Tien and Blanch Fall in Roland Garros Boys Semifinals; Korneeva Goes For Second Straight Junior Slam Title, Prado Angelo for Historic Win; Ngounoue and Grant Reach Girls Doubles Final; Teens Schuman, Tian and Anthrop Advance to San Diego $15K Semifinals
The two unseeded American boys in the Roland Garros semifinals were beaten today in Paris, with 15-year-old Darwin Blanch falling to No. 3 seed Dino Prizmic of Croatia 6-3, 6-2 and 17-year-old Learner Tien dropping a 6-1, 7-5 decision to Juan Carlos Prado Angelo of Boliva.
Prizmic had the much better serving day, with eight aces and winning 24 of 26 points on his first serve. Blanch had only two break points, neither of which he could convert, while Prizmic was successful in three of the eight break points he received.
Tien had four set points to force a third, but he didn't get the only one he had serving at 5-3 and missed out on three more with Prado Angelo going down 0-40 at 4-5.
Despite the losses today, the two left-handers had many excellent wins throughout the week and will be closely followed this summer by the fans that got to know them this week.
Prado Angelo and Prizmic have no previous history, and neither has contested a junior slam final before, although Prizmic reached the semifinals last year at Roland Garros. Prizmic is looking to become the first Croatian to win the Roland Garros boys singles final since Marin Cilic in 2005; Prado Angelo would be the first Bolivian to win a junior slam singles title.
No. 3 seed Alina Korneeva of Russia is also shooting for a rare accomplishment, with the Australian Open girls champion earning a second straight appearance in a slam final with a 6-1, 6-1 win over 14-year-old qualifier Alisa Oktiabreva of Russia.
Should Korneeva take the title Saturday, she will be the first girl since Magdalena Maleeva in 1990 to capture the first two junior slams of the year. Korneeva is also undefeated in junior slam competition, having played her first in Australia.
Standing in her way is Lucciana Perez Alarcon of Peru, who already has made history for her country by reaching the final, the first girl from Peru to reach any junior slam singles final.
Perez Alarcon defeated unseeded Anastasiia Gureva of Russia 7-6(2), 7-5 in today's semifinal.
An opportunity for a title in Paris still exists for Americans, with Tyra Grant and Clervie Ngounoue advancing to the girls doubles final. Grant and Ngounoue, the No. 6 seeds, defeated No. 4 seed Sayaka Ishii and Ena Koike of Japan 6-0, 6-4 and will face top seeds Korneeva and Sarah Saito for the title Saturday. Korneeva and Saito defeated No. 3 seeds Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia and Federica Urgesi of Italy 7-5, 6-1 in their semifinal.
Ngounoue has now won 13 straight ITF girls doubles matches, having won the ITF J300s in Indian Wells and San Diego in March and now advancing to her second junior slam doubles final. She won the 2022 Australian Open girls doubles title with Diana Shnaider(NC State).
The boys doubles final will also feature the No. 1 seeds, with Yaroslav Demin of Russia and Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez of Mexico taking on the unseeded Italian pair of Lorenzo Sciahbasi and Gabriele Vulpitta.
Saturday's schedule begins with the girls singles final at 11:00 a.m. followed by the boys singles final and the girls doubles final on Court Simonne-Mathieu. The boys doubles final will be on Court 6 at 11 a.m.
Taylor Townsend has advanced to the women's doubles final Sunday with partner Leylah Fernandez of Canada. The No. 10 seeds defeated No. 2 seeds Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula 6-0, 6-4 in today's semifinal. They will play unseeded Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan and Xinyu Wang of China, who defeated No. 6 seeds Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez(Georgia) of Australia 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M) and Ivan Dodig of Croatia, the No. 4 seeds, will contest the men's doubles final after the women's singles final between Poland's Iga Swiatek and Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic. Krajicek and Dodig are facing the unseeded Belgium team of Sander Gille(East Tennessee St) and Joran Vliegen(East Carolina).
Teenagers continue to excel at the SoCal Pro Series $15Ks this week in San Diego, with 19-year-old NCAA champion Fangran Tian of UCLA reaching the women's semifinals, a week after she reached the Rancho Santa Fe $15k final and two weeks after she won the singles title in Lake Nona. Tian will play top seed Samantha Crawford next. Two qualifiers will meet in the bottom half 's semifinal: 21-year-old Nikki Redelijk, a rising senior at Pepperdine and 15-year-old Aspen Schuman, who will be playing in her first semifinal on the USTA Pro Circuit.
In the men's draw, 19-year-old Jack Anthrop advanced to the semifinals, with the rising Ohio State sophomore defeating No. 3 seed Jaimee Angele of France 7-6(1), 6-4 in today's quarterfinals. Anthrop will face No. 6 seed Keegan Smith(UCLA) next.
In the bottom half, unseeded Jacob Brumm(Cal/Baylor) defeated 17-year-old qualifier Trevor Svajda 3-6, 7-5, 6-0 to advance to a semifinal meeting with another qualifier, recent Arizona graduate Jonas Ziverts of Sweden. Ziverts defeated No. 8 seed Enzo Wallart of France 6-4, 6-4 in today's quarterfinals.
Coverage of Saturday's semifinals will be available at the Cracked Racquets YouTube channel.
At the ATP Challenger 75 in Tyler Texas, the run of wild card Adam Neff ended in today's quarterfinals. After wins over
Joao Lucas Reis Da Silva of Brazil in the first round and lucky loser Christian Langmo(Miami) in yesterday's second round, Neff lost to qualifier Peter Gojowczyk of Germany 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. Gojowczyk will take on the last American remaining, No. 3 seed Nicolas Moreno de Alboran(UC-Santa Barbara), who beat Tennys Sandgren(Tennessee) 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in today's quarterfinals. Former NC State star Alexis Galarneau of Canada will face Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan in the other semifinal, with both players unseeded.
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