Qualifier Liutova Ousts No. 2 Seed, Six Unseeded US Juniors Advance to Round of 16 at ITF J300 College Park; Seven More Americans Reach Second Round of US Open Qualifying

©Colette Lewis 2025--
College Park MD--

The ITF J300 here had another late finish Tuesday, with the second round of singles, featuring all 32 seeds, ending after 9 p.m. under the newly installed lights at the Junior Tennis Champions Center. A late morning hour of drizzle fortunately didn't return in the afternoon, so unlike Monday, no indoor play was necessary.

Nine of the 32 seeds lost their opening match, including girls No. 2 seed Ruien Zhang of China, who went out meekly to qualifier Kristina Liutova 6-0, 6-3.

Liutova reached the semifinals of the ITF J300 in Indian Wells in March, the last junior tournament she played, but the 15-year-old from Russia, who has lived and trained in Seattle for years, has spent the last four months competing on the USTA Pro Circuit. 

With a WTA ranking of 800 and an ITF junior ranking of 372, Liutova couldn't match her opponent's numbers of 660 and 18 respectively, but she was steadier and decidedly less error-prone that Zhang today.

After several tough games to start the match, Liutova's consistency and defense began to wear on Zhang, who was unable to find an effective strategy to employ in the second set. Liutova was unable to serve out the match at 5-2, but she broke Zhang to thwart any comeback.

"She's a tough opponent," Liutova said of the 17-year-old left-hander, who excelled on clay this spring. "Left-hander doesn't bother me, but she played great tennis. In the second set, she got a little more aggressive, but I didn't let her step in too much."

Liutova said she chose to play this event because she likes the atmosphere, experiencing it last year when she also reached the third round as a qualifier. But working on her game was the prime motivation.

"It's important for me to play against top junior players," Liutova said. "To battle against them too. It's good to mix junior events and pro events, but it's a tough transition. It's harder mentally to play those not too much older than you. It's more physical against older players. It's more mental here and more physical there."

Luitova will play one of the four US girls who took out a seed today, with Ligaya Murray finishing her three-hour-plus 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory over No. 13 Kanon Sawashiro of Japan after 9 p.m.

Janae Preston defeated No. 10 seed Yihan Qu of China 4-6, 7-5, 6-3; Thara Gowda beat No. 12 seed Allegra Korpanec Davies of Great Britain 6-4, 6-4, and Nancy Lee defeated No. 11 seed Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi of India 6-2, 6-4. 

The only seeded US girls, No. 16 Capucine Jauffret, lost to Zhang-Qian Wei of China 6-3, 6-3.

Top seed Luna Cinalli of Argentina got past Jordyn Hazelitt 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 and No. 3 seed Laima Vladson of Lithuania also had a challenging first match, beating Riyo Yoshida of Japan 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.

The boys lost three seeds, with Michael Antonius defeating No. 12 seed Savva Rybkin of Russia 6-4, 7-5 after trailing 4-1 in the first set; Tanishk Konduri beat No. 15 seed Zangar Nurlanuly of Kazakhstan 6-2, 6-3 and Matei Todoran of Romania advanced when No. 7 seed Jamie Mackenzie of Germany retired after losing the first set 7-5. Mackenzie has been struggling with a wrist problem and had it heavily taped prior to the match.

Antonius is set to face No. 5 seed Ronit Karki next, after Karki defeated qualifier Navneet Raghuram 1-6, 7-5, 7-5. Karki took a medical timeout in the second set and appeared to be hampered by the groin/thigh injury throughout the third set.

Andrew Johnson saved four match points against No. 4 seed Ryo Tabata of Japan at 4-5 0-40 in the second set, but lost the final four games of the third set to go out 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-3.

Top seed Oskari Paldanius of Finland and No. 2 seed Yannick Theodor Alexandrescou breezed through their matches in straight sets, but No. 3 seed Alan Wazny of Poland got all he could handle from Carel Ngounoue before rebounding for a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 victory.

Wazny will play No. 16 seed Ryan Cozad Wednesday, who had an even more dramatic victory, beating Pedro Henrique Chabalgoity  of Brazil 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(3), after the drizzle had arrived as Cozad had captured the second set.

