Wild Cards Quan, Smith and Spizzirri Advance to BNP Paribas Open Final Round of Qualifying; BNP Draws Feature 35 Americans; Las Vegas ITF J100 Underway; UCLA Seniors Claim Pacific Coast Doubles Championships

With no USTA Pro Circuit tournaments this week, all attention turns to the BNP Paribas Open, which started yesterday with women's qualifying. 

The highlight of yesterday's women's qualifying, which featured 15 of the 24 first round matches was 18-year-old wild card Clervie Ngounoue's 6-4, 7-6(3) victory over No. 20 seed Rebecca Marino of Canada. The 2023 Wimbledon girls and USTA 18s champion, coming off a title last month at a W50 in Great Britain, will face No. 3 seed Sonay Kartal of Great Britain, who beat Marina Stakusic of Canada 6-2, 6-2.

Other American women who advanced to Tuesday's final round of qualifying are Vavara Lepchenko, Claire Liu and wild card Whitney Osuigwe. 

The men's first round of qualifying began today, with wild cards Rudy Quan, a freshman at UCLA, and Colton Smith, a senior at Arizona, getting their best wins by ATP rankings.  Quan, who received his qualifying wild card as the ITF J300 champion last March, defeated ATP No. 135 Federico Agustin Gomez(Louisville) of Argentina 6-4, 7-5 to start out the day. He will face Yosuke Watanuke of Japan, who defeated No. 1 qualifying seed Mattia Bellucci of Italy 6-1, 6-2.

Smith, who had never played an ATP Top 100 player, defeated No. 93 Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-3, 6-4. He will play No. 20 seed Pavel Kotov of Russia for a place in the main draw.

San Diego Challenger champion Eliot Spizzirri had no day off to savor his first Challenger title, but the former Texas All-American didn't let any fatigue derail his form, with the wild card beating No. 24 seed Lloyd Harris of South Africa 6-4, 6-3 after trailing 3-1 in the opening set. Spizzirri's final round qualifying opponent is No. 6 seed Hugo Gaston of France. 

The fourth American to advance to the final round of qualifying is Ethan Quinn(Georgia), who beat No. 20 seed Tristan Schoolkate of Australia 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-3. Quinn will face No. 4 seed Gabriel Diallo(Kentucky) of Canada. 

Brandon Holt(USC), who won a Challenger in India on Sunday, is playing tonight in the first round of qualifying. Michael Mmoh is also playing a late match in the first round of qualifying tonight, due to his opponent, Great Britain's Billy Harris, also coming from India.

Two-time Kalamazoo 18s champion Zachary Svajda had a match point in his first round qualifying match with former ATP Top 10 player Pablo Carreno Busta at 5-6 in the third set, but he could not convert and the Spaniard went on to earn a 1-6, 6-3, 7-6(7) victory.

US women advancing to the final round of qualifying today are Taylor Townsend[4] and Hailey Baptiste[12].

Qualifying draws can be found here. Qualifying matches on Stadium Courts 3 and 4 are being streamed on YouTube.

The singles draws were revealed today, including 20 US women before qualifiers are added. They are:

McCartney Kessler

Sloane Stephens[WC]

Sofia Kenin

Caty McNally

Iva Jovic[WC]

Coco Gauff[3]

Amanda Anisimova[17]

Alycia Parks[WC]

Emma Navarro[10]

Lauren Davis

Madison Keys[5]

Ann Li

Danielle Collins[14]

Ashlyn Krueger

Katie Volynets

Peyton Stearns

Jessica Pegula[4]

Robin Montgomery[WC]

Caroline Dolehide[WC]

Bernarda Pera[WC]

There are 15 US men in the main draw before any qualifiers have been added:

Frances Tiafoe[16]

Marcos Giron

Reilly Opelka[WC]

Tommy Paul[10]

Tristan Boyer[WC]

Alex Michelsen[31]

Nishesh Basavareddy[WC]

Alex Kovacevic

Brandon Nakashima[32]

Learner Tien

Ben Shelton[11]

Jenson Brooksby

Taylor Fritz[3]

Mackenzie McDonald[WC]

Sebastian Korda[24]

Aside from the ITF J500 Banana Bowl last week, which produced titles for Thea Frodin and Ronit Karki and Jack Satterfield, only one other American captured a championship on the ITF Junior Circuit, with Jerald Carroll sweeping the titles at the J30 in Mexico. The 16-year-old Floridian, who also swept the singles and doubles titles two weeks ago at a J30 at the same location, won his first four matches with no trouble, but he was challenged in the final by No. 4 seed Faustino Boffelli of Argentina before taking a 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 decision. Carroll and partner Alessandro Rubini Garcia Belaunde of Peru, the No. 2 seeds, won their second straight doubles title, beating No. 3 seeds Valentino Arjona and Rodrigo Garza of Mexico 6-4, 6-1 in the final. 

The March ITF tournament in Las Vegas, which has been upgraded from a J60 to a J100 this year, is underway, with Roshan Santhosh and Andrew Johnson the top seeds. Both Santhosh and Johnson, who won their opening round matches today, are in the main draw of the ITF J300 in Indian Wells next week.

The girls top seeds, Ireland O'Brien and Gabriella Kellner, are currently in the qualifying at Indian Wells. Kellner lost in the first round today to 14-year-old Abigail Haile 6-3, 0-6, 6-3. 

Two UCLA seniors captured the 136th annual Pacific Coast Doubles title Sunday at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club, one of the oldest competitions in the country.  No. 5 seeds Alexander Hoogmartens and Giacomo Revelli defeated No. 9 seeds Lasse Poertner and Aleksa Pisaric of Pepperdine 4-6, 7-6(7), 6-3, after trailing 6-1 in the second set tiebreaker. For more on the Bruins title, the second for Hoogmartens, see this article from the UCLA website.