Lyutova, Karki, Ganesan and Frodin Win Second Consecutive ITF Junior Circuit Singles Titles; Tien Advances to Norman $15K Final; Dow Tennis Classic WTA 125 Draws Released

Christina Lyutova of Russia, who last lost a match in March, continued her winning streak by capturing her second straight J60 title in the United States at this week's J60 in Atlanta Georgia.  The 13-year-old, who won the USTA 16s Clay Courts and 16s Hard Courts this summer, claimed the J60 title in Corpus Christi last month, and now has won either 35, 39, or 45 consecutive matches, depending on whether Core Tennis, Tennis Recruiting Network or UTR is the source for her results.

Unseeded this week, Lyutova's toughest match, a 6-3, 6-2 quarterfinal win over top seed Anita Tu, was a rematch of the San Diego Girls 16s final in August. Lyutova had saved match points to claim that one 2-6, 7-5, 6-1; this week she lost a total of 14 games in six matches. Lyutova, who trains in Bellevue Washington, defeated wild card Sarah Ye, No. 2 to Lyutova's No. 1 in the Tennis Recruiting Class rankings for 2028, 6-1, 6-1 in today's final.

Fifteen-year-old Ronit Karki also won a second straight J60 title in Atlanta, after claiming his first career ITF Junior Circuit title earlier this month in the Dominican Republic. Karki, the No. 3 seed, beat No. 2 seed Nathan Blokhin 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the semifinals and in today's final, defeated No. 12 seed and Kalamazoo 16s finalist Lachlan Gaskell 6-4, 6-1.

Gaskell and partner Jack Satterfield claimed the boys doubles title, with the unseeded pair defeating No. 3 seeds Anirudh Dhanwada and John Patrick Popowich 6-7(5), 6-4, 10-8 in the all-US final.

No. 8 seeds Ava Rodriguez and Sara Shumate won the girls doubles title, beating No. 7 seeds Anna Bennett and Lucia Donnelly 2-6, 6-4, 10-5.

At the J100 in Hong Kong, Cornell freshman (in January) Adhithya Ganesan won his second straight title, following the J200 title he won in Japan last week. Top seed Ganesan, who turned 18 on Tuesday, defeated No. 4 seed Connor Church of Canada 6-4, 6-2 in the final. 

Tianmei Wang, the reigning 18s USTA Winter Nationals champion, won the girls title in Hong Kong, and added the doubles title as well. The 16-year-old Californian, seeded No. 3, defeated No. 6 seed Emiliia Kats of Russia 6-4, 6-4 in the final for her third ITF Junior Circuit singles title. Wang and partner Dune Vaissaud of France, the top seeds, defeated No. 4 seeds Yu-Chen Lin of Taiwan and Jinshu Xia of China 6-3, 6-3 for the doubles title, Wang's first on the ITF Junior Circuit.

Fourteen-year-old Thea Frodin won a second straight J100 in Mexico, breezing through the draw as the top seed. Frodin defeated unseeded Addison Yang Comiskey of Canada 6-1, 6-3, with the three games in the second set the most Frodin lost in any of her matches this week. Fifteen-year-old Jack Secord, the No. 5 seed, won his second and biggest ITF Junior Circuit title in Mexico, defeating No. 2 seed Jack Kennedy 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in the final. Secord defeated top seed Cesar Cruz of El Salvador, last week's Mexico J100 winner, also over Kennedy, in the semifinals.

Learner Tien is the last junior with a chance to win a USTA Pro Circuit title this week, with the 17-year-old top seed reaching the final at the $15,000 tournament in Norman Oklahoma after a retirement by qualifier Ryan Fishback, a senior at Virginia Tech. Tien, who was the beneficiary of a retirement in the quarterfinals, trailed 5-3, with Fishback serving for the set, but won it 7-6(3), and after taking the first game of the second set, Fishback retired with a blister. (The tiebreaker score is incorrect on the USTA Pro Circuit and ITF website. They show 7-6(0), but Cracked Racquets is covering the final two days of the tournament and Alex Gruskin provided the point by point coverage of it: https://www.youtube.com/live/ldSa_ugNa4k?feature=shared&t=9570) at ~2:38 mark). 

Tien's opponent in the final is No. 2 seed Duarte Valle(Florida) of Portugal, who defeated unseeded 18-year-old Vanderbilt recruit Danil Panarin of Russia 6-4, 7-6(8).

The doubles title went to the second-seeded North Carolina State team of Robin Catry of France and Fons Van Sambeek of the Netherlands, who beat top seeds Matias Soto(Baylor) of Chile and Mark Whitehouse of Great Britain 6-3, 6-4 in today's final. It's the second title for the senior Catry and first for the junior Van Sambeek.

Cracked Racquets will have coverage of the final beginning at 11 a.m. Eastern on their YouTube channel.

Stanford freshman Kyle Kang lost his semifinal match at the $25,000 tournment in Harlingen Texas, with 2022 NCAA singles finalist August Holmgren(San Diego) of Denmark taking a 6-4, 7-5 decision. Holmgren will play Texas A&M senior Raphael Perot of France, a qualifier, in Sunday's final. 

Top seeds Ozan Baris(Michigan State) and Garrett Johns(Duke) won the doubles title, defeating No. 3 seeds Keshav Chopra and Andres Martin, teammates at Georgia Tech, 6-4, 5-7, 10-8. Baris and Johns have now won three $25K titles on the USTA Pro Circuit since June.

At the $15,000 tournament in Tallahassee, University of Florida freshman Jeremy Jin of Australia, the top seed, will take on No. 8 seed Felix Corwin(Minnesota) for the singles title Sunday. Jin defeated No. 6 seed Patrick Maloney(Michigan) 6-3, 6-2, while Corwin beat Florida State junior James Connel of Great Britain 6-4, 7-5. 

No. 2 seeds Maloney and Emile Hudd(Oklahoma State/Tennessee) won the doubles title, beating No. 4 seeds Thomas Brown and Axel Nefve(Notre Dame/Florida) 6-3, 6-3 in Friday evening's final.

It will be No. 1 versus No. 2 in the final of the $80,000 USTA women's Pro Circuit tournament in Tyler Texas, with Emma Navarro(Virginia) taking on Kayla Day. Navarro, the top seed, defeated Allie Kiick 6-1, 6-2, while Day ended the run of South Carolina fifth-year Ayana Akli, a qualifier, 6-2, 7-5.

The women's doubles final was an all-NC State affair, with current Wolfpack teammates Abigail Rencheli and Great Britain's Amelia Rajecki defeating former Wolfpack teammates Anna Rogers and Alana Smith[2] 7-5, 4-6, 16-14 in tonight's final.

Navarro is still expected to compete in next week's Dow Tennis Classic, the WTA 125 in Midland Michigan, where the 2021 NCAA singles champion will be the top seed.  Day is also in the draw, and is seeded No. 6. 

Peyton Stearns(Texas) who lost in the first round in the Tampico WTA 125 this week, is the No. 2 seed.

Qualifying begins tomorrow and I will be there in the afternoon for qualifying matches and then all day Monday for main draw and the final round of qualifying. 

Former Duke All-American Chloe Beck received the second qualifying wild card, with Beck's former Duke teammate Ellie Coleman, a Midland resident, receiving the other. They are also expected to be awarded a doubles wild card.

Sunday's order of play is here. The qualifying draw is here and the main draw is here.