Americans Sweep ITF Junior Circuit Singles Titles in San Diego and Guatemala; ITF J500 Merida Seeds; Mateas and Kuzuhara Earn Pro Circuit Titles in Dominican Republic; Final USTA Australian Open Wild Card Challenge Standings

In addition to the sweep of the girls titles at the ITF J300 in Mexico by Kate Fakih, four other Americans claimed singles titles on the ITF Junior Circuit last week, winning both boys and girls championships at the J30 in San Diego and the J60 in Guatemala. In addition, Yannik Alvarez of Georgia, who represents Puerto Rico and competes in all the USTA tournaments, won his second straight singles title at the a J30 in Kingston Jamaica last week.

Sixteen-year-old Kenzie Nguyen, the top seed, won her second ITF Junior Circuit singles title in San Diego, beating recent Tulane signee Campbell Ricci 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 in the final. No. 5  seeds Sydney Barnhart and Alexandra Wolf won the girls doubles title, beating No. 3 seeds Emily Deming and Elena Zhao 6-2, 6-4 in the final. It's the first ITF Junior Circuit title for the 14-year-old Barnhart and the second title, both in doubles, for the 16-year-old Wolf.

Eighteen-year-old Matei Gavrea, a recent UC-Santa Barbara signee from San Diego, won his first ITF Junior Circuit title in his home town. The No. 4 seed beat wild card Robert Freedman of San Diego, a UC-Davis signee, 4-6, 6-2, 6-0 in the final. No. 5 seeds Andrew Johnson and Roshan Santhosh won the boys doubles title, beating No. 2 seeds Jack Davison and Eric Wang of Canada 6-1, 6-2 in the final. It's the first ITF Junior Circuit title for the 14-year-old Johnson and the second for the 15-year-old Santhosh, who is the reigning Easter Bowl 14s champion.

In Guatemala, No. 2 seed Abhinav Chunduru won his second ITF Junior Circuit singles title (he has six doubles titles), with the 17-year-old Texan defeating top seed Lev Seidman 7-6(2), 6-3 in the all-US final. The girls singles final, also between two Americans, was won by unseeded Aspen Chung, who defeated top seed Sahana Sanjeev 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 for her second ITF Junior Circuit singles title.

After losing in the first round of the ITF J60 in Atlanta last month, the 15-year-old Alvarez went to Jamaica for two J30s there and has won them both, his first two ITF Junior Circuit titles. Last week, seeded No. 6, Alvarez defeated No. 4 seed Gabriel Velez of Chile 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 in the singles final, while also claiming the doubles championship with Navneet Raghuram.

Rain has plagued the tournaments in the Dominican Republic this month, and the singles finals of the men's $15,000 and women's $25,000 tournaments there were played today. It was worth the wait for two Americans, with Bruno Kuzuhara and Maria Mateas(Duke) taking the titles.  It was the second straight title for Kuzuhara, the 2022 Australian Open boys champion, who won the previous week, again on a Monday, against the same opponent he faced today, Facundo Mena of Argentina. Last Monday as the No. 2 seed Kuzuhara beat Mena, the No. 3 seed 7-5, 7-5; today the two met with the same seedings, but Kuzuhara had a much easier time, beating Mena 6-1, 6-0, although it did take 77 minutes. It's the third title for Kuzuhara, with his first coming in September, and he will move into the ATP Top 500 for the first time when the points are added next week.

Mateas had waited a long time for her second ITF women's World Tennis Tour title, having won her first in 2018. Seeded No. 7 in Santa Domingo, the 24-year-old Mateas defeated last week's Santa Domingo $25K champion Ana Sofia Sanchez of Mexico, the No. 9 seed, 7-5, 7-6(2) in today's final. 

In last night's final at the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit in Austin Texas, 18-year-old Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva of Andorra, the No. 4 seed, defeated No. 6 seed Hanna Chang 6-0, 6-2 in the final, which was moved indoors due to rain.

With the conclusion of that final, the USTA Pro Circuit is now done for the year, but there are three more major ITF Junior Circuit events still to come, with the J500 this week in Merida Mexico, the J300 Eddie Herr next week in Bradenton Florida and the J500 Orange Bowl in Plantation Florida in two weeks.

The main draw of the J500 Yucatan World Cup began today, and as usual, matches will go very late into the evening, but here are the seeds.

Boys:
1. Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez(MEX)
2. Iliyan Radulov(BUL)
3. Nicolai Budkov Kjaer(NOR)
4. Alex Razeghi(USA)
5. Adhithya Ganesan(USA)
6. Kaylan Bigun(USA) [out round 1]
7. Charlie Camus(AUS)
8. Sebastian Eriksson(SWE)
9. Maxi Mrva(CZE)
10. Roy Horovitz(USA)
11. Oliver Bonding(USA)
12. Reda Bennani(MAR)
13. Timofei Derepasko(RUS)
14. Viktor Frydrych(GBR)
15. Charlie Robertson(GBR)
16. Daniil Sarksian(RUS)

Girls:
1. Laura Samsonova(CZE)
2. Kaitlin Quevedo(USA)
3. Alena Kovackova(CZE)
4. Hannah Klugman(GBR)
5. Wakana Sonobe(JPN)
6. Gloriana Nahum(BEN)
7. Iva Ivanova(BUL)
8. Alisa Oktiabreva(RUS)
9. Rositsa Dencheva(BUL)
10. Mika Buchnik(ISR)
11. Luna Maria Cinalli(ARG)
12. Emily Sartz-Lunde(NOR)
13. Monika Stankiewicz(POL)
14. Ariana Pursoo(USA)
15. Mia Slama(USA)
16. Yelyzaveta Kotliar(UKR)

The USTA released the final standings for its men's Australian Open Wild Card Challenge, with Alex Michelsen finishing first, Patrick Kypson second, Brandon Nakashima third and Ethan Quinn fourth. With Michelsen expected to receive direct entry into the main draw, Kypson will be next in line. McCartney Kessler is likely to receive the women's wild card with the three players above her poised for direct entry.

ORLANDO, Fla., November 20, 2023 – The final standings for the 2023 Australian Open Wild Card Challenge are below. Players' current rankings are in parenthesis. 

 

Men's Standings

 

1. Alex Michelsen (94) -- 125

2. Patrick Kypson (192) -- 105

3. Brandon Nakashima (133) -- 89

4. Ethan Quinn (347) -- 64

 

Women's Standings

 

1. Emina Bektas (82) -- 299

2. Kayla Day (88) -- 112

3. Claire Liu (96) -- 110

4. McCartney Kessler (232) -- 100

5. Katie Volynets (107) -- 72