Americans Sweep Doubles Titles at ITF J300 in Mexico; Five ITF Singles Titles for US Juniors Last Week; 25 Americans, Top Seeds Mrva, Kostovic Begin Play in J500 Merida; Jovic Withdraws from Orange Bowl

There's just three more weeks of competition on the ITF junior circuit for 2024, but the final month is filled with top level events on North American clay.

That tour began last week at the ITF J300 in Zapopan Mexico, with Americans sweeping the doubles titles.

No. 3 seeds Maximus Dussault and Dominick Mosejczuk won the boys titles, beating No. 4 seeds Joao Pedro Didoni Bonini of Brazil and Valentin Garay of Argentina 6-2, 6-1 in the final. It's the first doubles title at the J300 level for the 17-year-old Americans.

Top seeds Maya Iyengar and Annika Penickova won the girls doubles title, beating No. 5 seeds Anna Maria Fedotova of the Dominican Republic and Eleejah Inisan of France 6-4, 6-1 in the final. Iyengar has now won three ITF J300 doubles titles, with three different partners; Penickova has won two. This is Annika's first of her eight doubles titles she's won without twin sister Kristina as her partner.

In singles, No. 7 seed Yoana Kostantinova of Bulgaria won the girls title, beating top seed Mike Buchnik of Israel 6-3, 6-4 in the final. No. 4 seed Jan Klimas of the Czech Republic won the boys title, beating No. 10 seed Stefan Horia Haita of Romania 7-6(5), 6-4 in the final.

Mosejczuk, the No. 6 seed in singles, reached the semifinals, losing to Klimas 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5). Qualifier Maria Aytoyan also reached the semifinals, falling to Konstantinova 6-4, 6-3.

Of the five singles titles for Americans last week on the ITF Junior Circuit, two of them came, unsurprisingly, at the J60 in San Diego.

Unseeded 13-year-old Lani Chang, daughter of Michael Chang and the former Amber Liu(Stanford), won her first ITF junior circuit title and did it in impressive fashion, beating Easter Bowl 18s champion Tianmei Wang, the No. 6 seed, 6-4, 6-2 in the first round, while also winning her next four matches in straight sets. In the final Chang won over 14-year-old Sophie Suh, who was defaulted at 6-3, 0-1. If anyone knows what that was about, please let me know at clewis[at]zootennis.com.

The boys title also went to an unseeded player, with that final also not completed. Sixteen-year-old Adrien Abarca won his first ITF Junior Circuit singles title when unseeded Nav Dayal retired down 3-1 in the first set.

Abarca and Andre Alcantara, who won the doubles title two weeks ago in San Diego, lost to Alexander Guajardo and Joseph Nau in last week's final 6-2, 7-6(12). Neither team was seeded.

The girls final was also between two unseeded teams, with Wang and Elena Zhao defeating Carley Chen and Rachel Lee 5-7, 7-6(3), 10-5.

At the J60 in Peru, 15-year-old Reiley Rhodes swept singles and doubles, her first two titles on the ITF Junior Circuit.

The unseeded Rhodes lost just 14 games in her 5 straight-sets singles victories, including a 6-3, 6-1 win over the No. 1 seed Daniela Gonzalez of Peru in the semifinals. Rhodes then defeated No. 6 seed Sena Yoon 6-3, 6-2 in the all-US final.

Rhodes and Kalista Papadopoulos, seeded No. 3 in doubles, defeated the unseeded Bolivian team of Valentina Zamora and Adriana Zurita 6-2, 6-3 in the doubles final. 

At the J60 in India, 14-year-old Izyan (Zizou) Ahmad won his fifth title on the ITF Junior Circuit, with the No. 3 seed beating qualifier Arjun Rathi of India 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the final. Priyanka Rana of the United States, the No. 2 seed, lost to top seed Rishitha Reddy Basireddy of India 7-5, 6-4 in the girls final.

The fifth singles title for an American came at the J30 in Guatemala, with 15-year-old qualifier Julian Zhang defeating top seed Xavier Massotte of Canada 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 in the final, after taking out No. 2 seed Jose Argenal of Guatemala 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals. Zhang played his first ITF tournament two weeks ago at another J30 in Guatemala, qualifying and reaching the semifinals. So he is now 14-1 in his first 15 ITF Junior Circuit matches.

The J500 in Merida Mexico, the second of the four major tournaments I mentioned above, is underway, although no results from today's first round have yet been posted. The tournament website has draws and the order of play, but I don't see any live scoring. 

The seeds are below. Cooper Woestendick was injured at last week's J300 and has withdrawn from this event and the J300 in Bradenton next week.

ITF J500 Merida seeds:

Boys:

1. Maxim Mrva(CZE)

2. Charlie Robertson(GBR)

3. Oliver Bonding(GBR)

4. Miguel Tobon(COL)

5. Jagger Leach(USA)

6. Amir Omarkhanov(KAZ)

7. Petr Brunclik(CZE)

8. Thomas Faurel(FRA)

9. Osaki Paldanius(FIN)

10. Henry Bernet(SUI)

11. Nathan Trouve(FRA)

12. Ian Mayew(USA)

13. Maxwell Exsted(USA)

14. William Rejchtman Vinciguerra(SWE)

15  Timofei Derepasko(RUS)

16. Ognjen Milic(SRB)

Girls:

1. Teodora Kostovic(SRB)

2. Kristina Penickova(USA)

3. Hannah Klugman(GBR)

4. Alena Kovackova(CZE)

5. Jana Kovackova(CZE)

6. Mika Buchnik(ISR)

7. Tereza Krejcova(CZE)

8. Julie Pastikova(CZE)

9. Thea Frodin(USA)

10. Elizara Yaneva(BUL)

11. Luna Maria Cinalli(ARG)

12. Maya Iyengar(USA)

13. Sarah Melany Fajmonova(CZE)

14. Laima Vladson(LTU)

15. Annika Penickova(USA)

16. Nellie Taraba Wallberg(SWE)

There are 25 Americans competing in the main draw this week: 14 boys and 11 girls. In addition to the US seeds, listed above, the others are: Benjamin Willwerth, Noah Johnston, Kase Schinnerer, Dominick Mosejczuk, Matisse Farzam, Maximus Dussault, Ronit Karki, Calvin Baierl and qualifiers Lachlan Gaskell, Jack Satterfield and James Weber for the boys. The US girls, in addition to the four seeds, are: Capucine Jauffret, Leena Friedman, Julieta Pareja, Trinetra Vijayakumar, Anita Tu and qualifiers Hadley Appling and Aoife Kuo.

Iva Jovic, who had entered both J500s in Merida and next month's Orange Bowl, has withdrawn from both, with the Orange Bowl withdrawal coming two days ago. With her expected Australian Open main draw wild card, Jovic may not want to be playing on clay in preparation.