Four Americans Advance At Roland Garros Junior Championships, Play Again Monday; Sinclair and McCray Win Rancho Santa Fe $15K Titles; Lajal Earns First Challenger Title in Little Rock

Just four of the 12 Americans in action today at the Roland Garros Junior Championships advanced to the second round, with the remaining five US juniors in the main draw playing their first round matches Monday. Today's four winners--No. 2 seed Clervie Ngounoue, No. 9 seed Cooper Williams, qualifier Max Exsted and Australian Open finalist Learner Tien--are also on Monday's schedule, with the draws generally out of sync for juniors at this particular junior slam until the round of 16.

The 16-year-old Exsted earned his first junior slam victory in his first attempt, with No. 11 seed Oliver Ojakaar of Estonia retiring with an injury at 6-3, 6-7(4), 1-0. The 2022 Eddie Herr 16s champion won three qualifying matches and a main draw match at the J500 in Milan, so he is obviously finding the European clay to his liking. 

Williams won a 63-minute first set against Abel Forger of the Netherlands 7-6(9), but then breezed through the second set in 6-1, needing just 37 minutes more for the victory. 

Tien did not play any of the junior clay warmup events, so he came into the tournament needing to adapt quickly, facing No. 13 seed Federico Bondioli of Italy, who won the J500 on clay in Egypt back in February and reached the final of the J500 in Germany in April. The 17-year-old freshman at USC, playing at Roland Garros for the first time, got through in straight sets against his fellow left-hander, although he had to save three break points in the final game of his 6-4, 6-3 victory.

Ngounoue broke open a tight match with French wild card Lucia Pawlak at 3-3 in the first set and cruised to a 6-3, 6-1 win.

The marquee match of the day between reigning Australian Open boys champion Alexander Blockx of Belgium and Kyle Kang was tough as expected, with Kang saving two match points with Blockx serving at 5-4, 40-15 in the second set and going on to force a third. But unlike in Kang's win over Blockx in January prior to the Australian Open, this third set was completed and went to Blockx, who recorded a 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 victory.

Eight seeds, four boys and four girls, lost in first round action today, with the highest seed to fall Australian Open semifinalist and No. 4 seed Yi Zhou of China, who was beaten by qualifier Alejo Sanchez Quilez of Spain 6-4, 6-4. No. 6 seed Branko Djuric also lost to a qualifier, with Lorenzo Schiahbasi of Italy avenging his two previous losses to the Serbian in two tiebreakers. Three of the four boys seeds who went out today were beaten by qualifiers.

The four girls seeds who lost were all outside of the Top 8: No. 9 seed Federica Urgesi[9] lost to qualifier to Malak El Allami of Morocco; No. 10 seed Nina Vargova of Slovakia was beaten by French wild card Tiantsoa Rakotomanga Rajaona 6-2, 3-6, 6-4; No. 14 seed Ranah Stoiber of Great Britain lost to 14-year-old Emerson Jones of Australia and No. 16 seed Luciana Moyano of Argentina went out to Francesca Pace of Italy 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

Top seed Sarah Saito of Japan advanced over French wild card Daphnee Mpetshi Perricard 6-0, 6-3 and No. 3 seed and Australian Open girls champion Alina Korneeva of Russia saved a match point in her 3-6, 7-6(4), 7-5 comeback over Ella Seidel of Germany.

Several Americans are seeded in the doubles competition, which begins Monday.  Australian Open champions Williams and Tien, the No. 6 seeds, are the only Americans seeded in the boys draw.

Ngounoue and Tyra Grant are also the No. 6 seeds; Kaitlin Quevedo is a part of the second-seeded team with Japan's Mayu Crossley.

The boys doubles draw is here; the girls doubles draw is here.

Below are today's results for Americans and the matchups for Monday.

