USA Junior Billie Jean King Cup and Junior Davis Cup Teams Complete Perfect Week; Kypson Wins Helsinki Challenger, Australian Open Wild Card; Krueger Tops Blanch for Knoxville Title; Colby Wins First Pro Title; NCAA Fields Set
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| photo of both USA teams, with Caption Georgi Rumenov, upper left and Sylvain Guichard lower right photo via ITF |
The US girls won their fourth straight Junior Billie Jean Cup title and the US boys claimed their second consecutive Junior Davis Cup championship in dominating fashion today in Santiago Chile. Neither team dropped a point in their six victories, with the deciding doubles point in the ITF's 16-and-under team competition never necessary.
The girls had the advantage of having its top two players returning from the team that won the title last year in Turkey, with Kristina Penickova and Julieta Pareja playing No. 2 and No. 1 singles respectively. Annika Penickova, Kristina's twin sister was the third team member, competing in the four doubles matches played earlier in the week.
ITF girls No. 1 Penickova started the final against No. 3 seed France with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Cindy Langlais. Pareja, who lost at No. 2 singles in last year's 2-1 win over Romania in the final, had a more formidable opponent at No. 1 singles: ITF No. 8 Ksenia Efremova. Pareja, who is No. 5 in the ITF junior rankings, and was No. 1 this summer, was unable to serve out the first set at 5-3, but she broke to take the first set 6-4. In the second set Pareja took a 3-0 lead, lost the break but never trailed, ramping up her backhand to earn a 5-3 lead. Serving for the title, Pareja missed a sitter forehand volley at the net at 40-15, but it didn't faze her, with the Wimbledon finalist converting her second match point with a good first serve that Efremova couldn't handle.
"There was a big difference in their maturity this year," said USTA National Coach Georgi Rumenov, who captained both teams. "Having the opportunity of playing last year, winning the tournament and coming back and playing for US one more time, that's huge. It showed during every match, that they were controlling some situations better than the other teams. That's part of their experience. I was fortunate, and it was a privilege to coach them."
Pareja's clinch came just minutes after Michael Antonius had given the boys a 2-0 victory over No. 4 seed Japan, beating Kanta Watanabe 6-3, 6-2 at No. 1 singles. While the result of that match never appeared in doubt, the opener between Andrew Johnson and Takahiro Kawaguchi at No. 2 singles was a different story.
Kawaguchi, who like Antonius and the third member of the US team, Jordan Lee, was born in 2010 and he had beaten both Antonius and Lee en route to the Wimbledon U14 title in 2024.
The 16-year-old Johnson had not dropped a set in his nine previous matches in singles and doubles, and he kept that spotless record with a 6-4, 6-3 win, but Kawaguchi pushed him in both sets. After a tight first set went his way, Johnson had a 4-1 lead in the second set, but was broken serving at 4-2. Kawaguchi couldn't pull even however, with Johnson converting his second break point to give him the chance to serve for the title. Kawaguchi fought off one match point with a clean forehand winner, but Johnson didn't flinch, hitting a good first serve at 40-30 to close out the match.
Captain Sylvain Guichard, who was the captain of the 2024 ITF 14U World Junior Tennis championship team featuring Antonius and Lee liked what he saw from Californian Johnson on the South American red clay.
"He was the boss of this week," USTA National Coach Guichard said. "I was really impressed with Andy. He's really the guy who allowed us to be in this position. I knew we could beat everybody, but also thought we could lose to everybody. Last year (at 14U event) honestly, we were expecting to win. This year, no."
I'll have more on these two titles at the Tennis Recruiting Network next week.
All results from the week for all teams can be found here.
Patrick Kypson sewed up the USTA's reciprocal Australian Open wild card for the second time in three years with a title this week at the ATP Challenger 125 in Helsinki Finland. The former Texas A&M All-American more than doubled his points total from last week going from 122 to 247. Although there is technically another week left in the men's race, there are not enough points available for anyone to catch Kypson.
In today's final, the 26-year-old from North Carolina, seeded No. 5, defeated No. 6 seed Otto Virtanen of Finland 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 for the biggest title of his career, eclipsing the title he won two weeks ago at the Challenger 100 in Sioux Falls. He is now up to a career-high of 117 in the ATP rankings.
At the Challenger 50 in Knoxville, No. 5 seed Mitchell Krueger denied 2025 Kalamazoo 18s champion Darwin Blanch his first Challenger title today, coming back for a 6-7(2), 6-4, 6-1 victory. It's the sixth Challenger title of the 31-year-old's pro career and moves him to 202 in the ATP rankings, safely into the qualifying at the Australian Open. With his first Challenger final appearance, the 18-year-old Blanch has broken the ATP Top 300 for the first time at 297.
The other American champion crowned on the USTA Pro Circuit today is Ryan Colby. The 22-year-old from Virginia, who played at USC and Georgia, qualified this week at the M15 in Orlando and went on to reach his first Pro Circuit semifinal and final. In a championship match interrupted by rain, Colby defeated Aleksa Ciric(Georgia Gwinnett) of Serbia 6-3, 6-7(1), 6-4.
The W35 women's final in Orlando between Viktoria Hruncakova of Slovakia and Eva Vedder of the Netherlands was postponed until Monday due to rain, with just three games played today.
Oklahoma freshman Edda Mamedova of Russia, the No. 1 seed, won the W15 in Lincoln Nebraska, beating Duke sophomore Irina Balus of Slovakia, the No. 2 seed, 6-0, 6-2 in the final.
At the M25 in East Lansing, No. 4 seed Aidan McHugh of Great Britain won the title, beating LSU freshman Erik Arutiunian of Belarus, the No. 3 seed, 7-5, 6-3 in today's final.
The singles title at the W125 in Austin Texas went to No. 3 seed Renata Zarazua of Mexico, who beat unseeded Marina Stakusic of Canada 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. In doubles, top seeds Maria Kozyreva(St. Mary's) of Russia and Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus defeated sisters Ivana and Carmen Corley(Oklahoma) 6-3, 7-6(4) in today's final.
The final participants in the NCAA singles and doubles championships were decided today with the results of the two matches between players losing in yesterday's Sectional quarterfinals. Below is the list of the entire singles fields, with those decided this weekend at the top. Collegetennisranks.com's Chris Halioris is expecting to update his google documents this evening, including the doubles participants. The men's sheet is here; the women's sheet is here.
Ayesegul Mert, Georgia
Ni Xi, UNC-Charlotte
Eugenia Zozaya Menendez, Southern Cal
Mao Mushika, Cal
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