Top Eight Boys Seeds Reach San Diego ITF J300 Quarterfinals, but Injury Claims No. 4 Seed, Sohns Saves Match Points to Advance to Second Straight J300 Quarterfinal; Leach Beats No. 2 Seed at Bakersfield $25K; Spizzirri Wins Miami Open First Round

©Colette Lewis 2025--

San Diego CA--

Last week at the ITF J300 at Indian Wells, seven of the top eight boys seeds, all of them Americans, reached the quarterfinals. This week at the ITF J300 North American Regional Championships, which is restricted to juniors from the United States and Canada, all eight boys seeds advanced to the final eight, but one will not play in Thursday's quarterfinals.

No. 4 seed Maximus Dussault suffered a foot injury in his 7-6(5), 6-3 win over unseeded Michael Antonius and immediately withdrew from doubles. A few hours later, he withdrew from singles, giving No. 6 seed Jack Secord a walkover into Friday's semifinal. Secord defeated No. 12 seed Roshan Santhosh 6-4, 6-4.

Top seed Benjamin Willwerth defeated doubles partner Jacob Olar 7-5, 6-1 in their third round match, and Olar was unable to complete their doubles quarterfinal match, retiring at 7-6(5), 1-0 to give unseeded Connor Plunkett and Zen Uehling a spot in the semifinals. Willwerth will play No. 7 Ronit Karki, who survived a tough second set to beat unseeded Tanishk Konduri 6-2, 7-5. Willwerth beat Karki 6-3, 6-3 in the third round of the Pan American J300 in Houston last fall.

No. 5 seed Jack Satterfield breezed past No. 10 seed Matisse Farzam 6-2, 6-0 to set up another meeting with No. 3 seed Ryan Cozad, who beat unseeded Sklar Phillips 6-4, 6-1. Cozad defeated Satterfield in the second round in the Pan American J300 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(4). 

The only two boys to go three sets will play in the bottom quarterfinal, with No. 8 Lachlan Gaskell defeating unseeded Agassi Rusher 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 and No. 2 Noah Johnston getting past No. 16 seed Andrew Johnson 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

"It was a battle," Johnston said. "Andrew is a sneaky player, crafty little guy. A lot of respect to him. I was up 6-2, 4-2 but he kept battling. I never felt I could breathe properly. Conditions were tough today, a lot of wind, and it was tough to hold serve."

Johnston said he had to make several strategic adjustments during the match against the 15-year-old, who he had just faced in the Indian Wells J300 doubles final on Sunday.

"He was never going to make a lot of mistakes," said Johnston, a 17-year-old left-hander from South Carolina. "I had to change my game plan throughout the match. The first set I was playing more of my game, but in the second set, he stepped it up, respect to him. I then changed to be a little more passive, let him step forward and that's eventually what got me through it. And fighting with all my heart."

After Johnson took the final four games of the second set, Johnston broke to open the third, but gave that break back with a series of unforced errors serving at 3-2.  But he immediately broke Johnson again, and that seemed to unnerve the Southern Californian, who began taking much more aggressive swings and not connecting. Johnston held from 0-30 down, then broke at 15-40 to secure the win.

Although Johnston and Gaskell haven't played on the ITF Junior Circuit, Johnston remembers their first meeting. 

"My first match against him was the 12s National Hard Courts," Johnston said. "First round, it went 6-4 in the third, I remember, a great match. But I haven't played him in a while, so I'm excited and looking forward to it."

Top seed Kristina Penickova needed nearly three hours to eliminate the last wild card still competing, Tianmei Wang, 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-3. The Australian Open finalist, who lost her first match last week in Indian Wells, trailed 2-0 in the final set before taking the next four games. Wang stopped that momentum with a hold from 0-40 down at 2-4 but she couldn't put enough sustained pressure on Penickova in the next game, which went to two deuces, but ended with Penickova holding for 5-3.

Wang saved two match points serving at 3-5, and had a game point, but a double fault and an unforced error gave Penickova a third chance, and she converted it when her forehand forced an error.

Penickova, who reached the final here last year, falling to Iva Jovic, will face fellow 15-year-old Maggie Sohns, who spent more than three hours on court in her dramatic 6-2, 6-7(4), 7-5 win over No. 12 seed Anita Tu.

"In the second set I had match points and in the third set she had match points, six or seven, something like that, a lot of them," said the unseeded Sohns, who saved those match points serving at 4-5 in the third. "Then I got some good points and then kind of had the momentum going into the 5-all game. So I think I did a good job of closing it out when I had my opportunities instead of getting tight and decelerating."

