US Open Junior Championships Acceptances Feature Eight ITF Top 10 Boys and Seven ITF Top 10 Girls; Judge Certifies NCAA Tennis Players as Class in Brantmeier Lawsuit; Two USTA Pro Circuit 75s in Lexington, Edwardsville M25 Underway

The acceptances for the US Open Junior Championships, which begins Sunday August 31st, were released today, with eight of the ITF Top 10 boys and seven of the ITF Top 10 girls entering.

Leading off both lists are the current ITF No. 1 juniors, Wimbledon champion Ivan Ivanov of Bulgaria and Wimbledon finalist Julieta Pareja. 

The other top 10 boys are: No. 2 Andres Santamarta Roig of Spain, No. 4 Alexander Vasilev of Bulgaria, No. 5 Benjamin Willwerth, No. 7 Oskari Paldanius, No. 8 Yannick Alexandrescou of Romania, who just won a J300 last week in Poland, No. 9 and Roland Garros finalist Max Schoenhaus of Germany and No. 10 and Roland Garros champion Niels McDonald, who just picked up his first ATP Challenger win today as a wild card in his home country of Germany. 

Missing are Jacopo Vasami of Italy, the No. 3 ranked junior, and Australian Open boys champion Henry Bernet of Switzerland, who has just returned to competition on the ITF men's World Tennis Tour after a five-month injury layoff.

The 10 US boys on the acceptance list are Jack Kennedy, Jagger Leach, Ronit Karki, Keaton Hance, Noah Johnston, Jack Secord, Jack Satterfield, Maxwell Exsted, Dominick Mosejczuk and Maximus Dussault. 

Two players received main draw entries based on the ITF Top 80 exception for regions not otherwise represented: Karim Bennani (Africa) and Yannik Alvarez of Puerto Rico (Central America and Caribbean). Nicolas Arseneault of Canada, a rising freshman at Kentucky received entry based on his ATP ranking of 638. Arseneault received a wild card and won a round at the ATP Masters 1000 in Toronto this weekend. 

The initial boys ranking cutoff for main draw was 49.

American boys currently in qualifying are Ryan Cozad, Gavin Goode, Matisse Farzam and Michael Antonius.

The initial boys ranking cutoff for qualifying was 79.

In addition to No. 1 Pareja, the other Top 10 girls in the draw are No. 2 Emerson Jones of Australia, No. 4 Hannah Klugman of Great Britain, No. 5 Kristina Penickova, No. 7 Wimbledon champion Mia Pohankova of Slovakia, No. 8 Luna Vujovic of Serbia and No. 9 Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic.

Missing are Roland Garros champion and No. 3 Lilli Tagger of Austria, Australian Open champion and No. 6 Wakana Sonobe of Japan and No. 10 Teodora Kostovic of Serbia.

As has been the case at the previous two junior slams, the US girls in the main draw is a small number. In addition to Pareja and Penickova, the other three main draw acceptances from the US are Thea Frodin, Annika Penickova and Maya Iyengar.

Seventeen-year-old Alisa Oktiabreva of Russia, who has not played a junior event since the 2023 Orange Bowl, received main draw entry based on her WTA ranking of 347. She is 23-6 this year on the Pro Circuit, having recently reached the quarterfinals of a WTA 125 in Italy.

The initial girls main draw cutoff was 50.

Americans Leena Friedman, Capucine Jauffret and Ishika Ashar are in the qualifying, with the ranking cutoff 85.

Two girls received places in qualifying based on their regions being unrepresented. Alyssa James of Jamaica and Jahnie Van Zyl of South Africa were granted those places based on their rankings in the ITF junior Top 150.

The acceptances for the ITF J300 in College Park Maryland, which I'll be covering in person again this year, were also published today. 

The top two in the boys and girls ITF rankings are not playing it, with No. 4 Hannah Klugman and No. 5 Benjamin Willwerth leading the lists. There are three Top 10 girls and five Top 10 boys currently entered.

The initial ranking cutoff for main draw was 61 for the boys and 88 for the girls.

As announced earlier this month, there was additional news on the Reese Brantmeier lawsuit challenging the NCAA's prohibition of college tennis players accepting prize money, with judge Catherine Eagles certifying two classes of college tennis players who could benefit from the lawsuit.

From the very thorough coverage of the case in this article by the Carolina Journal:

The first covers any player who has competed in Division I tennis since March 19, 2020, or was ineligible to compete because of NCAA prize money restrictions. That class includes 12,000 players, according to the court order.

The second class covers any player who “voluntarily forfeited” prize money during the same time period. Brantmeier’s lawyers have “provided evidence that there are over 60 members” of that class, Eagles wrote.

Whether this decision will push the NCAA toward a settlement, rather than another long and costly lawsuit, remains to be seen.

The USTA Pro Circuit has three tournaments this week, with an ATP Challenger 75 and a W75 in Lexington Kentucky and an M25 in Edwardsville Illinois.

The first round is nearly complete at the Challenger, with top seed Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) winning his opening match yesterday and No. 2 seed Eliot Spizzirri(Texas) defeating qualifier Stefan Dostanic(USC, Wake Forest) 6-3, 6-2 today. Spizzirri was caught in an unusual set of circumstances last week, when he made it into qualifying at the Masters 1000 in Toronto, but couldn't play because he was still in the Bloomfield Hills Challenger. He was automatically withdrawn from Lexington because he was in Toronto qualifying, so he needed a wild card to play this week there. 

Other Americans through to the second round are No. 6 seed Zachary Svajda, who beat qualifier Alex Rybakov(TCU) 6-2, 7-6(10) and ATP College Accelerator entrant Michael Zheng(Columbia), who defeated Bloomfield Hills finalist Andres Martin(Georgia Tech) 6-4, 6-4 today. The winner of tonight's match between qualifier Aidan Mayo and No. 7 seed Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech) will be the fifth American in the second round.

At the women's tournament in Lexington, qualifiers include Americans Alana Smith(NC State), Fiona Crawley(North Carolina), Katrina Scott, Eryn Cayetano(USC), Lea Ma(Georgia) and Tori Osuigwe(NC State). The final qualifying match between Usue Arconada and Katie Swan of Great Britain is still in progress.

Amelia Honer(UC-Santa Barbara), Kayla Day, Victoria Hu(Princeton) and Zoe Hammond(Kentucky) received wild cards, with Honer facing top seed Anastasia Zakharova of Russia in the first round. Varvara Lepchenko is the No. 2 seed and will play a qualifier in the first round Wednesday.

Heat has interrupted the M25 in Edwardsville, but all qualifying matches were completed.  

Americans qualifying are Braden Shick(NC State), Nicolas Kotzen(Columbia), Nicholas Steiglehner(Michigan) and Jonah Braswell(Texas). 

Wild cards were awarded to Alexander Razeghi(Stanford), who beat junior exempt entry Kaylan Bigun(UCLA) 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the first round; Aidan Kim(Ohio State), Oliver Okonkwo(Illinois) and Spencer Johnson(UCLA). Tyler Zink(Oklahoma State) is the top seed, with Leandro Riedi of Switzerland the No. 2 seed.