All Three Americans Drop Matches at ITF WTT Junior Finals; Forbes and Bigun Meet in Norman M25 Quarterfinals; Four Teens Reach Quarterfinals at W15 in Hilton Head; Memorial Mass for Tom Svajda Next Month in San Diego

The final matches in the round robin stage of the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals are set for Friday, after all three Americans dropped their matches Thursday in Chengdu China.  Top seed Kristina Penickova and No. 5 seed Jack Kennedy lost to put their records at 1-1, with wins Friday likely necessary if they are to advance to Saturday's semifinals. Benjamin Willwerth is now 0-2 in group play, so the Australian Open boys finalist is unlikely to advance to the knockout round. The only boys at 2-0 are No. 3 seed Jacopo Vasami of Italy and No. 4 seed Max Schoenhaus of Germany.

Boys top seed Aleksandar Vasilev of Bulgaria lost again today to put his record at 0-2, so be won't advance out of group play.  Like Penickova, No. 2 seed in the girls draw, Hannah Klugman of Great Britain is also at 1-1 and will need a win Friday to reach the semifinals. The formula for advancing out of the group stage can be found in this ITF document.

Results from Thursday, Day Two of Round Robin Play:

Boys Group A

Jacopo Vasami[3](ITA) d. Yannick Alexandrescou[6](ROU) 7-6(5), 6-2

Oskari Paldanius[8](FIN) d. Aleksandar Vasilev[1](BUL) 6-4, 6-4

Boys Group B

Andres Santamarta Roig[2](ESP) d. Benjamin Willwerth[7](USA) 7-5, 6-3

Max Schoenhaus[4] d. Jack Kennedy[5](USA) 6-1, 6-3

Girls Group A

Jeline Vandromme[4](BEL) d. Kristina Penickova[1](USA) 2-6, 6-4, 6-4

Julia Stusek[5] d. Charo Esquiva Banuls[7](ESP) 7-6(3), 6-1

Girls Group B

Mia Pohankova[3](SVK)  d. Hannah Klugman[2](GBR) 6-3, 6-4

Jana Kovackova[6](CZE) d.  Ruien Zhang[8](CHN) 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(2)

Order of Play for Friday, Day Three of Round Robin Play:

Girls Group A

Kristina Penickova[1](USA) v Charo Esquiva Banuls[7]ESP

Jeline Vandromme[4](BEL) v Julia Stusek[5](GER)

Girls Group B

Hanna Klugman[2](GBR) v Ruien Zhang[8](CHN)

Mia Pohankova[3](SVK) v Jana Kovackova[6](CZE)

Boys Group A

Aleksandar Vasilev[1](BUL) v Jacopo Vasami[3](ITA)

Yannick Alexandrescou[6](ROU) v Oskari Paldanius[8](FIN)

Boys Group B

Jack Kennedy[5](USA) v Benjamin Willwerth[7](USA)

Andres Santamarta Roig[2](ESP) v Max Schoenhaus[4](GER)

Live streaming is available here; live scoring is here.

The quarterfinals are set for the five USTA Pro Circuit tournaments this week, with teenagers and current collegians posting several big wins today.

At the M25 in Norman Oklahoma, 19-year-olds Kaylan Bigun and Matt Forbes will play for a spot in the semifinals, after Bigun, who has turned pro after one semester at UCLA, defeated Orel Kimhi, a sophomore at Oklahoma, 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 and 2024 Kalamazoo 18s champion Forbes, a sophomore at Michigan State, beat top seed Henry Searle of Great Britain. Forbes, a qualifier, defeated the 2023 Wimbledon boys champion 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 to advance to his second career pro circuit quarterfinal. Bigun, the 2024 Roland Garros boys champion, and Forbes played three times on the ITF Junior Circuit, with Forbes winning the first in 2022 and Bigun winning the next two in 2023 and 2024.

