Blanch Wins Again at Roland Garros Junior Championships; USTA Announces US Open Wild Cards for American NCAA Champions; ITA D-I Regional Awards Released; Langmo Defeats Mmoh, SMU's Neff Advances at Tyler Challenger

Darwin Blanch followed up his victory Monday over top seed Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez of Mexico with another impressive victory Tuesday, defeating Antoine Ghibaudo of France 6-3, 6-3 to join Learner Tien and Cooper Williams in Wednesday's round of 16 at the Roland Garros Junior Championships.

Blanch was the only American of the three in action who advanced, with Roy Horovitz losing to No. 10 seed Joao Fonseca of Brazil 6-3, 6-0 and No. 4 seed Kaitlin Quevedo falling to Rebecca Munk Mortensen of Denmark 7-6(8) 6-3. Quevedo was up 3-0 serving in the second set, but Munk Mortensen took the last six games of the match.

Tien and Williams, the Australian Open boys doubles champions and No. 6 seed this week, opened their quest for a second straight junior slam title with a 6-2, 6-4 win over the French wild card team of Jules Leroux and Loan Lestir. Clervie Ngounoue, who reached the singles round of 16 with a win yesterday, and Tyra Grant, also seeded sixth, won their first round match 6-2, 6-0 over Vlada Micheva of Russia and Anya Murthy. Quevedo and Mayu Crossley of Japan, the No. 2 seeds, gave a walkover to their 14-year-old opponents Emerson Jones of Australia and Hannah Klugman of Great Britain in a first round doubles match scheduled for today. 

Tuesday's second round junior results of Americans:

Darwin Blanch d. Antoine Ghibaudo(FRA) 6-3, 6-3
Joao Fonseca[10](BRA) d. Roy Horovitz 6-3, 6-0
Rebecca Munk Mortensen(DEN) d. Kaitlin Quevedo[4] 7-6(8), 6-3

Wednesday's third round junior matches featuring Americans:
Clervie Ngounoue[2] v Iva Ivanova(BUL)
Cooper Williams[9] v Lorenzo Sciahbasi[Q](ITA)
Learner Tien v Alexander Blockx[2](BEL)
Darwin Blanch v Adriana Dzhenev[14](BUL)

The USTA made an unusual announcement today about US Open wild cards. The unusual part is not that the Americans who won NCAA titles would be awarded wild cards--those wild cards have been offered(with a couple of oversights) for many years. But the announcement itself is the departure; often the NCAA American champions were not officially granted the wild cards until all the other wild cards were announced in mid-August. This is a welcome change, so eliminating the awkward phrasing of "expected to receive" or "traditionally receive" when an NCAA champion competes during the summer and the topic of the US Open wild card is discussed. 

The release is here, with quotes from men's singles champion Ethan Quinn and women's doubles champions Fiona Crawley and Carson Tanguilig.

The ITA Regional Awards for Division I were announced today, with the National Awards scheduled to be released on Monday, June 12. The men's Regional Awards are here; the women's Regional Awards are here.

At the ATP Challenger 75 in Tyler Texas, former University of Miami standout Christian Langmo, a lucky loser, defeated top seed Michael Mmoh 6-3, 7-6(2) today. He will face SMU rising senior Adam Neff, who received a main draw wild card and yesterday defeated Joao Lucas Reis Da Silva of Brazil 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, his first win at any level of professional tennis.  Draws are available here. Free live streaming, with commentary by Mike Cation, is available at the ATP Challenger TV homepage.