Nine American Juniors Competing in This Week's ITF J500 in Osaka; Ngounoue Returns to No. 1 in Junior Rankings; Five Americans Qualify for Fairfield Challenger; Former Collegians Represent US in Pan Am Games; Collins Named to US Billie Jean King Cup Team

Kaitlin Quevedo is the top seed at this week's ITF J500 in Osaka Japan, a rare instance of a top US junior competing at that event, no doubt that is due to Quevedo's status as an alternate in ITF World Junior Finals next week in China.

Quevedo is one of six US girls who are competing in Osaka, but even with rain washing out most of Monday's schedule, two US girls have advanced to the second round: No. 10 seed Mia Slama and Olivia Center. The other US girls in the draw are Gabriella Mikaul, Maya Iyengar and Maya Dutta.

Three US boys are in the main draw: No. 16 seed Adhithya Ganesan(Cornell), who won the doubles title in Osaka last year, Rohan Belday and Jacob Olar. US Open boys semifinalist Federico Cina is the top seed; he too is competing in the World Junior finals in China next week.

Clervie Ngounoue has moved back to No. 1 in the ITF junior girls rankings, having held that spot briefly early this summer before Roland Garros. She dislodged Alina Korneeva of Russia, who has two junior slam singles titles compared to Ngounoue's one, and neither has played an ITF junior event since Wimbledon. But both are scheduled to play in the World Junior finals, so that could go a long way to deciding who ends the year at No. 1.

The qualifying concluded today at the ATP Challenger 75 in Fairfield California, with five of the six qualifiers Americans: Stefan Dostanic(USC), Learner Tien(USC), Strong Kirchheimer(Northwestern), Keegan Smith(UCLA) and Alfredo Perez(Florida). The sole international qualifier is August Holmgren of Denmark, who reached the NCAA singles final in 2022 while at San Diego. Federico Agustin Gomez(Louisville) of Argentina, who lost 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(4) to Tien after holding two match points at 6-5 in the third set, received entry as a lucky loser and will play ITA All-American champion Eliot Spizzirri in the first round. Tien drew No. 2 seed Nicolas Moreno de Alboran(UC-Santa Barbara); Dostanic No. 4 seed Zachary Svajda, who won the Tiburon Challenger title yesterday. The top seed again this week is Alex Michelsen. 

Stanford sophomore Nishesh Basavareddy, who reached his first Challenger quarterfinal last week in Tiburon, will face No. 6 seed and Tiburon finalist Adam Walton(Tennessee) of Australia. Michigan State sophomore Ozan Baris, a semifinalist at the All-American Championships in Tulsa after losing in the first round of the Tiburon Challenger, faces fellow wild card Thai Kwiatkowski(Virginia), the 2017 NCAA singles champion.

The USTA announced the team for the Billie Jean King Cup finals next month in Spain, which will be the last event with Kathy Rinaldi as captain, with Lindsay Davenport taking on that responsibility next year. With Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula both qualifying for the WTA Finals in Cancun Mexico the week before, they have not been selected; Iga Swiatek is also not on Poland's team. The United States' team will consist of Madison Keys, Sofia Kenin, Sloane Stephens, Taylor Townsend and Danielle Collins(Virginia). 

From the USTA press release:

Billie Jean King Cup is the World Cup of Tennis, and the six-day Finals will crown this year’s champion. The Finals will feature 12 teams drawn into four groups to compete in a round-robin format, with the Group winners advancing to the knockout-style semifinals. The U.S. was drawn into Group A and will play Switzerland (Thursday, November 9, 4 p.m. local time) and the Czech Republic (Friday, November 10, 4 p.m. local time) with hopes of advancing to the semifinals and beyond.

The USTA also announced those who will be representing the United States in the upcoming PanAm Games later this month in Chile. All are former college players, with Jamie Loeb(UNC), Tristan Boyer(Stanford), Evan Zhu(UCLA) and Omni Kumar(Duke) playing in the competitions, which begin October 20 and run through November 5th. The complete announcement, including those representing the United States in the Parapan American games, can be found here.