Three Sweeps for American Juniors on ITF Junior Circuit; Two-Time Finalist Anderson Qualifies for WTA 125 Dow Tennis Classic; Holt Ousts Top Seed in Knoxville Challenger; Men's AO Wild Card Race Standings

There were no ITF junior circuit events above the J100 level last week, but Americans had success on that level and the J60 level, earning singles and doubles sweeps in Canada and El Salvador.

At the J60 in Boca Raton Florida, 17-year-old blue chip Benjamin Saltman won his first ITF junior circuit title, winning nine matches in eight days, while dropping just one set along the way. The Floridian lost only six games in his three qualifying wins, and defeated four seeds in the main draw, the last of which was No. 16 seed Bullion Sharp. Saltman defeated Sharp, who had beaten No. 2 seed Jordan Lee 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(3) in the semifinals, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in the final. 

Lee and Gavin Goode, the top seeds, took the boys doubles title, defeating No. 8 seeds Maksim Nekrasov and Navneet Raghuram  6-3, 6-2 in the final. 

No. 3 seed Sofia Bielinska of Ukraine won the girls singles title, beating No. 11 seed Nicole Okhtenberg 6-1, 6-2 in the final. Unseeded Madison McLeod and Emily Morgan won the girls doubles title, beating No. 3 seeds Aishi Bisht of India and Francesca Saroli of Switzerland 6-2, 6-3 in the final.

At the J100 in Woodbridge Canada, Kaya Moe swept the titles. The 16-year-old blue chip from Connecticut, seeded No. 7, won her second ITF junior singles title of her career, with the first also a J100 in Canada this fall, defeating unseeded 15-year-old New York Anastasia Pleskun 6-2, 6-2 in the final.  Moe partnered with Karlin Schock for the doubles title, with the unseeded pair defeating No. 3 seeds  Zoya Chulak and Anastasia Malysheva of Canada 6-2, 7-5 in the final.  Moe now has four ITF junior circuit doubles titles, all coming this year.

Fourteen-year-old Michael Antonius reached the boys singles final in Woodbridge, with the No. 7 seed losing to qualifier Andrei Caragea of Canada 6-2, 1-6, 6-3. Antonius also lost in the doubles final, with No. 2 seeds Mark Krupkin and Canadian Volodymyr Gurenko beating No. 4 seeds Antonius and his partner Aidan Lam Meng Bart 6-4, 6-2 in the final. 

At the J60 in El Salvador, Zizou Ahmad and Chukwumelije Clarke swept the singles and doubles titles. The 14-year-old Ahmad picked up his fourth singles title of his career, all this year, but this was the first above the J30 level. Seeded No. 2, Ahmad defeated top seed Agassi Rusher 6-1, 6-1 in the singles final, while also getting the better of him in the doubles final. Ahmad and Andres Rendon of El Salvador, the No. 1 seeds, defeated Rusher and Juan Beltran of Colombia, the No. 2 seeds, 6-3, 6-4 in the final.

The 15-year-old Clarke won her sixth ITF junior circuit singles title, with the top-seeded Texan defeating unseeded Sofia Quevedo of Spain 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in the singles final. Unseeded in doubles, Clarke and Tayler Conway took out top seeds Ana Avramovic and Sasha Miroshnichenko 6-2, 6-7(5), 11-9 in the final.

The final ITF Junior Circuit title last week was at the J100 in Botswana, where Dillon Beckles and Czech partner Sebastian Chodura collected their second straight doubles championship after taking the J60 title two weeks ago. Beckles and Chodura, the No. 2 seeds, beat No. 3 seeds Luca Santiago De Sousa Figueiredo of Mozambique and Ntungamili Raguin of Botswana 7-6(2), 6-3 in the final. 

My brief visit to the WTA 125 Dow Tennis Classic in Midland is over, but I was able to watch all four final round qualifying matches today at the Greater Midland Tennis Center. Two Americans have advanced to the main draw: Whitney Osuigwe and Robin Anderson.

Osuigwe defeated Jamie Loeb 6-3, 7-6(7), while Anderson also took out a compatriot, beating 16-year-old wild card Anna Frey 6-2, 6-4.  Anderson, a former UCLA All-American, has always thrived on the indoor hard courts of Midland, reaching the finals in 2016, when it was a $100,000 ITF event, and again in 2021, the tournament's first year as a WTA 125 event. Although the score looks routine, there was little to separate the 31-year-old Anderson and Frey except perhaps their ages. Anderson's defense may have been slightly better, but Frey still hit plenty of winners and moved just as well as Anderson, which is hard to do. Frey was up a break twice in the second set, at 2-1 and 4-3, but she let up a bit in each of those attempts to consolidate. Serving at 4-5, Frey saved three match points with aggressive play, but couldn't convert either of her game points, and a double fault at the final deuce was too much for her to overcome.

Osuigwe will face No. 2 seed and two-time Dow champion Tatjana Maria of Germany in the first round, while Anderson will take on No. 6 seed Rebecca Marino of Canada. Loeb got in as one of two lucky losers, after the withdrawal of WTA Merida 250 champion Zeynep Sonmez of Turkey, while the other lucky loser, Leonie Kung of Switzerland, is in for Renata Zarazua of Mexico, who was the top seed. Polina Kudermetova of Russia moved to the top of the draw, as the No. 9 seed, replacing Zarazua in that position.

Five main draw matches were played this afternoon and evening, with wild card Lauren Davis and No. 3 seed Alycia Parks both advancing to the second round.

The ATP Challenger 75 in Knoxville Tennessee began today and the top seed has already been eliminated. Former Tennessee Volunteer Adam Walton of Australia, No. 92 in the ATP rankings, was beaten this evening by former USC All-American Brandon Holt 6-4, 6-3.  

Other Americans advancing to the second round are No. 5 seed Zachary Svajda, who beat Ethan Quinn(Georgia) 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 and No. 4 seed Mitchell Krueger, who beat Denis Kudla 6-4, 1-0, ret.

Four of the six qualifiers are Americans: Stefan Dostanic(USC, Wake Forest), Alex Kotzen(Columbia, Tennessee), Micah Braswell(Texas) and Toby Kodat.

Wild cards were given to Murphy Cassone(Arizona State), Colton Smith(Arizona) and University of Tennessee senior Shunsuke Mitsui of Japan.

The USTA men's Australian Open wild card race is at its midpoint, with this week and next week the final two opportunities to earn the ATP points that will determine its winner. The current standings:

University of Arizona senior Colton Smith and Stanford junior Nishesh Basavareddy are the current front-runners in the Men's Australian Open Wild Card Challenge as it crosses its halfway point. Smith holds the lead for the second consecutive week, while Basavareddy's run to the final at the USTA Pro Circuit Challenger 75 in Charlottesville, Va., last week puts him in contention as many of the Challenge contenders play the USTA Pro Circuit Challenger in Knoxville, Tenn., this week. 

 

Men's Standings -- Week 2

(Player's current ranking in parenthesis)

 

1. Colton Smith (362) -- 56
2. Nishesh Basavareddy (170) -- 44
3. Mackenzie McDonald (128) -- 24
T4. Murphy Cassone (325) -- 22
T4. Learner Tien (121) -- 22

 

The men's wild card will be awarded to the American with the most ranking points earned from a maximum of three events during a four-week window that runs through the week of November 11. All indoor and outdoor hard-court and carpet events at the M25 level and above, including ATP Tour and Challenger events, will be included in the Challenge.