Kuzuhara Earns ITF's Top Junior Ranking; Biggest Women's Pro Tennis Tournament of the Week Underway in Georgia; Sandgren Tops Field at Cleveland Challenger; Historic Juniors from Kenya and Iran

After becoming the first boy to sweep the Australian Open Junior titles since Czech Jiri Vesely in 2011, Bruno Kuzuhara has moved into the top spot this week in the ITF Junior Circuit rankings. Kuzuhara, who finished the year at No. 4 in the rankings and moved up to No. 2 when the 2003 birth years were dropped at year end, is now 88 points ahead of Juncheng Jerry Shang of China. Shang, 668 in the ATP rankings has said he is unlikely to play anymore junior events, although he has two more years of eligibility. Kuzuhara is the first American boy to reach No. 1 in the ITF junior rankings since Sebastian Korda, who rose to that position after he won the Australian Open in 2018.

Ozan Colak has moved to a career-high of 12 after reaching the quarterfinals in Melbourne, and with his J1 title last week in Ecuador, Nicholas Godsick is at a career-high of 25.  Liv Hovde, who made the Australian Open semifinals, has reached the Top 10 for the first time, moving to No. 8, and AO girls doubles champion Clervie Ngounoue has returned to her career-high of No. 10.

There are three ATP 250s this week in Argentina, India and France, but there are no WTA tournaments and few ITF World Tennis Tour tournaments for women. The one with the most prize money this week is in Rome Georgia, where a $60,000 tournament on indoor hard is taking place. 

Qualifying concluded today, with Louisa Chirico, Whitney Osuigwe, Dalayna Hewitt and Sophie Chang the four Americans to earn a spot in the main draw. Ravenna Kingsley also made the main draw as a lucky loser. Two former collegians also advanced: Georgia's 2019 NCAA singles finalist Katarina Jokic of Serbia and Texas freshman Lulu Sun of Switzerland, who opted not to return to the Longhorns for her sophomore year. 

The top seed is Renata Zarazua of Mexico, with a WTA ranking of 130, who will play Jokic in the first round.  Olga Govortsova of Belarus in the No. 2 seed. Wild cards were given to Emina Bektas(Michigan), Robin Montgomery, Alycia Parks and University of Virginia sophomore Emma Navarro. Navarro has drawn Govortsova in the first round. Bektas and Montgomery played their first round match today, with Bektas recording a 7-6(6), 6-3 victory.  

The Cleveland Open, an ATP Challenger 80, began Monday, with Tennys Sandgren(Tennessee), the top seed, getting by Christian Harrison 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-6(3) in two hours and 40 minutes. No. 2 seed Andreas Seppi of Italy wasn't as fortunate today, with the 37-year-old Italian falling to 19-year-old Dominik Stricker, the 2020 French Open boys champion from Switzerland, 6-4, 6-4. Wild cards were given to three former collegiate stars: Aleks Kovacevic(Illinois), Keegan Smith(UCLA) and Will Blumberg(North Carolina). Kovacevic and Smith lost their first round matches to Michael Mmoh and Ernesto Escobedo; Blumberg, playing in his first pro singles match since last July, came from 4-1 down in the third set to defeat qualifier Roberto Quiroz(USC) of Ecuador 6-4, 6-7(7), 6-4. Qualifiers who have advanced to the second round are Emilio Nava and former NC State star Alexis Galarneau of Canada. 

One of the most interesting stories to come out of the Australian Open Junior Championships was the history made by Angella Okutoyi of Kenya and Meshkatolzahra Safi of Iran. Okutoyi, who reached the third round, was the first girl from Kenya to win a junior slam match, while Safi, who reached the second round, was the first junior from Iran to ever play a match at a junior slam. Greg Garber talked to both players for this WTA website article; although I am not familiar with either girl, I did speak with Garber about the trend of junior tennis excellence emerging from unlikely places, and am quoted in the article.

Okutoyi returned home to Kenya today, and was welcomed back as the groundbreaking figure she is. See this ITF Junior Circuit article for the details.