US Teams Begin Junior Davis and BJK Cup Competition with 3-0 Wins; Stoiana and Gorzny Top Seeds for Next Week's NCAA D-I Singles Championships; Men's Australian Open Wild Card Standings; ITF Junior Circuit Update

The Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup, the ITF's team competition for 16-and-under players, kicked off today in Turkey, with both teams from the United States picking up 3-0 victories over Egypt in the first day of round robin competition. 

I have not been able to find any reference to seeding in the ITF's draw article or in its preview, but both USA teams are at the top of their round robin groups and would be favored to advance to the finals based on the teams they have assembled. The girls team of Tyra Grant, Kristina Penickova and Julieta Pareja is seeking the USA's third straight title (they could be going for the USA's seventh straight title had the USTA decided against competing in the 2021 version due to the pandemic, as they won the 2017, 2018 and 2019 titles).  The USA boys team of Jack Kennedy, Jack Secord and Keaton Hance will be aiming for the first Junior Davis Cup title for the United States since 2014, although the boys have reached the final in 2017, 2019 and 2022.

The tournament website, with results from every match, can be found here. Links to live streaming and live scoring are available here.

The inaugural NCAA individual championships in the fall begin next Tuesday in Waco Texas, on the Baylor campus, with the seeds being announced today. Preseason Top 10 men who are not seeded are Ozan Baris [1]of Michigan State, Cooper Williams[4] of Duke, Radu Papoe[6] of Cornell and Gavin Young[7] of Michigan. Preaseason Top 10 players not in the draw are Karlis Ozalins[8] of Illinois and Jack Anthrop[9] of Ohio State.

The only woman in the preseason Top 10 not seeded is Sarah Hamner of South Carolina, although Celia-Belle Mohr[3] of Vanderbilt, Rachel Gailis[7] are not in the singles draw, but did qualify in doubles. Reese Brantmeier[6] of North Carolina has yet to return to competition after her injury last February.

Click on the heading to go the the ncaa.com article with the full fields, plus list of alternates.

NCAA Division I Seeds:

WOMEN:

Singles:

1. Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

2. Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia

3. Maria Sholokhova, Wisconsin

4. Elza Tomase, Tennessee

5. Valerie Glozman, Stanford

6. Ange Oby Kajuru, Oklahoma State

7. Connie Ma, Stanford

8. Julia Fliegner, Michigan

9-16 seeds (alphabetical)

Savannah Broadus, Pepperdine

Julie Garcia Ruiz, Oklahoma

Amelia Honer, UC-Santa Barbara

Sofia Johnson, Old Dominion

Luciana Perry, Ohio State

Theadora Rabman, North Carolina

Bridget Stammel, Vanderbilt

Emilija Tverijonaite, Arizona State

Doubles:

1. Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle, UCLA

2. Gabriella Broadfoot and Maddy Zampardo, NC State

3. Avelina Sayfetdinova and Mariia Hlahola, Texas Tech

4. Savannah Broadus and Vivian Yang, Pepperdine

5-8 (alphabetical by institution)

Liubov Kostenko and Cristina Tiglea, Baylor

Carson Tanguilig and Susanna Maltby, North Carolina

Jade Otway and Isabel Pascual, TCU

Olivia Center and Kate Fakih, UCLA

MEN:

Singles:

1. Sebastian Gorzny, Texas

2. Michael Zheng, Columbia

3. Colton Smith, Arizona

4. Carl Overbeck, Cal

5. Jay Friend, Arizona

6. Lui Maxted, TCU

7. Oliver Tarvet, San Diego

8. Aidan Kim, Ohio State

9-16 seeds

Jonah Braswell, Texas

Corey Craig, Florida State

Timo Legout, Texas

Shunsuke Mitsui, Tennessee

Thomas Paulsell, Georgia

Braden Shick, NC State

DK Suresh, Wake Forest

Pedro Vives, TCU

Doubles:

1. Oliver Tarvet and Stan Klaassen, San Diego

2. Marko Miladinovic and Oska Brostrom Poulsen, Baylor

3. Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez, Mississippi State

4. Luciano Tacchi and Luca Pow, Wake Forest

5-8 seeds

Zsombor Velcz and Devin Badenhorst, Baylor

Cooper Williams and Theo Winegar, Duke

Youcef Rihane and Alex Bulte, Florida State

Pedro Vives and Lui Maxted, TCU

The USTA's Australian Open Wild Card Challenger for men wraps up this week, with many Americans still in the running. Here are the current standings, Moreno de Alboran at the ATP Challenger 100 this week in Japan, and Eubanks, Basavareddy and Tien competing at the Champaign 75 this week.

Men's Standings -- Week 4

(Player's current ranking in parenthesis)

 

1. Nicolas Moreno de Alboran (110) -- 91

2. Chris Eubanks (109) -- 87

T3. Nishesh Basavareddy (172) -- 66

T3. Learner Tien (114) -- 66

5. Colton Smith (362) -- 56

The ITF Junior Circuit had only one tournament above the J60 level last week and that was a J100, but Americans picked up six singles titles at three J30s and one J60.

At the J30 in McKinney Texas, 18-year-old Texan Blake Anderson won his first ITF Junior Circuit title, with the No. 7 seed defeating 15-year-old wild card Sebastian Inaki Godoy 6-0, 6-4 in the all-USA final. Sixteen-year-old Texan Aya Manning also won her first ITF Junior Circuit title, beating 14-year-old Enya Hamilton(Alanis's sister) 6-4, 6-4. 

No. 4 seeds Anna Bugaienko of Ukraine and Zimora McKnight earned the girls doubles title, beating unseeded Teaghan Jou An Keys and Zoe Young 6-4, 6-0 in the final.  James Andrew Ross and Mason Vaughan won the boys doubles title, beating Jack Dermenjyan and Miguel Rooney 4-6, 7-5, 10-8 in a final between two unseeded teams. It's the first ITF Junior Circuit title for 15-year-olds Ross and Vaughan. 

At the J60 in Mexico, Nicole Okhtenberg took the girls singles title, with the No. 5 seed beating No. 8 seed Natalia Varela Herrera of Mexico 6-1, 6-4 in the final. The 16-year-old Okhtenberg,  who had reached the final two weeks ago at the J60 in Boca Raton Florida, now has three ITF Junior Circuit singles titles.

At the J30 in Jamaica, doubles champions Shaan Majeed and Nicholas Mekhael faced off for the singles title, with the 15-year-old Majeed, seeded No. 2, claiming his first ITF Junior Circuit single title with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over the top seed. Majeed and Mekhael, the top seeds in doubles, defeated No. 4 seeds Ross Johnson and Pakistan's Mikaeel Ali Baig 6-3, 6-3 in the final. 

Top seed Sarah Stoyanov won the girls singles title, with the 16-year-old defeating No. 2 seed Ana Avramovic 6-4, 6-4 in the all US final. Stoyanov now has three ITF Junior Circuit single titles. Unlike their male counterparts, Stoyanov and Avramovic were unable to sweep the titles, with the top seeds falling in the final to the third-seeded Canadian team of Lola Bean and Mirka Delaney 6-3, 6-4. 

And finally, at the J30 in Barbados, 17-year-old Calla McGill earned her first ITF Junior Circuit singles title and her third doubles title with the sweep. The top seed defeated No. 4 seed and doubles partner Sophie Dement of Canada 6-0, 6-1 in the singles final. She and Dement, the No. 2 seeds, won the doubles title over top seeds Annabelle Ganescu and Alexie Normandin of Canada 6-2, 6-7(5), 10-3.