US Teams Roll to Junior Davis Cup, Billie Jean King Cup Semifinals; US Women Fall to Slovakia in BJK Cup; Willwerth and Liutova Reach Quarterfinals at $15Ks; Nakashima Beats Top Seed at $25K; Basavareddy Keeps AO Wild Card Hopes Alive

The teams from the United States continued to dominate the competition at the ITF's Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean Cup 16-and-under team event in Turkey, advancing to Friday's semifinals by blanking their opponents.  

Tyra Grant defeated US Open girls finalist Wakana Sonobe 6-3, 6-4 at No. 1 singles and Julieta Pareja beat Sawashiro Kanon 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2 singles to beat Japan 2-0. The doubles match was not played.

Keaton Hance defeated Wang Yen-Chun 6-0, 6-1 at No. 2 singles and Jack Kennedy beat Chen Kuan-Hhou 6-0, 7-6(3) to clinch their win over Taiwan. Kennedy and Secord won the only dead doubles match contested today but that was by the score of 4-2, 4-1, indicating that time was primary consideration in the quarterfinals today.

The girls will play the Czech Republic, who defeated Brazil 2-0. The boys will face Japan, who defeated Kazakhstan 2-0.

The surprise country this year is Romania, who have advanced to both the girls and boys semifinals even though they were not at installed at the top of their round robin groups prior to the start of play. They both won their groups however, and they will both play Germany in the semifinals.

Germany won the only match that was decided by the doubles, beating favorite Great Britain 2-1.  Hannah Klugman won at No. 2 singles, beating Mariella Thamm 6-2, 7-6(3), but  US Open girls champion Mika Stojsavljevic lost to Julia Stusek 6-3, 6-3 at No. 1 singles. Stojsavljevic also had lost to Brazil's 14-year-old No. 1 Nauhany Leme Da Silva in the final match of their round robin group Wednesday. Klugman and Stojsavljevic were able to win the doubles against Brazil Wednesday, but today they dropped a 6-4, 6-1 decision to Thamm and Stusek.

With the weather forecast for Sunday continuing to be poor, it's likely that the events will both end a day early, with the traditional day of rest being superseded the commitment to finish the tournaments sooner rather than later.

Links to live scoring and live streaming can be found here.

The Billie Jean King Cup team from the United States was not as successful in their competition today in Spain, falling in their opening match. Taylor Townsend beat 2024 Australian Open and Wimbledon girls champion Renata Jamrichova 7-5, 6-4 to give the US a 1-0 lead over Slovakia, but Danielle Collins(Virginia) lost to Rebecca Sramkova 6-2, 7-5 to send the tie to a deciding doubles match, with Townsend and Ashlyn Krueger losing to Viktoria Hruncakova and Tereza Mihalikova 3-6, 6-3, 10-8. 

For more on the match, see this article from the BJK Cup website.

Of the four juniors who earned their first ATP point yesterday at the men's USTA Pro Circuit $15,000 tournament in Boca Raton Florida, only Benjamin Willwerth was able to advance to the quarterfinals. Willwerth defeated former Florida All-American and No. 6 seed Axel Nefve 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(5) in a two-hour 59-minute marathon. The 17-year-old from Florida will face top seed Peter Bertran(Georgia, South Florida) of the Dominican Republic Friday.

Arvid Nordqvist(Mississippi State) of Sweden defeated No. 2 seed Sebastian Gima of Romania 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-3 in two hours and 58 minutes.

Fourteen-year-old Kristina Liutova reached the quarterfinals from qualifying for the second consecutive week today at the W15 in Clemson South Carolina. Liutova defeated University of Georgia sophomore Aysegul Mert of Turkey 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 and will take on top seed Sara Daavettila(North Carolina) Friday. Daavettila is the only seed to advance to the quarterfinals. Three current NC State players are also through to the quarterfinals: sisters Gabia and Kristina Paskauskas of Great Britain and Gabriella Broadfoot of South Africa. Emma Charney, the USC junior, defeated No. 2 seed Zuzanna Pawlikowska of Poland 6-1, 6-2 and will play Gabia Paskauskas for a spot in the semifinals. Broadfoot and Kristinia Paskauskas play each other.

Ohio State sophomore Bryce Nakashima, who received a wild card into this week's $25,000 Pro Circuit tournament in Columbus, and is now through to the quarterfinals after defeating top seed Radu Papoe of Romania, a senior at Cornell, 7-6(3), 7-5. Two other Buckeyes, sophomore Aidan Kim and transfer Will Jansen, will play each other in the quarterfinals, while Jack Anthrop is the fourth player from the team to make the final eight.

At the ATP Challenger 75 in Champaign Illinois today, Eliot Spizzirri(Texas), Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M) and Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) won their second round matches to reach Friday's quarterfinals. Fifth seed Basavareddy, still in the running for the USTA Australian Open wild card, defeated qualifier Alex Rybakov(TCU) 7-5, 6-4 and will play the winner of tonight's match betwen Govind Nanda(UCLA) and No. 2 seed Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech). If Eubanks wins tonight, that quarterfinal match could decide the wild card.

Spizzirri defeated Jay Clarke of Great Britain 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 to reach his fourth Challenger quarterfinal, all since graduating from Texas in May. He faces Kypson, the No. 6 seed, who beat qualifier Strong Kirchheimer(Northwestern) 6-1, 6-2.