Three Americans Advance to Atlanta Open Quarterfinals; Zheng, Quinn, Anthrop and Damm Reach Edwardsville $25K Second Round; Ngounoue, Yu Win at Dallas $25K; Change in USA's World Junior Tennis Girls Roster

The day after two collegians from the United States won their first ATP match at the Atlanta Open, three Americans advanced to Friday's quarterfinals. No. 5 seed Tommy Paul beat Soonwoo Kwon of Korea 6-3, 6-3, former Virginia Cavalier Brandon Nakashima[8] defeated John Millman of Australia 7-6(8), 6-4, saving three set points in the first set tiebreaker; No. 4 seed Francis Tiafoe, playing his first match of the tournament after receiving a first round bye, took out qualifier Taro Daniel of Japan 7-5, 6-4. 

Top seed Reilly Opelka withdrew today, with Steve Johnson(USC) receiving entry as a lucky loser. He lost tonight to Ilya Ivashka of Belarus 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Tiafoe will face 2021 finalist Nakashima on Friday, with Tiafoe holding a 3-0 advantage in the head-to-head, with wins this year at both Indian Wells and Miami.

In Thursday's second round matches, NCAA champion and Florida rising junior Ben Shelton will face No. 2 seed John Isner, and Andres Martin, a rising junior at Georgia Tech, will play lucky loser Adrian Mannarino of France, after Nick Kyrgios withdrew prior to his match last night. Jenson Brooksby(Baylor)[6] meets Mackenzie McDonald(UCLA) in the other all-USA second round match.

Four players who will be competing in the Boys 18s Nationals next month in Kalamazoo have won their first round matches today at the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Edwardsville Illinois. 

Qualifier Jack Anthrop, a redshirt freshman at Ohio State, defeated former Buckeye standout Kyle Seelig, the No. 4 seed, 7-5, 6-1. He will face fellow 18-year-old Ethan Quinn, last week's champion at the $25K in Champaign, who extended his pro winning streak to six matches with a 6-4, 7-6(3) win over qualifier Martins Rocens(NC State) of Latvia. Wimbledon boys finalist Michael Zheng defeated Kareem Al Allaf(Iowa) of Syria 6-3, 6-4 and will face No. 6 seed Peter Bertran(South Florida) of the Dominican Republic Thursday. No. 2 seed Martin Damm won the battle of the 2018 and 2019 Kalamazoo 16s champions today, beating Alex Bernard 6-3, 6-2. Because Bernard turns 19 next month, he is not eligible for Kalamazoo this year; Damm doesn't turn 19 until September, so he is eligible. Damm's opponent Thursday is qualifier James Trotter(Ohio State) of Japan, who beat Osgar O'Hoisin(Wisconsin) of Ireland 6-2, 6-2.

Two girls competing in the Girls 18s Nationals next month in San Diego won first round matches today at the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Dallas, with 16-year-old Clervie Ngounoue picking up her first win since March. Ngounoue, currently No. 22 in the ITF Junior Circuit ranking, defeated qualifier Taylor Ng(Dartmouth) 7-6(5), 6-4. Qualifier Eleana Yu defeated lucky loser Maria Kononova(North Texas) 6-0, 7-6(6), with Kononova replacing Catherine Harrison. 2021 San Diego 18s finalist Reese Brantmeier, who is playing San Diego again this year, lost 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to Madison Sieg, the rising USC freshman, who is 19 and therefore ineligible for the Nationals. 18s Clay Court champion Bridget Stammel, a wild card, played top seed Robin Anderson(UCLA) close, but lost 7-6(3), 7-6(5).

As I mentioned last week, the ITF World Junior Tennis 14U team competition begins August 1 in the Czech Republic. Tyra Grant was initially announced as one of the three US girls on the team, but she is not competing, with Capucine Jauffret instead joining Shannon Lam and Julieta Pareja.

Earlier this week, the ITF spoke with Kathy Rinaldi, the head of women's tennis at the USTA and this year's WJT captain, about her past experiences at the event and what she expects the US girls will learn from competing there.