Sunday's first round junior results of Americans:

Cooper Williams[9] d. Abel Forger(NED) 7-6(9), 6-1
Hayato Matsuoka(JPN) d. Alexander Razeghi 6-4, 6-4
Maxwell Exsted[Q] d. Oliver Ojakaar[11](EST) 6-3, 6-7(4), 1-0 ret.
Juan Carlos Prado Angelo[8](BOL) d. Kaylan Bigun 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
Fernando Cavallo(ARG) d. Alexander Frusina 6-2, 7-5
Learner Tien d. Federico Bondioli[13](ITA) 6-4, 6-3
Alexander Blockx[2](BEL) d. Kyle Kang 6-4, 5-7, 6-3

Melisa Ercan(TUR) d. Tatum Evans 6-2, 6-3

Astrid Lew Yan Foon[WC](FRA) d. Ariana Pursoo 5-7, 7-5, 6-1 

Cara Maria Mester(ROU) d. Valeria Ray 7-6(5), 6-3

Hayu Kinoshita(JPN) d. Mia Slama 6-3, 6-4 

Clervie Ngounoue[2] d. Lucia Pawlak[WC](FRA) 6-3, 6-1

Monday's first round junior matches featuring Americans:

Kaitlin Quevedo[4] v Mingge Xu(GBR)

Tyra Grant[Q] v Renata Jamrichova[7](SVK)

Alexia Harmon[SE] v Tamara Kostic[Q](AUT)

Roy Horovitz v Yuvan Nandal(IND)

Darwin Blanch v Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez[1](MEX)

Monday's second round junior matches featuring Americans:

Clervie Ngounoue[2] v Hannah Klugman[Q](GBR)

Cooper Williams[9] v Sebastian Eriksson(SWE)

Learner Tien v Andrea M'Chich[WC](FRA)

Maxwell Exsted[Q] v David Fix[Q](GER)

Sloane Stephens lost to No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 7-6(5), 6-4 today, leaving No. 6 seed Coco Gauff and unseeded Bernarda Pera as the sole Americans still in singles. Pera plays No. 7 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia and Gauff faces unseeded Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia Monday.

Former Oklahoma State star Megan McCray ended the winning streak of NCAA singles champion Fangran Tian of UCLA today in the final of the $15,000 SoCal Pro Series tournament in Rancho Santa Fe. The 27-year-old McCray, seeded No. 2, posted a 6-1, 0-6, 6-4 victory over the 19-year-old from China, who had won ten straight matches in the past two weeks. It's the first USTA Pro Circuit/ITF women's circuit title for McCray.

No. 3 seed Colin Sinclair(Cornell) of the Northern Mariana Islands won the men's title, defeating No. 4 seed Jaimee Angele of France 6-3, 6-2 for his third ITF men's singles title and his first since 2021.

Last night in the men's doubles final, Ohio State sophomore Jack Anthrop and incoming Buckeye freshman Bryce Nakashima claimed the title, with the unseeded team defeating top seeds Aidan McHugh of Great Britain and Keegan Smith(UCLA) 6-1, 6-4. It's the second men's pro circuit title for Nakashima and the first for Anthrop. 

The ATP Challenger 75 in Little Rock concluded today, with 20-year-old Mark Lajal of Estonia earning his first title. If the name sounds familiar, Lajal won the ITF J300 in College Park in 2021. Here's my coverage of his win over Ryan Colby(USC) and of that day's girls final, which saw Brenda Fruhvirtova defeating fellow 14-year-old Mirra Andreeva with the loss of just one game.

In today's Challenger final, his first, Lajal defeated qualifier Beibit Zhukayev of Kazakhstan 6-4, 7-5, moving his ATP ranking up to 229. Lajal has played only 17 ATP Challenger matches; to earn a title that quickly is impressive. 

The doubles final was also between two unseeded competitors, with Artem Sitak of New Zealand and JiSung Nam of Korea defeating Canada's Alexis Galarneau(NC State) and Nicolas Moreno de Alboran(UC-Santa Barbara) 6-4, 6-4 in the final.

Qualifying is underway at the next USTA Pro Circuit Challenger, another 75 level, this one in Tyler Texas.