Draws for San Diego J1 Posted, Qualifying Underway; Jovic, Frusina and Clemens Claim ITF Junior Circuit Singles Titles; Ngounoue in $15K Final; Kudla Beats Wolf, Faces Altmaier for Phoenix Challenger Title; Fritz Advances to BNP Paribas Final

In a departure from previous years, the draw for the ITF Grade 1 in San Diego has been posted, prior to the completion of the qualifying, which began today at the Barnes Tennis Center. 

The seeds are as follows:

Girls:
1. Liv Hovde (USA)
2. Johanne Svendesen (DEN)
3. Qavia Lopez (USA)
4. Sayaka Ishii (JPN)
5. Alexis Blokhina (USA)
6. Sonya Macavei (USA)
7. Madeleine Jessup (TPE)
8. Ahmani Guichard (USA)
9. Ava Krug (USA)
10. Natacha Schou (DEN)
11. Gabriella Broadfoot (RSA)
12. Reese Carter (CAN)
13. Tatum Evans (USA)
14. Lara Smejkal (SLO)
15. Elisabeth Jones (USA)
16. Daniella Ben-Abraham (USA)

Boys:

1. Ethan Quinn (USA)

2. Nicholas Godsick (USA)

3. Michael Zheng (USA)

4. Jaden Weekes (CAN)

5. Sebastian Gorzny (USA)

6. Aidan Kim (USA)

7. Alex Michelsen (USA)

8. Jonah Braswell (USA)

9. Joao Fonseca (BRA)

10. Alexander Razeghi (USA)

11. Aayush Bhat (USA)

12. Learner Tien (USA)

13. Preston Stearns (USA)

14. Rei Sakamoto (JPN)

15. John Kim (USA)

16. Zane Ford (USA)

I had access to only a portion of the wild card list for the preview I wrote for Tennis Recruiting Network; the other four boys given wild cards are Rudy Quan, Max Exsted, Mitchell Lee and Kyle Kang. The three additional girls wild cards are Kate Kim, Erica Jessel and Tyra Grant.

The top two boys seeds have gotten tough draws, with Quinn, who lost 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(4) to Australian Rinky Hijikata(UNC) tonight in the semifinals of the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Bakersfield, playing San Diego's Rohan Murali. Murali pushed Easter Bowl champion and ITF World Junior champion Juncheng Shang to three sets in the third round of the Easter Bowl as a wild card last year.  Godsick has drawn Fnu Nidunjianzan of China, the Princeton recruit who just won the J4 in Las Vegas today. Another marquee match will feature Michelsen, who reached the quarterfinals in Bakersfield this week, and Kang.

Hovde has drawn a qualifier; two matches stood out to me in the girls draw: Krug versus Kim, the Eddie Herr/Orange Bowl champion and Macavei versus Ariana Pursoo.

Three Americans won singles titles today on the ITF Junior Circuit, with 14-year-old Iva Jovic getting the title at the J4 in Las Vegas, after two losses in finals last fall. Jovic, the No. 10 seed, defeated wild card Tianmei Wang 6-2, 6-3 for her first ITF Junior Circuit title.  Unseeded Natalie Block and Piper Charney won the girls doubles title, defeating No. 8 seeds Shannon Lam and Morgan Pyrz 6-7(5), 6-2, 11-9.

Nidunjianzan swept the boys titles in Las Vegas, with the No. 7 seed beating No. 11 seed Cooper Woestendick 6-4, 6-4 in the singles final. Nidunjianzan and Adhithya Ganesan, the No. 4 seeds, defeated unseeded AJ Abarca of the Philippines and Jon Gamble 6-1, 6-2 in Friday's doubles final.

At the J2 in the Dominican Republic, Alex Frusina won his first title above a Grade 5 today, with the No. 4 seed defeating No. 3 seed Luis Carlos Alvarez Valdes of Mexico 6-2, 6-2 in the final. Preston Stearns and his partner from Colombia, Nicolas Nino Mendoza won the doubles title, with the unseeded pair defeating another unseeded team, Idriss Haddouch of Belgium and Patrick Schoen of Switzerland, 6-4, 7-6(7) in the final. 

Seventeen-year-old Jayna Clemens, seeded No. 3, won her first ITF Junior Circuit singles title at the J4 in Puerto Rico, defeating unseeded 14-year-old Lauren Kettlewell 7-5, 6-2 in the all-USA final. Clemens also reached the doubles final. No. 8 seed Cyrus Mahjoob reached the boys singles final, falling to No. 6 seed Daniel Phillips of Bermuda 6-7(6), 7-6(5), 6-4.

Another junior is having success on the ITF World Tennis Tour this week at a women's tournament in Morocco. Fifteen-year-old Clervie Ngounoue, who hasn't played a junior event since the Australian Open, is through to the singles and doubles finals of the $15,000 tournament. Ngounoue reached the quarterfinals of two $15Ks last month in Tunisia and won a doubles title, but this is her first appearance in a singles final. She will face 19-year-old qualifier Eleonora Alvisi of Italy for the singles title, then will play in the doubles final with 18-year-old partner Lucija Ciric Bagaric of Croatia. 

At the Bakersfield $25K, Hijikata's opponent in the final is still yet to be determined after rain caused a delay early in the third set of his win over Quinn. Keegan Smith(UCLA) and Adrian Andreev of Bulgaria have just started their semifinal.

Denis Kudla will play for the singles and doubles titles Sunday at the ATP Challenger 125 in Phoenix. Kudla, who was an alternate into the field, defeated JJ Wolf(Ohio State )6-7(3), 6-4, 7-6(3) in today's semifinal, hitting 16 aces in the match. Wolf had 21 aces, but went 0-7 on break points and made several costly errors after 3-3 in the third set tiebreaker, including a double fault.  Kudla will play Daniel Altmaier of Germany, another alternate, who beat Liam Broady of Great Britain 7-6(5), 7-5 in the other semifinal. 

Kudla and Treat Huey(Virginia) defeated Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M) and Hans Hach Verdugo(Abilene Christian) 5-7, 7-5, 10-8 to advance to the doubles final.

Taylor Fritz won the Easter Bowl ITF Grade B1 title at Indian Wells back in 2015, and he will have an opportunity to win another Sunday when he plays for the BNP Paribas Masters 1000 men's singles championship. Fritz, the No. 20 seed, defeated No. 7 seed Andrey Rublev 7-5, 6-4 in today's semifinals to become the first American man to make the final at Indian Wells since Roger Federer beat John Isner in 2010. He will play the winner of tonight's match between Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal.