Eleven Americans Advance to Final Round of US Open Junior Qualifying; Three Wild Card Teams Advance in Women's Doubles; ITA Announces Three-Year Partnership with PlayReplay for Electronic Line Calling

Five US girls and six US boys have advanced to Friday's final qualifying round of the US Open Junior Championships at the Cary Leeds Tennis Center in the Bronx, with five of the six boys beating seeded players, including No. 1 and No. 2.

Ford McCollum defeated top qualifying seed and last week's ITF J300 College Park semifinalist Matei Todoran of Romania 6-4, 6-4 and Agassi Rusher beat No. 2 seed Kerem Yilmaz of Turkey 6-4, 1-6, 10-3. 

One American boy is guaranteed to qualify, with New Yorkers Zavier Augustin and Izyan Ahmad facing each other after taking out seeds today. Augustin beat No. 16 seed Arjun Rathi of India 6-3, 6-0 and the 15-year-old Ahmad, a wild card, defeated No. 6 seed Shion Itsusaki of Japan 7-6(7), 3-6, 10-5. Nischal Spurling defeated No. 8 seed Xavi Palomar of Spain 6-1, 6-2.

The only seeded American boy, No. 15 Simon Caldwell, beat Leon Sloboda of Slovakia 3-6, 6-4, 10-7.

Five US girls were seeded, but only three advanced to the final round. No. 1 seed Capucine Jauffret beat wild card Olivia de los Reyes 6-3, 6-1; No. 5 seed Aspen Schuman beat Yasmin Vavrova of Slovakia 6-1, 6-1 and 14-year-old Raya Kotseva, the No. 13 seed, beat Japanese wild card Kurea Hayasaka 1-6, 7-6(2), 10-8. 

The two unseeded American girls to advance are Thara Gowda, who beat compatriot and No. 4 seed Ishika Ashar 6-4, 6-1 and Isabelle DeLuccia, who defeated No. 12 seed Iva Marinkovic of Sweden 5-7, 6-1, 10-7.

Matches begin at 10 a.m. Friday, with live scoring available at usopen.org.

The first day of US Open women's doubles featured a matchup between two wild card teams: USTA 18s national champions Kristina Penickova and Thea Frodin and USTA collegiate playoff champions Reese Brantmeier and Alanis Hamilton, teammates at the University of North Carolina. The collegians prevailed in the nearly two-hour battle, taking a 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(8) decision, with a couple of key errors by Penickova and Frodin late in the tiebreaker the difference.

Later in the day, wild cards Iva Jovic, 17, and Clervie Ngounoue, 19, won their first round match, beating Mayar Sherif(Pepperdine) of Egypt and Magali Kempen of Belgium 6-3, 6-3.

The third wild card team to advance was Venus Williams and Canada's Leylah Fernandez, who defeated No. 6 seeds Ellen Perez(Georgia) of Australia and Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine 7-6(4), 6-3.

Men's doubles play begins Friday, with Kalamazoo 18s champions Cooper Woestendick and Max Exsted scheduled to play David Goffin of Belgium and Alexandre Muller of France. USTA Collegiate playoff winners Cooper Williams and Theo Winegar are not on Friday's schedule.

Thursday's US Open second round singles results of Americans:

Tommy Paul[14] d. Nuno Borges 7-6(6), 6-3, 5-7, 5-7, 7-5
Andrey Rublev[15](RUS) d. Tristan Boyer[WC] 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(4)
Flavio Cobolli[24](ITA) d. Jenson Brooksby 5-7,6-3, 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(3)

Coco Gauff[3] d. Donna Vekic(CRO) 7-6(5), 6-2

Naomi Osaka[23](JPN) d. Hailey Baptiste 6-3, 6-1 

Amanda Anisimova[8] d. Maya Joint(AUS) 7-6(2), 6-2

Magdalena Frech[28](POL) d. Peyton Stearns 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-2

Jaqueline Cristian(ROU) d. Ashlyn Krueger 4-6, 6-2, 6-2

Friday's US Open third round matches featuring Americans:

Jessica Pegula[4] v Victoria Azarenka(BLR)

Taylor Townsend v Mirra Andreeva[5](RUS)

Emma Navarro[10] v Barbora Krejcikova(CZE)

Ann Li v Priscilla Hon[Q](AUS)

Ben Shelton[6] v Adrian Mannarino(FRA)

Taylor Fritz[4] v Jerome Kym[Q](SUI)

Frances Tiafoe[17] v Jan-Lennard Struff[Q](GER)

The ITA announced today that it has agreed to a three-year partnership with PlayReplay, the electronic line calling system that was tested this year at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships. As I wrote in this article for the Tennis Recruiting Network last winter, the ITA was waiting for the ITF silver certification before pursing any formal agreement; it was granted to PlayReplay in June. 

From the ITA release:

For three years, PlayReplay will be the exclusive electronic line calling provider at several of the most prestigious ITA Championships in both the fall and spring seasons. In the fall, PlayReplay will be used at the ITA Men’s and Women’s All-American Championships in Tulsa and Cary. Meanwhile, in the spring, the ITA Division I Men’s and Women’s National Team Indoor Championships will continue to use the PlayReplay system for all matches.

“Following a series of successful shadow tests and pilot programs in recent years, we are proud to officially announce our partnership with PlayReplay, a leader in electronic line-calling innovation,” stated ITA CEO David Mullins. “This collaboration represents a significant step forward in our ongoing commitment to enhancing the integrity, accuracy, and fairness of the game. By integrating PlayReplay’s cutting-edge technology into college tennis, we’re equipping officials, student-athletes, and coaches with the best tools to manage college tennis competition. Special thanks to ITA COO Cory Brooks and ITA Senior Director of Officiating Anthony Montero for their leadership in bringing this initiative to life. Together, the ITA and PlayReplay are setting a new standard for collegiate tennis.”

With the NCAA approving electronic line calling (see this No-ad No Problem podcast episode for more details), the ball is figuratively now in the courts of the USTA National Campus, for the individual championships this fall, and the University of Georgia, for the team championships next spring.