"I was a little tired because we were having long points, so I was able to refuel, which was good," said the 16-year-old from Atlanta. "I did have the momentum though so it was a little tough to stop. When we got back out, he played really well with the new balls, but when the balls got a little slower I was able to take advantage of it."

Chabalgoity served for the match at 5-3 in the third set, but did not get to match point, and Cozad was able to hold at both 4-5 and 5-6 to force the tiebreaker.

"I definitely played well in the tiebreaker," said Cozad, who hit a couple of confident overheads, which is one of his favorite shots. "I went for it and it paid off. I was looking to move in and serve well and I was able to do it."

Wednesday's round of 16 begins with the eight girls singles matches, followed by the eight boys singles matches. The second round of doubles, with the seeds playing their first matches, will follow in the afternoon. Cinalli and Vladson are the top seeds in the girls doubles, with two-time junior slam champions Paldanius and Wazny the No. 1 seeds in the boys doubles draw.

Links to live scoring, live streaming and the order of play and draws can be found at the JTCC tournament page.

Seven more Americans reached the second round of US Open qualifying with wins today, adding to the eight who advanced on Monday. Today's results and tomorrow's second round matches are below.

Tuesday's first round results of Americans:

Janice Tjen(INA) d. Varvara Lepchenko[22] 6-3, 6-1 

Sachia Vickery d. Anastasiia Sobolieva(UKR) 7-5, 7-5

Shuai Zhang[9](CHN) d. Mary Stoiana[WC]  7-5, 6-3

Dasha Vidmanova(CZE) d. Maya Iyengar[WC] 6-1, 6-2

Jessika Ponchet[25](FRA) d. Elizabeth Mandlik 6-4, 6-2

Ayana Akli[WC] d. Eva Vedder(NED) 7-5, 6-2

Mitchell Krueger d. Santiago Rodriguez Taverna(ARG) 6-3, 5-7, 6-1

Michael Zheng[WC] d. Yasutaka Uchiyama(JPN) 6-2, 6-3

Martin Damm[WC] d. Stefano Travaglia(ITA) 6-3, 6-2

Thiago Tirante[24](ARG) d. Jack Kennedy[WC] 6-4, 6-4

Zachary Svajda[22] d. August Holmgren(DEN) 6-2, 7-6(1)

Otto Virtanen[9](FIN) d. Benjamin Willwerth[WC] 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2

Garrett Johns[WC] d. Colton Smith[27] 6-3, 6-3

Bernard Tomic(AUS) d. Patrick Kypson 6-4, 6-4 

Rei Sakamoto(JPN) d. Tyler Zink[WC] 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(8)

Wednesday's second round matches featuring Americans:

Fiona Crawley[WC] v Dalma Galfi[4](HUN)

Katie Volynets[7] v Amelia Honer[WC]

Hina Inoue v Simona Waltert[24](SUI)

Claire Liu v Maddison Inglis(AUS)

Ayana Akli[WC] v Harriet Dart(GBR)

Sachia Vickery v Ella Seidel[21](GER)

Murphy Cassone v Dino Prizmic[19](CRO)

Patrick Maloney[WC] v Daniel Galan[32](COL)

Andres Martin[WC] v Pablo Llamas Ruiz(ESP)

Michael Zheng[WC] v Jerome Kym(SUI)

Martin Damm[WC] v Benjamin Hassan(LBN)

Zachary Svajda[24] v Beibit Zhukayev(KAZ)

Garrett Johns[WC] v Oliver Crawford(GBR)

Mitchell Krueger v Andrea Collarini(ARG)

Columbia rising senior Michael Zheng had this to say about his first round victory.

"It was great, I thought I played really well," Zheng told Michael Lewis of ITF Tennis. "I served really well, made a lot of returns. I was hitting the forehand well and playing with a lot of confidence. I think having had this experience(in 2023 and 2024) really helped, dealing with the nerves and everything. It's always a special time when you get to play at the US Open, kind of like the backyard almost, the Columbia guys coming out to support. It's just one match at a time, but it would be amazing if I could make the main draw here for the first time."

Qualifying draws can be found here.