ITF JB1 Easter Bowl Acceptances; Fifteen-year-olds Urhobo, Reed Advance at Naples $15K; Shelton, Frayman Top ITA Singles Rankings; Shang Qualifies for BNP Paribas Open

The acceptances were released today for the ITF JB1 Easter Bowl, which is back in Indian Wells this year and scheduled to run from Monday March 28 through Sunday April 3. 

Twelve ITF Top 100 boys, all from the United States, and ten Top 100 girls, two of whom are not playing for the US, are in as of today. The tournament is open only to players from the United States, while those who meet other immigration standards are also allowed to compete (see this USTA.com page for more on those standards).

University of Georgia red shirt freshman Ethan Quinn, who reached the final at last year's Easter Bowl held in San Diego, has entered, as have Nishesh Basavareddy, Cooper Williams, Nicholas Godsick and Michael Zheng. Basavareddy had also entered the San Diego J1 the week before, but withdrew, as did Williams. 

The girls entries feature a surprise, with USTA 18s Nationals finalist Reese Brantmeier, who has not played a junior event since the US Open last summer, among the acceptances. The 17-year-old Brantmeier, currently 525 in the WTA rankings, lost in the third round of the Easter Bowl in San Diego last year, after making the final of the J1 the week before.

Liv Hovde will defend her title; Qavia Lopez, Alexis Blokhina and Sonya Macavei are other top 50 US girls in the draw; Madeleine Jessup, now playing for Taiwan, and Gabriella Broadfoot of South Africa are the two Top 100 girls from outside the US.

Teenagers were the story in the first round of this week's $15,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Naples Florida. Fifteen-year-old Akasha Urhobo, playing her first pro event this week after receiving a qualifying wild card, won her first round match today, beating No. 8 seed Bianca Fernandez of Canada, the younger sister of Leylah Fernandez, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.  Wild card Lexington Reed, also 15, earned her fourth ITF women's World Tennis Tour win today, defeating Lia Karatancheva of Bulgaria 7-6(5), 6-4. 

Qavia Lopez won her first round match yesterday, beating No. 4 seed Connie Hsu (Penn) of Taiwan 6-4, 6-0. Other teens advancing to the second round include Americans Madison Sieg,  Rachel Gailis, Hina Inoue[5], Israel's Mika Dagan Fruchtman[6], Anastasia Sysoeva and Japan's Mao Mushika. Mushika, a qualifier, defeated No. 2 seed Jenny Duerst of Switzerland 7-5, 2-6, 7-5 in just over three hours today. 

The latest Division I rankings are out for both teams and individuals. The undefeated North Carolina women remain at the top of both the ITA computer rankings and USTA/Tennis Channel poll this week, while Tennessee returns to No. 1 in the men's rankings after last week's No. 1, TCU, lost to Michigan. After that win Michigan moved all the way from 26 to 11 in the ITA rankings, while Georgia also had a notable jump, going from 22 to 8. The poll tends to be less volatile than the ITA computer this early in the season. 

In the women's computer rankings, Duke's win over Virginia helped the Blue Devils move from 9 to 5. Georgia is still way lower than they should be in the computer rankings, but they have moved from 36 to 23. Other teams with big jumps farther down the rankings are Washington, going from 33 to 17 and Alabama going from 41 to 19. One of the big disagreements right now between the computer and the poll is with Texas A&M, which is No. 6 according to the voters and No. 11 according to the computer.

