My Eight Intriguing Questions for 2022; ITA Kickoff Weekend Underway; Hance and Ngounoue Meet Saturday in Les Petits As Semifinals

Because the singles finals of the Australian Open Junior Championships will not conclude until very late tonight, I'll be doing a separate post much later on the girls final between top seed Petra Marcinko of Croatia and No. 8 seed Sofia Costoulas of Belgium and the boys final featuring top seed Bruno Kuzuhara and No. 4 seed Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic. 

In case you missed my update earlier today, Clervie Ngounoue and Kuzuhara won doubles titles overnight. No. 2 seeds Kuzuhara and Coleman Wong of Hong Kong defeated the unseeded team of Adolfo Daniel Vallejo of Paraguay and Alex Michelsen 6-3, 7-6(3). Ngounoue and Russia's Diana Shnaider claimed the girls doubles title, beating unseeded Kayla Cross and Victoria Mboko of Canada 6-4, 6-3. 

My annual Eight Intriguing Questions column is up today at Tennis Recruiting Network, and as usual, I look at some big picture items that will affect college and junior tennis, while also focusing on a couple of individual players who are poised for a big 2022.

The ITA Kickoff Weekend is underway with eight of the 15 women's regionals playing today and two of the men's. Below are the Friday matches/results, with the hosts in bold. The winners of today's matches play tomorrow to determine who will advance to the National Team Indoor Championships next month. The men's tournament is in Washington February 18-21 and the women's tournament is in Wisconsin February 11-14. You can follow all the action here.

Women:
Texas[1] d. Florida Atlantic[4] 4-0

SMU[3] d. Rice[2] 4-2

Virginia[1] d. James Madison[4] 4-0
Stanford[2] d. Arkansas[3] 4-2

UCLA[1] d. Cal Poly[4] 4-0
Washington[2] d. Denver[3] 4-3

Cal[1] d. BYU[4] 4-0
Vanderbilt[2] d. San Diego[3] 4-1

Georgia[1] d. North Florida[4] 4-0
Mississippi State[3] d. Iowa[2] 4-1

Baylor[1] d. Kansas[4] 4-1
Southern Cal[3] d. Miami[2] 4-3

Central Florida[1] d. UC-Santa Barbara[4] 4-2
Auburn[2] d. Arizona State[3] 4-3

North Carolina[1] d. UNC-Charlotte[4] 4-0
Tulsa[3] d. Oregon[2] 4-2

MEN:
Tennessee[1] d. Old Dominion[4] 4-0
Memphis[2] d. Western Michigan[3] 4-2

Wake Forest[1] d. Michigan[4] 4-3
Notre Dame[2] d. SMU[3] 4-3

Carel Ngounoue, the younger brother of Australian Open girls doubles champion Clervie, is having his own week to remember in Tarbes France. The No. 10 seed defeated No. 2 seed Ivan Ivanov of Bulgaria 6-4, 6-3 today in the quarterfinals of Les Petits As, and also advanced to Saturday's doubles final.

Ngounoue's opponent in the semifinals is unseeded American Keaton Hance, who defeated wild card Yanhong Li of China 6-1, 6-1. The other semifinal will feature No. 3 seed Thijs Boogaard of the Netherlands and unseeded Matei Todoran of Romania. Boogaard blanked No. 5 seed Yannick Alexandrescou of Romania 6-0, 6-0, while Torodan beat No. 15 seed Tito Chavez of Ecuador 7-6(5), 7-5. 

Ngounoue and Boogaard, the top seeds in doubles, reached the final with a 6-3, 6-7(5), 10-7 win over the unseeded team of Hance and Ford McCollum.  They will play another unseeded team, Diego Dedura-Palomero and Niels McDonald of Germany, who beat No. 2 seeds Lenny Petit of France and Jamie Mackenzie of New Zealand 6-2, 2-6, 10-7.

Great Britain's Hannah Klugman, who reached the semifinals last year, is back in the final four, with the failure to seed her as much of a mystery now as it was before the tournament began. Klugman defeated unseeded Nadia Lagaev of Canada 6-2, 6-1 and will face No. 5 seed Polina Kuharenko of Belarus, who beat No. 2 seed Laura Samsonova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-3.

Top seed Alena Kovackova of the Czech Republic defeated No. 6 seed Alisa Oktiabreva of Russia 6-4, 6-4 to set up a semifinal against No. 3 seed Julia Stusek of Germany. Stusek downed No. 10 seed Ada Kumru of Turkey 6-3, 2-6, 6-2.

The girls doubles final will feature top seeds Samsonova and Stusek against No. 3 seeds Oktiabreva and Slovakia's Sona Depesova.

Live scoring is here and live streaming is here.