All-US Semifinals at ITF J4 in Plantation; Four Teens Advance to Quarterfinals at Daytona Beach $25K; US Teams Perfect on First Day of North/Central America ITF Team Qualifying; Big Ten Women's Awards Announced

The semifinals are set at the ITF J4 in Plantation Florida this week, with both boys and girls champions now guaranteed to be an American. The highest seed remaining in either draw is Jordan Reznik at No. 4; he faces No. 9 seed Abhishek Thorat in the boys top half semifinal. In the bottom half, No. 6 seed Elias Shokry will take on unseeded Amar Tahirovic, who defeated No. 2 seed Felipe Pinzon Moreno in the second round. 

The only seed remaining in the girls draw is 14-year-old Ameia Sorey, who is No. 16. She will play 15-year-old Tianmei Wang in the bottom half semifinal. The top half semifinal features 15-year-old wild card Akasha Urhobo against 14-year-old qualifier Alanis Hamilton, who beat No. 3 seed Valeria Ray in the first round and has now won seven matches since last Saturday.

At the $25,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Daytona Beach Florida, four of the eight quarterfinalists are teenagers. Top seed Elvina Kalieva, 18, and her frequent doubles partner (including this week) Reese Brantmeier, 17, will meet in the quarterfinals after Kalieva defeated Connie Hsu(Penn) of Taiwan 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 in over three hours and Brantmeier overcame wild card Rachel Gailis 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. No. 3 seed Katrina Scott, 17, defeated wild card Samantha Crawford 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 and qualifier Eleana Yu, 17, beat YeXin Ma of China 6-0, 2-6, 7-5. The fifth American in the quarterfinals former North Carolina All-American Alexa Graham, who beat Gabriella Price 7-6(5), 6-1.

At the $100,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Bonita Springs Florida, Katie Volynets is moving closer to the USTA's Roland Garros wild card after reaching the quarterfinals for the second consecutive week after winning the Palm Harbor $100K four weeks ago. Volynets, seeded No. 3, prevailed over Caroline Dolehide 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(7) today and will face No. 8 seed Alexandra Ignatik of Romania Friday. Qualifier Kayla Day is the only other American to reach the quarterfinals; she defeated Alycia Parks 6-1, 7-6(5).

The ITF Junior Davis Cup, Junior Billie Jean King Cup and World Junior Tennis qualifying for North and Central America began today in Mexico, with all four American teams winning their matches 3-0. The top two teams in the four-team fields advance to the final, to the US is in good shape going into the second of three days of competition.

In the Junior Davis Cup, which is for players 16 and under, Rudy Quan and Alexander Razeghi won singles matches over their Canadian counterparts and Nikita Filin and Razeghi won the doubles match. In Junior Billie Jean King Cup, Iva Jovic and Maya Joint won singles matches versus Canada and Joint and Mia Slama took the doubles.

In the World Junior Tennis competition, for players 14 and under, the girls earned a 3-0 victory over Mexico with Shannon Lam and Tyra Grant getting singles wins and Grant and Julieta Pareja taking the doubles match. The boys beat Canada with singles wins from Keaton Hance and Carel Ngounoue, with Jack Kennedy and Ngounoue taking the doubles.

See the tournament website for all the scores from the opening day of competition.

The Big Ten women's all-conference teams and awards were announced today:

Tennis Athlete of the Year: Kari Miller, Michigan
Freshman of the Year: Sydney Ratliff, Ohio State
Coach of the Year: Ronni Bernstein, Michigan

In case you missed yesterday's Pac-12 awards, they can be found in last night's post. The SEC, Big 12 and Big Ten men's awards can be found here. We're still waiting for the release of the ACC men's and women's awards.