ITA Men's Division I Team Top 10, March 9, 2022

(previous week's ranking in parentheses)

1. Tennessee (2)

2. Ohio State (3)

3. TCU (1)

4. Florida (5)

5. Baylor (4)

6. Wake Forest (7)

7. South Carolina (6)

8. Georgia (22)

9. Southern Cal (10)

10. Stanford (8)

USTA/Tennis Channel Men's Top 10 March 9, 2022

1. Tennessee (2)

2. Ohio State (3)

3. TCU (1)

4. Baylor (4)

5. Florida (5)

6. Wake Forest (6)

7. South Carolina (7)

8. Stanford (8)

9. Georgia (12)

10. Virginia (11)

ITA Women's Division I Team Top 10, March 9, 2022

1. UNC (1)

2. North Carolina State (2)

3. Oklahoma (3)

4. Ohio State (4)

5. Duke (9)

6. Pepperdine (6)

7. Oklahoma State (7)

8. Texas (5)

9. Auburn (11)

10. Cal (10)

USTA/Tennis Channel Women's Top 10, March 9, 2022

1. North Carolina (1)

2. Oklahoma (2)

3. NC State (3)

4. Ohio State (5)

5. Texas (6)

6. Texas A&M (7)

7. Duke (11)

8. Pepperdine (10)

9. Virginia (4)

10. Georgia (8)

In the singles rankings, Daria Frayman of Princeton and Ben Shelton of Florida have taken over the No. 1 spots. Ohio State's Robert Cash and Matej Vocel remain at the top of the men's doubles rankings, while Elizabeth Scotty and Fiona Crawley have moved into the No. 1 position in women's doubles. Full ranking lists can be viewed by clicking on the headings.

ITA Division I Women's Singles Top 10, March 9, 2022

1. Daria Frayman, Princeton

2. Sarah Hamner, South Carolina

3. Alexa Noel, Iowa

4. Irina Cantos Siemers, Ohio State

5. Emma Navarro, Virginia  (up from 28)

6. Eryn Cayetano, Southern Cal

7. Peyton Stearns, Texas

8. Chloe Beck, Duke

9. Cameron Morra, North Carolina

10. Reilly Tran, North Carolina

Division I Women's Doubles Top 5, March 9, 2022

1 Fiona Crawley/Elizabeth Scotty, North Carolina

2. Tatsiana Sasnouskaya/Yulia Starodubtseva, Old Dominion

3. Jayci Goldsmith/Tatiana Makarova, Texas A&M

4. Carmen Corley/Ivana Corley, Oklahoma

5. Alicia Herrero Linana/Melany Krywoj, Baylor

ITA Division I Men's Singles Top 10, March 9, 2022

1. Ben Shelton, Florida

2. Arthur Fery, Stanford

3. Clement Chidekh, Washington

4. Johannus Monday, Tennessee

5. Matej Vocel, Ohio State

6. August Holmgren, San Diego

7. Stefan Dostanic, Southern Cal

8. Cannon Kingsley, Ohio State

9. Alex Kotzen, Columbia

10. Gabriel Diallo, Kentucky

ITA Division I Men's Doubles Top 5, March 9, 2022

1. Robert Cash/Matej Vocel, Ohio State

2. Lukas Engelhardt/Finn Reynolds, Mississippi

3. Justin Boulais/James Trotter, Ohio State

4. Sander Jong/Lui Maxted, TCU

5. Lui Maxted/Pedro Vives Marcos, TCU

At the BNP Paribas Open today, ITF World Junior Champion Juncheng Jerry Shang of China qualified for the main draw, beating Mats Moraing of Germany 6-3 retired. The 17-year-old left-hander, who made his ATP main draw debut last month in Rio, will now compete in his first main draw match in a Masters series tournament. Americans JJ Wolf(Ohio State) and Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech) also qualified today. Eubanks defeated No. 2 seed Joao Sousa of Portugal 7-6(4), 7-6(4) and Wolf beat No. 11 seed Daniel Elahi Galan of Colombia 7-6(3), 6-2.

In women's main draw action, wild cards Robin Montgomery and Elivina Kalieva lost their matches, with Montgomery falling to Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 6-3, 6-3 and Kalieva losing a tough one to Ekaterina Alexandrova 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(7). Wild card Claire Liu did advance, beating qualifier Viktoriya Tomova of Bulgaria 7-6(2), 6-4.