Leach, Willwerth and Mosejczuk Make Australian Open Junior Championships Third Round; Top Seed Rolls Upset in Opening Round of ITF J300 in Colombia; Les Petits As No. 1 Seed Pagonis Loses in First Round

The first junior slam of the year has been a good one for American boys, with four of them advancing to Wednesday's round of 16 at the Australian Open. Although No. 10 seed Max Exsted lost in the second round, two unseeded US boys, Benjamin Willwerth and Dominick Mosejczuk, won their second round matches in straight sets Tuesday, joining No. 5 seed Jagger Leach and No. 4 seed Jack Kennedy in the third round.

Willwerth lost the first three games to Nikola Djosic of Switzerland, but then won eight straight games before Djosic got back in the second set with a break and hold for 2-2. The second set was close the rest of the way, but it was Willwerth who managed to stay calm down 4-1 in the tiebreaker, getting the two mini-breaks back while winning five straight points to close out a 6-3, 7-6(5) victory. 

Leach defeated qualifier Gabriele Crivellaro of Italy 6-4, 6-4, and Mosejczuk reached his second straight junior slam round of 16 with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Kuan-Shou Chen of Taiwan.

Wednesday's Australian Open round of 16 junior matches featuring Americans:
Benjamin Willwerth v Pierluigi Basile[Q](ITA)
Jack Kennedy[4] v Alexander Vasilev[16](BUL)
Jagger Leach[5] v Flynn Thomas[11](SUI)
Dominick Mosejczuk v Timofei Derepasko[9](RUS)

Kristina Penickova[6] v Alena Kovackova[12](CZE)

Leach and Thomas met in the third round at Wimbledon last year, with Leach winning in straight sets. Mosejczuk lost to Derepasko in the third round of the Merida J500 last November in three sets.

Willwerth and Penickova have not played their opponents previously.

There was one notable upset in the boys draws Tuesday, with No. 3 seed and Bradenton and Orange Bowl champion Andres Santamarta Roig losing to Basile 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.

The boys doubles quarterfinals Wednesday feature four Americans: top seed Leach and his partner Oliver Bonding of Great Britain; No. 2 seed Exsted and his partner Jan Kumstat of the Czech Republic and the all US team of Willwerth and Noah Johnston. Willwerth and Johnston play Exsted and Kumstat, so at least one American boy will advance to the semifinals. Exsted won the Australian Open doubles title last year with Cooper Woestendick.

No. 6 seeds Annika and Kristina Penickova have reached the girls doubles quarterfinals.

Both Coco Gauff and Tommy Paul fell in their quarterfinal matches Tuesday, with Ben Shelton(Florida), Madison Keys and Emma Navarro(Virginia) playing their quarterfinals Wednesday.

Tuesday's quarterfinal Australian Open matches featuring Americans:

Paula Badosa[11](ESP) d. Coco Gauff[3] 7-5, 6-4

Alexander Zverev[2](GER) d. Tommy Paul[12] 7-6(1), 7-6(0), 2-6, 6-1

Wednesday's quarterfinal Australian Open matches featuring Americans:

Madison Keys[19] v Elina Svitolina[28](UKR)

Emma Navarro[8] v Iga Swiatek[2](POL)

Ben Shelton[21] v Lorenzo Sonego(ITA)

The ITF J300 in Barranquilla Colombia this week features many of the same American players who competed in last week's J300 in Costa Rica, although there are fewer in total.

US girls in the main draw:

Kaitlyn Rolls[1]

Kayla Chung

Kaia Giribalan[Q]

Isabelle DeLuccia

Julieta Pareja[8]

Lucy Oyebog Atang[Q] 

Kori Montoya

Leena Friedman[4]

Ava Rodriguez

Ishika Ashar

Capucine Jauffret[2]

US boys in the main draw:

Ryan Cozad[8]

Nischal Spurling

Calvin Baierl[6]

Ronit Karki

Gavin Goode

Jacob Olar

Lachlan Gaskell[7]

Simon Caldwell

Yubel Ubri 

Jack Satterfield

Jordan Lee[Q]

Gray Kelley[Q]

Keaton Hance[Q]

Jack Secord[3]

Play began on Monday, and top seed Katie Rolls was upset, going out to qualifier Yleymi Lugiana Muelle Valdez of Peru 6-4, 6-4. Jacob Olar defeated No. 4 seed Yannik Alvarez of Puerto Rico 1-6, 6-1, 7-6(5) in first round action Monday.

In Tarbes France, Les Petits As also lost one of its No. 1 seeds to a qualifier, with Rafael Pagonis of Greece losing in the first round today to Lucas Herrera Sanchez of Germany 6-3, 7-5.

Girls top seed Megan Knight of Great Britain defeated American wild card Isabella Gonzalez Alvarez 6-1, 6-1.

No. 8 seed Tristan Ascenzo defeated Erik Meolic of Slovenia 6-2, 7-5 today, so there are three US boys and two US girls through to the second round. 

Wednesday's second round matches featuring Americans:

Daniel Gardality v Moritz Freitag[9](AUT)

Smyan Thuta[16] v Luys Calin(GER)

Tristan Ascenzo[8] v Yuto Hisano[Q](JPN)

Emery Combs[8] v Valeriia Timofeeva(RUS)

Allison Wang[16] v Raya Markova[Q](BUL)

Draws are at the Tennis Europe website; links to live scoring and live streaming are here.