Four Americans have advanced to Thursday's quarterfinals of the Australian Open Junior Championships, with only Dominick Mosejczuk the only one of five US juniors remaining to drop his third round match.
Unseeded Benjamin Willwerth, who won his first junior slam match Sunday, defeated qualifier Pierluigi Basile of Italy 7-6(3), 7-5. Fourth-seeded Jack Kennedy got off to a slow start against No. 16 seed Alexander Vasilev of Bulgaria, but rebounded for a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory and No. 5 seed Jagger Leach held it together after letting two match points slip away in the second set to beat No. 11 seed Flynn Thomas of Switzerland 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(6).
Leach lead 6-3, 5-3, 40-30, but Thomas came up with forehand winner to save the first and the second match point was wasted with a double fault. Leach lost that service game and his next one to give turn the 5-3 lead to a 5-7 second set loss, but he did reset for the third set. He had two more march points with Thomas serving at 5-6, 15-40, but again Thomas came up big with a deft volley winner on that third match point and Leach netted a forehand to lose the fourth.
Leach fell behind 3-0 in the 10-point tiebreaker, but recovered to lead 7-5 at the second change of ends. He lost that mini-break when a Thomas forehand forced an error, but serving at 6-7, Thomas lost both serves, with Leach's slice forcing an error and a shank of Leach's return given Leach a fifth match point. He converted that one, with Thomas unable to handle a pass at his feet. Leach let his emotions out when he's secured that elusive match point, after keeping them buried throughout the two-and-a-half-hour contest.
No. 6 seed Kristinia Penickova, who had won her first two matches in third-set tiebreakers, was a bit easier on herself in the third round, although she had to come from a set down to defeat No. 11 seed Alena Kovackova of the Czech Republic 2-6, 6-1, 6-1.
Thursday's singles quarterfinal matchups are below, as well as the results of Wednesday's doubles quarterfinals, and the semifinal matchups in doubles later Thursday.
Jan Kumstat[1](CZE) v Henry Bernet[8](SUI)
Jack Kennedy[4](USA) v Oskari Paldanius[7](FIN)
Benjamin Willwerth(USA) v Timofei Derepasko([9](RUS)
Jagger Leach[5](USA) v Willaim Rejchtman Vinciguerra[14](SWE)
Emerson Jones[1](AUS) v Lilli Tagger(AUT)
Wakana Sonobe[4](JPN) v Tahlia Kokkinis[WC](AUS)
Mia Pohankova(SVK) v Jeline Vandromme[3](BEL)
Kristina Penickova[6](USA) v Shiho Tsujioka[Q](JPN)
Willwerth defeated Derepasko last October in the semifinals of a J200 in Japan; Penickova has two wins over Tsujioka in a J300 and a J200 in Asia last spring.
Wednesday's doubles quarterfinals results of Americans:
Oliver Bonding(GBR) and Jagger Leach[1](USA) d. Jamie Mackenzie(GER) and Niels McDonald(GER) 6-0, 6-7(5), 10-6
Max Exsted(USA) and Jan Kumstat(CZE)[2] d. Noah Johnston(USA) and Benjamin Willwerth(USA)[8] 6-7(8), 6-2, 11-9
Kristina and Annika Penickova[6](USA) d. Elizara Yaneva and Rositsa Dencheva[3](BUL) 6-3, 7-6(3)
Thursday's doubles semifinals featuring Americans:
Exsted and Kumstat v Andrea De Marchi(ITA) and William Rejchtman Vinciguerra[7](SWE)
Bonding and Leach v Ognjen Milic(SRB) and Egor Pleshivtsev(RUS)
Kristina and Annika Penickova[6] v Alena Kovackova and Jana Kovackova
In the men's and women's singles quarterfinals Wednesday, Madison Keys and Ben Shelton(Florida) advanced to the semifinals. Keys plays Iga Swiatek Thursday, with Shelton taking on top seed Jannik Sinner Friday.
Wednesday's quarterfinal Australian Open matches featuring Americans:
Madison Keys[19] d. Elina Svitolina[28](UKR) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
Iga Swiatek[2](POL) d. Emma Navarro[8] 6-1, 6-2
Ben Shelton[21] d. Lorenzo Sonego(ITA) 6-4, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(4)
The second round of
Les Petits As was played today in Tarbes France, with US boys going 1-2 and US girls posting a 2-0 record.
Wednesday's second round matches featuring Americans:
Moritz Freitag[9](AUT) d. Daniel Gardality 6-2, 6-1
Luys Calin(GER) d. Smyan Thuta[16] 6-4, 6-2
Tristan Ascenzo[8] d. Yuto Hisano[Q](JPN) 4-6, 6-2, 6-1
Emery Combs[8] d. Valeriia Timofeeva(RUS) 6-4, 6-1
Allison Wang[16] d. Raya Markova[Q](BUL) 6-4, 6-1
Thursday's round of 16 matches featuring Americans:
Emery Combs[8] v Samiye Ozkeresteci(TUR)
Allison Wang[16] v Sofiia Bielinska[3](UKR)
Tristan Ascenzo[8] v Cinar Senkaya[10](TUR)
The Tennis Europe tournament page is
here; the links to live streaming and live scoring are
here.
The second set of
ITA Division I Team rankings were released today, and with not a lot of matches to consider, what they told us was that any coaches on the ranking committee that were in the minority in the first poll saw what their fellow coaches did and decided to conform to the majority. Both No. 1s are now unanimous; Georgia had only three first place votes and Texas A&M seven, as well as first place votes for Stanford and Duke, now all 13 first place votes went to Georgia, although both won their first and only match. Texas men were No. 1 with eight first place votes to TCU's five in the first set of rankings; Texas got all 13 votes this time.
Some of the movement was based on actual match results, with the Virginia women moving up based on their 4-3 win over North Carolina and the Tar Heels falling three spots. Texas lost to USC and fell from 7 to 12, while USC moved from 17 to 11.
The Kentucky men dropped from 7 to 12 after falling to Michigan State, who somehow only moved up to 17 (from 23) after that 5-2 win over the Wildcats, as well as victories over Vanderbilt and Western Michigan.
Top 10 Team Rankings, ITA Coaches Poll, January 22, 2025
(First place votes in brackets, previous ranking in parentheses)
Women:
1. Georgia[13] (1)
2. Texas A&M (2)
3. Stanford (3)
4. Oklahoma State (4)
5. Virginia (9)
6. UCLA (5)
7. Duke (11)
8. Michigan (8)
9. North Carolina (6)
10. NC State (14)
Men:
1. Texas[13] (1)
2. TCU (2)
3. Ohio State (3)
4. Wake Forest (4)
5. Virginia (5)
6. Arizona (6)
7. Columbia (8)
8. Oklahoma (10)
9. Mississippi State (11)
10. Florida State (9)
The ITA women's release is
here; the men's release is
here.
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