Ascenzo and Fan Reach Junior Orange Bowl Finals; Tien, Basavareddy and Jodar Compete in Next Gen ATP Finals Wednesday; ITF J300 Bradenton Videos

Two Americans are through to Wednesday's finals of the Junior Orange Bowl in Coral Gables Florida, with Tristan Ascenzo competing in the 14s and Evan Fan in the 12s.

Ascenzo gave himself an opportunity to avenge his IMG Academy International semifinal loss to Mohamed Genidy earlier this month, while Fan has stepped up this tournament after a third round exit in Bradenton. Fan has also advanced to doubles final with James Borchard.

All four of the IMG Academy International champions will be playing for their second straight titles Wednesday.

SINGLES SEMIFINAL RESULTS:

B12s:

Rui He[1](CHN)* d. James Borchard[4](USA) 7-5, 6-3

Evan Fan[3] d. Oliver Baker[1](AUS) 6-2, 6-3

B14s:

Mohamed Genidy[1](EGY)* d. Siyun Kim[4](KOR) 1-6, 6-0, 6-3

Tristan Ascenzo[2](USA) d. Smyan Thuta(USA) 1-6, 6-3, 6-1

G12s:

Fangqiao Zou[1](CHN*) d. Jiru Yang(CHN) 6-1, 6-2

Xiaoke Li(CHN) d. Annie Tan(USA) 6-3, 6-3

G14s:

Isabella Yan[4]CAN) d. Nikol Davletshina[1](USA) 7-6(3), 4-6, 7-5

Ayaka Iwasa[7](JPN)* d. Konstantina Volonaki(GRE) 6-2, 6-1

*Won IMG Academy International titles earlier this month.

One doubles title was decided today, with Americans Christina Li and Kyndall Noel taking home the G14s championship trophies.

DOUBLES FINALS:

B12s

Cheng-en Tsai(TPE) and Taigo Nagashima(JPN) v Evan Fan and James Borchard[1](USA)

B14s

Mohamed Genidy(EGY) and Evan Giurescu(FRA)[6] v Alden Yu and Ilya Sherifali(CAN)[8]

G12s

Lucy Dupere(USA) and Seungyeo Seo(AUS)[1] v Inie Toli(USA) and Fangqiao Zou(CHN)[3]

G14s

Christina Li and Kyndall Noel(USA)[3] d. Tanvi Pandey(USA) and Srishti Kiran(IND)[8] 6-4, 3-6, 10-5

The Next Gen ATP Finals begin Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, with three recent collegians and five recent junior slam singles champions among the eight competitors. 2024 Next Gen runnerup Learner Tien[USC] is the top seed; he made two junior slam singles finals (and won the Australian Open boys doubles title), losing to Alexander Blockx of Belgium in the 2023 AO boys final. Blockx is making his Next Gen debut this year. 

Nishesh Basavareddy[Stanford], who, like Tien, was in the field last year, won the 2022 US Open doubles title. The other four junior slam winners are Dimo Prizmic of Croatia (Roland Garros 2023), Martin Landaluce of Spain (US Open 2022), Nicolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway(Wimbledon 2024 and Roland Garros doubles 2024), and Rafael Jodar[Virginia] of Spain(US Open 2024). Justin Engel of Germany, a late addition after the withdrawal of Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic, is the only participant who has not won a junior slam title. The 18-year-old has played only one junior slam, qualifying for the Australian Open in 2024 and losing in the first round.

The schedule for Wednesday's group play:

Dino Prizmic[2](CRO) v Nishesh Basavareddy[6](USA)
Alexander Blockx[2](BEL) v Justin Engel[8] (GER)
Learner Tien[1](USA) v Rafael Jodar [7](ESP)
Martin Landaluce [4](ESP) v Nicolai Budkov Kjaer[5](NOR)

The ATP preview is here.

I've started the lengthy task of processing the videos from the IMG Academy International and Orange Bowl finals, with the first three below. There are individual videos of the girls finalists, who were not able to play on the Stadium Court as is customary, with the chance of rain leading to simultaneous finals.