Qalbani and Moreno Claim J60 Titles in South Carolina; US ITF Junior Circuit Features J100 in Rome Georgia This Week; Electronic Line Calling Debuts at Sioux Falls SD Challenger 100

Last week was a quiet one on the ITF Junior Circuit, with J60s the highest level of tournaments on the schedule. One of those J60s was in Lexington South Carolina, where Rowan Qalbani and Carlota Moreno swept the titles.

Qalbani, the No. 2 seed, beat doubles partner and top seed Marcel Latak 6-4, 6-2 in the singles final, after partnering with Latak for the doubles title the previous day. Qalbani, a 16-year-old from New York, now has two singles titles on the ITF Junior Circuit and four doubles titles. Qalbani and Latak, the top seeds, defeated unseeded Gadin Arun and Griffin Goode 6-4, 6-1 in the doubles final.

Moreno, the No. 5 seed, defeated No. 8 seed Sarah Delgado 6-1, 6-0 in the final to claim her second ITF Junior Circuit singles title. The 16-year-old from Tennessee won her first ITF Junior Circuit doubles title with Lila Bodur of Turkey, with the top seeds defeating No. 3 seeds Anastasia Malysheva and Alexie Normandin of Canada 6-1, 6-2 in the final. 

The other two titles for American juniors last week came at the J60 in Canada, with Daniel Malacek winning the boys doubles title and Tayler Conway and Lily Bazemore claiming the girls doubles championship.  Malacek, who also reached the singles final, partnered with Rafael Bote of Canada, with the top seeds beating No. 2 seeds Enoch Lin(the singles champion) and Andreas Mjeda of Canada 2-6, 7-6(7), 10-4 in the final. 

Bazemore and Conway, the No. 3 seeds, defeated unseeded Mila Ajdukovic and Chloe Yuexin Hu of Canada 6-1, 6-3 in the final.

This week the ITF Junior Circuit moves to Georgia for a J100 in Rome. 

The top seed in the boys draw, who I believe was Shaan Majeed, withdrew, so a lucky loser, Anibal Nunez of Venezuela, appears at the top of the draw, and he lost to Joaquin Blanco in the first round today.

Kalamazoo 16s semifinalist Jerrid Gaines Jr in the No. 2 seed, and Latak, who beat Gaines in the Kalamazoo semifinals, is the No. 3 seed. Both have advanced to the second round, with a loss of three games between them.

Fourteen-year-old Caroline Shao is the No. 1 seed in the girls draw, with 16-year-old Aishi Bisht of India seeded No. 2. Bisht retired in today's first round after 14-year-old Allison Wang took the first set of their match 6-3. Shao advanced with a 6-0, 1-0 retirement from Katherine Krupnikova.

After winning the Les Petits As USA playoffs Friday, 13-year-old Isha Manchala made her ITF Junior Circuit debut today, earning a 6-4, 6-1 win over 15-year-old Ava Quincy Brewer. Manchala obviously doesn't have an ITF ranking, but she didn't need a wild card, with her WTN rating providing her with entry into qualifying. There ended up being no qualifying for girls, which is extremely unusual for a J100, and Manchala moved into the main draw. She will face last week's Lexington champion Moreno in the second round Tuesday.

I'll be reviewing the four other USTA Pro Circuit tournaments tomorrow after qualifying is complete, but I wanted to focus today on the ATP Challenger 100 in Sioux Falls South Dakota tonight, because it is featuring Electronic Line Calling. I've written two article for the Tennis Recruiting Network on ELC systems, one in 2021 after its implementation for the juniors at the US Open, and one in February of this year, after its use at the ITA Men's Team Indoor.  The system in Sioux Falls is not either of the two used in New York(Hawkeye) or Dallas(PlayReplay), but rather a third, Bolt6, which was used at Laver Cup this year. Bolt6 is one of the four systems the ITF has certified as gold, which is deemed accurate enough to use for "elite international-level competitions."

A good primer on the ITF's classifications for ELC systems, can be found in this article from Sports Business Journal.

How soon ELC will come to all Challengers is unclear, but it appears to be gaining traction as the costs come down.

In the final round of qualifying today in Sioux Falls, Americans Keegan Smith(UCLA) and Andrew Fenty(Michigan) won their matches to reach the main draw, where they'll face each other.

Four first round matches are on today's schedule, with three now complete. No. 4 seed Liam Draxl(Kentucky) of Canada defeated Kalamazoo 18s champion Darwin Blanch 6-4, 6-4; No. 6 seed Murphy Cassone defeated Mitchell Krueger 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-2 and Alfredo Perez(Florida) beat wild card Cannon Kingsley(Ohio State) 6-4, 6-4. 

Top seed Jordan Thompson of Australia is playing Michael Mmoh in the night match. Brandon Holt(USC) is the No. 2 seed and will play wild card Andre Ilagan(Hawaii) Tuesday night. 

The third wild card went to Stanford senior Samir Banerjee.

Columbia senior Michael Zheng is back this week, as the No. 7 seed, and the Tiburon champion will play Johannus Monday(Tennessee) of Great Britain in the first round Tuesday. Virginia sophomore Rafael Jodar of Spain, the Lincoln Challenger champion, is again unseeded; he will face Saba Purtseladze of Georgia in the first round.

Mike Cation is providing commentary this week, with free live streaming availble at Challenger TV.