Lyutova Wins Second Straight J30 in SoCal; Thirteen Americans Seeded at ITF J300 in Colombia; Virginia Tops 2024 Recruiting Class Rankings; Texas A&M Beats Georgia Advance to National Indoor Championships

With all my attention last week on the Australian Open Juniors, the Coffee Bowl J300 and Les Petits As, I wasn't able to follow the lower level events, so I'll try to catch up on some of those today. 

Thirteen-year-old Christina Lyutova, who lives in the US but plays for Russia, extended her 2024 winning streak to ten matches, following her title at the ITF J30 in Claremont two weeks ago with another title at the J30 in San Diego last week. Lyutova, who won three consecutive J60 tournaments at the end of 2023, had her ITF Junior Circuit streak snapped in the qualifying at the Eddie Herr J300, but she is back to her straight-sets march through the draws in Southern California. Seeded No. 1 in San Diego, she defeated unseeded Emily Deming 6-2, 6-3 in the final for her fifth ITF Junior Circuit title and has added another win at this week's J30 in San Diego, where she is the No. 2 seed.

No. 7 seed Mario Garcia won his first ITF Junior Circuit single title, with the 17-year-old from San Diego defeating No. 5 seed Alexander Baez of Paraguay 7-5, 6-4 in the final.

No. 2 seeds Andre Alcantara and Ian Bracks won the boys doubles championship, defeating unseeded Liam Alvarez and Micah Ward 7-6(11), 3-6, 12-10 in the final.

Unseeded Sydney Barnhart and Alexandra Wolf took the girls doubles title, beating unseeded Kara Garcia and Shaya Jovanovic 7-5, 6-2 in the championship match.

Joining Lyutova as a two-time J30 champion this month is Agassi Rusher, who won back-to-back events in Uruguay. The unseeded 15-year-old from Florida won his first career ITF Junior Circuit title two weeks ago by beating top seed Bruno Loch Varella of Brazil 7-5, 6-4 in the final; last week he defeated No. 4 seed Pedro Albuquerque Dietrich of Brazil 6-1, 6-2 in the championship match.

Seventeen-year-old Dillon Beckles of Texas claimed the title last week at the J60 in South Africa, with the No. 5 seed defeating No. 3 seed Guy Vorwerk of South Africa 6-2, 6-2 for his third career ITF Junior Circuit singles title. 

Sixteen-year-old qualifier Nicole Weng of California won the J30 in Singapore last week, capturing her first ITF Junior Circuit title with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Jiyun Oh of Korea.

While most of the Americans who participated in the Australian swing are taking the week off, boys Australian Open doubles champion Cooper Woestendick is back in action at the ITF J300 in Barranquilla Colombia this week, where he is the No. 2 seed.

As was the case last week, the draws in Colombia have a large contingent of Americans, including Costa Rica champions and finalists Shannon Lam, Kristina Penickova, Ian Mayew and Matisse Farzam. Unlike Costa Rica, this week's draw is 48, not 32. The seeds are below, with a list of the other Americans competing this week in Colombia also included.

Girls seeds
1. Kaitlyn Rolls(USA)
2. Christasha McNeil(USA)
3. Claire An(USA)
4. Monika Ekstrand(USA)
5. Margot Phanthala(FRA)
6. Francesca Maguina Bunikowska(PER)
7. Jeline Vandromme(BEL)
8. Shannon Lam(USA)
9. Dune Vaissaud(FRA)
10. Ema Mravcova(SVK)
11. Mia Pohankova(SVK)
12. Thea Frodin(USA)
13. Natalia Trigosso(BOL)
14. Krisha Mahendran(IND)
15. Yichen Zhao(CHN)
16. Valentina Mediorreal Arias(COL)

Other American girls in the draw: Capucine Jauffret, Kristina Penickova, Anita Tu, Gabriella Kellner[Q], Kori Montoya[Q] and Julieta Pareja.

