Four Teens Reach Semifinals at Boca Raton W35; Exsted, Woestendick and Lee Advance to ITF J200 Finals in Canada; Xu and Bonding Claim British National 18s Titles; Duke Men Beat No. 7 Wake Forest

Last week, teens Katrina Scott, Maya Joint and Akasha Urhobo reached the semifinals of the W35 in Mississippi; this week at the USTA Pro Circuit W35 in Boca Raton Florida all three have again reached the semifinals, with No. 5 seed Liv Hovde joining them, guaranteeing a teen champion for the second week in a row.

Nineteen-year-old Scott, who won the title last week and received a special exemption into the main draw by virtue of that, defeated No. 7 seed Ana Sofia Sanchez of Mexico 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 in three hours and 18 minutes in today's quarterfinals and will face 18-year-old Hovde, who beat wild card Ashton Bowers 6-1, 6-1. 

No. 8 seed Maya Joint of Australia, whose worse finish in an ITF women's World Tennis Tour event this year is the quarterfinals, needed three hours and 12 minutes to beat No. 4 seed Varvara Lepchenko today 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. Joint, who turns 18 next week, has won two ITF WTT women's titles this year. She will face 17-year-old Akasha Urhobo, who defeated qualifier Hiroko Kuwata of Japan 6-4, 6-1. 

This will be a first meeting in both of the semifinals.

The singles finals are set at the ITF J200 in Ontario Canada, with Australian Open doubles champions Cooper Woestendick and Maxwell Exsted meeting in the boys final, while Nancy Lee will play Canadian Nadia Lagaev in the girls final.

Woestendick, the No. 1 seed, beat No. 6 seed Kase Schinnerer 4-6, 7-6(6), 7-6(4) in today's semifinals, with No. 3 seed Exsted having a similar challenge in his 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 win over unseeded Nicholas Arseneault of Canada. Woestendick and Exsted will be playing for the first time in ITF Junior Circuit competiton. 

The 15-year-old Lee, who won the Easter Bowl 14s title last year, defeated No. 7 seed Jessica Bernales 7-6(4), 3-6, 7-5 to advance to the biggest final on the ITF Junior Circuit. The 16-year-old Lagaev, the No. 4 seed, who defeated unseeded Ameia Sorey 6-0, 6-0, has won J100 titles, but this would be her biggest ITF Junior Circuit title.

The doubles finals were played today, with all-USA teams competing for the titles. No. 2 seeds Bernales and Kate Fakih, the No. 2 seeds, won the girls title without dropping a set, beating unseeded Kayla Moore and Vessa Turley 6-3, 6-3 in the final. 

No. 1 seeds Nikita Filin and Matthew Forbes won the boys title, defeating No. 2 seeds Schinnerer and Matisse Farzam 5-7, 7-6(6), 10-8 in the final. 

The finals of the Lexus Junior National 18s Championships in Great Britain were today, with Oliver Bonding and Mingge Xu taking the titles. 

Top seed Bonding, who lost in the finals last year, defeated No. 4 seed Charlie Robertson 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. Xu, the No. 2 seed, beat top seed Hannah Klugman 6-7(4), 7-6(7), 6-4 for the girls title. 

In addition to Wimbledon Junior wild cards, which neither is likely to need, Bonding and Xu will receive men's and women's qualifying wild cards at Wimbledon this summer.

Draws can be found here.

Eight of the Top 10 Division I women's teams were in late season conference action today, and all won their matches as expected.

In men's play today, just two Top 10 teams played, and one of them lost, with No. 7 Wake Forest losing to No. 14 Duke 4-1 at home.  

Duke won the doubles point in a tiebreaker at line 1, with Garrett Johns and Pedro Rodenas beating the ITA's top-ranked team of DK Suresh and Holden Koons 7-6(2) after Michael Heller and Andrew Zhang had taken doubles line 2.

Each team won three first sets, but Duke sophomore Rodenas, who has struggled a bit this year, at least compared to his freshman year, quickly made it 2-0, beating Sureash 6-0, 6-4. Wake Forest got its point next, with Lucciano Tacchi beating Connor Krug 6-3, 7-6(6) at line 4, and that was the last of the straight-sets matches. Andrew Zhang and Faris Khan, both of whom had lost their first sets, forced third sets at 3 and 6, and Alex Visser at 5 and Johns at 1, both of whom had won their first sets, finished off their matches, with Visser defeating Koons 6-2, 0-6, 6-4 and Johns beating Fillipo Moroni 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. 

This win helps solidify Duke's Top 16 position, allowing it to host the first two rounds of the NCAAs. The full box score is here.

The other top 10 men's team in action today is No. 5 Kentucky, who is playing No. 38 Georgia in Lexington and that match was moved indoors, where there are only four courts. Kentucky currently leads 3-1.