US Teams Cruise in Junior Davis Cup, BJK Cup Openers; Manchala, Wong and Stratton Claim J60 Titles; Knoxville Challenger 50 Qualifying Complete; Stoiana Beats Vidmanova at Austin WTA 125; Spizzirri, Mandlik Retake Leads in AO Wild Card Races

The first day of the ITF's Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup in Santiago Chile produced few surprises, with defending champions and No. 1 seeds the United States posting 3-0 wins in the first round of group play.

The US girls defeated Austria, with ITF Junior No. 1 Kristina Penickova, playing No. 2 singles, defeating Lea Haider-Maurer 6-3, 6-1, and Julieta Pareja, playing No. 1 singles, beating Anna Pircher 6-3, 6-2. Kristina and Annika Penickova won the doubles match, beating Kara Fronek and Pircher 1-6, 6-3, 10-8.

They will face Peru, who lost 3-0 today to Poland, on Tuesday.

The US boys blanked Germany with Andrew Johnson beating Jannik Soetebier 6-1, 6-0 at No. 2 singles and Michael Antonius defeating Eric Dylan Mueller 7-5, 6-1 at No. 1 singles.

Jordan Lee, who was playing in his first match since February, partnered with Johnson for a 6-2, 6-3 win in doubles over Jakob Joggerst and Soetebier.

They will play Slovakia, who lost 2-1 today to Brazil, on Tuesday.

All eight seeded Junior Billie Jean King Cup teams won their opening matches; two Junior Davis Cup seeds lost: Spain defeated No. 6 seed Canada and Egypt defeated No. 8 seed Turkey, both by 2-1 scores.

Links to live scoring and streaming can be found at the ITF Junior website, but I was unable to find a stream that worked for me. The ITF video site is geo-blocked, and although Tennis Channel is supposed to be an option, I could find no reference to any coverage there. Another option is a $4.99 a month subscription to MEGA, a Spanish-language YouTube channel from Chile, which can be found here.

Americans claimed three singles titles last week on the ITF Junior Circuit, all on the J60 level, as well as a J100 doubles title.

At the J60 in Boca Raton Florida, 13-year-old Isha Manchala, playing in just her second ITF event, won the title as a wild card, beating No. 2 seed Lillian Santos 6-4, 6-1 in the final. Manchala, who just won the USA Playoffs for Les Petits As a couple of weeks ago, also defeated top seed Teaghan Jou An Keys. In her debut two weeks ago at the J100 in Rome, Manchala lost to eventual champion Carlota Moreno in the second round.

Unseeded Rose Biria and Emily Morgan won the girls doubles title, beating top seeds Ariana Ikwueme and Great Britain's Athina Schlepphorst 6-0, 6-2 in the final.

The boys champion in Boca Raton was top seed Avner Wong, with the 18-year-old defeating unseeded Robert McAdoo 6-4, 6-2 in the final for his first singles title on the ITF Junior Circuit.

The boys doubles title went to No. 5 seeds Tim Kohl and Leo Scheffer of Germany, who defeated No. 3 seeds Joaquin Blanch and Matthew Shapiro 6-4, 7-6(5) in the final.

At the J60 in El Salvador, 16-year-old New Yorker Tristan Stratton won his fourth singles title on the ITF Junior Circuit, all this year. The top seed didn't drop a set in his five victories, beating No. 3 seed Martin Rivadeneira of Ecuador 6-1, 6-2 in the final. 

At the J100 in Mexico, 14-year-olds Emery Combs and Olivia De Los Reyes won their third doubles title in the past six weeks, with the unseeded pair defeating No. 2 seeds Romina Dominguez Garcia of Mexico and Kalista Papadopoulos 6-2, 7-5 in the final. Papadopoulos reached the final in singles too, with the No. 2 seed losing to No. 4 seed Lingling Zhu of China 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

This week's US ITF Junior Circuit tournament is a J60 in Mt. Pleasant South Carolina, Romain Azais of France and Eaden-Zack Harron were the top boys seeds, but both lost today, with Griffin Goode beating Azais 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 and McAdoo defeating Harron 6-0, 6-1. Girls top seeds Julia Seversen and Sarah Delgado reached the second round with straight-sets victories.

I'll preview the four lower level USTA Pro Circuit tournaments this week tomorrow, but main draw action has begun at the Knoxville Tennessee ATP Challenger 50 and at the WTA 125 in Austin Texas.

In Knoxville, Murphy Cassone, who was a late entrant and therefore forced to play qualifying, advanced to the main draw with a 6-2, 6-0 win today over University of Tennessee senior Alejandro Moreno. Americans Cooper Williams(Harvard, Duke), Keegan Smith(UCLA), Jack Kennedy and Quinn Vandecasteele(Oregon), all lost their final round qualifying matches today.

Main draw wild cards were given to Andrew Fenty(Michigan) Alex Kotzen(Columbia, Tennessee) and Dominique Rolland(Arizona, UC-Santa Barbara), with Rolland losing to Stefan Kozlov 7-6(1), 2-6, 6-1 this evening. James Trotter(Ohio State) of Japan and Jay Clarke of Great Britain are the top two seeds. 

In Austin, all four qualifiers were Americans: Claire Liu, Mary Lewis(Arizona, Michigan State), Vivian Wolff(Georgia, UCLA) and University of Texas freshman Christasha McNeil.

Iva Jovic is the top seed, with Alycia Parks the No. 2 seed. Wild cards were given to Texas alum Malaika Rapolu, Texas sophomore Carmen Herea of Romania and Jennifer Jackson.

Herea, the ITA All-American finalist, defeated Alana Smith(NC State) 7-6(4), 6-1 in the first round today.

College tennis fans were treat to yet another meeting between the top players from the past two seasons of college tennis, with Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) facing No. 8 seed Dasha Vidmanova(Georgia) in the opening round today. Stoiana and Vidmanova, who had split their four meetings in the 2024-25 dual match season and split their two meeting on the USTA Pro  Circuit, had another battle today, with Stoiana emerging with a 2-6, 6-1, 7-5 victory. This keeps Stoiana alive in the USTA's Australian Open Wild Card Race, with this the final week for the women to collect points.

Elli Mandlik, who reached the semifinals of a W100 in Mexico last week, has retaken the lead from Claire Liu, but the women's race is wide open with 125 points up for grabs in Austin and Mandlik, Liu and Stoiana all entered.

Eliot Spizzirri also moved back into first place with his quarterfinal result at the Challenger 125 in Bratislava last week, but it is looking increasingly likely that he will not need a wild card into the main draw of the Australian Open. After qualifying and winning his first round today at the ATP 250 in Athens, the former Texas All-American is up to 86 in the live rankings. Patrick Kypson is now in second place; he is playing at the Challenger 125 in Helsinki Finland this week.

The men have one more week after this one to collect points in the race.

Women's Standings -- through Week 4 of 5
(Player's current ranking in parentheses)

1. Elizabeth Mandlik (202) -- 140
2. Claire Liu (221) -- 117
3. Elvina Kalieva (203) -- 106
4. Anna Rogers (233) -- 95
5. Katie Volynets (89) -- 90
6. Mary Stoiana (327) -- 77

Men's Standings -- through Week 3 of 5
(Player's current ranking in parentheses)

1. Eliot Spizzirri (96) -- 129
2. Patrick Kypson (146) -- 122
3. Martin Damm (173) -- 102
4. Matthew Forbes (929) -- 25
5. Keegan Smith (485) -- 24