Anderson Confirmed as USTA's Australian Open Wild Card Recipient; Orange Bowl 16s Acceptances; Covid Rules for International Players Traveling to US; Evans Wins Grade 3 Title in Canada

Robin Anderson may have lost to Madison Brengle in the final of the WTA 125 Dow Tennis Classic yesterday in Midland, but she came away from the event with the biggest prize of the women's fall season in the US: the Australian Open wild card.

The USTA announced today that the former UCLA All-American had won its annual Australian Open Wild Card Challenge, with the 95 points she earned for reaching the Midland final giving her an insurmountable lead.

Anderson, a 28-year-old from New Jersey, will make her slam debut in Melbourne in 2022. She has played slam qualifying 14 times since graduating in 2015 and has never reached the final round, going 4-14 in qualifying matches at the slam level.

The men's standings after two weeks, with two more to go: 

1. Stefan Kozlov -- 128
2. JJ Wolf -- 109
3. Michael Mmoh -- 29
4. Aleks Kovacevic -- 29
5. Thai-Son Kwiatkowski -- 22

Both Kozlov and Wolf are playing this week's ATP Challenger 80 in Knoxville, as are the other three Americans in the Top 5. Qualifying in Knoxville wrapped up today and first round action has begun. JC Aragone(Virginia) and Donald Young were the two Americans to qualify. Tennys Sandgren, the former Tennessee Volunteer, in the top seed; wild cards were given to Emilio Nava, Kovacevic(Illinois) and Tennessee senior Adam Walton of Australia. Free live streaming is available here.

The Orange Bowl acceptances for the 16s division were posted over the weekend, with three of the four top boys entries(by ITF ranking) Americans: Alexander Frusina, Quang Duong and Nikita Filin. Amir Mulishev of Uzbekistan is international player in the top four.  In the girls acceptances, Yichen (Cindy) Zhao of China leads the entries, with Kaitlin Quevedo the only American in the top four. France's Maelie Monfils, the half-sister of Gael Monfils, and Vladislava Andreevskaya of Kyrgyzstan the other two international players in the top four.

Links to the complete lists can be found on this page.

The ITF sent out a notice today regarding Covid requirements for international players traveling to the United States for the upcoming J1 Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl. Although this is information for these two ITF tournaments, the protocols are based on US policy and will likely impact all juniors coming to any of the international tournaments here.

From the notice from the ITF:

From Monday 8 November 2021, foreign nationals aged 18 or over may enter the United States with proof of full vaccination and a negative Covid test. Unvaccinated foreign nationals aged 18 or over will not be allowed to enter the United States. Children aged 17 or under are permitted entry but must provide evidence of a negative Covid-19 viral test taken no more than 1 day before the flight’s departure from a foreign country. National Interest Exemptions (NIEs) are not applicable to the J1 Bradenton 2021 and JA Plantation 2021.

 

I don't think there will be a lot of 18-year-old international players coming to those two events, as they have frequently opted out of the last few tournaments of their junior careers, but if they do make the trip to Florida, they will need to be vaccinated.

There were seven titles won by Americans on the ITF Junior Circuit last week, not counting the J4 in Boca Raton, where results of the singles finals were never posted, after a day of rain on the Friday they were scheduled to occur. 

The biggest title went to USTA 16s National champion Tatum Evans, who won the singles title at the J3 in Burlington Canada. Evans, the No. 2 seed, defeated No. 8 seed Ellie Daniels of Canada 7-5, 6-4 in the final. Nicholas Godsick reached the finals of both the singles and doubles. 

Americans swept the singles titles at the J4 in El Salvador, with Ria Bhakta and Meecah Bigun prevailing. Bhakta defeated unseeded Katie Rolls 6-1, 6-1 for her second career singles title on the ITF Junior Circuit. Bigun, the No. 2 seed, defeated top seed Alejandro Licea of El Salvador by the same score in the boys final, also earning his second career singles title. 

In the girls doubles, the unseeded pair of Rolls and Maya Iyengar defeated No. 2 seeds Deborah Dominguez Collado and Natalia Vela Zangroniz of Guatemala 6-4, 7-5 in the final. In the boys doubles, Jacob Olar and his partner Thanaphat Boosarawongse of Thailand won the title, with the unseeded pair defeating No. 3 seeds Juan David Duque Ramirez of Colombia and Piero Fernandez Moreno of Chile 2-6, 6-2, 10-3 in the final. 

At the J4 in Kenya, Stefan Regalia and his partner Joshua Nuyts of Belgium, the No. 6 seeds, defeated No. 3 seeds Julius Augunas of Lithuania and Tiago Pereira of Portugal 6-4, 1-6, 10-6 in the final.  

And at the J4 in Zimbabwe, Aayush Bhat and his partner Aman Dahiya won their second doubles title in as many weeks, with the top seeds defeating No. 2 seeds Anro Nel of South Africa and Lucas Phanthala of France 7-6(5), 6-7(7), 11-9 in the final. 

At the J2 in Bolivia, Mia Slama, the No. 3 seed, reached the final, losing to No. 7 seed Nikola Daubnerova of Slovakia 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.