Ngounoue Captures First Pro Circuit Singles Title; Three US Juniors Reach Traralgon ITF J300 Quarterfinals; 12 Americans in First Round Australian Open Action Monday; Scores of Collegians Compete in AO Doubles; Bolton 14U Tournament Underway

Since qualifying for the WTA 500 in San Diego last September, Clervie Ngounoue had had a disappointing fall on the ITF women's World Tennis Tour, winning just one match at three $25Ks, although she did reach the semifinals of the ITF Junior Finals in China during that stretch.

The 17-year-old, who now lives in Orlando, didn't play last week at the $25K in Arcadia California, but she squeezed into the main draw at the W35 in Naples Florida this week and went on to dominate the field in winning her first Pro Circuit singles title without dropping a set. 

In today's final, the reigning Wimbledon junior and USTA 18s National champion defeated No. 8 seed Allie Kiick 6-1, 6-1; it was her fourth victory over a seed, with the other three coming over No. 7 seed Madison Sieg, No. 4 seed Varvara Lepchenko and No. 1 seed Louisa Chirico. Now barely inside the WTA Top 500, she will approach her career-high ranking of 426 when the points are added in two weeks.

Three of the four US juniors who were projected by their seedings to reach the quarterfinals at the ITF J300 in Traralgon Australia have done so, with only No. 5 seed Kaylun Bigun, who retired in the first round, missing from the final eight in the Australian Open Junior Championships warm-up event.

No. 4 seed Iva Jovic defeated 14-year-old qualifier Ksenia Efremova of France, who won a $15K to close out 2023, 6-1, 6-1 in the third round Sunday and will face unseeded Yelyzaveta Kotliar of Ukraine in the quarterfinals. No. 5 seed Tyra Grant beat unseeded Hiraki Yamamoto of Japan 6-2, 6-2 and will play No. 2 seed Emerson Jones of Australia Monday. 

Unseeded Aspen Schuman lost to top seed Hannah Klugman of Great Britain 2-6, 7-5, 6-1; Klugman will now face No. 8 seed Wakana Sonobe of Japan in a quarterfinal that will feature Orange Bowl champion Klugman and Eddie Herr champion Sonobe.

The US boy in the quarterfinals is No. 6 seed Alex Razeghi, who defeated No. 10 seed Peter Brunclik of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-3. It's good to see Razeghi back in form after an injury kept him from competing in the two big Florida events that closed out the year.  He will face No. 4 seed Rei Sakamoto of Japan in the quarterfinals, which is not good news for Sakamoto, as Razeghi has a 3-0 record against him, with the last two in straight sets.

Top seed Federico Cina of Italy was beaten in the round of 16 by unseeded Mees Rottgering of the Netherlands 6-4, 7-6(1).

Doubles is still behind, with the girls second round not yet finished, although the boys did catch up with two matches Sunday.

Five of the seven Americans who played their Australian Open first round matches Sunday have advanced to the second round, with 12 more in action Monday(tonight in the United States). 

Sunday's first round Australian Open results of Americans:
Taylor Fritz[12] d. Facundo Diaz Acosta(ARG) 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4
Sebastian Baez[26](ARG) d. JJ Wolf 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, 3-0 ret.
Frances Tiafoe[17] d. Borna Coric(CRO) 6-3, 7-6(7), 2-6, 6-3
Alycia Parks d. Daria Snigur[Q](UKR) 2-6, 6-2, 6-4
Caroline Dolehide d. Leola Jeanjean[Q](FRA) 6-2, 6-4
Kamilla Rakhimova(RUS) d. Emina Bektas 6-4, 6-4
Amanda Anisimova d. Liudmila Samsonova[13](RUS) 6-3, 6-4

Monday's first round matches featuring Americans:

Coco Gauff[4] v Anna Karolina Schmiedlova(SVK)

Kayla Day v Viktoriya Tomova(BUL)

McCartney Kessler[WC] v Fiona Ferro[Q](FRA)

Taylor Townsend v Paula Badosa(ESP)

Bernarda Pera v Mirra Andreeva(RUS)

Claire Liu v Marta Kostyuk(UKR)

Katie Volynets[Q] v Anna Kalinskaya(RUS)

Ben Shelton[16] v Roberto Bautista Agut(ESP)

Patrick Kypson[WC] v Emil Ruusuvuori(FIN)

Christopher Eubanks v Taro Daniel(JPN)

Sebastian Korda[29] v Vit Kopriva[Q](CZE)

Aleks Kovacevic[Q] v Alejandro Tabilo(CHI)

The ITA went through the Australian Open doubles draws and found 59 former and one current collegian (wild card Edward Winter of Pepperdine) in the men's and women's events; I came up with two more, so there at least 62 competing for the titles in Australia. Their list is here;  Catherine Harrison(UCLA) and Samantha Murray Sharan(Northwestern) should be added to it.

Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M) and his partner Ivan Dodig of Croatia are the top men's seeds; ATP Finals champions Rajeev Ram(Illinois) and Joe Salisbury(Memphis) of Great Britain are seeded No. 3. Ram and Salisbury won the title last week at the ATP 250 tournament in Adelaide to continue their winning streak into 2024.

The Tennis Europe Category 1 14U tournament in Bolton England, a warmup for the Super Category Les Petits As the following week in Tarbes France, is underway, although without most of the American boys that will be competing at Les Petits As. Tomas Laukys is the only US boy in the field, with the USTA not including Bolton in its annual trip for budget reasons. Plamen Kolev of Bulgaria is the top seed in the boys field. 

The three US girls in the field are Caroline Shao, Janae Preston and Welles Newman. Shao and Preston lost in the first round today; Newman, as the No. 16 seed, had a bye. Junior Orange Bowl 12s finalists Daniel Baranes of Israel and Great Britain's Megan Knight, who are not seeded in this 14s event, are through to the second round, with Knight beating Shao; Eddie Herr 14s champion Joyce Geng of Canada is the No. 6 seed. The top girls seed is Yui Komada of Japan.