Top Seeds Clarke and Johnson Return to Juniors After Pro Success; Schinnerer Topples No. 3 Seed Konduri; Pepperdine Women Blank Second-Ranked Ohio State; Blanch, Friend Advance at Phoenix Challenger

©Colette Lewis 2026--
Tucson AZ--

Top seeds Melije Clarke and Andy Johnson came into this week's ITF J300 in Tucson on the heels of notable results on the USTA Pro Circuit, and both have managed that often tricky transition by reaching Thursday's quarterfinals at the Tucson Racquet and Fitness Club.

Clarke defeated No. 15 seed Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann 6-4, 6-2 and Johnson bounced back for a 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 win over No. 14 seed Jerrid Gaines Jr., his roommate on this week's trip.

Clarke's score against Drenser-Hagmann appears routine, but the first set took over an hour to complete, with Clarke saving four break points serving at 3-4, getting a break to go up 5-4, then saving two break points when serving for the set.

"The first set was definitely tough," said the 16-year-old from Texas, who had beaten Drenser-Hagmann in the round of 32 at the USTA 18s Nationals in San Diego last summer.  "I was just trying to focus on breaking her, because we both were holding the entire set. Once I got that break, it was helpful for me, and going up 3-0 in the second set, I had a little bit more motivation."

Clarke said she was relieved when she got through that eighth game of the first set.

"I didn't serve the best today, but pulling out some of those serves in the tough moments, saving break points, really helped me a lot."

Last month Clarke received a last-minute wild card into the main draw of the W35 in Las Vegas and went all the way to the final, beating three former Division I All-Americans along the way. Although she lost in the final to 16-year-old Kristina Liutova 6-2, 6-4, Clarke saw the value in competing against professionals.

"I was mentally prepared to play qualies, but at the last second USTA offered me the wild card," Clarke said. "I didn't go in with too high of expectations, I just wanted to play free and get the experience of playing at a higher level, so I was really happy to at least make the final. I don't like getting second place, but I am really grateful for the opportunity."

That opportunity and her success made returning to junior events this week and next easier.

"It helps me be a little bit more motivated," Clarke said. "Because I made the final of a 35 it gives me more expectation to do well. I played all these good players and I can translate what I learned there to here."

Clarke, currently 48 in the ITF Junior rankings, is playing these two J300s with an eye to securing her spot in the Wimbledon Junior Championships. 

"I definitely want to put myself in a good position to go to Wimbledon," Clarke said. "It's one of my favorite tournaments. And I also want to play more pro tournaments, so I don't want to have to play a bunch of junior tournaments for that."

Clarke will face No. 8 seed Capucine Jauffret, who advanced when qualifier Sophie Suh retired with a leg injury with Jauffret leading 7-5.

While Clarke was able to get off the court in straight sets this morning, Johnson was down a break in the third set to Gaines, requesting a medical timeout for knee pain after losing serve at 1-all. With Gaines serving at 2-1, 30-15, Gaines slipped and went down, scraping his knee and drawing blood, which resulted in the trainer being called back to the court to address that issue. Gaines won the first point after resumption of play, but struggling to find a first serve while hitting two double faults left him unable to convert any of his four game points.

Johnson held serve to take a 3-2 lead, breaking Gaines again, then saved three break points to protect that break and take a 5-2 lead.

Gaines went down 0-40 serving at 2-5, with a Johnson lob at 0-30, which appeared to be long, called good by the chair umpire. Gaines argued to no avail, saved those three match points and went on to take the four-deuce game to stay in the match.

But Johnson did not drop a point in the final game, hitting an ace to seal his third win over Gaines in as many meetings.

"It was one of those matches, we're friends, so there was a little bit of nerves going into the match," Johnson said of the two 6-1 sets that preceded the third. "There was nothing to lose for him; I've played him three times now and I've won them all. So the second set, he's like, whatever, I don't care and he started playing a lot better."

Johnson did make more errors in the second set, while Gaines raised his level, so Johnson did not want to dwell on the dip in form he experienced.

"Some of those matches happen, because no one's perfect," said the 16-year-old from Southern California, who won his first Pro Circuit title at an M15 in Naples Florida last month. "So I'm just going to working on that and see what changes I can make in the future."

