Blanch, Williams, Tien and Ngounoue Advance to Quarterfinals at Roland Garros; Wagner Named Men's Head Coach at Clemson; Ahn, Schuman Reach Second Round, Kotzen, Gorzny Oust Top Seeds at San Diego $15Ks
Seventeen-year-old Learner Tien won the rematch of the Australian Open boys final, avenging his loss to No. 2 seed Alexander Blockx of Belgium. After Tien won the first set 6-4, getting the one break of serve in the fifth game, Blockx retired, ending any chance of a boy sweeping all four majors in a calendar year.
No. 9 seed Cooper Williams defeated Italian qualifier Lorenzo Schiahbasi 6-3, 6-3 to set up an all-US quarterfinal against 15-year-old Darwin Blanch, who beat No. 14 seed Adriana Dzhenen of Bulgaria 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3.
Thursday's boys quarterfinal matchups:Darwin Blanch(USA) v Cooper Williams[9](USA)
Dino Prizmic[3](CRO) v Henry Searle(GBR)
Juan Carlos Prado Angelo[8](BOL) v Joel Schwaerzler[15](AUT)
Joao Fonseca[10](BRA) v Learner Tien(USA)
Ngounoue had another routine win in today's third round, defeating Iva Ivanov of Bulgaria 6-1, 6-2 in under an hour. While the three US boys in the quarterfinals are impressive, four girls from Russia have advanced to the final eight, with Ngounoue set to take on one of them, 14-year-old qualifier Alisa Oktibreva, Thursday. The quest for a girls calendar slam champion continues, with No. 3 seed and Australian Open champion Alina Korneeva of Russia reaching the quarterfinals.
Thursday's girls quarterfinal matchups:
levina Ibragimova v Lucciana Perez Alarcon[6](PER)
Rebecca Munk Mortensen(DEN) v Anastasiia Gureva
Mayu Crossley[8](JPN) v Alina Korneeva[3]
Alisa Oktiabreva[Q] v Clervie Ngounoue[2](USA)
Ngounoue has also advanced to the doubles quarterfinals, with partner Tyra Grant. The No. 6 seeds defeated Ivanova and Cara Maria Mester(ROU) 6-2, 6-3 in the second round today.
Williams and Tien, also the No. 6 seeds, advanced to the boys doubles quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-1 victory overy Thijs Boogaard and Abel Forger of the Netherlands.
The fifth American reaching the doubles quarterfinals is Max Exsted, who is playing with Patrick Schoen of Switzerland. The unseeded pair defeated Keegan Rice of Canada and Henry Searle of Great Britain 2-6, 6-3, 10-8.
Coco Gauff lost her quarterfinal match today to top seed Iga Swiatek of Poland 6-4, 6-2.
Thursday's order of play is here.
Less than a week after Clemson filled its women's head coaching position, with Iowa State's Boomer Saia taking over the program, the Tigers have hired University of Texas associate head coach Brandon Wagner to lead the men's program. Today's release from Clemson is here.
The second week of the SoCal Pro Series is underway in San Diego and several teenagers are making their marks at the men's and women's $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournaments.
The 2022 USTA National 16s champion Alyssa Ahn qualified for the tournament and won her first main draw match on the Pro Circuit today, a three-hour 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(6) victory over Mary Lewis. Fifteen-year-old Aspen Schuman, the 2023 Easter Bowl 18s finalist, defeated last week's champion Megan McCray, the No. 6 seed, 6-3, 2-1 retired. Katie Codd, the rising sophomore at Duke, is the third American teenager to advance to the second round, beating fellow wild card Jordyn McBride 6-3, 6-1.
Top seed Samantha Crawford won her first round match, but No. 2 seed Sara Daavettila(UNC) lost Tuesday, retiring to Cal's Haley Giavara trailing 6-1, 4-1.
Both the top seeds in the men's draw lost today. Columbia rising senior Alex Kotzen defeated No. 1 seed Govind Nanda(UCLA) 7-5, 6-1 and TCU rising sophomore Sebastian Gorzny took out No. 2 seed Alfredo Perez(Florida) 6-4, 7-6(5). Seventeen-year-old Trevor Svajda defeated fellow qualifier Rohan Murali, who is a rising freshman at Harvard, 6-3, 6-2.
Cracked Racquets will have coverage of the semifinals and finals of the San Diego $15Ks on their YouTube channel.
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