Live Streaming for ITF WTT Junior Finals Begins Tuesday Night; Pan Am Champion Kennedy Makes Pro Circuit Debut at Harlingen $25K; Woestendick Advances at Wake Forest $15K; Georgia Duo Reaches Main Draw at Macon W100

The 12-hour time difference between Chengdu China and the Eastern time zone of the United States has always made it difficult to follow the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals, and this year is no exception. Wednesday's first matches begin at 11 p.m. EDT tonight, but if you get up early Thursday, you can catch Tyra Grant's match against US Open champion Mika Stojsavljevic of Great Britain, not before 7 a.m. EDT. Wednesday's round robin matches:

Notes from  the Finals from the ITF are available here.

Links to the YouTube streams, available for all matches, can be found here.

Rei Sakamoto of Japan, the Australian Open boys champion, qualified for the WTT Junior Finals, but has chosen to play the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Harlingen Texas instead. Sakamoto, who trains at the IMG Academy in Bradenton is the No. 7 seed; he could face Pan American J300 champion Jack Kennedy in the second round should both win their opening matches Wednesday.  The 16-year-old Kennedy will be making his Pro Circuit debut as a wild card. He faces fellow wild card Ethan Silva, a Texas A&M junior who is from Harlingen, in the first round. Silva is one of six Aggies in the draw, with three advancing through qualifying today: JC Roddick, Grant Lothringer and Luke Casper. Guilio Perego and Ritesh Patil face each other in the first round Wednesday.

In addition to those given to Kennedy and Silva, wild cards were awarded to Ohio State sophmore Aidan Kim and Strong Kirchheimer(Northwestern), who is the No. 4 seed. 

Along with the three A&M players, one other American advanced to the main draw via qualifying: 16-year-old James Quattro of Austin. Quattro, who won the Texas Slam in the 16s this year and reached the round of 16 at Kalamazoo, did not qualify for the Pan American last week, but he beat Texas A&M assistant Barnaby Smith of Great Britain in the final round of qualifying today 2-6, 6-4, 12-10.

Toby Kodat is the top seed, with Aidan McHugh of Great Britain the No. 2 seed. All first round matches are scheduled for Wednesday.

The other USTA Pro Circuit men's tournament this week is a $15,000 event in Winston-Salem North Carolina, where Will Grant(Florida) and Tristan McCormick(Notre Dame, Georgia) are the top seeds. 

Americans who qualified today are Spencer Gray(Auburn, UNC-Charlotte), Connor Bruce(Dayton) and William Manning(NC State), with Daniel Milavsky(Harvard) receiving entry as a lucky loser. 

All the wild cards were awarded to players with Wake Forest ties: graduate Matthew Thomson, sophomore Luca Pow, fifth year Luciano Tacchi and freshman Joaquin Guilleme. Thomson defeated Guilleme 6-2, 6-2 in today's opening round. Harry Thursfield, a UNC-Asheville graduate transfer, defeated ITF Pan Am J300 finalist Ian Mayew 6-4, 6-2 to qualify today.

Duke sophomore Cooper Williams received entry via his Top 10 finish in the ITF junior rankings in 2023; Cooper Woestendick and Miguel Tobon of Colombia received spots for their current ITF rankings. Woestendick won his fourth match on the ITF Pro Circuit today, defeating Ryan Fishback(Virginia Tech) 6-3, 6-3. 

Duke junior Pedro Rodenas, who earned his way into the NCAA men's singles field by reaching the final of the Carolina Regionals over the weekend, won his first round match, beating No. 8 seed  Maxence Bertimon(VCU) 6-4, 6-0.

The women's USTA Pro Circuit is in Macon Georgia this week for a W100 tournament. Renata Zarazua of Mexico is the top seed; she is one of three WTA Top 100 players in field, the others No. 2 seed Anna Blinkova of Russia and Maria Carle(Georgia) of Argentina.

There were just two Americans qualifying today: Elvina Kalieva and Whitney Osuigwe. University of Georgia teammates Dasha Vidmanova and Alexandra Vecic also have made the main draw.

Wild cards went to three Americans: Lea Ma(Georgia), Katrina Scott and Lauren Davis. W75 Edmond finalist Alana Smith(NC State) received a special exempt entry.

Ken Thomas of radiotennis.com is providing coverage of the tournament throughout the week.