Draxl, Inoue Win $15Ks in Cancun; Eastern Kentucky Reinstates Tennis; Pouatcha Takes Title at Costa Rica J5; USTA Claims America's Cup 14U Team Event; Lugones, Ahn Receive ATP, WTA Year-End Awards

After a busy fortnight at the Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl, I have a couple of days until the Junior Orange Bowl begins in Miami, giving me a chance to review other tennis results from last week.

The USTA Pro Circuit is done for the year, but Americans continue to travel, many to Mexico, to compete in ITF World Tennis Tour events. 

At the $15,000 events in Cancun, University of Kentucky junior Liam Draxl won his first ITF World Tennis Tour men's tournament and 18-year-old Hina Inoue earned her first ITF World Tennis Tour women's title. Draxl, a 20-year-old Canadian, seeded seventh, defeated top seed Christian Langmo(Miami) 6-7(4), 7-6(5), 7-6(5) in three hours and 29 minutes Sunday.

Inoue, who is being privately coached by Pat Harrison in Bradenton, has played only $15Ks this year, although she is still eligible to compete in junior events in 2021. After reaching the semifinals at the $15K in Cancun the week before, No. 6 seed Inoue defeated top seed Victoria Rodriguez of Mexico in the quarterfinals, then took out No. 3 seed Pamela Montez(UCLA) of the United States in the semifinals. In the final, she faced Madison Sieg, the 18-year-old USC signee, who entered based on her ITF world junior ranking, currently at 24. Like Inoue, Sieg, a semifinalist in an October $15K in Cancun, was contesting her first final, with Inoue coming out on top 6-2, 6-2.

Good news on the college tennis front, with Eastern Kentucky reinstating both its men's and women's tennis programs beginning next fall. Tennis Recruiting Network has the details in this article.

Paris Pouatcha reached the Eddie Herr 16s doubles final, with Tanner Povey two weeks ago. The pair split for the next week, with Povey winning the Orange Bowl 16s title with Andrew Delgado, while the 15-year-old Pouatcha headed for the ITF J5 in Costa Rica, where he took the singles title, his first on the ITF Junior Circuit. The unseeded Pouatcha beat the top three seeds en route to the title, although he didn't have to hit a ball in the final against No. 1 seed Julian Lozano of Costa Rica, who retired.

Calvin Wang won the boys doubles title with Cesar Cruz of El Salvador. The unseeded pair defeated top seeds Amor Jaskia of Australian and Wil Jenkins of Great Britain 6-7(0), 6-4, 12-10 in the final. It's the first ITF Junior Circuit title for the 15-year-old Wang.

Max Dussault, Joseph Oyebog Jr., Max Exsted, Jon Glover, Carel Ngounoue
(photo via Facebook)

The USTA holds a team tournament for 14 and under boys at its  National Campus between the Eddie Herr and the Junior Orange Bowl called the America's Cup. This year the United States took the title, beating South America 7-2, Central America 8-1, and in the final, Canada 5-4. USTA National Coach Jon Glover served as team captain. The boys are identified left to right, in the caption of the photo below.

The ATP and WTA have begun announcing their year-end awards and two former collegians were honored for 2021.  Former Stanford star Kristie Ahn received the WTA's Peachy Kellmeyer Player Service Award, an award voted on by her peers on the Tour, for the second time. 

Facundo Lugones, who played for TCU from 2012-15, was named ATP Coach of the Year for his role in the rise of former teammate Cam Norrie. Teammates for the 2014-15 season, Norrie, from Great Britain, and Lugones, from Argentina, have been working together since 2017, with Norrie starting the year at 277 and ending it at 114. Steady progress in the next three years earned him a place in the Top 100, and in 2021 Norrie went from 71 at the end of last year to a career-high of 12 now.  For more on Lugones' career path (he is just 29 years old), see this article from the ATP.