Eight Americans Competing at J300 in Brazil; Molnar, Spurling Win J30 Titles in Mexico; NYT's Shnaider Feature; Barry Claims Women's D-II National Indoor Title; USGA Announces National Development Program

This week's J300 tournament in South America moves to Brazil and serves as a warmup for the J500 Banana Bowl next week. Many of the US juniors who played events in January and in the first part of February in South America have returned home, but there are five US boys and three US girls in the Porto Alegre 32-player draws this week, none of whom are seeded. The boys are Darwin Blanch, Max Exsted, Cooper Woestendick, Alexander Razeghi and Roy Horovits. The girls are Piper Charney, Alexis Harmon and Sage Loudon.

The top boys seeds are Yaroslav Demin of Russia and Rei Sakamoto of Japan; Sakamoto played last week at the $15K in Naples, reaching the quarterfinals. The girls top seeds are Japan's Sara Saito, who won last week's J300 in Paraguay and Lucciana Perez Alarcon of Peru, who won the two J300s the two previous weeks, in Colombia and Peru. Charney has drawn Saito in the first round.

I reported on the J30 in Eau Claire and the J300 in Uruguay last Friday and Saturday, but I don't want to overlook the three other titles won by Americans on the ITF Junior Circuit last week. Two Southern Californians won singles titles at the J30 in Baja Mexico: 15-year-old Nischal Spurling and 16-year-old Bianco Molnar. Spurling, a qualifier playing in his first ITF Junior Circuit tournament, defeated fellow qualifier Francisco Salmain of Argentina 7-6(2), 6-1 in the final. 

Molnar, the No. 3 seed, won the second ITF Junior Circuit title of her career with a 6-2, 6-0 win over 13-year-old American Sephi Sheng.

At the J30 in Senegal last week, 14-year-old Tejaswini Narala of Florida won her second ITF Junior Circuit title, taking the girls doubles title with Meriem Ben Ezzedine of Tunisia. The top seeds defeated No. 2 seeds Tamara Kuti of Great Britain and Carla Grignac of France 7-6(4), 2-6, 10-7 in the final. 

The New York Times' tennis writer Christopher Clarey has been following the story of North Carolina State freshman Diana Shnaider closely in the past few months and today provides this update on her first few weeks competing for the Wolfpack. Clarey spoke with Shnaider last week, and with NC State coaches Simon Earnshaw and David Secker about the family tensions surrounding her decision to go to college, the eligibility roadblocks she faced, and the level of play she's encountered at the top of the lineup. And it's always great to see a reminder of Lisa Raymond's college career at Florida.

The ITA Division II Women's Team Indoor Championships concluded last night in Nebraska, with top seed Barry defeating No. 3 seed Saint Leo 4-0 in the final. It's second straight title for the Buccaneers, who have won three of the four championships since the Division II event was added in 2020. The box score can be found here.

I happened across an article on the United States Golf Association's recent announcement that the organization would be introducing a national development program. My first reaction was surprise; I guess I had assumed the USGA had something like that in place, as the USTA has had for decades now. Anyway, I thought it would be interesting for those who have knowledge of how the USTA's programs work to compare and contrast with what the USGA is describing here.