My Look at Wimbledon's First 14U Tournament; Scott Advances at Dallas $25K; Riffice Reaches Edwardsville $25K Semifinal; Tiafoe Makes Atlanta Open Semifinals

There wasn't a lot of information available in the run up to the first 14-and-under event at Wimbledon, but once I was on site, I was able to talk with a few players and coaches about the experience, as well as the All England Lawn Tennis Club's manager of the tournament.  Those conversations led to this article for the Tennis Recruiting Network, which is less about the results and more generally focused on what led to the introduction of the event and the logistics involved in putting it on.

There is little doubt that the tournament will be a fixture in Wimbledon's second week in the years to come, and I think the fields will get better and better as word of the event spreads throughout the younger age divisions. I do think the USTA needs to come up with a better qualifying system than they did this year, with a grass court event specifically for selecting the US entrants preferable to using the Easter Bowl. The fact that the Wimbledon tournament uses the ITF birth-year age eligibility rule rather than the USTA's birth-month rule complicated the selection process this year at the Easter Bowl, so a playoff tournament in June, on grass, with only those age-eligible invited, would be ideal.

The semifinals are set at the $25,000 USTA women's Pro Circuit tournament in Dallas, with Katrina Scott defeating 16-year-old wild card Clervie Ngounoue 6-4, 7-6(4) to advance to her second Pro Circuit semifinal of the month. The fifth-seeded 18-year-old, who won the $25K in Columbus earlier this month, reached the quarterfinals last week at the Evansville. She will face top seed Robin Anderson(UCLA), a 6-4, 7-6(2) winner today over Alexa Glatch. Scott defeated Anderson 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 in the first round last week in Evansville, with Anderson the No. 2 seed there.

The other semifinal will feature two 19-year-olds: Elvina Kalieva, the No. 6 seed, and unseeded Hina Inoue. Kalieva beat 2022 NCAA champion Peyton Stearns(Texas) 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, while Inoue came out on top in a nearly three-hour battle with No. 2 seed Hanna Chang 7-5, 6-7(2), 6-2. All matches this week have been, and will be continue to be, played indoors due to the heat.

The last two juniors lost today in the quarterfinals of the $25,000 USTA men's Pro Circuit tournament in Edwardsville Illinois. Qualifier Jack Anthrop(Ohio State) fell to No. 8 seed Nathan Ponwith(Arizona State) 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, while Michael Zheng completed his rain-delayed second round with a 6-1, 6-7(3), 6-3 win over No. 6 seed Peter Bertan of the Dominican Republic, but then lost later in the day to 2021 NCAA champion Sam Riffice(Florida) 6-4, 6-1. Riffice, who is not returning for a fifth year at Florida, had won only one match in his four tournaments as a professional until this week. He plays Ponwith Saturday.

In the bottom half semifinal, qualifier James Trotter(Ohio State) of Japan will play Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M) for a place in the final. Trotter defeated Karlins Ozolins(Illinois) of Latvia 6-4, 6-3, while Kypson beat No. 5 seed Zeke Clark 7-6(3), 6-4.

Cooper Williams, who will be playing Kalamazoo next week, is through to the doubles final in Edwardsville, with partner Kweisi Kenyatte(Illinois). The unseeded pair pulled off a big upset today, defeating last week's Indianapolis Challenger doubles finalists Purav Raja and Divij Sharan of India 6-3, 3-6, 10-8. They will play No. 2 seeds Makoto Ochi and Seita Watanabe of Japan for the title Saturday.

Last night's second round match at the ATP Atlanta Open was a doozy, with No. 2 seed John Isner defeating wild card Ben Shelton(Florida) 7-6(8), 4-6, 7-6(3). Shelton faced only two break points in the match, saving both, while Isner was 1 for 2 in saving break points. The serving stats were similar, with Shelton hitting 13 aces and Isner 16, although Isner was at 70% first serves. As always in an Isner match, it comes down to a few points, usually in a tiebreaker, and the former Georgia Bulldog, who is the defending champion in Atlanta and has won the tournament six times, came out on top.

Isner will play another American, Jenson Brooksby, the No. 6 seed, tonight for a place in the semifinals against Frances Tiafoe.

Tiafoe, the No. 4 seed, continued his domination of Brandon Nakashima, the No. 8 seed, beating him for the third time this year 6-4, 6-2 in just over an hour. Tiafoe had eight aces and no doubles faults and played flawlessly in a match that was delayed by rain and lightning for two hours late this afternoon.

In the top half, No. 5 seed Tommy Paul lost to Ilya Ivashka of Belarus 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, and No. 3 seed Alex De Minaur of Australia defeated lucky loser Adrian Mannarino of France 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.