Cozad, Secord Beat Top Seeds at US Open Junior Qualifying, with 16 Americans Through to Final Round; NCAA Champions Cash and Tracy Advance in Men's Doubles; Krueger Posts Two Upsets

The first day of qualifying for the US Open Junior Championships went very well for Americans, with nine girls and seven boys advancing to Friday's final round at the Cary Leeds Center in the Bronx. 

Fifteen-year-olds Ryan Cozad and Jack Secord pulled off the two biggest upsets in the boys draw--and there were many, with nine seeds losing today--taking out the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds.

Wild card Cozad, the Kalamazoo 16s doubles champion, defeated ITF No. 43 and top seed Bryan Hernandez Cortes of Spain 3-6, 6-4 11-9, coming from from 6-3, 4-2 down to take the final four games of the set, and saving a match point in the deciding tiebreaker.

Jack Secord lost in the first round at this week's J300 in Canada, but he had no trouble with No. 2 seed Jan Klimas of the Czech Republic, ranked No. 51 in the ITF junior rankings, earning a 6-4, 6-0 victory.

Other US boys advancing to the second and final round of qualifying are wild cards Jordan Reznik, Krish Arora(Georgia Tech) and Keaton Hance, as well as Ronit Karki and Stiles Brockett. At least one US boys will make the main draw, with Secord facing Reznik.

In contrast to the boys, 14 of the 16 girls seeds advanced to the final round of qualifying, with the two that didn't win beaten by Americans. A total of nine US girls advanced: Mia Slama(NC State)[15], Christasha McNeil[2], Monika Ekstrand, Capucine Jauffret[16], Kate Fakih[6], Leena Friedman, Maya Iyengar[7], Raya Kotseva[WC] and Claire An[8].

Two US girls are guaranteed to make the main draw, with Fakih playing Friedman and Iyengar facing Kotseva.

Live scoring for the junior qualifying is available at usopen.org. 

At Flushing Meadows, 2024 NCAA doubles champions Robert Cash and JJ Tracy of Ohio State won their opening men's doubles match, defeating alternates Alexander Shevchenko of Kazakhstan and Samuel Weissborn of Austria 6-3, 6-4. Cash and Tracy were initially drawn against Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan and Sumit Nagal of India, but Nishioka retired early in the fifth set of his first round match in singles and withdrew from doubles as well. Cash and Tracy will play No. 16 seed Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni of Argentina in the second round.

Former University of Oklahoma stars Ivana and Carmen Corley, who also received a wild card, moved into the second round of women's doubles with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Ekaterina Alexandrova and Anna Blinkova of Russia. They will play No. 10 seeds Hao-ching Han of Taiwan and Veronica Kudermetova of Russia in the second round.

San Diego champions Iva Jovic and Tyra Grant pushed their veteran opponents Anna Danilina(Florida) of Kazakhstan and Irina Khromacheva of Russia for almost two-and-a-half hours, forcing the 29-year-olds to raise their level to claim a 7-6(6), 5-7, 6-2 victory.

Grant is already through to the second round of mixed doubles with Aleks Kovacevic; wild cards Jovic and Kaylan Bigun are on Friday's schedule for their first round match, against Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine and Max Purcell of Australia.

Another wild card team is through to the second round, with the mixed doubles pairing of Ashlyn Krueger and Thai Kwiatkowski(Virginia) beating two-time Wimbledon champions and No. 5 seeds Desirea Krawczyk(Arizona State) and Neal Skupski(LSU) 6-3, 7-5.

Krueger also advanced in singles, reaching the third round of a slam for the first time with a 6-1, 6-4 win over No. 21 seed Mirra Andreeva of Russia. 

The 20-year-old Texan, who won the 2021 USTA National 18s titles in singles and doubles, had never won a singles match at a slam until this week.

Thursday's second round results of Americans:
Jannik Sinner[1](ITA) d. Alex Michelsen 6-4, 6-0, 6-2
Tomas Machac(CZE) d. Sebastian Korda[16] 6-4, 6-2, 6-4
Tommy Paul[14] d. Max Purcell(AUS) 7-5, 6-0, 1-0 ret.

Jessica Pegula[6] d. Sofia Kenin 7-6(4), 6-3
Sara Errani(ITA) d. Caroline Dolehide 7-5, 7-
Ashlyn Krueger d. Mirra Andreeva[21](RUS) 6-1, 6-4
Anastasia Potapova(RUS) d. Varvara Lepchenko[Q] 6-3, 6-4

Friday's third round matches featuring Americans:

Coco Gauff[3] v Elina Svitolina[27](UKR)
Emma Navarro[13] v Marta Kostyuk[19](UKR)
Madison Keys[14] v Elise Mertens[33](BEL)
Peyton Stearns v Donna Vekic[24](CRO)

Ben Shelton[13] v Frances Tiafoe[20]
Brandon Nakashima v Lorenzo Musetti[18](ITA)
Taylor Fritz[13] v Franciso Comesana(ARG)