Pareja and Hance Claim First ITF J300 Titles in Colombia; Ascenzo Advances to Sunday's Les Petits As Boys Final; Keys Wins Long-Awaited Major in Australia, Patten Adds Second Slam Title in Men's Doubles

Fifteen-year-old Julieta Pareja won two matches in women's qualifying at the US Open in September, won a W15 last summer and reached a W35 final last fall, but her junior results hadn't been enough to earn her a place in the Australian Open Juniors this year. Her WTA ranking of 563 was short of the Top 400 needed for main draw and the Top 500 ranking needed for qualifying, so the Southern Californian opted to play the Central/South America J300s in hopes of earning enough points to allow her to play the summer slams.

She reached the quarterfinals last week in Costa Rica and won the doubles title, which got her to a career-high 63, and with her title today at the J300 in Barranquilla Colombia, Pareja will move into the Top 50, which now put her in a great position to be accepted into Roland Garros and Wimbledon.

Pareja, the No. 8 seed, defeated reigning San Diego 16s National Champion Ishika Ashar 6-4, 6-4 in today's final; she avenged last week's Costa Rica loss to Mariella Thamm of Germany 6-3, 6-3 in semifinals, with Thamm going on to win the title at the Coffee Bowl. Pareja did not drop a set in her five victories this week, winning her third ITF Junior Circuit title, all of which have come in Colombia, although this one was on hard courts, not clay.

Another Southern Californian, Keaton Hance, won his first J300 title with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over No. 3 seed Jack Secord, his third win over his fellow 16-year-old in the past ten months. Hance needed three victories in qualifying just to reach the main draw, so he won eight matches in eight days to claim the title, his second on the ITF Junior Circuit but first since 2023. He will move into the Top 100 for the first time with the title.

Both Pareja and Hance were on the USA's Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup championship teams last fall, both excelling at No. 2 singles and in doubles.

Speaking of those ITF 16-and-under team championships, Tyra Grant, who played No. 1 singles, reached the semifinals of the W75 this week in Portugal, losing 6-2, 6-2 to Tereza Valentova of the Czech Republic, who beat her in the semifinals at Roland Garros Junior Championships last June, with Valentova going on to take the title.

Michael Antonius won the boys Les Petits As title last year in Tarbes France, and on Sunday, Tristan Ascenzo will try to make it two in a row for the United States, when the No. 8 seed takes on No. 5 seed Mario Vukovic of France. Ascenzo ended the run of qualifier Lucas Herrera Sanchez of Germany 6-3, 6-0, while Vukovic defeated unseeded Samuel Dakessian, also of France 6-4 6-2.

Emery Combs was unable to complete her semifinal match, retiring down 5-2 in the first set to No. 2 seed Darina Matvejeva of Latvia. Matvejeva will face No. 12 seed Ekaterina Dosenko of Russia, who beat Junior Orange Bowl 14s champion and No. 9 seed Sakino Miyazawa of Japan 7-5, 6-4.

Matvejeva and Sofiia Bielinska of Ukraine, the top seeds, won the doubles title today, beating No. 8 seeds Dotsenko and Germany's Lilly Marie Greinert 6-3, 6-4.  The wild card pair of Mohamed Genidy of Egypt and Leith Bennaceur of Tunisia beat unseeded Dakessian and Vukovic 6-3, 6-7(7), 10-5 in the boys doubles final. 

Daniela Del Mastro won the girls consolation draw, beating Khadija Adeniran 4-1, 5-3 in an all-USA final. That draw can be found here.

The girls final begins at 8 a.m. Eastern time (2 p.m. in France), followed by the boys final. Streaming is available at the tournament website.

Madison Keys won her first major title, seven years after reaching her last major final at 2017's US Open. The 29-year-old defeated top seed and two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, after saving a match point in her 5-7, 6-1, 7-6(8) semifinal win over No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek of Poland. 

For more on Keys' long path to a first major, see this article from the WTA's Greg Garber.

A former ITA No. 1 in doubles while playing for University of North Carolina Asheville in 2019, Henry Patten of Great Britain is now a two-time slam champion in men's doubles after winning the Australian Open title. Patten and partner Harri Heliovarra of Finland, the reigning Wimbledon doubles champions and No. 6 seeds, defeated the third-seeded Italian team of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori 6-7(16), 7-6(5), 6-3 in a three-hour thriller that ended at close to 2 a.m. in Melbourne. With the title, they have moved to No. 3 and No. 4 in the ATP doubles rankings. For more on the final, see this article from the Australian Open website.

The men's singles final Sunday (at 3:30 a.m in the Eastern US) between No. 1 seed and defending champion Jannik Sinner and No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev will follow the women's doubles final, which features top seeds Taylor Townsend and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and No. 3 seeds Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan.