My Easter Bowl 16s and 18s Recap; US Teams Named for World Junior Tennis and Junior Davis and Billie Jean King Cup Qualifying; No. 2 Texas A&M Women Defeat Auburn 4-3; Jovic Advances to Charleston WTA 500 Semifinals; Jodar Reaches ATP 250 Semi

The final recap of my March trip out West is available today at the Tennis Recruiting Network. Congratulations to Easter Bowl 16s and 18s champion Rishvanth Krishna, Anay Kulkarnia, Ellery Mandell and Shristi Selvan for winning the singles titles in the sweltering conditions last week at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. If you weren't able to follow my daily coverage, this is an ideal way to get up to speed on the players who will be contenders for this summer's titles on the USTA Junior Circuit.

While I was in California, I heard the names of some of the juniors who were going to be competing in the North and Central American qualifying this month in Canada for the ITF World Junior Tennis (14-and-under) and ITF Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup(16-and-under) this summer and fall.

Although this is subject to change, with last-minute injuries always a possibility, I now have a complete list of those selected for the event, scheduled for April 15-17 in Montreal. 

World Junior Tennis:

Girls, Captain Celeste Frye:
Isha Manchala

Anna Kapanadze

Nadia Poznick

Boys, Captain Jon Glover

Nathan Lee

Max D Smith

Rex Kulman

Junior Davis Cup, Captain Sylvain Guichard

Izyan Ahmad
Teodor Davidov
Gadin Arun

Junior Billie Jean King Cup, Captain Thierry Champion

Janae Preston

Jordyn Hazelitt

Welles Newman

These are the players selected for the qualifying, but changes for the finals are to be expected, as those competitions are four or more months out.

With only a couple of more weekends before several conferences begin their conference tournaments, the Division I seedings for the NCAAs are beginning to take shape. In a Top 4 battle last night in College Station, second-ranked Texas A&M defeated No. 4 Auburn 4-3, with the match coming down to No. 6 singles.

Texas A&M, playing without their usual No. 3 Ilinca Amariei, won the lost the doubles point, and trailed 2-0 after Merna Refaat beat Violetta Martinez 6-1, 6-1 at line 4. After a win by Mia Kupres at line 2, Texas A&M went down 3-1 when Angella Okutoyi beat Lexington Reed at line 3 6-4, 6-1, but wins by Daria Smetannikov at 4 and Lucciana Perez at 1 tied it up. The only match to go three sets was at No. 6, with two players who haven't been in the lineup regularly. It was Aggie freshman Anna Perelman who got the win, coming back to beat Alice Battesti 4-6, 62, 6-4 to clinch the win for Texas A&M. 

Texas A&M, now 11-1 at alone at the top of the SEC conference, will host No. 16 Florida Saturday.

2024 USTA National 18s champion Iva Jovic is through to the semifinals of the WTA 500 tournament in Charleston South Carolina, with the 18-year-old from Southern California, seeded No. 4, defeating No. 8 seed Anna Kalinskaya of Russia 6-3, 6-4 in this afternoon's quarterfinals. She will face top seed and defending champion Jessica Pegula, who pulled off another comeback in the quarterfinals, her third this week, beating Diana Schnaider(NC State) of Russia 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

For more on Jovic's win, see this article from the WTA website.

Last year at this time, Rafael Jodar was competing as a freshman for the University of Virginia. Today, the 19-year-old from Spain reached his first ATP semifinal, advancing when Alexandre Muller of France retired trailing 6-2, 2-0 at the ATP 250 in Morocco. Jodar, the 2024 US Open boys champion, will face unseeded Camilo Ugo Carabelli of Argentina in Saturday's semifinals.