Teens Shelton, Krueger, Quinn, Sieg and Mboko Reach Pro Circuit Semifinals; Kuzuhara Faces Johnson in Atlanta Open Qualifying; Recap of 18s Clay Court Championships; Stowe Stadium Resurfacing Underway

Teenagers continue to post impressive results this week in North America, with at least one advancing to the semifinals of this week's USTA and ITF Pro Circuit tournaments.

At the ATP Challenger 80, a new tournament in Indianapolis sponsored by the Rajeev Ram Foundation, NCAA singles Ben Shelton defeated Wimbledon doubles champion Max Purcell of Australia 7-6(5), 6-4 to reach the semifinals, a week after he advanced to the final of the Challenger in Rome Georgia. The 19-year-old, who is a rising junior at Florida, will face Aleks Kovacevic(Illinois) in Saturday's semifinals; in Rome, the two met in the quarterfinals with Shelton winning the tense and well-played match 7-6(2), 7-5.  Kovacevic defeated No. 5 seed Dominik Koepfer(Tulane) of Germany 7-5, 7-6(5) in the quarterfinals today. 

The other semifinal will feature Rome champion Yibing Wu of China and Yatsutaka Uchiyama of Japan, with Wu defeating Alex Rybkov 6-3, 6-3, and Uchiyama getting the better of No. 8 seed Chris Eubanks(Georgia Tech) 7-6(3), 6-7(4), 6-4. None of the semifinalists are seeded.

Play begins at 2 p.m. tomorrow, with free live streaming, available at the ATP Challenger website. Mike Cation is providing commentary.

After two rounds of singles today, the $60,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Evansville Indiana is back on schedule, after heat and humidity sent all matches indoors for the past two days.  2021 USTA National 18s champion Ashlyn Krueger won two matches today, with the 18-year-old Texan beating Alexa Glatch and qualifier Vicky Duval in straight sets.  Krueger will play unseeded Catherine Harrison, who has continued the form she displayed at Wimbledon, where she qualified and reached the second round. Harrison defeated qualifier Maegan Manasse(Cal) and Katherine Sebov of Canada in straight sets today to reach the semifinals. The other semifinal will feature Elli Mandlik and No. 5 seed Sachia Vickery.

As with the women in Evansville, the men in the semifinals at the $25K in Champaign are all Americans. Ethan Quinn, who made the semifinals of the $15K in Lakewood last week, reached his second $25K semifinal with a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Kareem Al Allaf(Iowa) of Syria. The 18-year-old Georgia freshman will face No. 8 seed Cannon Kingsley(Ohio State), who beat Eduardo Nava(Wake Forest) 4-6, 6-1, 6-3. The other semifinal has 2017 Kalamazoo 18s champion Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M) meeting qualifier Stefan Dostanic(USC). Kypson defeated No. 5 seed Peter Bertran(South Florida) of the Dominican Republic 6-4, 6-4, while Dostanic won his third consecutive three-setter today, beating No. 2 seed Omni Kumar(Duke)5-7, 6-1, 7-6(0). Kingsley is the only seed remaining.

At the $25,000 ITF World Tennis Tour women's tournament in Saskatoon Canada, both 15-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko and 19-year-old Madison Sieg(USC) are through to the semifinals. Mboko defeated No. 5 seed Stacey Fung of Canada 6-2, 6-3 and will play No. 6 seed Elysia Bolton(UCLA), who beat No. 4 seed Jessie Aney(North Carolina) 6-3, 6-3. 

Sieg needed three hours and eight minutes to get past 17-year-old Marina Stakusic 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(4). Sieg will play No. 3 seed Hurricane Tyra Black, who beat 16-year-old qualifier Teah Chavez of Canada 6-2, 6-0.

The US Open Series begins tomorrow with qualifying for the Atlanta Open, and Bruno Kuzuhara will be first up. The 2022 Australian Open boys singles and doubles champion, who received a wild card into qualifying, will face Steve Johnson(USC) on the Stadium Court beginning at 10:00 a.m. The other all-USA qualifying match will feature Donald Young, who won a wild card tournament, and JJ Wolf(Ohio State).  Other Americans in action Saturday are Stefan Kozlov, Chris Eubanks and Ernesto Escobedo.

The Tennis Recruiting Network wrapped up its USTA National Clay Court Championships coverage today with article on the boys 18s title for Nicholas Heng and the girls 18s title for Bridget Stammel.

The photo below is for those of you making your way to Kalamazoo in the next week or ten days to compete at the Nationals. The Stowe Stadium courts are being completely resurfaced for the first time in quite a few years, so they are likely to be slower than they were for last year's tournament. 

The USTA wild card meeting for the Nationals was today, but it will be several days before those names will be released.