US Teams Sweep Top Spots in All North and Central America ITF Team Competition Qualifying Matches; Blanch Advances to $15K Semifinal in Spain; Grant Reaches ITF J300 Final in France; Kozlov and Krueger Meet in Tallahassee Challenger Semifinals Saturday

The teams from the United States were favored to win all of their matches at this week's North and Central American and Caribbean Qualifying for the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup(16U) and the World Junior Tennis(14U) team competitions that the ITF holds every year. All four teams finished a perfect 3-0 to finish at the top of the four-team round robin competitions, and there's little doubt that the boys 14U team was the most dominant. After winning all six sets 6-0 yesterday against Guatemala, the boys lost only 3 games today against Mexico, in Jordan Lee's 6-1, 6-2 win at No. 1 singles.

Michael Antonius, the reigning Eddie Herr and Les Petits As champion, lost one game in his three singles matches and none in his two doubles matches.

I didn't receive the pdfs via email today, but below are the results of the US teams, as well as the final standings. Notable that Mexico will be sending two teams to the finals; Canada, which also had two second place finishes, and the United States are often the two countries that advance to Finals from this qualifying round. 

USA d. Canada 3-0 Junior Davis Cup

No. 2 singles:
Keaton Hance d. Felix Roussel 6-3, 7-6(3)

No. 1 singles:
Jack Secord d. Miko Lapalme 6-3, 6-2

Doubles:
Hance and Secord d. Lapalme and Quincy Yao 6-1, 5-7, 10-4

USA d. Mexico 3-0 Junior Billie Jean King Cup

No. 2 singles:
Shannon Lam d. Marianne Angel Gomez 6-3, 6-4

No. 1 singles:
Thea Frodin d. Hanne Estrada Cortes 5-7, 6-2, 6-4

Doubles:
Lamm and Frodin d. Angel Gomez and Abril Cardenas Olivares 6-4, 6-2

USA d. Mexico 3-0 World Junior Tennis

No. 2 singles
Michael Antonius d. Santiago Garcia Puente 6-0, 6-0

No. 1 singles
Jordan Lee d. Jaime Gomez Lopez 6-1, 6-2

Doubles:
Antonius and Teodor Davidov d. Gomez Lopez and Leonardo Calles Salinas 6-0, 6-0

USA d. Canada 3-0 World Junior Tennis

No. 2 singles:
Maggie Sohns d. Isabella Yan 6-3, 6-0

No. 1 singles:
Welles Newman d. Rachel Wu 6-3, 6-1

Doubles:
Newman and Sohns d. Yan and Wu  4-6, 6-3, 10-6 

(Corrected from Canada winning the doubles 4/22/24)

Final Standings:

Boys WJT
1. USA 3-0
2. Canada 2-1
3. Mexico 1-2
4. Guatemala 0-3

Girls WJT
1. USA 3-0
2. Mexico 2-1
3. Canada 1-2
4. Guatemala 0-3

Junior Davis Cup
1. USA 3-0
2. Mexico 1-2
3. Canada 1-2
4. Bahamas 1-2

Junior Billie Jean King Cup
1. USA 3-0
2. Canada 2-1
3. Mexico 1-2
4. Puerto Rico 0-3

Darwin Blanch has reached his second ITF men's World Tennis Tour semifinal of the year with a win today at the $15,000 tournament in Telde Spain. The unseeded 16-year-old, who trains at the Juan Carlos Ferrero Equelite Academy in Spain, defeated 18-year-old qualifier Albert Pedrico Kravtsov of Spain 6-7(3), 6-1, 7-6(4) in today's quarterfinals. The 2022 Kalamazoo 16s champion will play another Spanish player, No. 3 seed Diego Augusto Barreto Sanchez, who he beat 7-5, 7-5 in the first round of at a $15K at the end of February. Blanch, who made the semifinals last year at this tournament, and at another $15K last month, also in Spain, has yet to advance to a men's Pro Circuit final. 

At the ITF J300 in Beaulieu-sur-Mer France, Tyra Grant has advanced to the final, beating No. 8 seed Vittoria Paganetti of Italy 6-4, 6-3 in today's semifinals. Grant will face fellow 16-year-old Lilli Tagger of Austria, a qualifier, who thwarted an all-USA final with a 6-4, 6-0 win over No. 5 seed Katie Rolls. The boys final will feature top seed Nikolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway and unseeded Henry Bernet of Switzerland.

Mitchell Krueger and Stefan Kozlov will meet in the semifinals of ATP Challenger 75 in Tallahassee Saturday after both picked up straight-sets victories today. Wild card Kozlov beat Oliver Crawford(Florida) of Great Britain 6-2, 6-2 to reach his second Challenger semifinal of the year; Krueger defeated ITF World Junior No. 1 Joel Schwaerzler of Austria 7-5, 7-6(4) and will also be playing in his second Challenger semifinal of the year; he won the Indian Wells Challenger 1 in January.