Sieg, Crawford Advance to Naples $15K Final; Epps Wins ITF J3 in Cancun; Wolf, Korda Lose Heartbreakers at Indian Wells

Eighteen-year-old Madison Sieg advanced to her second final on the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour today, coming back to defeat 16-year-old Qavia Lopez 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 this morning at the $15,000 USTA Pro circuit tournament in Naples Florida. Sieg, who reached her first final last December in Cancun, losing to Hina Inoue, will face 27-year-old qualifier Samantha Crawford for the title.  

Crawford, who defeated Inoue 6-4, 1-6, 6-1, last made a final on the Pro Circuit in 2015 and did not compete on it again from 2017 until this year. The 2012 US Open girls champion, Crawford will be looking for her second career professional singles title, having won a $50,000 tournament in November 2015 for her first.

After playing in the singles semifinals, Sieg and Lopez partnered in the doubles final against Latvia's Liga Dekmeijere and Maria Kononova. Rain interrupted the match for more than three hours before the first set was complete; when it resumed, the teenagers came up just short, falling 7-6(0), 3-6, 19-17.

The 14 ITF Junior Circuit events this week produced three American champions, with two of them coming at the Grade 3 in Cancun Mexico.

Top seed Gracie Epps took the singles title, defeating No. 5 seed Alexia Harmon 6-1, 6-3 in the all-American final. The 17-year-old Epps, who has verbally committed to Georgia for 2023, now has two ITF Junior Circuit singles title, both J3s in Cancun, with the first earned last summer.

Unseeded 15-year-old Rei Sakamoto of Japan won his third straight title in the last three weeks in boys singles, defeating No. 6 seed Francisco Sinopoli of Venezuela 6-4, 7-5 in the final. Sakamoto, a semifinalist in B16s at the Eddie Herr last December, won the J5 last month in Monterrey and the J3 last week in Tampico. 

In the all-unseeded girls doubles final in Cancun, Susana Souhrada and partner Natalia Castaneda Guerrero of Mexico defeated Monika Wojcik and her partner Amelie Hejtmanek of Germany 7-6(4), 5-7, 10-7. It's the first ITF Junior Circuit title for the 16-year-old Souhrada.

At the Grade 3 in Argentina, No. 5 seed Sage Loudon reached the singles final, falling to wild card Luisina Giovannini of Argentina 6-4, 6-3. Giovannini also won the doubles title.

The third American to win an ITF Junior Circuit title this week is 15-year-old Maya Dutta, who won the girls doubles championship at the Grade 4 in El Salvador, her first on the ITF Junior Circuit. Dutta and her partner Valeska San Martin Ramirez of Ecuador, the No. 2 seeds, defeated unseeded Annette Robertson and Anna Maria Fedotova of the Dominican Republic 6-3, 6-4 in the final. 

Junior Orange Bowl 14s champion Alejandro Arcila of Colombia won his second consecutive J4 singles title in El Salvador, with the unseeded 14-year-old defeating No. 7 seed Henrique Costanzi De Brito of Brazil 6-2, 6-1 in the final. 

Although there were some bright spots today for Americans at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, with No. 17 seed Reilly Opelka advancing to the third round with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Lorenzo Musetti of Italy and Shelby Rogers taking out No. 10 seed Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 7-5, 7-6(7), most of the talk of centered on two losses by young American men.

Qualifier JJ Wolf served for the match at 5-4 in the third set against No. 15 seed Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain and had two match points, but the former Ohio State Buckeye failed to convert them and he lost 6-3, 6-7(3), 7-6(5) after three hours and 17 minutes on court.

Sebastian Korda was up two breaks in the third set in his second round match with No. 4 seed Rafael Nadal, but he could not get to match point when serving for it at either 5-2 and 5-4 and Nadal took advantage, roaring back for a 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(3) victory to keep his undefeated streak this year intact. 

For more on Nadal's comeback, see this article from the ATP.