Dostanic Wins USTA Pro Circuit M25 in Calabasas; Two New ITF Junior No. 1s This Week; Pareja Qualifies for WTA 250 in Bogota; Nava Claims Second Straight Challenger Title

With the FILA Easter Bowl reaching its always frantic conclusion over the weekend, I didn't have time to post any updates on other tournaments of interest, so before I finally get a full night's rest after 23 days on the road, this will be a short review of results I noticed. (I'm sure I missed a lot since last Thursday).

Wake Forest graduate transfer Stefan Dostanic, who played No. 1 for USC as an undergraduate, won his second M25 US Pro Circuit title yesterday in Calabasas California. The 23-year-old from Irvine, seeded No. 7, defeated No. 8 seed Andres Martin(Georgia Tech) 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 in Sunday's final after taking out 17-year-old Darwin Blanch 6-2, 6-3 in Saturday's semifinals.  Dostanic is currently at a career-high 430 in the ATP live rankings. Top seeds Govind Nanda(UCLA) and Canada's Benjamin Sigouin(UNC) won the doubles title, beating brothers Jayson and Michael Blando(Utah), a wild card entry, 2-6, 7-6(4), 10-1 in the final. Nanda has two Pro doubles title now; Sigouin, who won the doubles title in Calabasas last year, has nine, including two ATP Challenger titles last year.

It was a quiet week on the ITF Junior Circuit, with only six tournaments in total; the highest grade of the six was a J100 in Spain. Americans picked up doubles titles at the J30 in Mexico, with David Bvunzawabaya and Diego Custodio Wagner taking the boys title, their first on the ITF Junior Circuit, and Sophia Filip partnering with Australian Amy Gray for the girls title. Filip and Gray won the unseeded final, beating the Mexican team of 

Azul Lopez Vazquez  and Natalia Perez 6-3, 6-4 in the final for Filip's first ITF Junior Circuit title.  Custodio Wagner and Bvunzawabaya won their unseeded final by defeating Ander Gomez Salas Villegas and Rodrigo Maya 7-6(3), 6-2

4/2/25 CORRECTION:

Apparently there was an error in the March 31st junior rankings posted by the ITF Monday. As of today, Mees Rottgering of the Netherlands and Emerson Jones of Australia are listed No. 1 in the rankings. Maybe it was an early April Fool's joke by the ITF. 

With the dearth of major ITF Junior Circuit events last week it's surprising that today marks the debut of not one, but two, new ITF No. 1 juniors.

Australian Open boys champion Henry Bernet of Switzerland, hasn't played since winning that title, but the 18-year-old has ascended to the top spot, with Mees Rottgering of the Netherlands falling to No. 6.  Jagger Leach is now up to a career-high of No. 2.

Seventeen-year-old Wakana Sonobe of Japan is the new girls No. 1, with the Australian Open girls champion replacing Emerson Jones of Australia, who fell to No. 3.  Like Leach, who won the Indian Wells ITF J300 his month, San Diego ITF J300 champion Kristina Penickova is up to a career-high ranking of No. 2.

Speaking of the ITF J300 in Indian Wells, the girls champion two weeks ago was Julieta Pareja, who received a wild card into qualifying at the WTA 250 in Bogota Colombia. Pareja, whose parents are from Colombia, won two matches to qualify, with the 16-year-old from Southern California drawing wild card Maria Jose Sanchez Uribe of Colombia in the first round. Seventeen-year-old Iva Jovic, who received entry based on her WTA ranking, currently 150, will play No. 3 seed Alycia Parks tonight if the weather improves.

On the ATP Challenger Circuit, Emilio Nava won his second Challenger 75 title in South America in as many weeks, following his win in Paraguay with another in Chile yesterday. The 23-year-old Southern Californian, seeded eighth, defeated qualifier Nicolas Kicker of Argentina 6-1, 7-6(3) and has risen to 164 in the ATP rankings.  

2016 Kalamazoo 18s finalist Vasil Kirkov and partner Matias Soto(Baylor) of Chile won the doubles title, with the top seeds winning their third Challenger title of the year with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over No. 3 seeds Seita Watanabe and Takeru Yuzuki of Japan.