Few Major ITF Junior Rules Changes for 2023; Three US Girls Reach Semifinals of J300 in Peru; ITF's Jagger Leach Feature; Kim Reaches Third $15K Quarterfinal in Weston Florida

I typically attempt to highlight the International Tennis Federation Junior rules changes for the new year before this, but when I looked at them last month, I didn't see anything that seemed especially significant.

Many of the changes relate to the renaming of the designations of the levels of junior events, which now are named for the number of points that go to the singles winner, much like the ATP's tiers. Previously junior events were distinguished by Grades, which were A, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5; now those are known as J500s, J300s, J200s, J100s, J60s and J30s, respectively. Junior slams are a separate category and remain there, with 1000 points going to the singles winner.

There are changes to the logos allowed for boys shirts on front back and collar, there is a revised prohibition against cigarettes, alcohol and gambling sponsorships and a lengthy description of who is a "covered person" as part of the Welfare Policy.

The Junior Exempt project, which is different from the Junior Reserved spots in $15Ks, has been expanded for girls. Previously, only year-end Top 10 players were eligible; now there are JEs available for those who finished in the 11-20 positions. There were also some adjustments made to the chart delineating these entries into ITF World Junior Tennis women's tournaments with the introduction of the $40,000 level to the women's circuit this year. There were no changes for the boys, but there is now a separate agreement for boys with the ATP Challenger circuit, which was announced in December.

Under the "Composition of Draws" heading was this change:

Tournament Organisers of new or existing tournaments with 32 Qualifying and 32 Main Draw events are recommended to use a 24 Qualifying draw and a 48 Main Draw. 

Note: This allows for more players to have certainty of their position within the acceptance list, allows for more players to participate, and more matches to be played. No further match courts are required.

I think the ITF will have to do more than "recommend" to see this actually change, as most of the J300s in South America this winter have had 32 main/32 qualifying draws.

The ITF's summary of rule changes for 2023 is here and it's only five pages. If you read the entire ITF Junior Regulations, which can be found here, you'll likely learn something you didn't know in the 109 pages.

The boys semifinalists at the ITF J300 this week in Peru are all unseeded players from Brazil, while three of the four girls semifinalists are from the United States. Top seed Kaitlin Quevedo will face No. 6 seed Alexia Harmon after Quevedo defeated qualifier Emma Dong of Canada 6-1, 6-1; Harmon advanced when Victoria Osuigwe retired trailing 3-6, 6-3, 4-0 in an all-USA battle. Harmon is through to her first J300 semifinal since reaching the 2020 final in Costa Rica at age 14.

No. 3 seed Mia Slama beat No. 8 seed Antonio Vergara Rivera of Chile 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 and will face No. 2 seed and last week's Barranqilla J300 champion Lucciana Perez Alarcon of Peru. Perez Alarcon defeated qualifier Ichino Horikawa of Japan 6-0, 6-2.

Quevedo and Perez Alarcon will play in the doubles final Friday, with the top seeds taking on No. 2 seeds Slama and Japan's Wakana Sonobe.

The ITF posted an update on their junior website today on the success this year of Jagger Leach, the 15-year-old son of Lindsay Davenport and Jon Leach. Leach is the only junior who has won three singles titles this year, with Iva Jovic falling just short of three straight J300 titles last week with her loss to Perez Alarcon in the Barranquilla final.

At the only USTA Pro Circuit tournament this week, the men's $15,000 tournament in Weston Florida, 18-year-old wild card Aidan Kim advanced to the quarterfinals with a 7-6(1), 6-2 win over Alec Beckley of South Africa. This is Kim's third quarterfinal at the $15K level; he reached the semifinals of the $15K tournament in Fayetteville Arkansas last fall. The Michigan resident will face fellow 18-year-old Bruno Kuzuhara, who defeated 2021 Wimbledon boys finalist Victor Lilov in the second round, for the second week in a row, this time by a score of 6-2, 6-3. 

Cooper Williams lost to Georgia recruit Ignacio Buse of Peru, who came back from 3-0 down in the third set to earn a 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 win. Buse will play No. 3 seed Christian Langmo(Miami), the third American to reach the quarterfinals. Langmo defeated 2022 Orange Bowl finalist Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez of Mexico 6-7(1), 7-6(10), 6-3 in today's second round. Wild card Kyle Kang went out to Federico Agustin Gomez of Argentina 7-6(4), 6-3. 

Last week's champion at the $15K in Palm Coast Florida, former Baylor All-American Adrian Boitan of Romania, is through to the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-2 win over 2021 Eddie Herr champion and No. 8 seed Viacheslav Bielinskyi of Ukraine.