Draws for ITF Junior Finals, Beginning Wednesday in China; Osuigwe and Urhobo Qualify for Macon $80K; Razeghi Earns First ATP Point at Las Vegas $15K; Tu and Harmon Advace at Jackson $15K

The ATP and WTA Finals, which come at the end of their respective seasons, are approaching, but the ITF Junior Finals are being held now, with nearly two months of tournament on the ITF Junior Circuit remaining.

Round robin play begins Wednesday in Chengdu China, with two groups for both the girls and the boys.

Girls group A, with ITF rankings in parentheses:

Clervie Ngounoue[1], USA

Laura Samsonova[6], CZE

Sayaka Ishii[9], JPN

Ena Koike[11], JPN

Girls Group B:

Alina Korneeva[2], RUS

Renata Jamrichova[3], SVK

Kaitlin Quevedo[7], USA

Sara Saito[12], JPN

Wednesday's matches are Ngounoue v Ishii, Samsona v Koike, Korneeva v Quevedo and Jamrichova v Saito.

Boys Group A:

Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez[2], MEX

Iliyan Radulov[8], BUL

Yi Zhou[12], CHN

Arthur Gea[13], FRA

Boys Group B:

Yaroslav Demin[3], RUS

Joel Schwaerzler[7], AUT

Federico Cina[10], ITA

Branko Djuric[14], SRB

Wednesday round robin boys matches are Pacheco v Zhou, Radulov v Gea, Demin v Cina and Schwaerzler v Djuric. After three days of round robin play, the top two finishers in each group will advance to the semifinals.

Links to live streaming and live scoring can be found here.

More information can be found on the Junior Finals at the ITF's  YouTube channel and Facebook page.

Three USTA Pro Circuit tournaments are on this week's schedule: a $15,000 men's tournament in Las Vegas, a $15,000 women's tournament in Jackson Tennessee and an $80,000 women's tournament in Macon Georgia. 

Two 16-year-old Americans have made it through qualifying into the main draw in Macon:Victoria Osuigwe and Akasha Urhobo. Osuigwe came back to defeat No. 8 seed Jenna De Falco 0-6, 6-3, 6-2 in today's final round of qualifying, while Urhobo, who had beaten No. 6 seed Lia Karatancheva of Bulgaria in the first round Monday, defeated No. 14 seed Anna Rogers(NC State) 7-5, 6-7(8), 6-2. Other Americans qualifying for the main draw are Ashley Lahey(Pepperdine), Alana Smith(NC State), Victoria Hu(Princeton) and Rasheeda McAdoo(Georgia Tech). 

Wild cards were given to Allie Kiick, who withdrew, Catherine Harrison(UCLA), who lost in first round action today to Mccartney Kessler(Florida), and Alexa Noel(Iowa/Miami), who won her first round match over Jana Kolodynska of Belarus 6-4, 3-1 ret.  Taylor Townsend is the top seed, and if she beats Hu in the first round tomorrow, will play Kessler for the third time in the last three tournaments. Kayla Day is the No. 2 seed.

Seventeen-year-old Alex Razeghi earned his first ATP point today as a junior reserved entry at the Las Vegas $15K. The 2021 Kalamazoo 16s champion defeated No. 2 seed and ATP No. 385 Christian Langmo(Miami) 7-5, 6-0 in first round action today. 

The field in Las Vegas is much stronger than most $15Ks because an ATP Challenger was originally scheduled for this week there, but it was recently cancelled and this tournament took its place. Top seed Bernard Tomic of Australia[295], Langmo and No. 3 seed Thai Kwiatkowski(Virginia)[426] and Alexander Cozbinov[460] have been playing Challengers the past few weeks, but perhaps with plans already made, are finding themselves at the lowest level of the ITF men's World Tennis Tour.

Americans qualifying for the main draw are Trey Hilderbrand(UCF/Texas A&M), Patrick Maloney(Michigan), Adit Sinha(Cornell), Ron Hohmann(LSU/Michigan State), Ryan Dickerson(Duke/Baylor) and Alexander Petrov(Illinois).

Wild cards went to UNLV sophomore Dusan Rsovac of Australia, UNLV junior Thomas Navarro, UNLV senior Anton Ornberg of Sweden and 17-year-old Rudy Quan. Kaylan Bigun is also in the main draw, via a junior reserved entry.

The women's tournament in Tennessee is full of college players from the middle of the country.

Three Oklahoma State players advanced through qualifying to the main draw: Kristina Novak of Slovakia, Raquel Gonzalez Vilar of Spain and Ayumi Miyamoto of Japan.  Fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Ionescu, a blue chip from Pennsylvania, qualified, with Wisconsin junior Taylor Cataldi the other American advancing to the main draw.

Wild cards were awarded to 16-year-old Monika Ekstrand, local junior Brilee Davis, 15-year-old Anna Frey and 14-year-old Anita Tu.  The junior reserved spots were filled by Alexia Harmon and Ashton Bowers.  Harmon defeated Davis 6-0, 6-1 in the first round today, while Tu won her first match on the Pro Circuit in her first attempt, defeating 17-year-old Esther Vyrlan 6-3, 7-5.

Oklahoma State sophmore Lucia Peyre of Argentina is the top seed; No. 2 seed Connie Hsu(Penn) of Taiwan lost today to Arkansas sophomore Carolina Gomez of Spain 6-2, 6-1.