IMG Academy Int'l 12s Finals Videos; Krueger, Boyer and Tien Qualify for Australian Open Main Draw; Basavareddy, Joint and Kessler Reach ATP/WTA Semifinals; ITF J300 Traralgon Begins Friday

The last of the videos from last month's major junior events in Florida have been processed, with the IMG Academy Interntional Championships 12s finalists going up today on my YouTube channel. Videos of all the IMG and Orange Bowl finalists can be viewed there as well.

Qualifying is complete at the Australian Open, with three American men advancing to the main draw: Tristan Boyer(Stanford), Mitchell Krueger and Learner Tien(USC). Last year two Americans made it through: Aleks Kovacevic and Katie Volynets. Kovacevic lost in the second round of qualifying this year; Volynets received direct entry into the main draw this year.

Boyer, 23, will be making his slam debut; Tien played slam qualifying for the first time in Melbourne; he received wild cards into the US Open main draw the past three years, twice as Kalamazoo 18s champion and last year as the USTA Wild Card race winner. Krueger, who turns 31 on Sunday, qualified for the US Open last year and the Australian Open in 2019.

Former Texas A&M All-American Hady Habib will make history as the first player from Lebanon to play in a slam, after he beat former Washington All-American Clement Chidekh of France 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(8) Thursday in a dramatic final round qualifying match in Melbourne.

Next Gen and 2023 US Open boys champion Joao Fonseca of Brazil, who won the ATP Challenger 125 in Canberra last week, had no difficulty getting through qualifying and has drawn No. 9 seed Andrey Rublev in the first round of the main draw. 2022 US Open champion Martin Landaluce of Spain also qualified, with the three teenagers the most qualifying for a slam since 2015 US Open when five teens, including Alexander Zverev, Rublev and Tommy Paul, qualified.

Thursday's Australian Open final round qualifying results of Americans:

Anca Todoni[12](ROU)d. Vavara Lepchenko[21] 6-3, 6-2

Viktorija Golubic[2](SUI) d. Sachia Vickery 6-2, 6-4

Elena-Gabriela Ruse[15](ROU) d. Emina Bektas 6-2, 7-5

Mitchell Krueger d. Yasutaka Uchiyama(JPN) 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4

Tristan Boyer[26] d. Christopher Eubanks[4] 6-4, 6-4

Gauthier Onclin(BEL) d. McKenzie McDonald[25] 7-6(7), 6-7(5), 6-1

Learner Tien[16] d. Jozef Kovalik[21](SVK) 6-3, 6-4

Ben Rothenberg took a deep dive into former junior slam champions on Bounces, his recently established Substack newsletter, with comments from Renata Jamrichova, Reilly Opelka, Robin Montgomery, Tien, Fonseca and Kimmer Coppejans.

With the Australian Open starting on Saturday night here in the United States, I'll be posting the first round matchups of the 33  Americans in the draw Friday. The draws are available here.

The warm-up events in Australia and New Zealand have produced some notable results this week, with Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford), who qualified for the Auckland ATP 250, into the semifinals after beating No. 8 seed Alex Michelsen 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 in his first ATP quarterfinal appearance.  Basavareddy, who earned the USTA's reciprocal wild card and is drawn to meet Novak Djokovic in the first round in Melbourne, had beaten No. 2 seed and defending champion Alejandro Tabilo of Chile in the second round 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. For more on Basavareddy's semifinal Friday against Gael Monfils of France and his upcoming encounter with Djokovic, see this Reuters article.

Wild card Maya Joint of Australia, who recently announced she was not going to play at Texas, has gotten off to a great start as a pro, reaching the semifinals of the WTA 250 in Hobart. The 18-year-old, who grew up in Michigan, defeated No. 4 seed Magda Linette of Poland in the second round and former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin in the quarterfinals, with the loss of only six games in those two victories.  Former Florida All-American McCartney Kessler is also through to the semifinals in Hobart, after the 25-year-old from Georgia defeated top seed Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine 7-5, 6-4 in Thursday's quarterfinals. 

The ITF J300 in Traralgon, the warmup event for the Australian Open Junior Championships, begins Friday, with seven US girls and eight US boys in the 64-player draws. No Americans played qualifying; KrishaMahendran, the USC recruit who lives in Southern California but represents India, did qualify and will play No. 2 seed Teodora Kostovic of Serbia in the first round. Jeline Vandromme of Belgium is the top girls seed, with Jan Kumstat of the Czech Republic the top boys seed.

US girls in Traralgon:

Kristina Penickova[3]

Thea Frodin[12]

Maya Iyengar[15]

Claire An

Aspen Schuman

Shannon Lam

Annika Penickova

US boys in Traralgon:

Jack Kennedy[4]

Jagger Leach[5]

Maxwell Exsted[10]

Dominick Mosejczuk

Matisse Farzam

Noah Johnston

Benjamin Willwerth

Maximus Dussault

All these players are expected to compete in the Australian Open junior championships; Iva Jovic, who had entered the juniors, has withdrawn, while Emerson Jones of Australia is still on the junior acceptance list. Both have main draw women's singles wild cards.