Three of 33 Americans in Australian Open Draw in Action Sunday; Winter Nationals Recaps; Qualifier Osuigwe Advances to Naples W35 Semifinals; Papamalamis Joins Three Americans in Ithaca $25K Semis; Santhosh Reaches ITF J300 Final in India

The Australian Open is one of two majors that starts on Sunday, with Roland Garros the other, and with the time difference, that means the first action begins Saturday night here in the United States. Only three Americans are on Sunday's schedule in Melbourne; from some of the information that has been posted on social media, I think I have correctly determined which days the other 30 Americans will play their first round matches. Unfortunately, this year there are five first round matches with Americans facing each other.

First Round Australian Open matches featuring Americans: 

Sunday (Saturday night in US):
Sloane Stephens v Aryna Sabalenka[1]
Bernarda Pera v Tatjana Maria(GER)
Reilly Opelka v Gauthier Onclin[Q](BEL)

Monday (Sunday night in US):

Danielle Collins[10] v Daria Snigur[Q](UKR)

Caroline Dolehide v Sara Bejlek[Q](CZE)

Ashlyn Krueger v Ajla Tomljanovic[WC](AUS)

Hailey Baptiste v Laura Siegemund(GER)

Coco Gauff[3] v Sofia Kenin

Jessica Pegula[7] v Maya Joint[WC](AUS)

Katie Volynets v Rebecca Sramkova (SVK)

Marcos Giron v Yannick Hanfmann(GER)

Alex Michelsen v Stefanos Tsitsipas[11](GRE)

Frances Tiafoe[17] v Arthur Rinderknech(FRA)

Nishesh Basavareddy[WC] v Novak Djokovic[7](SRB)

Sebastian Korda[22] v Lukas Klein[Q](SVK)

Tommy Paul[12] v Christopher O'Connell(AUS)

Tuesday (Monday night in US):

Tristan Boyer[Q] v Federico Coria(ARG)

Taylor Fritz[4] v Jenson Brooksby

Ben Shelton[21] v Brandon Nakashima

Mitchell Krueger[Q] v Rinky Hijikata(AUS)

Learner Tien[Q] v Camilo Ugo Carabelli(ARG)

Emma Navarro[8] v Peyton Stearns

Madison Keys[19] v Ann Li

McCartney Kessler v Shuai Zhang[WC](CHN)

Caty McNally v Varvara Gracheva(FRA)

Amanda Anisimova v Maria Lourdes Carle(ARG)

Taylor Townsend v Renata Zarazua (MEX)

Iva Jovic[WC] v Nuria Parrizas-Diaz(ESP)

Tennis Recruiting Network concluded its coverage of the USTA Winter National championships Thursday, with recaps of all eight finals in Lake Nona and San Antonio.  The 18s recap is here; the 16s is here; the 14s is here and the 12s is here.

Eighteen-year-old Victoria Osuigwe, known as Tori to her friends on the junior circuit, has advanced to the semifinals of the W35 in Naples Florida. The NC State recruit, who qualified into the main draw, defeated top seed Sophie Chang 6-2, 6-1 in the second round Thursday, then beat fellow qualifier Allura Zamarripa(Texas) 6-4, 6-3 today to reach her first Pro Circuit semifinal. Osuigwe will face unseeded 27-year-old Jessica Pieri of Italy Saturday. Eli Mandlik, the No. 4 seed, will face Katherine Sebov of Canada in the other semifinal. Zamarripa, with twin sister Maribella, has advanced to the doubles final; the No. 4 seeds will be playing No. 3 seeds Julie Belgraver of France and Jasmijn Gimbrere of the Netherland for their eighth title as a team.

Nineteen-year-old Theo Papamalamis of France has advanced to the semifinals of a USTA Pro Circuit tournament, with the Texas A&M recruit reaching the final four at the men's $25,000 tournament in Ithaca New York. The unseeded Papamalamis, who finished his ITF junior career at No. 18 in the rankings, defeated Strong Kirchheimer(Northwestern) 6-1, 6-2 in today's quarterfinals. He will face Alex Rybakov(TCU), also unseeded, for a spot in his third Pro Circuit final. Papamalamis is not currently included on the Aggies' roster, but could be awaiting clearance on eligibility from the NCAA.

No. 4 seed Patrick Maloney, the former Michigan star, breezed past NCAA 2024 fall singles champion Michael Zheng of Columbia 6-1, 6-1 to reach the semifinals, where he'll face No. 5 seed Tyler Zink(Georgia, Oklahoma State). Zink had the toughest quarterfinal win, beating qualifier Justin Boulais(Ohio State) 7-6(3), 6-7(4), 6-3. 

Maloney and partner Joshua Sheehy(Abilene Christian), seeded No. 2, will play top seeds Noah Schachter(Texas A&M) and Pranav Kumar(Texas A&M, SMU) in the doubles final Saturday.

Teens Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) and Maya Joint both lost in the semifinals of the ATP and WTA 250 tournaments yesterday, but McCartney Kessler, the former Florida All-American has reached the final at the WTA 250 in Hobart, winning the final four games of her semifinal Friday against No. 6 seed  Elina Avanesyan of Armenia to earn a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory. Kessler plays No. 2 seed Elise Mertens of Belgium, who beat Joint 6-2, 6-3, for the title Saturday. Basavareddy lost 7-6(5), 6-4 to Gael Monfils of France at the ATP 250 in Auckland.

Sebastian Korda, Madison Keys and Jessica Pegula have also advanced to the finals of the Adelaide ATP 250 and WTA 500. Korda will play Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, with Keys and Pegula meeting for the women's title.

The first round of the ITF J300 in Traralgon didn't go well for the US girls, who lost five of seven matches, with only Thea Frodin[12] and Annika Penickova posting wins. Five of the eight US boys in the draw won their first round matches, including all three seeds: Jack Kennedy[4], Jagger Leach[5] and Maxwell Exsted[10]. Noah Johnston and Dominick Mosejczuk also reached the second round.

At this week's ITF J300 in New Delhi India, unseeded Roshan Santhosh has reached the final, his first above the J60 level. The 16-year-old from California will face his first seed in the final, when he plays No. 4 seed Donghyun Hwang of Korea.