With back-to-back quarterfinals, Sohns is pleased with her tennis, and is looking forward to playing Penickova, who she has trained with in Orlando, but never played.

"She's a great player and I'm excited to play against her," Sohn said.

Another unseeded player in the quarterfinals who has saved match points in getting there is 14-year-old Raya Kotseva, who came from 6-1 down in the third set tiebreaker to win her first round match. No such heroics were necessary today, with Kotseva defeating No. 8 seed Ava Rodriguez 6-2, 6-3. She will play No. 17 seed Kenzie Nguyen, who beat qualifier Bella Payne 6-4, 6-4. Nguyen was given the No. 17 seed when ITF J300 Indian Wells champion Julieta Pareja, who was the third seed, withdrew after the draw was made. Kotseva defeated Nguyen  6-3, 6-3 in the third round of the ITF J60 in Las Vegas last year.

No. 9 seed Ishika Ashar defeated Sabrina Lin 6-2, 6-1 and will play unseeded Zaire Clarke, who beat No. 15 seed Ligaya Murray 6-1, 6-2.

In the bottom quarter, the only quarter with the expected seeds advancing, No. 5 seed Capucine Jauffret will try for her third ITF Junior Circuit win over No. 2 seed Annika Penickova. Jauffret had the much tougher third round match, beating unseeded Carrie-Anne Hoo 6-7(5), 7-6(4), 6-1 in over three hours; Penickova defeated No. 13 seed Shannon Lam 6-1, 6-3.

The doubles semifinals are scheduled for Thursday, with the top seeded Penickova twins advancing with a 4-6, 6-2, 10-2 win over Charlize Celebrini of Canada and Olivia Traynor.

They will play unseeded Ciara Harding and Camille Allegre, who beat unseeded Caroline Shao and Sarah Ye 6-2, 6-4.

Ashar and Murray, the No. 5 seeds, defeated No. 4 seeds Aspen Schuman and Nguyen 2-6, 6-3, 13-11 and will face No. 7 seeds Isabelle DeLuccia and Tu, who beat unseeded Jauffret and Sohns 7-6(4), 6-4.

No. 6 seeds Antonius and Santhosh advanced to the semifinals via walkover by Dussault and Johnston. The will play unseeded Tyler Lee and Justin Riley Anson, who beat No. 3 seeds Karki and Satterfield 6-4, 2-6, 10-5.

Unseeded Plunkett and Uehling, who advanced via the Olar retirement, will play No. 5 seeds Simon Caldwell and Gavin Goode, who saved five match points in their 6-4, 3-6, 11-9 win over Mark Krupkin and Zachary Cohen. 

The quarterfinals begin with the girls at 9 a.m., followed by the three boys quarterfinals not before 11:30 a.m. PDT.

ITF J300 Indian Wells boys champion Jagger Leach is playing the USTA Pro Circuit men's $25,000 tournament in Bakersfield this week as a wild card, and he made the most of it, beating No. 2 seed and ATP No. 305 Charlie Broom(Dartmouth, Baylor) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.  Leach will play fellow wild card Andy Nguyen, a sophomore at UC-Irvine for a first appearance in a Pro Circuit quarterfinal.  Indian Wells finalist Jack Kennedy, who also received a wild card, lost to Noah Schachter(Texas A&M) 6-2, 6-3.

The three American men who qualified for the Miami Open all lost their first round matches today, with Ethan Quinn(Georgia) losing to fellow qualifier Tristan Schoolkate of Australia 6-0, 6-2, Brandon Hold falling to lucky loser Camilo Ugo Carabelli 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 and Mackenzie McDonald beaten by Nick Kyrgios of Australia 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. 

Wild card Eliot Spizzirri(Texas) earned his first ATP victory above the 250 level, beating qualifier Billy Harris of Great Britain 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-2. He will play No. 24 seed Sebastian Korda next.

Seventeen-year-old wild card Federico Cina of Italy won his ATP debut, beating qualifier Francisco Comesana of Argentina 7-6(4), 7-6(2).

The women's first round is complete, with Peyton Stearns(Texas), qualifier Bernarda Pera, and McCartney Kessler(Florida) advancing today. 

Seventeen-year-old card Tyra Grant lost her first match to Julia Grabher of Austria 6-4, 6-4. 

Thursday's schedule is here.