Six US Juniors Advance to ITF J500 Banana Bowl Quarterfinals; Spizzirri and Quinn Join Svajda and McDonald in San Diego Challenger Quarterfinals; Tien Earns Second Top 5 Win in Acapulco; Jovic, Crawley Reach W35 Quarterfinals

Half of the quarterfinalists at this week's ITF J500 Banana Bowl are Americans, with one guaranteed to advance to the semifinals after today's third round action in Gaspar Brazil.

Top seed and defending champion Kaitlyn Rolls, a University of Virginia recruit, defeated unseeded Ava Rodriguez, a University of Georgia recruit 7-5, 6-4 and will play another American on Friday: No. 11 seed Thea Frodin. Frodin defeated No. 7 seed Allegra Korpanec Davies of Great Britain, who she had beaten at the Orange Bowl in December 6-3, 2-6, 6-2. 

No. 4 seed Maya Iyengar, a 6-2, 6-1 winner over Spain's Juliana Giaccio, will face No. 10 seed Sol Ailin Larraya Guidi of Argentina on Friday. No. 2 seed Annika Penickova defeated No. 13 seed Maia Burcescu of Romania 6-4, 6-3 and will play No. 8 seed Victoria Luiza Barros of Brazil in the quarterfinals. Barros defeated No. 12 seed Leena Friedman 7-5, 5-7, 6-3.  In the only quarterfinal without an American, No. 3 seed Luna Maria Cinalli of Argentina will face No. 5 seed Laima Vladson of Lithuania; Vladson, who has won the past two J300s on the South American clay, defeated No. 9 seed Capucine Jauffet 6-1, 6-2.

No. 7 seed Keaton Hance and No. 2 seed Jack Kennedy have advanced to the boys singles quarterfinals, along with three Brazilians.

The only quarterfinal that was predicted by seeds will feature top seed Andres Santamarta Roig of Spain and No. 5 seed Yannick Alexandrescou of Romania. In the other top half quarterfinal, Hance, a 6-1, 6-4 winner over No. 9 seed Luis Guto Miguel of Brazil, will play unseeded Pedro Henrique Chabalgoity, who beat No. 16 seed Yannik Alvarez of Puerto Rico 6-4, 6-3. 

No. 8 seed Joao Pedro Didoni Bonini of Brazil will face unseeded compatriot Vicente Freda in the quarterfinals, after Freda upset No. 3 seed William Rejchtman Vinciguerra of Sweden 7-6(6), 6-3. 

The fourth quarterfinal will feature a rematch of the 2022 Junior Orange Bowl 14s final, with unseeded Ivan Ivanov of Bulgaria facing No. 2 seed Kennedy. Ivanov, who won that final 6-2, 6-3, defeated unseeded Jacob Olar 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 in today's third round, while Kennedy did not lose a game to No. 15 seed Ryo Tabata of Japan. 

Two more Americans advanced to Friday's quarterfinals of the ATP Challenger 100 in San Diego, joining Trevor Svajda(SMU) and Mackenzie McDonald(UCLA), who face each other.

Eliot Spizzirri(Texas) came back to defeat former Georgia Tech star Andres Martin, a qualifier, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4, while No. 8 seed 2023 NCAA singles champion Ethan Quinn(Georgia) took the scenic route against wild card Jenson Brooksby before posting a 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(5) victory.

Quinn served for the match at 6-3, 5-3 and had two match points before losing that game and the next three to give Brooksby new life. Quinn then went up 5-2 in the third set and had a match point in that game, which Brooksby saved. Quinn didn't get to a match point serving at 5-4, and trailed 5-3 in the tiebreaker, but he took the last four points to secure the win.

Spizzirri's opponent in the quarterfinals will be No. 6 seed Taro Daniel of Japan, who defeated qualifier Alex Rybakov(TCU) 7-6(9), 7-6(1). Quinn will play the winner of tonight's second round match between top seed Arthur Cazaux and Constant Lestienne, both of France.

Qualifier Learner Tien(USC) earned his second ATP Top 5 victory of the year last night in the second round of the ATP 500 in Acapulco, beating top seed and ATP No. 2 Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-3, 6-4, coming from 4-1 down in the second set to advance to his second ATP quarterfinal. For more on Tien's win and what has him in the same sentence and status as Andy Roddick, see this article from the ATP. 

Two qualifiers and a wild card have advanced to the quarterfinals of the USTA Pro Circuit W35 in Arcadia California. Seventeen-year-old Iva Jovic, no doubt relieved to be back home and in warm and dry conditions after the cold and rain in Spring Texas, is through to the quarterfinals. The top seed looked to be breezing against Stanford recruit Alyssa Ahn, a qualifier, but she had her hands full in the rest of the match before securing a 6-0, 1-6, 7-5 victory.  She will face No. 5 seed Maria Mateas(Duke), who beat 17-year-old qualifier Alexis Nguyen 7-5, 7-6(3). Qualifier Kyle Mckenzie, who received a walkover from 2023 NCAA champion Fangran Tian(UCLA) of China will face No. 7 seed Despina Papamichail of Greece.

Wild card Fiona Crawley(North Carolina) defeated 2015 NCAA singles finalist Carol Zhao(Stanford) of Canada, the No. 8 seed, 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-0. Crawley will play No. 2 seed Carson Branstine(Texas A&M) of Canada, who beat Haruna Arakawa of Japan 7-6(8), 6-2. 

LSU freshman Kayla Cross of Canada, the No. 6 seed, defeated Eryn Cayetano(USC) 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 and will play Loyola Marymount's Stefania Rogozinska Dzik of Poland, who beat fellow qualifier Tori Osuigwe 6-4, 0-6, 6-3.