Boys seeds
1. Hoyoung Roh(KOR)
2. Cooper Woestendick(USA)
3. Nikita Filin(USA)
4. Miguel Tobon(COL)
5. Rafael Segado Esteve(ESP)
6. Connor Church(CAN)
7. Bernardo Munk Mesa(ESP)
8. Goncalo Marques(POR)
9. Stiles Brockett(USA)
10. Calvin Baierl(USA)
11. Noah Johnston(USA)
12. Kase Schinnerer(USA)
13. Matisse Farzam(USA)
14. Samuel Heredia(COL)
15. Joaquin Guilleme(NCA)
16. Dmitry Bessonov(RUS)

Other American boys in the draw: Lev Seidman[Q], Carel Ngounoue, Benjamin Willwerth[SE], Maximus Dussault, Yubel Ubri[Q], Cole Henceroth[Q], Ian Mayew[SE], Jordan Reznik, Meecah Bigun and Jacob Olar.

The January edition of Tennis Recruiting Network's men's Class of 2024 recruiting class rankings were published today, with Virginia, unsurprisingly, at the top (the surprise is that they weren't unanimous). Following Virginia are UCLA, Arizona State, Harvard and North Carolina. Arizona State is probably not accurately placed because Bor Artnak, who was expected to be in this fall's class, is actually already on the roster and playing for the Sun Devils.  Rounding out the top 10 are Arizona, Auburn, Columbia, South Carolina and Penn. As has been the case for all of these rankings over the years, I again submitted my votes for this poll. The women's rankings will be posted next Monday.

The last final of the men's ITA Division I Kickoff Weekend was played today in Athens Georgia, with No. 2 seed Texas A&M dropping the doubles point to Georgia and the first singles match to fall behind 2-0, but taking the next four matches to earn a 4-2 win and a spot in the National Team Indoor Championships next month in New York. It's the Aggies first trip to the Team Indoor Championships since 2020.

National Team Indoors men's qualifiers:

Saturday

Alabama[2] d. Kentucky[1] 4-2

Sunday

Duke[1] d. Middle Tennessee[2] 4-0

Tennessee[1] d. Oklahoma[2] 4-1

Ohio State[1] d. Boise State[3] 4-0

Virginia[1] d. Florida Atlantic[3] 4-0

Harvard[1] d. Northwestern[3] 4-0

South Carolina[1] d. LSU[3] 4-1

Wake Forest[2] d. Illinois[4] 4-1

Michigan[1] d. Stanford[2] 4-3

Texas[1] d. Oklahoma State[3] 4-1

TCU[1] d. Tulsa[2] 4-0

Arizona State[3] d. VCU[4] 4-2

Arizona[[1] d. Baylor[3] 4-2

USC[1] d. San Diego[2] 4-3

Monday

Texas A&M[2] d. Georgia[1] 4-2

No. 1 seeded hosts not advancing to Team Indoor Championships: North Carolina, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Georgia

National Team Indoors women's qualifiers:

Saturday

Michigan[1] d. Arkansas[2] 4-0

Virginia[1] d. Georgia Tech[2] 4-0

Auburn[2] d. Duke[1] 4-2 

Pepperdine[1] d. LSU[2] 4-0

North Carolina[1] d. Kentucky[3] 4-0

Southern California[3] d. Tennessee[1] 4-2

Texas[1] d. Florida State[2] 4-0

Stanford[1] d. Maryland[2] 4-0

Georgia[1] d. South Carolina[2] 4-1

Ohio State[1] d. Arizona State[3] 4-0

Sunday

Texas A&M[1] d. TCU[2] 4-0

Oklahoma State[3] d. Old Dominion[4] 4-0

NC State[1] d. Clemson[3] 4-0

Florida[1] d. San Diego[3] 4-3

Cal[2] d. Oklahoma[1] 4-3

No. 1 seeded hosts not advancing to Team Indoor Championships: Iowa State, Duke, Tennessee and Oklahoma