Five Americans Qualify for US Open Junior Championships, 26 Americans Begin Play Sunday; Vallejo and Costoulas Top Seeds; Quinn and Godsick Fall in Men's Second Round Doubles; Seidel and Blockx Win J1 Titles in Repentigny

©Colette Lewis 2022--
Flushing Meadows NY--

Five Americans won their final round qualifying matches today at the Cary Leeds Tennis Center in the Bronx, bringing the total of Americans in the US Open Junior championships main draw to 37.

The two US boys who advanced to the main draw both did so at the expense of other Americans, with wild card Hudson Rivera defeating Preston Stearns 6-3, 1-6, 10-5 and Sean Daryabeigi beating wild card Calvin Baierl 6-3, 6-1. Baierl also advanced to the main draw as a lucky loser, a spot which opened up when Sebastian Gorzny withdrew yesterday.

In the girls final round of qualifying, wild card Alanis Hamilton defeated Natacha Schou of Denmark 7-6(6), 7-6(2); wild card Katherine Hui won the all-American battle against No. 10 seed Ahmani Guichard 6-3, 6-4 and Tatum Evans defeated No. 6 seed Aysegul Mert of Turkey 6-2, 7-6(5).

44 of the 64 first round junior singles matches are on Sunday's schedule and, unusually, some of the qualifiers are playing, although a late revision to the junior schedule removed the three Canada J1 singles finalists who played there today. With the weather forecast for Monday and Tuesday featuring a high probability of rain, and a scheduled finish on Saturday for the Junior Championships, the more matches that can be completed Sunday the better.

Kalamazoo 18s champion Learner Tien and San Diego 18s champion Eleana Yu are both unseeded and both are on Sunday's schedule.

The boys singles seeds:

1. Daniel Vallejo(PAR)

2. Gilles Bailly(FRA)

3. Kilian Feldbausch(SUI)

4. Nishesh Basavareddy(USA)

5. Martin Landaluce(ESP)

6. Lautaro Midon(ARG)

7. Gonzalo Bueno(PER)

8. Edas Butvilas(LTU)

9. Coleman Wong(HKG)

10. Marton Pawelski(POL)

11. Jakub Nicod(CZE)

12. Ignacio Buse(PER)

13. Gerard Campana Lee(KOR)

14. Yaroslav Demin(RUS)

15. Jaden Weekes(CAN)

16. Michael Zheng(USA)

The girls singles seeds:

1. Sofia Costoulas(BEL)

2. Lucie Havlickova(CZE)

3. Liv Hovde(USA)

4. Celine Naef(SUI)

5. Solana Sierra(ARG)

6. Nikola Daubnerova(SVK)

7. Diana Shnaider(RUS)

8. Taylah Preston(AUS)

9. Victoria Mboko(CAN)

10. Alexandra Eala(PHI)

11. Luca Udvardy(HUN)

12. Sara Saito(JPN)

13. Johanne Svendsen(DEN)

14. Mirra Andreeva(RUS)

15. Ksenia Zaytseva(RUS)

16. Qavia Lopez(USA)

Sunday's first round junior matches featuring Americans:

Eleana Yu[WC] v. Ella McDonald(GBR)

Valerie Glozman[WC] v Yaroslava Bartashevich(FRA)

Alyssa Ahn[WC] v Taylah Preston[8]

Sonya Macavei v Celine Naef[4](SUI)

Qavia Lopez[16] v Anastasiya Lopata(UKR)

Iva Jovic[WC] v Sayaka Ishii(JPN)

Mia Slama v Nina Vargova(SVK)

Kaitlin Quevedo v Victoria Mboko[9](CAN)

Clervie Ngounoue v Nikola Daubnerova[6](SVK)

Tatum Evans[Q] v Amelia Waligora(BEL)

Alanis Hamilton[Q] v Lucia Havlickova[2](CZE)

Ariana Pursoo[WC] v Laniana Tararudee(THA)

Kayla Bigun v Daniel Vallejo[1](PAR)

Kyle Kang[WC] v Paul Barier Gazeu(FRA)

Alex Michelsen v Tanapatt Nirundorn(THA)

Alexander Frusina v Jack Loutit(NZL)

Jelani Sarr[WC] v Gonzalo Bueno[7](PER)

