ITF J500 Osaka Cup Underway; Pleskun Claims J100 Title, Among Five American Champions on ITF Junior Circuit; Las Vegas Challenger Qualifying Complete; Fritz Delivers Laver Cup Title for Team World

This year's ITF J500 Osaka Mayor's Cup in Japan, which is generally during the last week of September or first week of October, is early this year, with five US girls making the trip, which also includes, for several of them, a J200 next week in Korea.

Kristina Penickova is the top seed, with the other US girls in the draw No. 9 seed Nancy Lee, Carrie-Ann Hoo, Ciara Harding and Sena Yoon. All five have won their first round matches.

The only US boy in the draw, Theo Hegarty, lost his first round match. 

The top seeds in the boys draw are Ryo Tabata of Japan, Timofei Derepasko of Russia and Jamie Mckenzie of Germany. Rather than play the European Championships last week, Mckenzie traveled to China, where he won the ITF J300 in Beijing. Ksenia Efremova of France is the No. 2 seed in the girls draw.

Last week's ITF Junior Circuit tournaments produced five singles champions, with unseeded Anastasia Pleskun's title at the J100 in Quebec the biggest of those five events.  Pleskun, a 16-year-old from New York, defeated top seed Thara Gowda 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 in the all-USA final to collect her second ITF Junior Circuit singles title. 

Gowda won the doubles title, with Canadian Clemence Mercier. The top seeds defeated unseeded Mirka Delaney and Elica Lin 6-1, 6-0 in the final.

At the J30 in Dallas Texas, top seed William McEwan, a 17-year-old Texan, swept the titles, beating unseeded Wesley Cotton 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(5) in the singles final and partnering with Jacob Hewitt to take the doubles title. McEwan and Hewitt, the No. 3 seeds, defeated No. 4 seeds Cotton and Miguel Rooney 3-6, 7-6(5), 10-5.

Sixteen-year-old Ellery Mendell of Georgia, the No. 4 seed, won her first ITF Junior Circuit singles title in Dallas with a 6-4, 4-0 retired victory in the final over No. 3 seed Anya Arora. Enya Hamilton and Autumn Xu won the girls doubles title, beating Zimora McKnight and Alyson Shannon 7-6(5), 6-3 in a final between unseeded teams.

At the J30 in the Dominican Republic, No. 3 seed Vincent Weaver swept the titles, with the 17-year-old from Georgia claiming his first singles title on the ITF Junior Circuit with a 6-3, 6-4 win over No. 7 seed Tomas Orrego. In the doubles final, Weaver and Maddox Iliescu beat Efrain Castillo of Mexico and Fabricio Mesia of Peru 7-5, 6-0.

At the J30 in Nicaragua, top seed Sarah Stoyanov swept the titles, beating Piper Johnson 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 for her sixth singles title and the second in as many weeks. The 17-year-old from New York partnered with Sofia Mills for the doubles title, with the top seeds beating No. 2 seeds Valentina Obregon Mirambell of Costa Rica and Sienna Poma of El Salvador 6-2, 6-2 in the final. 

This week's ITF junior tournament in the United States is a J60 in Kerrville Texas.

The qualifying at the ATP Challenger 75 in Las Vegas is complete with two Americans advancing to the main draw, while six of the 16 first round matches are also being played today.

Andrew Fenty(Michigan) defeated Joshua Sheehy(Abilene Christian) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the main draw, while Quinn Vandecasteele beat top qualifying seed Renata Tokuda of Japan 6-7(2), 7-5, 6-2. The former Oregon standout had defeated No. 7 seed Bor Artnak(Arizona State) of Slovenia 7-6(4), 7-6(5) in the first round.

The top two seeds this week in Las Vegas are Jurij Rodionov of Austria and Jack Pinnington Jones(TCU) of Great Britain. Wild cards were given to Garrett Johns(Duke), Cooper Williams(Harvard, Duke) and 19-year-old Tyler Cox of Henderson Nevada, who does not have an ATP ranking. Williams won his opening round match today over Mats Rosenkranz of Germany 7-6(4), 6-1

Texas A&M sophomore Theo Papamalamis of France received entry based on his ITF junior ranking last year via the ATP Accelerator Program.

Last night, in the final match of the Laver Cup, Taylor Fritz defeated Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-3, 7-6(4) to give the World team the 15-9 victory over the Europe team. Fritz, who had beaten Carlos Alcaraz on the second day, and Alex De Minaur of Australia, who also had two wins in singles, were the top performers for Team World, who have now beaten Team Europe in three of the last four years.