Brantmeier Beats No. 1 Seed Kiick at Vero Beach $25K; Kuzuhara, Shnaider Top Seeds at Traralgon J1; Nothing But US Boys at Costa Rica J1; Six Americans in Australian Open's Final Round of Qualifying, 30 in Main Draw

Seventeen-year-old qualifier Reese Brantmeier defeated top seed Allie Kiick 6-3, 1-6, 7-5 in today's second round at the $25,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Vero Beach Florida. Brantemeier, who last played a junior event at the US Open last year, reaching the doubles final, has had previous success against WTA Top 300 players, defeating No. 156 Katie Boulter of Great Britain in Indian Wells qualifying back in October, but she has to be pleased to begin the year with four victories on the Pro Circuit. Her opponent in Friday's quarterfinal is No. 7 seed Sophie Chang, who beat another 17-year-old qualifier, Eleana Yu, 3-6, 6-0, 6-4. No. 6 seed Elvina Kalieva(doubles partner of Brantmeier in New York) is the other teenager in the quarterfinals.

The draws are out for the J1 in Traralgon Australia, the warmup event to the Australian Open Junior Championships, which begins Friday (tonight in the US). Both 2021 Orange Bowl finalists are the No. 1 seeds: Bruno Kuzuhara and Diana Shnaider of Russia. The six US boys in the draw are Kuzuhara, Leanid Boika, Ozan Colak[12], Kurt Miller, Aidan Kim and qualifier Alex Michelsen. The four girls in the draw are No. 4 seed Clervie Ngounoue, Liv Hovde[11], Qavia Lopez[15] and Alexis Blokhina. 

The second round of the J1 Coffee Bowl in Costa Rica finished last night with the eighth American boy, wild card Nishesh Basavareddy, advancing to the quarterfinals, already guaranteeing a champion for the US.  Basavareddy plays top seed Cooper Williams; qualifier Learner Tien and No. 3 seed Nico Godsick play tonight; No. 5 seed Michael Zheng defeated Alex Razeghi 6-2, 6-4 this afternoon, with No. 7 seed Sebastian Gornzy defeating Jonah Braswell to advance to the semifinals.

The girls quarterfinals featured four Americans, but No. 8 seed Sonya Macavei is the only one to advance to the semifinals. She defeated qualifier Victoria Osuigwe 6-0, 6-4 and will play No. 7 seed Sayaka Ishii of Japan Friday. The other girls semifinals features Naomi Xu of Canada and No. 6 seed Luca Udvardy of Hungary. Xu beat Ahmani Guichard 6-2, 6-2 and Udvardy defeated No. 4 seed Mia Slama 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.

The final round of qualifying Friday at the Australian Open will feature six Americans. The results from Thursday are below, with the matchups for Friday (tonight in the US) following. 

Second round Thursday:

Roman Safiullin(RUS) d. Christopher Eubanks[31] 6-4, 1-6, 6-1

Liam Broady[10](GBR) d. JJ Wolf 3-6, 6-4, 6-4

Katie Volynets d. Andrea Lazaro Garcia(ESP) 6-2, 6-0

Emina Bektas d. Zoe Hives[WC](AUS) 7-5, 7-5

Lesia Tsurenko[6](UKR) d. Asia Muhammad 6-3, 7-5

Christina McHale d. Francesca Di Lorenzo 6-4, 6-3

Aliona Bolsova(ESP) d. Usue Arconada 6-4, 4-6, 6-4

Final round Friday(updated 8:30 a.m. Friday):

Mikhail Kukushkin(KAZ) d. Ernesto Escobedo 6-4, 5-7, 7-5

Katie Volynets d. Mirjam Bjorklund(SWE) 7-5, 6-2

Caroline Dolehide d. Julia Grabher(AUT) 7-6(5), 6-2

Hailey Baptiste d. Yue Yuan(CHN) 6-7(4), 7-6(5), 6-3

Emina Bektas d. Christina McHale 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(7)

The winner of the match between McHale and Bektas will join 15 other US women in the main draw, which was released Thursday.

Below are the matchups for the US women, before qualifiers are placed, of course. Fourteen US men are in the main draw, three of them seeded. Four US women are seeded. The draw links above are to a wordpress blog, which I find much easier to use than the draws provided on the Australian Open website. 

I will repost Monday's first round matchups for Americans once that schedule is available.

Australian Open first round matches featuring Americans:

Lauren Davis v Tereza Martincova(CZE)

Amanda Anisimova v qualifier

Madison Brengle v Dayana Yastremska(UKR)

Bernarda Pera v Ekaterina Alexandrova(RUS)

Jessica Pegula[21] v Anhelina Kalinina(UKR)

Claire Liu v Veronika Kudermetova[28](RUS)

Alison Riske v Donna Vekic(CRO)

Sofia Kenin[11] v Madison Keys

Coco Gauff[18] v Qiang Wang(CHN)

Shelby Rogers v Ana Konjuh(CRO)

Danielle Collins[27] v qualifier

Sloane Stephens v Emma Raducanu[17](GBR)

Robin Anderson[WC] v Samantha Stosur[WC}(AUS)

Ann Li v Xinyu Wang(CHN)

Tommy Paul v qualifier

Sam Querrey v Lorenzo Sonego[25](ITA)

Sebastian Korda v Cameron Norrie[12](GBR)

Stefan Kozlov[WC] v Jiri Vesely(CZE)

Brandon Nakashima v Matteo Berrettini[7](ITA)

Reilly Opelka[23] v Kevin Anderson(RSA)

Mackenzie McDonald v qualifier

Denis Kudla v Karen Khachanov[28](RUS)

Marcos Giron v Rafael Nadal[6](ESP)

Steve Johnson v Jordan Thompson(AUS)

Frances Tiafoe v qualifier

Taylor Fritz[20] v qualifier

John Isner[22] v Maxime Cressy

Riske, Gauff and Keys are through to the semifinals of the WTA 250 in Adelaide, with Riske playing Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia and Gauff and Keys playing each other. Opelka is through to the semifinals at the ATP 250 in Sydney, where he'll face Andy Murray in the semifinals.