Bigun Qualifies for Sarasota Challenger; Gaines, Moore Sweep ITF J60 Titles, Rusher, O'Brien Also Earn ITF Titles in Caribbean; Video of ITF J300 Indian Wells Final

Seventeen-year-old Kaylan Bigun received a wild card into the qualifying of this week's ATP Challenger 75 in Sarasota Florida, and the ITF Junior No. 12 beat two seeded players to qualify for the main draw. Bigun beat No. 5 seed and ATP 399 Bogdan Bobrov of Russia in two tiebreakers in yesterday's first round; today the UCLA signee defeated No. 7 seed and ATP 419 Viktor Durosovic of Norway 6-4, 6-3 to reach the main draw of a Challenger for the first time. As luck would have it, Bigun will face Durosovic again in the first round of the main draw, after the Norwegian received entry as a lucky loser. 

Two other American wild cards, both unseeded in qualifying, advanced to the main draw: Stefan Kozlov and Felix Corwin(Minnesota). 

ITF World No. 1 junior Joel Schwaerzler of Austria is using one of his eight entries into a Challenger that he received via the ATP/ITF Accelerator Program for finishing in the ITF Junior Top 10 last year; the 18-year-old left-hander has drawn Tristan Boyer(Stanford) in the first round. 

Main draw action began today, with six first round matches; Tennys Sandgren(Tennessee) and Ethan Quinn(Georgia) have advanced, along with Mitchell Krueger and Martin Damm.

Top seed JJ Wolf(Ohio State) plays Dmitry Popko of Kazakhstan in the night match. Mike Cation is providing commentary, with streaming available at the ATP's Challenger TV page.

After a quiet week for Americans at the end of March on the ITF Junior Circuit, the first week of April produced four titles in singles and eight in doubles.  All four of the singles titles came in the Caribbean, with 14-year-old Jerrid Gaines Jr and 15-year-old Kayla Moore sweeping the J60 titles in Trinidad and Tobago; 15-year-old Agassi Rusher won the J60 in the Dominican Republic and 15-year-old Ireland O'Brien won the J30 in Martinique.  

Both Gaines and Moore played three matches on the last day, the semifinals and finals of doubles and the finals of singles. Gaines, the No. 3 seed, beat his doubles partner, No. 7 seed Samim Filiz of Turkey 6-3, 6-1, then won two doubles matches, with No. 2 seeds Filiz and Gaines beating No. 3 seeds Hugo Fidler of Aruba and Kale Della Costa of Trinidad and Tobago 3-6, 6-2, 10-7 in the final.  Moore, the No. 1 seed in singles and doubles, beat No. 3 seed Cookie Jarvis-Tredgett of Canada 6-1, 6-3 in the singles final before her two doubles matches; she and Jordane Dookie of Trinidad and Tobago defeated No. 2 seeds Gabriella Kellner and Canada's Sienna Miles 6-2, 6-2 in the final.

It's the first ITF Junior Circuit singles title for Gaines; Moore now has four. She is playing in this week's ITF J200 in Canada, where Cooper Woestendick and Kate Fakih are the top seeds. (Good to see Elizabeth Ionescu back playing after retiring with a knee injury in the semifinals of the ITF J300 in San Diego two weeks ago).

In Martinique, O'Brien, the No. 1 seed, defeated No. 4 seed Valentina Vallova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 7-5 for her first ITF Junior Circuit singles title. Sixteen-year-old Noble Renfrow won his first Junior Circuit title in doubles, partnering with Finn Willman of New Zealand. The unseeded pair defeated top seeds Edoardo Barbalaco of Italy and Francois-Alexandre Rimbaud of France 6-3, 6-3 in the final. 

In the Dominican Republic, Rusher won his third singles title on the ITF Junior Circuit, with the No. 4 seed defeating No. 3 seed Jossting Cruz of the Dominican Republic 6-3, 6-1 in the final. 

No. 6 seeds Nicolas Pedraza and Erik Schinnerer won the doubles title in the Dominican, beating James Weber and Nicholas Mekhael 6-2, 7-6(4) in an all-US final. Alexandra Miroshnichenko won the girls doubles title with Andrea Landaeta Quintero of Mexico. The No. 4 seeds beat No. 2 seeds Ana Avramovic
and Kalista Papadopoulos 6-4, 6-4 for the title. Avramovic also reached the girls singles final.

At the J30 in Honduras, top seeds Sofia Mills and Sarah Stoyanov took the doubles title, beating unseeded Sara Pena Rojas of Colombia and Alyssa Sucrovich of Honduras 6-1, 6-2.

The other two doubles titles for Americans came with non-American partners: Aida Oveido at the J60 in Paraguay and Koronayashe Rugara at the J30 in Botswana.

There is a J300 in Bulgaria this week, with three Americans competing: Trinetra Vijayaraman, Stiles Brockett and Noah Johnston.  Australian Open finalist Jan Kumstat of the Czech Republic is the top boys seed; Teodora Kostovic of Serbia, who is defending her title, is the No. 1 seed in the girls draw. 

My video from the boys final of the ITF J300 in Indian Wells last month is below. You can read my recap of the tournament at Tennis Recruiting Network.