Quarterfinals Set at European Championships; Recaps of 16s Clay Courts; Quinn Reaches Champaign $25K Quarterfinals; Shelton Will Make ATP Debut at Atlanta Open, Kuzuhara Receives Qualifying Wild Card

The quarterfinals are set for Friday at the 14s, 16s and ITF European championships, with four of the six No. 1 seeds still alive for the singles titles. 

The top seed in the girls 16s draw, Tereza Valentova of the Czech Republic, withdrew before the tournament began. Boys 14s top seed Ivan Ivanov of Bulgaria lost today. B16s No. 1 seed Martin Landaluce of Spain, G14s top seed Alena Kovackova of the Czech Republic, ITF top seeds Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic and Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva of Andorra won their round of 16 matches today.

The British girls have been impressive all week, with both Hannah Klugman and Mika Stojsavljevic reaching the quarterfinals in the 14s, Mingge Xu reaching the quarterfinals in the 16s and Ella McDonald advancing to the final eight in the ITF tournament. Stojsavelijevic beat No. 2 seed Eliska Forejtkova of the Czech Republic by the delightful score of 6-0, 6-7, 6-0 today, and Xu beat No. 2 seed and Wimbledon girls doubles champion Rose Nijkamp of the Netherlands 7-6(3), 6-3. The unseeded McDonald has yet to drop a set in her three victories.

Klugman wasn't seeded, despite reaching the final at Les Petits As this year. Even worse, boys champion Thijs Boogard of the Netherlands wasn't seeded either, and he too is in the quarterfinals. Klugman plays Kovackova of the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals, which is not ideal, for either player. The quarterfinal matchups are below; Tennis Europe is providing a live blog daily here.

ITF JB1

Boys:
Jakub Mensik[1](CZE) v. Edas Butvilas[5](LTU)
Dino Prizmic[4](CRO) v. Alexandre Blockx[12](BEL)
Gilles Bailly[2](BEL) v. Henrique Rocha(POR)
Kilian Feldbausch[2](SUI) v. Iliyan Radulov(BUL)

Girls:

Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva[1](AND) v. Nikola Daubnerova[5](SVK)

Brenda Fruhvirtova[3](CZE) v. Ariana Geerlings ESP)

Celine Naef[4](SUI) v. Ella McDonald (GBR)

Joelle Steur[11](GER) v. Raquel Gonzalez Vilar[14](ESP)

G14s

Alena Kovackova([1](CZE) v. Hannah Klugman(GBR)

Laura Samsonova[3](CZE) v. Sona Depesova[8](SVK)

Charo Esquiva Bañuls[12](ESP) v. Veronika Sekerkova[4](CZE)

Mia Pohankova[9](SVK) v. Mika Stojsavljevic[13](GBR)

B14s

Diego Dedura-Palomero(GER) v Ziga Sesko[11](SLO)

Matei Todoran[4](ROU) v. Filip Kosarko[5](CZE)

Vito Antonio Darderi(ITA) v. Thijs Boogard (NED)

Timeo Trufelli[10](FRA) v. Marko Dragovic[13](SRB)

G16s

Emily Sartz-Lunde[13](NOR) v. Yoana Konstantinova[5](BUL)

Marta Soriano Santiago(ESP) v. Sarah Iliev(FRA)

Mia Ristic[6](SRB) v. Artemis Aslanisvili[15](GRE)

Luca Urbanova[12](CZE) v. Mingge Xu[14](GBR)

B16s

Martin Landaluce[1](ESP) v. Nicolai Budkov Kjaer[6](NOR)

Jan Kumstat(CZE) v. Theo Papamalamis[10](FRA)

Joel Schwaerzler[5](AUT) v. Andreas Timini(CYP)

Antonio Voljavec[8](CRO) v. Federico Cina[2](ITA)

The Tennis Recruiting Network's recaps of the 16s Clay Court Championships were published today. Stiles Brockett won the boys title and Natasha Rajaram claimed the girls singles championship, with both picking up their first gold balls.

Ethan Quinn(Georgia) advanced to the quarterfinals of the $25,000 USTA men's Pro Circuit tournament in Champaign Illinois today, beating No. 6 seed Makoto Ochi of Japan 5-7, 6-1, 6-4. Quinn will face unseeded Kareem Al Allaf(Iowa) of Syria, who advanced when top seed Pedja Krstin of Serbia retired trailing 6-3, 4-1.

The first round of singles at the $60,000 USTA women's Pro Circuit tournament in Evansville Indiana finally finished indoors today, after heat and humidity had disrupted the schedule the past two days. Katrina Scott defeated No. 2 seed Robin Anderson(UCLA) 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 and Ashlyn Krueger beat No. 3 seed Caroline Dolehide 6-4, 6-4. After one round, No. 4 seed Carol Zhao(Stanford) of Canada is the top seed remaining, with top seed Alycia Parks losing two days ago. The schedule for Friday is for two rounds of singles, followed by the doubles quarterfinals, all indoors.

Ben Shelton advanced to the quarterfinals of the ATP Challenger 80 in Indianapolis when No. 2 seed Tim van Rijthoven of the Netherlands retired leading 7-6(7), 2-1. Rijthoven had treatment on his back after the tiebreaker, then went up 2-0 in the second set. But when Shelton broke him for the first time in the match to get back on serve, Rijthoven retired. Shelton will face Wimbledon doubles champion Max Purcell of Australia, who is also unseeded, in Friday's quarterfinals.

Shelton will be making his ATP debut next week at the Atlanta Open, after he was announced as a wild card recipient by the tournament today. Shelton, who did play, and win a round at the US Open qualifying last year, spent his childhood in Atlanta when his father Bryan coached the Georgia Tech women. 

The tournament also announced that Bruno Kuzuhara was receiving a qualifying wild card. Currently No. 3 in the ITF junior rankings and expected to compete in Kalamazoo next month, Kuzuhara also just signed a sponsorship deal with FILA.  The tournament release is incorrect that Kuzuhara will be making his ATP debut in Atlanta; he was given a qualifying wild card into Delray Beach back in February. I spoke with him about that experience for this Tennis Recruiting Network article.

Coco Gauff will be playing an exhibition at the Atlanta Open on Sunday July 24th and Monday July 25th. Originally US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez of Canada was going to be her opponent, but Fernandez has been injured and withdrew with Taylor Townsend now taking her place. Gauff did a media zoom conference to promote the event, which can be viewed here.