Top Seed Leach Rolls into Third Round, Girls No. 1 Penickova Forces Third Set Before Rain Disrupts ITF J300 Indian Wells; Georgia Women and Wake Forest Men Continue to Top Rankings; No. 2 TCU Men Defeat No. 3 Texas 4-1

©Colette Lewis 2025--
Indian Wells, CA--

Tuesday's second round of singles at the ITF J300 FILA International Junior Championships began with a one-hour rain delay and ended with a three-hour delay in weather more reminiscent of Wimbledon than March in the desert. Only eight of the 16 singles matches on the schedule were completed, with three girls and five boys managing to navigate multiple disruptions due to wet courts.

 

One of those who did manage to finish early in what turned out to be a frustrating day was top seed Jagger Leach, who had just one minor stoppage in his 6-0, 6-2 win over Mason Taube. 

Leach was returning to competition after an ankle sprain kept him from competing in the recent ITF J300 and J500 tournaments in Brazil, but there was little rust apparent when he ran out to a 6-0, 5-0 lead.

"I thought I played really good," said the 17-year-old, who reached the semifinals of the Australian Open in January, his last junior tournament. "This was actually my first time playing on these courts because it's tough for juniors to get court time, but yeah, I felt really good and was happy with my level today."

Leach, who played this tournament last year, losing to champion Rudy Quan in the second round, was not convinced that the new Laykold surface this year at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden was much different from the old one.

"It feels pretty similar to me, but I'm not really sure," Leach said. "To me, a hard court is a hard court, unless it's indoors, then it's different."

Between the Australian Open and a return home to Florida, Leach had an opportunity to serve as a hitting partner for the United States Davis Cup team in their tie against Taiwan in Taipei City, providing a glowing review of that experience.

"I went straight from Melbourne to Taipei, and it was one of the most fun weeks of my life," Leach said. "I've known (Alex) Michelsen since I was like 10 years old and I've known Marcos(Giron) and Mackie(McDonald) from practicing in Carson and Orlando. Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram, I'd known briefly and they were great. It was a really fun week, we got super close as a team and we still keep in touch. It was just a great experience."

As the son of Jon Leach and Lindsay Davenport, Jagger has been around pro tennis his entire life, but even he had a tendency to view professional players as a breed apart.

"Sometimes, pro tennis players, you feel like, wow, these guys are gods, these guys are so good," said Leach, who has been working with a new coach, Rodrigo Alvarez, since the beginning of the year.  "And they are, on the court. But off the court, they're just like any other person. These guys are real people, they're not robots."

Leach, who will face No. 15 seed Matisse Farzam in Thursday's third round, said his expectations this week are limited, with his focus on enjoying the surroundings.

"I love playing in Indian Wells, it's probably my favorite venue, other than maybe Wimbledon," Leach said. "My expectations are the same, trying to have a good attitude, positive body language and compete well, which is something I've been working on. Those three things, kind of the non-negotiables, but other than that, I don't really have any expectations."

The wild card into next year's BNP Paribas Open qualifying, which goes to this week's boys and girls singles champions, isn't yet on his mind.

"I'm a long way from even thinking about that," Leachsaid. "I'll wait until I'm a little closer. It's a great addition and a great reward for whoever is winning the event."

The other boys advancing today were all seeded Americans: No. 10 Ronit Karki, No. 13 seed Gavin Goode and No. 4 seed Noah Johnston.

Two of the three girls winners today beat seeds, with Ireland O'Brien defeated No. 12 seed Dune Vaissaud of France 1-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 and Kristina Liutova of Russia beating No. 15 seed Kori Montoya 6-4, 6-2.  No. 5 seed Julieta Pareja will play O'Brien in the next round.

A much bigger upset was looming on court 5, with Maria Aytoyan coming within two points of ousting top seed and 2025 Australian Open finalist Kristina Penickova. Aytoyan, a 16-year-old Southern Californian, was able to handle Penickova's pace and wait for the errors, taking the first set 6-3, and serving for the match at 6-5 in the second set.  But Penickova raised her level in that return game, breaking with a backhand winner at 15-40 to send the set to a tiebreaker. 

Neither player could come up with a first serve to start the tiebreaker, but Aytoyan did manage to build a 4-1 lead with two serves coming, only to lose them both. Penickova won her two serves to lead 5-4, with Aytoyan holding for 5-5. But Aytoyan sent a forehand long to give Penickova her first set point at 6-5, which a double fault immediately erased. Aytoyan saved another set point with a good first serve, but Penickova's forehand winner gave her a third set point, which she converted when her deep return of a second serve forced an error from Aytoyan, taking the tiebreaker nine points to seven.

Both players held serve to start the third set, but after two hours of tennis, nature would intervene. The delay reached three hours before another series of showers finally brought an end to play for the juniors around 7 p.m. Tuesday night.

All 16 of the first round doubles matches were canceled and will be played Wednesday. The weather forecast for Wednesday is much better, with only a small chance of rain.

This week's ITA Division I men's and women's rankings were released today, with no change at the top, with the Wake Forest men and Georgia women still No. 1.

ITA Division I women's Top Ten:

(previous ranking in parentheses)

1. Georgia(1)

2. Texas A&M(3)

3. Virginia(2)

4. North Carolina(5)

5. NC State(12)

6. Michigan(4)

7. Duke(10)

8. Tennessee(6)

9. LSU(8)

10. Ohio State(7)

ITA Division I men's Top Ten:

1. Wake Forest(1)

2. TCU(2)

3. Texas(4)

4. Ohio State(3)

5. NC State(6)

6. San Diego(7)

7. Columbia(10)

8. Virginia(5)

9. Stanford(9)

10. Arizona(8)

No. 2 TCU and No. 3 Texas played tonight in Fort Worth, and the Horned Frogs avenged their loss to Texas last month in Austin by the exact same 4-1 score. In this match, TCU won the doubles point, and Jack Pinnington Jones at 1 and Cooper Woestendick at 4 reversed their losses in Austin to Texas's Timo Legout and Jonah Braswell and Albert Pedrico got the clinching win over Sebastian Eriksson at line 5.

See the TCU website for the recap.