Top Two Girls Seeds Fall in ITF J300 Tucson Quarterfinals, Azam Ousts Second Seed Goode to Reach Semifinals; Blanch Awarded Miami Open Wild Card, Brantmeier, Stoiana, Frodin and Ekstrand Receive Qualifying Wild Cards

©Colette Lewis 2026--
Tucson AZ--

The desert heat and motivated opponents were too much for three of the top seeds Thursday in the quarterfinals of the ITF J300 at the Tucson Racquet and Fitness Club. Girls top seed Melije Clarke lost to No. 8 seed Capucine Jauffret 6-4, 0-6, 6-3; No. 2 seed Hollie Smart of Great Britain was beaten 6-0, 6-2 by unseeded Camille Allegre, and boys No. 2 seed Gavin Goode fell to No. 7 seed Safir Azam 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Allegre got off the court before the temperatures soared into the upper 80s in the early afternoon, taking the first set without much resistance from Smart. Smart's lengthy bathroom break, partly due to the distance from the courts to the facility, didn't initially provide any shift in momentum, with Allegre building a 3-0 lead, but Smart did hold and break, winning nine points in a row before Allegre shut the door with a hold for 4-2 and another break.

"After 3-0 I was playing a little tight," said Allegre, a 16-year-old from Orange County California. "I was thinking, ok, I'm going to win this. But I had to refocus, and I knew I had to get that game(at 4-2)."

Allegre, who at 383 in the ITF junior rankings is more than 300 spots behind No. 61 Smart, admitted she was nervous closing out the match, but used a lesson learned in a close loss last year.

"I knew I had to stay present," said Allegre, who is coached by her father Vince, a former All-American at UCLA. "Because last year I played a match against a really good player and I was up a set, lost the second set in a tiebreaker, then went up 4-1 in the third set. And then I lost focus, I was looking too far ahead. From that match I learned I had to stay in the present. It was a tough loss but I learned something from it."

Allegre also gained confidence from her three-set win over Carlota Moreno in the third round. Moreno, No. 1 in the USTA 18s rankings, reached the semifinals of a W15 in Florida last month and was a semifinalist at last week's J200 in Las Vegas.

"I knew if I could beat her, I could beat anyone," said Allegre, who had also taken out No. 10 seed Adla Lopez in the second round. 

Next for Allegre is unseeded Emery Combs, who is celebrating her first week as a 15-year-old by advancing to a J300 semifinal for the first time.

Combs ended the run of qualifier Armira Kockinis 6-3, 6-4, her fourth consecutive straight-sets victory.

Allison Wang is the third unseeded girl advancing to her first J300 semifinal this week, with the 15-year-old from San Jose beating No. 4 seed Lani Chang 6-2, 6-1. Wang, who lost in the second round at the Las Vegas J200 last week, is finding the conditions in Tucson much more to her liking, dropping only nine games in her four victories.

Wang's next test is Jauffret, who kept her nerve late in the match to avenge her loss to Clarke at the 2025 J300 in Indian Wells, the tournament that has now moved here.

Jauffret, who began her coaching partnership with Dimitry Bigun, father of former top juniors Kaylan and Meecah, at that tournament, described her win today as a "full circle moment."

"It's kind of ironic that I got my revenge today, it's crazy actually," said the 18-year-old from Delaware, who will begin her collegiate career at the University of Florida this fall. 

Jauffret hasn't had many wins on the ITF Junior Circuit the past several months, with her ranking dropping from 47 to 100, so this result is especially gratifying.

"I definitely have been struggling a bit recently," Jauffret said. "So this one means a lot to me. I've been working super, super hard, so I'm really happy with this one."

Jauffret cited a loss of energy for her performance in the second set, but she got a break in the first game of the third set and managed to hold it throughout the set, breaking Clarke again to avoid having to serve it out.

Jauffret considers her return one of the strengths of her game, which counteracted the big first serve that often gives Clarke an edge  in tight spots.

"We've been working on my return a lot, and it's one of the parts of my game that I love," Jauffret said. "So I think I did a good job of neutralizing her first serve and putting so much pressure on her second serve to make her as uncomfortable as possible."

While Jauffret's win was the only girls quarterfinal to go the distance, two of the boys matches went to three sets, and that was just fine with Azam, who is now three-for-three this week in that situation.

"I love the third setters," said the 16-year-old from Washington state. "I haven't been able to find my rhythm in the first set, at all, throughout this tournament. I've played different kinds of players in every match, so the first set, like Novak, I just figure out the player, come back in the second, use that momentum into the third. That's been my strategy here."

Azam said he's feeling physically able to sustain these marathons, which gave him an edge over Goode, who began to cramp in the third set.

