Singh and Mendell Claim ITF J100 Guatemala Titles, Iftime Wins J60 in Champaign; Sun and Miguel Rise to No. 1 in ITF Junior Rankings; NYCC YouTube Documentary of NCAA 2026 in Athens

While most eyes were on Paris last week, many American juniors aspiring to compete in the junior slams were elsewhere collecting points, with five US players earning singles titles on the ITF Junior Circuit.

At the ITF J100 in Guatemala, Gurjot Singh swept the boys titles, while Ellery Mendell won her third J100 title in the past six weeks.

Singh, an 18-year-old from New Jersey who was a finalist at the J200 in Tennessee last month, had to go through qualifying as a late entry although he had to win only one match to make the main draw, where he was the No. 1 seed.  Singh won an all-USA final for his first ITF Junior Circuit singles title, beating No. 3 seed and doubles partner Tristan Stratton 6-3, 6-2. Singh had won the doubles title with Stratton the previous day, with the top seeds defeating unseeded Antonio Castellanos of Guatemala and Indra Vergne 6-1, 6-1 in the final.

The top-seeded Mendell, a 16-year-old from Georgia, defeated unseeded Srishti Kiran of India 6-4, 6-3 in the final. Mendell won back-to-back J100 titles in Costa Rica last month, but Guatemala is the site of three of her six career singles titles on the ITF Junior Circuit.

Sarah Stoyanov reached the doubles final with Abril Cardenas Olivares of Mexico, but the No. 3 seeds lost to No. 4 seeds Eve Thibault of Canada and Hanne Estrada Cores of Mexico 7-5, 6-1.

Singh is up to 129 in the ITF Junior Rankings, while Mendell is now at 165.

At the ITF J60 in Champaign Illinois, 14-year-old Adelina Iftime won her first ITF Junior Circuit title, taking the girls singles championships with a 7-6(4), 6-0 win over No. 5 seed Aleksandra Jerkunica. Iftime, the 2025 IMG Bradenton 16s champion, didn't drop a set in her three round robin matches or in the knockout phase of the tournament. 

Jerkunica, 15, did come away with a title however, taking the doubles championship with older sister Natasha. The No. 3 seeds defeated top seeds Vibha Gogineni and Teaghan Jou An Keys 7-5, 4-6, 10-5 in the final. 

No. 4 seed Eli Kaminski lost to top seed Rafael Bote of Canada in the boys final 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. 

The unseeded team of Anish Poojari and Austin Potter claimed the boys doubles title, beating top seeds Bote and Keshav Muthuvel 7-5, 6-2 in the final. 

The other two singles titles for Americans were at the J30 level, with 15-year-old Soo-Ah Byun, who received entry via her World Tennis Number, defeating Si A Youm of Korea 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in the final in Gimcheon Korea. It's the first ITF Junior Circuit title for Byun.

In Sukoharjo Indonesia, No. 2 seed Brandon Duan, 1 16-year-old Californian, defeated No. 4 seed Rafa Jeconia Verdasco Mangunsong of Indonesia 7-5, 6-2 to capture his second ITF Junior Circuit single title. 

At the J30 in Abujia Nigeria, Elliott Awomoyi and Nigerian partner Seyl Ebenezer Ogunaskin took the doubles title, with the top seeds beating No. 3 seeds Elisha Ishaku Swange and Gbolahan Oluwajuwon Olawale of Nigeria 6-3, 6-3 in the final. It's the first ITF Junior Circuit title for the 16-year-old Awomoyi.

This week's ITF Junior Circuit tournament in the Midwest is a J100 in Bloomington Indiana. Joshua Adamson of Canada and Karlin Schock of USA are the top two seeds.

The post-Roland Garros ITF junior rankings produced two new No. 1s, with Roland Garros champion Luis Guto Miguel of Brazil and finalist Xinran Sun of China now at the top. Sun overtook 2026 Australian Open champion Ksenia Efremova of France, who lost in the first round; Miguel displaced Ivan Ivanov of Bulgaria, whose Wimbledon and US Open titles in 2025 are no longer enough to keep him in the top 5.

Girls champion Alisa Oktiabreva re-entered the junior rankings at 51; she has had no ITF junior ranking for the past 18 months. Her career-high junior ranking of 17 came in July of 2023.

Roland Garros finalist Michael Antonius has moved up to a career-high ITF junior ranking of 6, while semifinalist Keaton Hance has risen to a career-high of 3. 

Nate Walroth of NotYourCountryClub had a crew of videographers in Athens last month for the NCAA Division I Team Championships, which resulted in the documentary below. If you weren't there, it provides a great sense of the excitement at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex during the four days of competition and what it means to the teams and their fans as they contend for an NCAA title.