-match winning streak after taking the WTA title in Strasbourg last week. No. 4 seed and 2020 finalist Sofia Kenin lost to No. 17 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-1, 6-3.

Gauff, who was 14 when she won the French Open girls title, and would still be age eligible for this year's and next year's junior tournament in Paris, may be far removed from that level of competition now, but she still has friends competing there this year, including 16-year-old Robin Montgomery, who has advanced to the round of 16.  Montgomery, the No. 5 seed, struggled in her opening match, but looked more comfortable today, defeating Ekaterina Maklakova of Russia 6-2, 6-3.  

No. 13 seed Madison Sieg also reached the third round with a win today, but it was a decidedly less routine win that the USC recruit posted over Annabelle Xu of Canada. Sieg had a point for 6-3, 5-1, didn't convert it and lost seven consecutive games to trail 2-0 in the third set.  Xu had a point to go up 4-1 in the third, didn't convert it and lost five consecutive games to give Sieg the 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 victory. The last game brought plenty of drama, with Sieg saving five break points before converting her second match point in the five-deuce game. 

No. 7 seed Dali Blanch and Aidan Mayo, the two US boys in second round, both lost. Bruno Kuzuhara, the No. 2 seed, and Victor Lilov played their first round matches today, and both won. The boys singles draw is here; the girls singles draw is here.

No. 2 seed and 2020 semifinalist Alexandra Eala of the Philippines lost to Matilda Mutavdzic of Great Britain 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-1 in the first round and No. 11 seed Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic, one of the pre-tournament favorites fell to Erika Andreeva of Russia 6-1, 7-6(4) in second round action. Fruhvirtova and Andreeva, both 16, have had success on the professional level since the restart, and the 76-minute second set of their match today was well-played and poised on the edge until the very last points.

The No. 4 seed in the boys draw lost his first round match today, with Jack Pinnington Jones of Great Britain losing to Maks Kasnikowski of Poland 6-3, 6-4.

The first round of both girls and boys doubles today produced several victories for Americans, with the No. 7 seeds Samir Banerjee and Ozan Colak advancing, as did Sieg and Ashlyn Krueger. Ellie Coleman and her partner Michaela Laki of Greece won, as did Lilov and his partner Peter Privara of Slovakia. Ethan Quinn and Coleman Wong of Hong Kong saved three match points in their 6-7(4), 6-4, 12-10 win over the French wild card team of Paul Inchauspe and Theo Papamalamis. No. 2 seeds Blanch and Alexander Bernard, who won two Grade 1s and the Grade A Banana Bowl doubles titles on South American clay this winter, lost to Marko Andrejic of Austria and Marko Topo of Serbia 7-5, 4-6, 10-7.

The remaining 14 first round doubles matches and four second round doubles matches will be played Tuesday, along with the 16 remaining second round singles matches.

Monday's second round junior results of Americans:

Madison Sieg[13] d. Annabelle Xu(CAN) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3
Sebastianna Scilipoti(SUI) d. Alexis Blokhina 6-4, 6-2
Luca Van Assche[13](FRA) d. Aidan Mayo 6-2.6-3
Robin Montgomery[5] d. Ekaterina Maklakova(RUS) 6-2, 6-3
Daniel Merida Aguilar(ESP) d. Dali Blanch[7] 6-3, 6-4

Tuesday's second round junior matches featuring Americans:

Ashlyn Krueger v Kristina Dmitruk[7](BLR)
Clervie Ngounoue v Diana Shnaider[4](RUS)
Bruno Kuzuhara[2] v Mili Poljicak(CRO)
Victor Lilov v Luca Nardi(ITA)

Three Americans claimed ITF Junior Circuit titles last week, one in singles and two in doubles. At the J4 in El Salvador, 16-year-old Mia Saveljic won her first ITF Junior Circuit title, with the unseeded New Yorker defeating qualifier Kennedy Gibbs of Texas 6-4, 6-3 in the final.  Joseph Phillips partnered with Lorenzo Esquici of Brazil to take the boys doubles title, Phillips' first ITF Junior Circuit title, with the No. 1 seeds defeating unseeded Kaeri Hernandez Mariona of Guatemala and Victor Tosetto of Brazil 6-1, 6-2 in the final. Esquici won the boys singles title.

At the J5 in Tajikistan, Victoria Sasinka won the girls doubles title, also her first on the ITF Junior Circuit, partnering with Raissa Petrovskaya of Kazakhstan. The top seeds defeated unseeded Shahnoza Marimova and Sabrina Olimjanova of Uzbekistan 7-6(3), 6-3 in the final. 

Tennis Recruiting Network released its 2021 women's recruiting class rankings, with Stanford the unanimous No. 1 for the first time in the history of the rankings. Stanford is followed by Texas A&M, Duke, Georgia and UCLA. For the complete list of the Top 25, plus more details on the top classes, see today's article.

1 comments:

Need an Update... said...

These class rankings need an update.

With so many players transferring, the recruiting rankings does not as seem accurate as before with which teams are improving with new players.

These Class ranking do not tell me all the teams who are improving - some of these schools get ranked high because they are bringing in 4 or 5 players.

Someone who could vote on both incoming Freshman & Transfers would have more benefit and relevance. The times are changing and so should the class rankings.