Blanch Ousts ITF No. 1 Pacheco Mendez at Roland Garros, Girls Top Seed Saito Also Out; Gauff Through to Women's Quarterfinals; Stanford Tops Women's Recruiting Class Rankings; Oyebog Wins ITF J100; PanAm J300 Moves to Texas in September; ITA All Americans

Fifteen-year-old Darwin Blanch was the news of the day Monday at the Roland Garros Junior Championships, with the reigning Kalamazoo 16s champion defeating ITF World No. 1 and top seed Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez of Mexico 6-2, 7-5. 

Blanch, who had eight aces, dropped serve just once, right after he had broken Pacheco Mendez to go up 2-1.  He then saved the second and third break points he faced in the match in his next two service games. Serving from behind, Blanch held for 5-all after a two-deuce game, then broke his fellow left-hander for the fourth time to take a 6-5 lead. Finishing off an upset of that magnitude is never easy, but Blanch went up 40-0, didn't convert his first match point, but took the second, recording his second junior slam singles victory.

For an interview with Blanch after his victory, see this article from the ITF Junior website.

Just a few minutes after the boys No. 1 went out, girls top seed Sarah Saito of Japan was beaten by Melisa Ercan of Turkey 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-3 in a second round match. 

No. 2 seed Clervie Ngounoue had all she could handle from 14-year-old qualifier Hannah Klugman of Great Britain, who fought back from 5-2 down in the second set, only to lose her serve at 5-all, with Ngounoue closing out a 7-6(5), 7-5 victory. Ngounoue will play unseeded Iva Ivanova of Bulgaria in the round of 16 Wednesday.

No. 4 seed Kaitlin Quevedo got off to a slow start against Mingge Xu of Great Britain, but she bounced back to earn a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 win. 

No. 9 seed Cooper Williams breezed into the third round witha  6-3, 6-1 win over ITF J500 Offenbach champion Sebastian Eriksson of Sweden. Williams will play qualifier Lorenzo Schiahbasi of Italy for a spot in the quarterfinals Wednesday.

Learner Tien made it three Americans in the round of 16 so far, with the 17-year-old Californian defeating wild card Andrea M'Chich of France 7-6(3), 6-3. That sets up a 2023 Australian Open boys final rematch with Alexander Blockx of Belgium, the No. 2 seed, who dropped just one game to Reda Bennani of Morocco. Blockx defeated Tien 6-1, 2-6, 7-6(9) in Melbourne.

Roy Horovitz won his first junior slam match today, with the 16-year-old defeating Yuvan Nandal of India 6-1, 6-3.

Blanch, Quevedo and Horovitz will attempt to join Williams, Tien and Ngounoue in the third round with wins Tuesday.

Monday's first round junior results of Americans:

Kaitlin Quevedo[4] d. Mingge Xu(GBR) 2-6, 6-3, 6-2
Renata Jamrichova[7](SVK) d. Tyra Grant[Q] 6-4, 6-4
Tamara Kostic[Q](AUT) d. Alexia Harmon[SE] 7-6(4), 3-6, 7-5

Roy Horovitz d. Yuvan Nandal(IND) 6-1, 6-3

Darwin Blanch d. Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez[1](MEX) 6-2, 7-5

Monday's second round junior results of Americans:

Clervie Ngounoue[2] d. Hannah Klugman[Q](GBR) 7-6(5), 7-5

Cooper Williams[9] d. Sebastian Eriksson(SWE) 6-3, 6-1

Learner Tien d. Andrea M'Chich[WC](FRA) 7-6(3), 6-3

David Fix[Q] (GER) d. Maxwell Exsted[Q] 6-3, 6-4 

Tuesday's second round junior matches featuring Americans:

Kaitlin Quevedo[4] v Rebecca Munk Mortensen(DEN)

Darwin Blanch v Antoine Ghibaudo(FRA)

Roy Horovitz v Joao Fonseca[10](BRA)

Coco Gauff is the last American remaining in men's or women's singles at Roland Garros, with the No. 6 seed defeating unseeded Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia 7-5, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals. That win sets up a rematch of the 2022 final with top seed Iga Swiatek of Poland; Swiatek won 6-1, 6-3 last year. Bernarda Pera lost to No. 7 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia 6-3, 6-1 in today's fourth round.

