Two US Juniors Advance to Round of 16 at Australian Open; Wins By Seeds Scarce at Les Petits As; Four USTA Pro Circuit Events Underway in California and Florida

All three Americans who played their Australian Open quarterfinal matches Tuesday lost, with Iva Jovic, Learner Tien and Coco Gauff seeing their runs ended at the first major of the year. On Wednesday(tonight in the US), at least one American is guaranteed to reach the semifinals in women's singles.

Tuesday's quarterfinal results of Americans:

Aryna Sabalenka[1](BLR) d. Iva Jovic[29] 6-3, 6-0

Elina Svitolina[12](UKR) d. Coco Gauff[3] 6-1, 6-2

Alexander Zverev[3](GER) d. Learner Tien[25] 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-1, 7-6(3)

Wednesday's quarterfinal matches featuring Americans: 

Jessica Pegula[6] v Amanda Anisimova[4]

Ben Shelton[8] v Jannik Sinner[2]

The results of American at the Australian Open Junior Championships were only slightly better Tuesday, with the last two US players in the singles draws No. 8 seed Thea Frodin and No. 4 seed Keaton Hance.

Neither are playing in singles Wednesday, with the cancellation of wheelchair matches Tuesday due to heat pushing half of the third round of singles matches until Thursday.  Several Americans are playing in second round doubles matches Wednesday; Frodin, Capucine Jauffret and Vihaan Reddy advanced to the doubles quarterfinals with their international partners with wins Tuesday.

Top seeds Ryo Tabata of Japan and Yannick Alexandrescou of France lost in the second round to the Japanese team o fHyu Kawanishi and Kanta Watanabe 7-6(7), 6-2; no seeded teams remain in the top half of the boys doubles draw.

Tuesday's second round Australian Open junior matches featuring Americans:

Keaton Hance[4] d. Mark Ceban(GBR) 6-4, 4-6, 6-2

Nikita Bilozertsev[6](UKR) d. Vihaan Reddy 4-6, 6-1, 6-4

Ntungamili Raguin[Q](BOT) d. Gavin Goode[15] 6-2, 3-6, 6-4

Thea Frodin[8] d. Anastasia Lizunova(RUS) 7-5, 6-4

The first round of singles concluded today at Les Petits As, and after the two days of singles results, only 10 of the 16 girls seeds and just seven of the 16 boys seeds have advanced.

Two of the boys seeds falling were from the United States, with No. 4 seed Camelot Carnello losing to Bolton finalist Frederick Fabricius of Great Britain 6-3, 6-3 and No. 8 seed David Bender suffering a 7-5, 0-6, 6-0 loss to Loris Da Silva of France,

In the girls draw, No. 2 seed Emilia Henningsenof Denmark lost to qualifier Alessandra Urga of Germany 6-3, 1-6, 7-5.  

Unseeded American Nadia Poznick defeated No. 14 seed Dina Jaoid of Morocco 6-0, 6-0.

Both top seeds in singles, Anastasis Mosaikos of Cyprus and  Elizaveta Anikina of Estonia, did advance to the second round, but Mosaikos and parnter Enzo Brito of Sweden, the top seeds, did not survive in doubles, losing to the Australian team of Christopher Manton and Novak Palombo 6-3, 6-2.  The top seeded team in girls doubles withdrew and the No. 2 seeds in both girls and boys doubles lost, so that competition is wide open.

Live streaming and live scoring is available here.

There are four tournaments on the USTA Pro Circuit this week, two at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego and two on opposite side of the state of Florida.

The first ATP Challenger of the year in the United States is the 100 in San Diego, with Sebastian Korda taking a wild card into tournament after his first round loss to Columbia senior Michael Zheng at the Australian Open. Korda is the top seed, with Rinky Hijikata(North Carolina) of Australia the No. 2 seed.

The other wild card went to Colton Smith(Arizona), who is the No. 7 seed.

Qualifying was completed today, with four Americans advancing to the main draw:  Evan Zhu(UCLA), Felix Corwin(Minnesota), Karl Poling(Princeton, UNC) and Stefan Dostanic(USC, Wake Forest).  Dostanic will face Hijikata in the first round.

Only three of the six first round matches on Tuesday's schedule have been completed, with SMU junior and NCAA singles finalist Trevor Svajda defeating Micah Braswell(Texas) 6-2, 6-2, Blaise Bicknell(Florida, Tennessee) defeating Alex Rybakov(TCU) 6-4, 7-5 and Toby Samuel(South Carolina) of Great Britain beating No. 8 seed Tristan Boyer(Stanford) 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.

The women's event, also at Barnes, is a W100, with former UCLA star Jennifer Brady beginning her comeback as a wild card. Brady will play former Georgia All-American Katarina Jokic of Serbia later this evening.

Other players receiving wild cards are North Carolina recruit Alexis Nguyen, who saved three match points in her 3-6, 7-6(11), 6-2 first round win today over Catherine Harrison(UCLA),  and 2023 US Open girls champion Katherine Hui(Stanford), who will play No. 6 seed Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) in the first round.

Katerina Scott, who was unexpectedly announced as an addition to the University of Tennessee's team last week, will face LSU sophomore Kayla Cross of Canada in the opening round.

Qualifiers include Washington resident and 2025 Bradenton ITF J300 champion Kristina Liutova, who beat Ena Koike of Japan 6-2, 6-3 in the final round of qualifying today in her first W100 competition; Ava Markham(Wisconsin); Jo-Yee Chan (Oregon, San Diego State) and Kylie Collins(Texas, LSU, Oklahoma State).

Louisa Chirico is the top seed, with Elli Mandlik the No. 2 seed.

The other women's event is a W75 in Vero Beach Florida, where Caroline Dolehide and Whitney Osuigwe are the top seeds. The only American to qualify was Dasha Ivanova.

Wild cards were given to Sachia Vickery; Victoria Hu(Princeton), who will play No. 6 seed Bianca Andreescu of Canada; Ellie Schoppe(Furman, Florida State) and Susana Souhrada of El Salvador. Souhrada will face W35 Weston champion Akasha Urhobo in the first round. 

The men's event in Florida is an M15 in Naples, with Tristan McCormick(Notre Dame, Georgia) and Tommaso Compagnucci of Italy the top two seeds. 

Qualifying concluded today with six Americans reaching the main draw: Adam Lynch(Barry), Dakotah Bobo(Southern Miss, LSU), Matthew Segura, 2024 Kalamazoo 16s champion Gus Grumet, Matthew Thomson(Wake Forest) and 16-year-old Jerrid Gaines Jr.

Wild cards were given to 16-year-old Andy Johnson, who won his first round match today against Evan Bynoe 6-1, 5-7, 6-2; Hunter Heck(Illinois) and 33-year-old Darian King of Barbados.

2025 Wimbledon boys finalist Ronit Karki received entry via the ITF's junior reserved program, and he won his first round match 6-3, 6-3 today over Fermin Tenti of Argentina.

After he did not elect to make the trip to Australia, I was expecting to see Michael Antonius in this draw as a wild card; he hasn't played since the Orange Bowl. Jordan Lee was overseas last week, where he reached the final of a J200 in Tunisia, which was obviously impacted by bad weather with all the short scoring used.