No. 1 Seed Bigun Among 16 US Juniors in ITF J300 Roehampton; 15 Americans in Action Monday at Wimbledon; Fearnley Feature; Shnaider, Fritz Win Bad Homburg, Eastbourne Titles; Qualifier Smith Reaches $15K Final in LA

The warmup event for the Wimbledon Junior Championships begins Sunday at the ITF J300 in Roehampton, with 16 American juniors in the draw.

Roland Garros champion Kaylan Bigun is the top seed, and he will also be the No. 1 seed at Wimbledon when it begins Saturday July 6. Cooper Woestendick is the only other American who is seeded, at No. 11. The other boys competing this week at Roehampton are Jagger Leach, Alex Razeghi, Jack Kennedy, Ian Mayew, Matthew Forbes, Kase Schinnerer, Max Exsted and Trevor Svajda.

Svajda received entry based on his ATP ranking, currently 673, for both Roehampton and Wimbledon. Akasha Urhobo, who also received acceptance to Wimbledon based on her pro ranking, is not in the draw in Roehampton, although she is still on the acceptance list for Wimbledon. There have been several high profile withdrawals in the Wimbledon Junior Championships in the past couple of weeks, with Australian Open boys champion Rei Sakamoto of Japan and Roland Garros girls champion Tereza Valentova of the Czech Republic now out, as is Maya Joint of Australia, who lost to McCartney Kessler in the second round of women's qualifying this past week. 

2024 Australian Open girls champion Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia is still on the Wimbledon Junior acceptance list, but she is not playing Roehampton. She also didn't play the warmup to the Australian Open juniors, or the warmup to Roland Garros, so she obviously feels no need for that particular preparation. 

The US girls in the Roehampton draw are Tyra Grant[3], Iva Jovic[5], Kristina Penickova[8], Katie Rolls[11], Shannon Lam and Thea Frodin. Christasha McNeil lost in the final round of qualifying today to Erin Pearce of Great Britain 6-4, 4-6, 10-8.

Roland Garros girls finalist Laura Samson is the top seed, with Hannah Klugman of Great Britain, who made the final round of women's qualifying on the same Roehampton courts two days ago, the No. 4 seed. Australian Open girls finalist Emerson Jones of Australia is the No. 2 seed.

The Wimbledon order of play for men's and women's first round singles Monday was released today, with 15 of the 29 Americans in action. 

Monday's Wimbledon first round matches featuring Americans:

Coco Gauff[2] v Caroline Dolehide
Emina Bektas v Aryna Sabalenka[3](BLR)
Sloane Stephens v Victoria Azarenka[16](BLR)
Madison Keys[12] v Martina Trevisan(ITA)
McCartney Kessler[Q] v Maria Sakkari[9](GRE)
Peyton Stearns v Daria Saville(AUS)
Emma Navarro[19] v Qiang Wang(CHN)
Taylor Townsend v Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova[25](RUS)

Aleks Kovacevic v Daniil Medvedev[5](RUS)
Tommy Paul[12] v Pedro Martinez(ESP)
Ben Shelton[14] v Mattia Bellucci[Q](ITA)
Alex Michelsen v Lloyd Harris(RSA)
Frances Tiafoe[29] v Matteo Arnaldi(ITA)
Brandon Nakashima v Sebastian Baez[18](ARG)

Recent TCU graduate Jake Fearnley, who received a main draw wild card into Wimbledon after winning the Nottingham Challenger, will play his first round match against Alejandro Moro Canas of Spain on Tuesday. The ATP talked with Fearnley about how he got his start in tennis and what he gained from college, noting that Fearnley has wins over both Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz in the juniors. TCU Associate head coach Devin Bowen discusses Fearnley's growth while in college, and how he has been able to overcome the self doubts and countless injuries that could have derailed a pro career.

Taylor Fritz[13] will not play until Tuesday, so he will have two days to rest after claiming his third ATP title in Eastbourne today. Fritz, who now has eight ATP titles, defeated Australia's Max Purcell 6-4, 6-3 in the final and with the title, he will return to his position of No. 1 American, which he lost, for just one week, to Tommy Paul. For more on the final, see this ATP article.

Former NC State star Diana Shnaider won the WTA 500 in Bad Homburg Germany today, with the unseeded 20-year-old from Russia beating unseeded Donna Vekic of Croatia 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 for her second WTA title and first at the 500 level. With the title, Shnaider will move to No. 30 in the WTA rankings. Unlike Fritz, Shnaider is on Monday's schedule. She will play 2021 Wimbledon finalist Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic.

At the SoCal Pro Series $15K in Los Angeles, qualifier Colton Smith and No. 8 seed Patrick Maloney will play in a pro final for the first time after posting semifinal victories today.  Smith, a rising senior at Arizona who made NCAA singles semifinals last month in Stillwater, defeated teammate and fellow qualifier Jay Friend of Japan 6-2, 6-0 in his first Pro Circuit semifinal. Maloney, who graduated from Michigan in 2023, broke through to a final for the first time in five attempts, beating No. 3 seed Alex Knaff(Florida State) of Luxembourg 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

Maloney will go into the singles final as the doubles champion, with he and Joshua Charlton(Oregon) of Australia winning a second consecutive title on the SoCal Pro Circuit. The Rancho Santa Fe champions last week, the top seeds defeated Ohio State teammates Jack Anthrop and Bryce Nakashima 7-6(5), 7-6(6) in this afternoon's final.

The singles final at the women's W15 in Los Angeles will feature top seed Sahaja Yamalapalli(Sam Houston State) of India and No. 3 seed Amy Zhu(Michigan). Yamalapalli defeated University of Florida rising junior Rachel Gailis 6-0, 6-4, while Zhu outlasted No. 5 seed Victoria Flores(Georgia Tech, Pepperdine) 6-2, 1-6, 6-2. 

In the women's doubles final, No. 3 seeds Anita Sahdiieva(Baylor, LSU) of Ukraine and Stefani Webb(Central Florida) of Australia defeated No. 2 seeds Lily Fairclough(USC) and Tenika Mcgiffin(Tennessee) of Australia 7-5, 4-6, 10-6 for their first title as a team.