Jovic Rolls On, Grant and Glozman Earn Victories at Florence $25K; Three Americans Advance at ITF J300 in Osaka; Teams Named for International Club Rod Laver Junior Challenge; Former USC Coach Dick Leach Dies

Fifteen-year-old Iva Jovic won her sixth consecutive match at a USTA Pro Circuit $25,000 tournament this week in Florence South Carolina. The champion at the $25K in Redding California last week, who is again a wild card this week, defeated No. 6 seed and WTA No. 312 Katerina Kozarov(Furman) of Serbia 6-1, 6-4 in today's first round action. Jovic, who had no WTA ranking before winning the Redding title, is now at 666 in the live rankings. She plays 21-year-old Whitney Osuigwe, the 2017 ITF World Junior Champion, who defeated 16-year-old qualifier Mia Yamakita 6-1, 2-6, 6-2. 

Wild card Tyra Grant, also 15 years old, won her first round match, beating No. 3 seed Liv Hovde, the 2022 Wimbledon girls champion, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. Grant's opponent will be, for the second consecutive week, 16-year-old Valerie Glozman, who defeated Robin Anderson(UCLA) 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(3). Grant reached the semifinals last week in Redding as a qualifier, beating wild card Glozman 6-3, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

The top two women in the ITA Division I preseason singles rankings are also in the draw this week in Florence SC, after both competed in the ITA All-American Championships in Cary NC last week. No. 1 Fiona Crawley of North Carolina, who was upset in the second round at the All-Americans, defeated qualifier Catherine Harrison(UCLA) 7-6(1), 6-2. No. 2 Mary Stoiana of Texas A&M, who won the All-American title Sunday, lost to former NC State All-American Alana Smith 6-3, 7-6(1).

The three seeded Americans at the ITF J300 Osaka Mayor's Cup in Japan have reached Thursday's round of 16. After two straight-sets wins, top seed Kaitlin Quevedo will face No. 15 seed Mika Stojsavljevic of Great Britain. No. 10 seed Mia Slama also advanced to the third round without dropping a set; she plays No. 8 seed Mika Buchnik of Israel. Only two of the 16 seeds are absent from the third round: No. 7 Hayu Kinoshita of Japan and No. 14 Lily Taylor of Australia.

Adhithya Ganesan, the No. 16 seed, is the only US boy remaining. After picking up wins over a qualifier and a wild card, Ganesan will face No. 3 seed Rei Sakamoto of Japan.  The only seed missing from the boys third round is No. 12, and he did not play, with a lucky loser in his spot in the draw.

Quevedo[1], Maya Iyengar[7] and Ganesan[4] have reached the doubles quarterfinals, with Quevedo and her partner Mingge Xu of Great Britain, playing Iyengar and her partner Shiho Tsujioka of Japan in the quarterfinals. Ganesan, who won the Osaka doubles title last year, is playing with China's Tianhui Zhang.

The La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club will host a junior team competition next month, the International Club Rod Laver Junior Challenge, with teams from six countries competing: Argentina, Great Britain, India, Italy, South Africa and the United States.

The teams, each consisting of two boys and two girls, will compete for five days, from November 7-11. According to the release: "Team matches will consist of two boys’ singles matches, two girls’ singles matches, one boys’ doubles match and one girls’ doubles match. A match tie-break in mixed doubles will be played as a decisive match if necessary to determine the winner. The event will use a round-robin format with each team playing a total of five matches. The team with the best overall record will be crowned champion on the final day."

The United States team consists of four players who train at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park Maryland. The rosters:

Argentina:

Pilar Beveraggi Lespiau

Zoe Lazar

Juan Ignacio Morresi

Ramiro Toninelli

Great Britain:

Brooke Black

Maria Ustic

Arthur Attrill

Joe Mazingham

India:

Asmi Nihar Adkar

Sohini Sanjay Mohanty

Manas Dhamne

Rushil Khosla

Italy:

Ilary Pistola

Ylenia Zocco

Lorenzo Angelini

Michele Mecarelli

South Africa:

Mari-Louise van Zyl

Kaitlyn Ramduth

Guy Vorwerk

Simphiwe Ngwenya

United States:

Reiley Rhodes

Shivaani Selvan

Stiles Brockett

Jonah Hill

Sad news yesterday that former University of Southern California men's head coach Dick Leach passed away at the age of 83. Leach, who led the Trojans to four NCAA team titles, was synonymous with USC tennis during his 23 years as head coach and was inducted into the ITA Tennis Hall of Fame in 2003. He is the father of Rick and Jonathan Leach, the father-in-law of Lindsay Davenport and the grandfather of Jagger Leach.

The ITA published a tribute to Leach today, highlighting his many accomplishments in and contributions to both USC and college tennis.