At the women's W35 in Norman, NC State freshman Victoria Osuigwe, the No. 4 seed, has reached the quarterfinals, with the 18-year-old from Florida defeating qualifier Kailey Evans(Texas Tech, San Diego) 7-5, 6-3. Osuigwe will face unseeded Ekaterina Khayrutdinova of Russia, a senior at Auburn, who beat Oklahoma State freshman Luca Udvardy of Hungary, the No. 7 seed, 6-1, 6-2. 

Qualifier Merna Refaat of Egypt, a sophomore at Auburn, reached the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-0 win over Lucia Peyre(Oklahoma State) of Argentina. 

Savannah Broadus, the recently graduated Pepperdine All-American, followed up her first round win over No. 2 seed Leonie Kung of Switzerland with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over fellow qualifier Alina Shcherbinina(Baylor, Oklahoma) of Russia to set up a quarterfinal match with No. 6 seed Jaeda Daniel(Auburn, NC State). Daniel beat wild card Piper Charney, a junior at Michigan, 7-5, 6-3.

At the W15 in Hilton Head, only one seed has advanced to the quarterfinals, 18-year-old Carolina Bohrer Martins of Brazil, seeded No. 2. Each of the four quarterfinals features an American junior, with 15-year-old wild card Janae Preston playing former Old Dominion All-American Sofia Johnson of Great Britain, a qualifier, and 16-year-old Annika Penickova facing NC State sophomore Mia Slama in the top half.

In the bottom half, 16-year-old qualifier Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann will play wild card Carson Tanguilig, the recent North Carolina graduate and 16-year-old qualifier Jensen Diianni will face Bohrer Martins.

The two 100-level tournaments this week have gone more to form, although No. 2 seed Caroline Dolehide lost in the first round of the W100 in Tyler Texas to ITA All-American finalist Carmen Herea of Romania, a sophomore at Texas 6-3, 6-7(1), 6-2 in the opening round. Herea lost to Kayla Day today, leaving no current collegians, but recent graduates Eryn Cayetano(USC) and Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) both have reached the quarterfinals. 

Cayetano beat Tessah Andrianjafitrimo of France 7-6(2), 6-4 to reach her first quarterfinal at the W100 level, with the 24-year-old Southern Californian facing No. 3 seed Petra Marcinko of Croatia next.

Stoiana beat No. 4 seed Louisa Chirico 7-6(3), 6-3 today and will play No. 7 seed Anastasia Gasanova of Russia in the quarterfinals.

At the ATP Challenger 100 in Sioux Falls South Dakota, the top two college players on the Challenger Circuit this fall both have been eliminated. Columbia senior Michael Zheng's 15-match Challenger winning streak came to an end in the first round, with former Tennessee All-American Johannus Monday of Great Britain beating No. 7 seed Zheng 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. Monday advanced to the quarterfinals with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Alfredo Perez(Florida); he'll face unseeded Andres Martin(Georgia Tech), a 6-1, 7-5 winner over No. 4 seed Liam Draxl(Kentucky) of Canada.

Tonight, No. 5 seed Patrick Kypson avenged his 6-3, 6-3 semifinal loss last week to Lincoln 75 champion Rafael Jodar of Spain, beating the University of Virginia sophmore 6-4, 6-4. Kypson will play No. 3 seed Rinky Hijikata(North Carolina) of Australia, who beat wild card Samir Banerjee(Stanford) 7-6(3), 6-2.

Kentucky sophomore Antoine Ghibaudo of France, a qualifier, is through to the quarterfinals with a 7-5, 6-4 win over qualifier Andrew Fenty(Michigan). Ghibaudo will play the third American in the quarterfinals, unseeded Martin Damm, who beat wild card Andre Ilagan(Hawaii) 7-6(2), 7-5 in the second round.

In a Facebook post Monday, San Diego's Pacific Beach Tennis Club announced the passing of Tom Svajda, a longtime pro at the club as well as a coach to his sons Zachary and Trevor. The memorial mass for Svajda, who was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer last year, is November 4 at Saint Brigid Parish in San Diego. My deepest condolences to his wife and to Zach and Trevor; he will be missed by so many in the Southern California tennis community.