Jphnson said that ATP World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz is the player he most admires, so the fact that he was the youngest men's ITF World Tennis Tour champion since Alcaraz in 2019 was especially satisfying.

"I didn't know that, when I heard it I was like, awesome," Johnson said, although he added that joining any top pro in the record books would be fine. "I'm happy where I am and of course I'm going to keep getting better."

Johnson will face no. 12 seed Cooper Kose of Australia, who defeated Quincy Yao of Canada 6-2, 7-5.

The only unseeded boy in the quarterfinals is Erik Schinnerer, who defeated No. 3 seed Tanishk Konduri 7-6(4), 7-5 to reach his first quarterfinal at the J300 level.

Schinnerer took the 80-minute first set, and another tiebreaker looked inevitable with Konduri serving at 5-6 40-0. But Schinnerer was determined not to let another opportunity slip away.

"At 40-0 I just swung free on a forehand passing shot and managed to get that," said the 17-year-old from Pennsylvania, who trains at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park Maryland. "Then I worked a good point, it got to deuce when he double faulted, and I definitely started to believe I can take this, probably as good a chance as I'm going to get. I got in a rally, he missed a forehand and I was just telling myself on match point to trust myself, and I stepped into a backhand and forced an error."

Schinnerer, who has committed to join his older brother Kase at North Carolina in 2027, said his belief grew with every passing game.

"As this match went on, I just started believing more and more as the score kept on stay close," Schinnerer said. "And when I got that first set, yeah, you've just got to believe and trust your shots."

Schinnerer will play No. 10 seed Roshan Santhosh, who defeated No. 6 seed Vihaan Reddy 4-6, 7-5, 6-1. 

No. 2 seed Gavin Goode will play No. 7 seed Safir Azam, who ended the run of wild card Dhak Aryan Basavaraju 4-6, 6-0, 6-2. Goode defeated No. 15 seed William Kjellberg of Sweden 6-2, 6-2.

Las Vegas champion Ryan Cozad, the No. 5 seed, extended his winning streak to eight matches with a 6-4, 7-6(3) win over Ford McCollum, who had lost to Cozad in the Las Vegas final 6-0, 6-1.

Cozad will face No. 4 seed Xavier Massotte of Canada, who saw six match points come and go before he finally put away No. 16 seed Mason Taube 7-6(3), 7-5.

All of the four boys quarterfinals matches are first-time meetings on the ITF Junior Circuit.

The Clarke and Jauffret quarterfinal, which will be the rubber match of their previous two matches, is the only one of the four girls contests to feature a ITF Junior Circuit head-to-head.

No. 4 seed Lani Chang will play unseeded Allison Wang, after Chang defeated No. 13 seed Anya Arora 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 and Wang breezed past wild card Julia Seversen 6-1, 6-2.

Armira Kockinis won the battle of the qualifiers, beating Briley Rhoden 6-4, 6-3 and will play her sixth match of the tournament against Emery Combs. Combs defeated Kalista Papadopoulos 6-4, 6-1.

In the bottom quarter, unseeded Camille Allegre will play No. 2 seed Hollie Smart of Great Britain, after Allegre beat Carlota Moreno 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 and Smart defeated Caroline Shao 6-4, 6-0.

The quarterfinals will begin at 10 a.m. Mountain Standard Time Thursday, with live scoring available at iOnCourt.

In college tennis news today, No. 6 Pepperdine defeated No. 2 Ohio State 4-0 in Malibu, with the Waves taking the doubles point and getting singles wins at lines 2, 3 and 6. The box score is here.

2025 Kalamazoo 18s champion Darwin Blanch picked up his best victory by ATP ranking last night at the ATP Challenger 175 in Phoenix. The 18-year-old wild card defeated No. 5 seed and ATP No. 52 Terence Atmane of France 6-4, 6-4 in the first round and will play Billy Harris of Great Britain in Thursday's second round. 

University of Arizona senior Jay Friend qualified for the tournament yesterday and beat fellow qualifier Stefan Kozlov 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 in today's first round. He will face No. 7 seed Marcos Giron(UCLA) Thursday.