Pro Circuit Titles for Teens Quinn, Krueger and Mboko; Another Challenger Trophy for Wu; Jimenez Kasintseva and Bailly Claim European JB1 Titles; Giron, Korda and Nakashima Kick Off Atlanta Open Monday

It was milestones all around for three juniors today, with 15-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko and 18-year-old Ashlyn Krueger winning their first Pro Circuit titles, while 18-year-old Ethan Quinn picked up his first title above the $15K level.

The unseeded Mboko defeated 19-year-old Madison Sieg, a rising freshman at USC and also unseeded, 6-2, 6-0 today at the $25,000 women's ITF World Tennis Tour tournament in Saskatoon Canada. Mboko, who reached the final of a $25K in Tunisia this spring, had a supportive crowd cheering her throughout and didn't face a break point after the fifth game of the first set.

Krueger, who won her first ITF Pro Circuit title earlier this year in doubles, collected her first singles title today at the $60,000 USTA women's Pro Circuit tournament in Evansville Indiana. Krueger, the 2021 USTA 18s singles and doubles champion, avenged her two recent losses to Sachia Vickery, taking out the No. 5 seed by a score of 6-3, 7-5 in today's final, played indoors. Krueger now moves into the WTA Top 250, which is slam qualifying territory, and will be in the lead in the women's USTA US Open Wild Card Challenge when the first women's rankings come out Monday.

Quinn's first title at the $25,000 level didn't come easily; the Georgia redshirt freshman went three sets in four of his five matches this week in Champaign Illinois, including the final, where the Fresno native defeated qualifier Stefan Dostanic(USC) 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-2.

Quinn will move to just outside the ATP Top 500 when the points are added a week from Monday, after having no ranking in March. Last year, Ben Shelton came to play the Kalamazoo Nationals after having won Champaign (it was played a week later last year) and he reached the 18s final. Quinn is entered in the $25K starting tomorrow in Edwardsville, with Kalamazoo starting the weekend following the final in Edwardsville.

Former Illinois star Aleks Kovacevic couldn't stop the freight train that is Yibing Wu, although he had six match points in today's final at the Rajeev Ram Foundation ATP Challenger 80 in Indianapolis. Wu, the 22-year-old from China, saved one of those match points at 5-6 in the second set and five more in the tiebreaker before going on to a 6-7(10), 7-6(13), 6-3 victory in just under three hours. Wu, who won last week's ATP Challenger in Rome Georgia, had an ATP ranking of 1869 in March; with this title, the 2017 US Open boys champion is up to 174. Kovacevic will move up in the US Open Wild Card Challenge rankings with his appearance in the final, behind Ben Shelton, but with Shelton already getting the wild card via his NCAA title, Kovacevic will be the effective leader. 

In the doubles final last night in Indianapolis, top seeds Hunter Reese(Tennessee) and Hans Hach Verdugo(Abilene Christian) of Mexico defeated unseeded Purav Raja and Divij Sharan of India 7-6(3), 3-6, 10-7. It's Reese's 17th ITF or Challenger doubles title; Verdugo has 26, including an ATP title, but it's their first as a team.

The European Championships concluded today, with the ITF JB1 in Klosters Switzerland, and the 14s and 16s in the Czech Republic. 

Top seed Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva of Andorra defeated No. 4 seed Celine Naef of Switzerland 6-2, 6-3 to win her first junior title since October of 2020.  Roland Garros runnerup Gilles Bailly of Belgium, the No. 3 seed, won the boys title, defeating No. 4 seed Dino Prizmic of Croatia 6-2, 6-3. Both No. 1 seeds took the doubles titles, with Jakub Mensik and Jakub Nicod of the Czech Republic defeating No. 2 seeds Mika Brunold and Kilian Feldbausch of Switzerland 6-3, 6-4. The Slovakian team of Nikola Daubnerova and Nina Vargova beat No. 5 seeds Naef and Karolina Kozakova 6-2, 6-7(2), 10-3 in the championship match.

At the 16s Championships in Prerov, No. 5 seed Joel Schwaerzler of Austria shocked top seed Martin Landaluce of Spain 6-4, 6-4 in the boys final. Schwaerzler is No. 116 in the ITF junior rankings, while Landaluce is No. 9.  No. 6 seed Mia Ristic of Serbia won the girls title, beating Maria Soriano Santiago of Spain 6-1, 6-1 in the final. 

At the 14s Championships in Most, top seed Alena Kovackova of the Czech Republic defeated No. 9 seed Mia Pohankova of Slovakia 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 for the girls singles title. Unseeded (despite being the reigning Les Petits As champion) Thijs Boogaard of the Netherlands won the boys title, beating unseeded Diego Dedura-Palomero of Germany 6-3, 6-2 in the final. 

The US Open Series kicks off Monday at the ATP Atlanta Open, with three Americans in first round action. Marcos Giron(UCLA) faces Soonwoo Kwon of Korea; Sebastian Korda plays qualifier Taro Daniel of Japan and No. 8 seed Brandon Nakashima will take on Jordan Thompson of Australia. No Americans qualified, with both Steve Johnson(USC) and Donald Young losing today in the final round, but five of the top six seeds are Americans, with Reilly Opelka No. 1 and defending champion John Isner(Georgia) the No. 2 seed.

Wild card Andres Martin of Georgia Tech will play Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia and wild card Ben Shelton of Florida will face qualifier Ramkumar Ramanathan of India in the first round Tuesday.