Tien and Blanch Reach Roland Garros Boys Semifinals; Ngounoue and Grant Advance to Doubles Semifinals; Puetz Takes Mixed Crown, Krajicek Reaches Men's Doubles Final; USTA Announces Summer Collegiate Team

The 2022 USTA Kalamazoo champions have advanced to the semifinals of the boys singles at Roland Garros, with 18s champion Learner Tien and 16s champion Darwin Blanch, both unseeded, taking down seeded opponents in today's quarterfinals.

The 17-year-old Tien dropped his first set of the week against 16-year-old Joao Fonseca of Brazil, but bounced back for a 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 victory over the No. 10 seed. Blanch and No. 9 seed Cooper Williams had a back-and-forth battle, with Blanch saving three break-points in a six-deuce fifth game in the final set. The 15-year-old didn't face a break point after that, breaking Williams at love to go up 5-3 and closing out a two-hour and 11 minute 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-3 victory. Blanch will face No. 3 seed Dino Prizmic of Croatia, who beat Henry Searle of Great Britain 7-6(3), 6-3.

Tien's opponent in Friday's semifinals is No. 8 seed Juan Carlos Prado Angelo of Bolivia. Prado defeated No. 15 seed Joel Schwaerzler of Austria 7-5, 6-3.

Two girls semifinals featuring only Russians was a point from happening, but No. 6 seed Lucciana Perez Alarcon of Peru saved that match point serving at 4-5 in the third set and went on to defeat Alevina Ibragimova 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(5). Perez Alarcon, the first girl from Peru to reach the Roland Garros semifinals in 42 years, according to Ariel Fernandez, will face fellow 18-year-old Anastasiia Gureva, who defeated Rebecca Munk Mortensen of Denmark 6-3, 4-6, 7-5.

The possibility of a girl winning all four junior slams in the same calendar year, which has never been done, is still alive, with No. 3 seed and Australian Open girls champion Alina Korneeva advancing to the semifinals with a 6-3, 6-3 win over No. 8 seed Mayu Crossley.  Korneeva will play the third Russian semifinalist, 14-year-old qualifier Alisa Oktiabreva, who upset No. 2 seed Clervie Ngounoue 7-5, 6-1. 

Ngounoue and partner Tyra Grant, seeded No. 6, have advanced to the doubles semifinals, defeating the Czech team of Alena Kovackova and Laura Samsonova 6-0, 3-6, 10-8 in today's quarterfinals.

Tien and Williams, the Australian Open boys champions, lost to top seeds Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez of Mexico and Yaroslav Demin of Russia 6-4, 4-6, 10-4.  Maxwell Exsted, the fifth American in the doubles quarterfinals, and his partner Patrick Schoen of Switzerland, lost to David Fix and Marc Majdandzic of Germany 6-3, 6-4.

A former collegian was assured of winning the Roland Garros mixed doubles title, and it was former Auburn star Tim Puetz who ended the day with the trophy. Puetz, of Germany, and Miyu Kato of Japan, playing together for the first time, defeated New Zealand's Michael Venus(LSU) and Canada's Bianca Andreescu 4-6, 6-4, 10-6. It's the first mixed title for both Kato and Puetz.  For more, see this article from the ATP website.

Last year Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M) and partner Ivan Dodig of Croatia lost a heartbreaker in the Roland Garros men's doubles final. The No. 4 seeds will try to go one step further this year after defeating No. 10 seeds Marcel Granollers of Spain and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina 6-3, 7-6(3) to reach the final again.  They will face the unseeded Belgian team of Sander Gille(East Tennessee State) and Joran Vliegen(East Carolina), who defeated Matwe Middelkoop of the Netherlands and Andreas Mies(Auburn) of Germany 6-4, 7-5 to reach their first slam final.

The USTA announced the Summer Collegiate team selections today, with the full release below:

USTA ANNOUNCES 2023 COLLEGIATE SUMMER TEAM

ORLANDO, Fla., June 8, 2023 – The USTA today announced the 10 top American college players named to the 2023 USTA Collegiate Summer Team, the training program designed to help America’s premier college players assimilate to professional tennis in a team-oriented environment via USTA Player Development:

2023 USTA Collegiate Summer Team
Men

Alafia Ayeni, Kentucky (23, San Diego)
Nishesh Basavareddy, Stanford (18, Carmel, Ind.)
Murphy Cassone, Arizona State (20, Overland Park, Kan.)
Ethan Quinn, Georgia (19, Fresno, Calif.)
Eliot Spizzirri, Texas (21, Stamford, Conn.)

Women
Chloe Beck, Duke (21, Athens, Ga.)
Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina (18, Whitewater, Wisc.)
Fiona Crawley, North Carolina (21, San Antonio)
Madison Sieg, Southern California (19, Greenwich, Conn.)
Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M (20, Southbury, Conn.)

Each of the players was selected based on a number of criteria, including rankings, individual collegiate tournament results or Intercollegiate Tennis Association honors. Players on the team are eligible to receive a grant for travel to USTA Pro Circuit events and coaching support over the summer.

Louisville's Mario Rincon and Oklahoma State's Martin Redlicki will travel with and coach the men. Vanderbilt's Hailey Carter and Southern California's Danielle Lao will travel with and coach the women. All four coaches will also provide assistance to any American collegians playing at tournaments throughout the summer. The program is led by USTA National Coach Maureen Diaz.