Australian Open Finalists Willwerth and Penickova Top Acceptance Lists at ITF J300 San Diego; Seven US Girls Reach Banana Bowl Round of 16; Nguyen Advances at Arcadia W35; Svajda Defeats Krueger at San Diego Challenger

2025 Australian Open finalists Kristina Penickova and Benjamin Willwerth are the ITF Top 10 juniors who have entered next month's ITF J300 in San Diego, with the acceptances released yesterday. The tournament, which for the second straight year is restricted to juniors from the United States and Canada, has only one Canadian girl and four Canadian boys on the initial acceptance lists.

In addition to Penickova, who reached the final last year in San Diego, boys champion Jack Kennedy is returning to defend his title. 

Notable absences include Nadia Lagaev of Canada, who just won back-to-back J200s in the Dominican Republic and reached the San Diego quarterfinals last year; Nicolas and Mikael Arseneault of Canada, who also played San Diego last year.  Americans in the ITF Top 30 not entered in San Diego are: Jagger Leach, who has entered the ITF J300 in Indian Wells the week prior, Dominick Mosejczuk and Maxwell Exsted, who did not enter Indian Wells, and of course Tyra Grant and 2024 San Diego champion Iva Jovic, who have played exclusively on the Pro Circuit this year.

Jordan Lee, the Orange Bowl 16s champion, is entered in Indian Wells, not San Diego; with Lee, it's likely because he is allowed only 14 tournaments on the ITF Junior Circuit as a 14-year-old, until he turns 15 in May. I believe he's already played 12, so he may want to save one for April, with a J200 in Canada and two J100s in Florida, where he lives.

Seven US girls have advanced to the third round at the J500 Banana Bowl in Gaspar Brazil, along with three US boys. Top seed Kaitlyn Rolls will play unseeded Ava Rodriguez in the only third round match between Americans. The other five US girls in the round of 16 are Thea Frodin[11], Capucine Jauffret[9], Maya Iyengar[4], Leena Friedman[12] and Annika Penickova[2].

Boys from the United States in the third round are Keaton Hance[7], Jacob Olar and Jack Kennedy[2]. Olar defeated No. 6 seed Valentin Garay of Argentina 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the third round of J500 for the first time. Atlanta resident Yannik Alvarez[16], who represents Puerto Rico, is also into the round of 16. 

One player I'm hoping to see as a wild card at the Indian Wells or San Diego J300s who is not on the acceptance lists is Alexis Nguyen, who I last saw compete at Indian Wells in 2024. The 17-year-old from Sacramento, who recently made a verbal commitment to North Carolina for 2026 along with twin sister Avery, has been playing mostly USTA Pro Circuit events the past year, and after two Pro Circuit events this year in Florida and Texas, the 2022 Orange Bowl 16s champion returned to California for qualifying at this week's USTA Pro Circuit W35 in Arcadia. 

She drew 2025 Australian Open girls champion Wakana Sonobe, the top seed in qualifying, who had made a big splash earlier this month in Abu Dhabi by qualifying and winning a round at the WTA 500 tournament there. Nguyen won that first round 6-3, 1-6, 10-8, then qualified yesterday with a 7-6(4), 6-2 win over Brandy Walker(Northern Arizona). In first round action today, Nguyen breezed past lucky loser Natsuho Arakawa(Arkansas, Washington) 6-1, 6-1 to set up a meeting with No. 5 seed Maria Mateas(Duke). Arakawa was replacing Kristina Penickova, who withdrew. 

Iva Jovic, the top seed, beat lucky loser Veronika Miroshnichenko 6-1, 6-3 and will face qualifier Alyssa Ahn, the Stanford recruit. Jovic and Ahn played in the second round of the Indian Wells J300 last year, with Jovic winning 6-2, 6-0. 

2023 NCAA singles champion Fangran Tian(UCLA) of China is back in Southern California and will play qualifier Kylie Mckenzie in the second round after a 6-1, 7-5, win over wild card Kelly Keller(Arkansas).

No. 4 seed Kayla Cross of Canada beat LSU teammate and fellow freshman Tilwith Di Girolami, a qualifier, 6-4, 6-2 and will play Eryn Cayetano(USC), who received a special exemption from the mess in Spring Texas and advanced with a 6-2, 2-0 retirement from Alana Smith(NC State). NC State recruit Tori Osuigwe, a qualifier, defeated No. 4 seed Jazmin Ortenzi of Argentina 7-6(7), 6-4 and will face yet another qualifier who advanced to the second round in Loyola Marymount grad student Stefania Rogozinska Dzik of Poland. Rogozinska Dzik defeated Anastasia Tikhonova of Russia 6-3, 6-2. 

Fiona Crawley, the former North Carolina All-American, is returning to competition for the first time since last October with a wild card. Crawley defeated qualifier Ema Burgic(Baylor) and will play either No. 8 seed Carol Zhao, a Spring W50 survivor, of Canada, or fellow wild card Anna Frey, who recently announced a verbal commitment to North Carolina for spring of 2026. 

There were just four singles matches today at the ATP Challenger 100 in San Diego, but one was a big upset, with wild card Trevor Svajda defeating No. 7 seed Mitchell Krueger 6-3, 6-3. Svajda, a sophomore at SMU, had only faced one player ranked higher than Krueger, currently at 138, and that was back in 2023, when he lost to No. 111 James Duckworth of Australia in the first round of the US Open men's qualifying, after earning a wild card with his runner-up finish at Kalamazoo. It's the second Challenger quarterfinal for the 19-year-old from San Diego, who also reached the quarterfinals at the Little Rock 75 last May.

On Friday, Svajda will play No. 4 seed Mackenzie McDonald(UCLA), who defeated Matteo Gigante of Italy 6-3, 7-5 this evening.