The Tennis Recruiting Network's women's final 2023 recruiting class rankings were released today, with Stanford No. 1, followed by Central Florida, Vanderbilt, Georgia and NC State. Five different schools received first place votes, which made for a tightly packed Top 5. Six through 10, in order, are Harvard, Oklahoma, Arizona State, Princeton and Ohio State.

The complete list of the Top 25, with notes on the long history of the rankings, can be found here.

In addition to the girls doubles title at the J300 Astrid Bowl by Alexia Harmon and Valeria Ray, nine additional titles were claimed by Americans last week on the ITF Junior Circuit. 

Two of those nine came at the J100 in Calgary Canada, with No. 8 seed Joseph Oyebog earning the singles title with a 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 win over unseeded Maximus Dussault in an all-American final. Kase Schinnerer won the boys doubles title, with Canadian partner Stephane Pierre-Jo Kamendje. The No. 3 seeds defeated top seeds Danny Bao and Connor Church of Canada 6-2, 6-3 in the final. 

At the J60 in Turkey, 16-year-old Amina Salibayeva won her first ITF Junior Circuit singles title, with the top seed defeating No. 5 seed Anastasiia Kochelaevskaia of Russia 6-1, 6-4 in the final. 

Two doubles titles were collected at the J60 in El Salvador: No. 4 seeds Sophia Cedeno and Valerie Gomez won the girls doubles title, beating No. 3 seed Diva Bhatia of India and Hanne Estrada of Mexico 6-4, 4-6, 11-9 in the final and top seeds Abhinav and Prathinav Chunduru won the boys doubles title, defeating unseeded Jacob Lee and Holland Snell 6-4, 6-4 in an all-US final. It's the third ITF Junior Circuit doubles title for the 16-year-old twins.

US players took all four titles at the J30 in the Cayman Islands, with Jon Gamble sweeping the boys titles. The 15-year-old from Las Vegas, seeded No. 4, won his first ITF Junior Circuit singles title with a 6-3, 6-1 win over unseeded Gordan Gallagher, also from the United States. Gamble won his second ITF Junior Circuit doubles title with Canadian partner Matthew Cizmarik. The No. 2 seeds beat No. 1 seeds Michael Fernandez and Hong Kong's Dui Chi Antonio Lee 6-3, 1-6, 10-8 in the final. 

The girls singles title went to No. 4 seed Emma Prisaca, who defeated unseeded Abigail Gordon 6-3, 6-1 in the final. It's the first ITF Junior Circuit title for the 15-year-old from Virginia.  Emery Martin and Welles Newman won the girls doubles title, with the unseeded pair beating No. 2 seeds Gordon and Ireland O'Brien 6-2, 4-6, 10-8 in the final.

The ITF J300 Pan American Closed, originally showing on the USTA Junior Calendar as taking place in Memphis in October this year, has been repositioned for 2023. The tournament, which was hosted from 2019-2022 (with no tournament held in 2020) indoors at the Top Seed Tennis Club in Nicholasville Kentucky, will be outdoors at the Giammalva Racquet Club in Houston September 18-23. This is just one week after the conclusion of the US Open Junior Championships, meaning it is now scheduled two or three weeks earlier than is customary for this event, held for many years in Tulsa Oklahoma.

The ITA made the official announcement on All-American status for 2023 today. Although the criteria is transparent and is known by everyone when the accomplishment is earned, it is certainly an honor that deserves a formal release. I know I refer to past lists often for my Tennis Recruiting Network Aces column, which regularly features many former collegians who reached that top tier before tasting professional success. The men's 2023 All-American list is here; the women's 2023 All-American list is here.