Urhobo and Hovde Reach Boca Raton W35 Final; Exsted Wins ITF J200 in Canada; USA Advances to Billie Jean King Cup Finals; Easter Bowl 12s Finals Videos

Seventeen-year-old wild card Akasha Urhobo will play in her first USTA Pro Circuit final Sunday at the W35 in Boca Raton Florida against 18-year-old Liv Hovde, who will be competing in a USTA Pro Circuit final for the fifth time, after each posted tough straight-sets victories in today's semfinals.

Urhobo, from Ft. Lauderdale Florida, defeated No. 8 seed Maya Joint of Australia 6-4, 7-5 in just under two hours; Hovde, the No. 5 seed, ended the winning streak of last week's W35 champion in Mississippi, 19-year-old Katrina Scott, 6-4, 6-4.

Hovde, the 2022 Wimbledon girls champion, has won three Pro Circuit titles, two W35s and one W15, with her last one a W35 11 months ago. Hovde and Urhobo met a year ago in the first round of the W100 in Charleston, with Hovde winning 6-0, 6-0, so motivation should not be a problem for Urhobo.

In the doubles final, two former UCLA Bruins, Robin Anderson and Australia's Elysia Bolton, won the title, beating Rasheeda McAdoo(Georgia Tech) and Maribella Zamarripa(Texas) 3-6, 6-4, 10-8. Neither team was seeded.

Nadia Lagaev and Max Exsted

No. 3 seed Maxwell Exsted won the title at the J200 in Woodbridge Ontario today, with the 17-year-old from Minnesota defeating top seed Cooper Woestendick 6-3, 7-6(3) in the first ITF Junior Circuit contest between the reigning Australian Open boys doubles champions. It's the fourth and biggest singles title of Exsted's ITF Junior Circuit career; the 2022 Eddie Herr 16s champion has eight ITF junior doubles titles, four of them with Woestendick.

No. 4 seed Nadia Lagaev of Canada won the girls singles title, beating unseeded 15-year-old Nancy Lee 6-4, 6-1.

The USA will again have its team in the Billie Jean King Cup world final late this year in Seville Spain, after this weekend's 4-0 win over Belgium in World Group qualifying. The US team, with Lindsay Davenport in her first appearance as captain, came into today with a 2-0 lead that was hard to come by; both Jessica Pegula and Emma Navarro(Virginia) dropped their first sets to 19-year-olds Sofia Costoulas(WTA 279) and Hanne Vandewinkel(WTA 278) before claiming the victories last night. Today, Pegula clinched the win with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Vandewinkel, with Taylor Townsend and Caroline Dolehide winning the fourth point in a dead rubber of doubles. For more, see this article from the BJK Cup website.

I've completed processing of the videos of the Easter Bowl 12s finals, which took place at the same time as the 14s finals, so they are all going to be brief. The boys 12s final could not be shot from behind, so there are two separate videos of champion Jiarui Zhang and finalist Nathan Lee. The girls final is all of one, very long game in the second set.