Michael Zheng[16] v Borys Zgola[Q](POL)

Calvin Baierl[LL] v Rei Sakamoto(JPN)

Learner Tien v Lautaro Midon[6](ARG)

Nicholas Godsick v Yaroslav Demin[14](RUS)

Aidan Kim v Hayato Matsuoka(JPN)

Darwin Blanch[WC] v Pedro Rodenas(ESP)

Ozan Baris v Constantinos Koshis[Q](CYP)

Sean Daryabeigi[Q] v Paul Inchauspe(FRA)

Alexander Razeghi[WC] v Olaf Pieczkowski(POL)

The boys singles draw is here; the girls singles draw is here.

I usually don't get the opportunity to see many Kalamazoo champions play live in the men's draws at the US Open, as I don't make the trip to New York until late Friday or early Saturday. This year I had the opportunity to watch doubles champions Nicholas Godsick and Ethan Quinn play their second round match in men's doubles, which ended with a quick 6-1, 6-3 victory for 2021 Wimbledon men's doubles champions Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic of Croatia, the No. 6 seeds.

I asked Godsick and Quinn how their match today differed from their first round match Thursday, a 7-6(1), 6-4 win over Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia and Hans Hach Verdugo of Mexico.

"The biggest difference was the team we played today are one of the best teams in the world," Godsick said. "In the first round we had a nice draw, played a team that really hadn't played together, didn't know each other, so weren't familiar with how each other played and we took advantage of that. Today, these guys do this for a living, they play every week. They're gold medalists, Wimbledon champions....so I think all their experience and their maturity was shown out there."

"We went out on the court hoping for the best, and basically, everything we threw at them they had already seen countless times in even bigger matches than the second round of the US Open," Quinn said. "We were hitting great shots, reflexing, things we usually do and we were losing every single point; in the first round, we were doing the things that we normally did and it was working a bit better than today."

The crowd on Court 12 was large and supportive of the young underdogs, which Quinn and Godsick appreciated.

"I'd say that's probably the best crowd we ever had," Godsick said. "It was super cool. I had a lot of family out there, we had a lot of friends come out to watch; I think today was the first day juniors could come on site, so a lot of our friends were watching."

"I wish we didn't get tuned in front of everybody," Quinn said. "Not the coolest experience for them to watch," Godsick said, "but it's something we'll always remember and we're super appreciative. There's nothing like a home crowd."

With Quinn deciding to withdraw from the juniors and head back to Athens, where he'll compete in the Southern Intercollegiates beginning on September 16, Godsick needed to find another partner for the Junior championships and he'll be playing with Canadian Jaden Weekes.

Saturday's third round US Open results of Americans:

Jessica Pegula[8] d. Yue Yuan(CHN)[Q] 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-0

Danielle Collins[19] d. Alize Cornet(FRA) 6-4, 7-6(9)

Iga Swiatek[1](POL) d. Lauren Davis 6-3, 6-4

Carlos Alcaraz[3](ESP) d. Jenson Brooksby 6-3, 6-3, 6-3

Jannik Sinner[11](ITA) d. Brandon Nakashima 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2

Francis Tiafoe[22] d. Diego Schwartzman[14](ARG) 7-6(7), 6-4, 6-4

Sunday's fourth round matches featuring Americans:

Coco Gauff[12] v Shuai Zhang(CHN)

Alison Riske-Amritraj[29] v Caroline Garcia[17](FRA)

At the ITF J1 in Repentigny Canada, Alexander Blockx of Belgium and Ella Seidel of Germany won the singles titles today, with Blockx, the No. 6 seed, beating No. 7 seed Alex Coman of Romania 7-6(1), 6-2 and Seidel, the No. 8 seed, ending the winning streak of Sara Saito of Japan 6-4, 6-3.

Late Friday night, Blockx and Coman won the boys doubles title, with the No. 2 seeds beating the unseeded Canadian team of Aleksandar Mitric and Sasha Rozin 6-4, 6-2 in the final. No. 6 seeds Angella Okutoyi of Kenya and Malwina Rowinska of Poland won the girls doubles title, beating No. 4 seeds Seidel and Amelia Waligora of Belgium 3-6, 6-2, 10-8.