Southern Cal Women Top 2022 Recruiting Class Rankings; Stringer Wins First J4 Title in Kenya, Four Doubles Titles for Americans on ITF Junior Circuit; J1 Underway in Paraguay; Juniors Advance in Naples $15K Qualifying

The first women's recruiting class rankings for 2022 were published at the Tennis Recruiting Network today, with the University of Southern California coming in at the top spot due to the commitments of Madison Sieg and Emma Charney. USC got eight of the 14 first place votes, with the other six votes distributed between Stanford, Texas A&M and Notre Dame. 

The top 10: USC, Stanford, Florida, Texas A&M, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Yale, North Carolina, Utah and Georgia.  North Carolina and Georgia made the Top 10 with just one player, with 2021 USTA National 18s finalist Reese Brantmeier verbally committing to the Tar Heels and former ITF Top 25 junior Dasha Vidmanova of the Czech Republic committing to the Bulldogs. Vidmanova is actually playing at Georgia now, so she's not technically supposed to be included here, but those eligibility determinations often change in the time it takes to collect and tabulate the votes.

The list of all 25 schools, plus more on those included for the first time, can be found here.

Last week's ITF Junior Circuit tournaments produced one singles title and four doubles titles for Americans.  Sixteen-year-old Tristan Stringer, playing in just his third ITF tournament, qualified and went on to win his first ITF junior title at the J4 in Kenya, beating Daniel Clivio of Italy 6-4, 6-4 in the final. Stringer, a blue chip from Florida, defeated three seeds in his six main draw victories, all of which came in straight sets. After reaching the semifinals in the previous week's J4, Stringer is now up to 455 in the ITF junior rankings, after being unranked to start the year.

At the J4 in Iran, Ilyas Fahim, who had swept the titles last week at a J4 there, added another doubles title this week with the same partner, Yunes Talavar of Iran. The No. 3 seeds defeated top seeds Amirali Ghavam and Kasra Rahmani of Iran 6-2, 6-3 in the final.

The J4 in Nepal produced another boys doubles title for Americans, this one for 16-year-olds Meethre Barot and Siddhartha Lama. Unseeded, the pair claimed their second ITF Junior Circuit doubles title with a 6-2, 6-2 win over unseeded Yakup Uzunel of Denmark and Cahir Warik of India. 

Two more doubles titles were earned at the J5 in Mexico. Unseeded Mason Robins and Canadian Kristian Thomas won the boys title, defeating Salvador Price and Alejandro Uribe Quintero of Colombia, also unseeded, 7-6(5), 6-4. It was the first ITF Junior Circuit title for both.  In the girls doubles final, 14-year-old Reese Calvo and 15-year-old Vessa Turley, who were unseeded, defeated No. 5 seeds Ximena Garzon Martinez and Mariana Reding of Mexico 7-5, 7-6(5). It is also the first ITF Junior Circuit title for them.

This week the ITF Junior Circuit in South America moves to the Grade 1 Asuncion Bowl in Paraguay. The Americans competing in the boys draw (both draws are 32, after being 48 the last time the tournament was played in 2020) are: Yannik Rahman[4], Leanid Boika[6], Kurt Miller[8], Alexander Razeghi and qualifier Marko Mesarovic. Miller and Razeghi lost their first round matches, Boika won his and the other two are playing Tuesday.

The American girls in Paraguay are: Alexis Blokhina[2], Daniella Ben-Abraham, wild card Andrea Martinez and qualifiers Mia Saveljic and Maya Iyengar. Ben-Abraham lost her first round match, the other four are playing Tuesday.

Luca Udvardy of Hungary and Peter Privara of Slovakia are the top seeds.

There are no women's Pro Circuit tournaments in the United States at all this week, and the men have just one, a $15,000 event in Naples Florida. (The ATP 250 Dallas Open is also this week). Qualifying for the Weston tournament began today and will conclude on Tuesday.  Three junior boys received main draw entry based on their Top 100 ITF junior rankings: Cooper Williams, Alexander Bernard and Preston Stearns. Kyle Kang received a wild card, as did 16-year-old Juan David Velazquez of Colombia, who will play ITF World No. 2 junior Jerry Shang of China in the first round.  

In first round qualifying today, Ethan Quinn defeated No. 4 seed Jakub Wojcik(South Florida) 7-5, 7-6(4), 16s Orange Bowl finalist Alexander Frusina defeated No. 8 seed Nicholas Bybel 4-6, 7-6(7), 11-9, UCLA signee Azuma Visaya defeated former NCAA Division II No. 1 KP Pannu(Columbus State), the No. 7 seed, 7-5, 6-0 and Sebastian Sec, a Princeton recruit, blanked alternate Kyle Overmeyer.  Wild card Fnu "Top" Nidunjianzan of China, another Princeton recruit, defeated top seed Justin Roberts(South Florida/ASU) of the Bahamas 6-2, 6-4.