"In the third set, his left arm was fully cramped up," Azam said. "He could not even bend it, and I took full advantage of that. I just went high heavy, to that side, and he wasn't able to do much."

Azam will face No. 5 seed Ryan Cozad, who now has a nine-match winning streak after claiming the Las Vegas J200 title last week. Cozad eliminated the last non-American in the field, beating No. 4 seed Xavier Massotte of Canada 5-7, 6-3, 6-2. Cozad and Azam have not played before, and Azam is eager to go the distance again in the second ITF J300 semifinal of his career on Friday.

"I think it's going to be a good match for sure," said Azam, who practices with Cozad when they are training at the USTA's campus in Orlando. "Hopefully another third set; I have a one-hundred percent win rate in third sets."

The top half semifinal will feature top seed Andy Johnson, who beat No. 12 seed Cooper Kose of Australia 7-6(3), 6-3, and No. 10 seed Roshan Santhosh, who ended the run of unseeded Erik Schinnerer 7-6(6), 6-0.

Johnson squandered a 5-2, 40-15 lead in the first set, lost four straight games, but broke the powerful Kose at love to force the tiebreaker. Johnson then fell behind 3-1 in the second set, but won the last five games to secure the win.

Santhosh and Johnson have not played on the ITF Junior Circuit, although Santhosh does have a win over fellow Southern Californian Johnson that dates back to the 14s in 2022.

The semifinals are set in doubles, with boys top seeds Cozad and Goode advancing to a meeting with No. 4 seeds Santhos and Massotte, and No. 2 seeds Tanishk Konduri and Marcel Latak facing No. 6 seeds Kose and Jerrid Gaines Jr. 

Girls top seeds Jauffret and Smart advanced to the girls doubles semifinals, where they will play No. 8 seeds Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann and Karlin Schock. The unseeded team of Kockinis and Kaya Baker will face No. 6 seeds Combs and Olivia Traynor in the bottom half semifinal.

The majority of the wild cards for next week's Miami Open Masters 1000 were announced today, with Darwin Blanch (who lost to Billy Harris of Great Britain today 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(6), 16-year-old Moise Kouame of France, Martin Damm, Wu Yibing of China and Rei Sakamoto of Japan receiving main draw wild cards.

Women's main draw wild cards were awarded to Venus Williams, Sloane Stephens, Taylor Townsend, Ashlyn Krueger, 17-year-old Emerson Jones of Australia, 18-year-old Lilli Tagger of Austria, Jennifer Brady(UCLA) and Dasha Vidmanova(Georgia) of Czechia. 

Women's qualifying wild cards were given to Reese Brantmeier(North Carolina), Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M), 17-year-old Thea Frodin, 18-year-old Monika Ekstrand(Stanford), Erika Andreeva of Russia and Ayla Aksu of Turkey.  Men's qualifying wild cards so far are Martin Landaluce of Spain, 17-year-old Luis Guto Miguel of Brazil, 18-year-old Manas Dhamne of India and and 18-year-old Diego Dedura-Palomero of Germany. 

The wild card release from the Miami Open can be found here. Qualifying begins Sunday.

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 staying 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.

Ten Girls Seeds Fall in Second Round of ITF J300 in Tucson, Wild Card Basavaraju Reaches Third Round in Boys Draw

©Colette Lewis 2026--
Tucson AZ--

Rain Monday afternoon and evening produced a late start to matches on Tuesday, with 12 first round matches and 32 second matches packed into the schedule on a cool and partly cloudy day in the desert. Although several matches finished under the lights, the third round is set for Wednesday, and it will include only six of the 16 girls seeds that took to the courts for the first time today.

Four of the Top 8 seeds were eliminated, with 15-year-old Allison Wang pulling off the first upset of the day with her 6-1, 6-0 win over No. 7 seed Riyo Yoshida of Japan, last week's champion at the J200 in Las Vegas.

Wang, who lost only two games in her first round win yesterday, felt that match and the conditions in Tucson played a role in her success today, while acknowledging Yoshida, who plays two-handed on both sides, was not physically at her best.

"It wasn't like I played extraordinary, but she had some issues, I think she was dizzy," Wang said. "She had a really good tournament (in Las Vegas) and I think that took a lot of her energy. And I got to get used to this place--it's dry, it's fast and the ball doesn't bounce as high as Vegas, and it's not as windy. When it's windy I feel I have to push, I cannot go for the ball, so I can't play my game."

Wang, who was seeded in Las Vegas, but lost in the second round, took advantage of her status as an underdog and the favorable conditions.

"I didn't have much pressure, and when I saw that she wasn't feeling her best, I had to continue to play like it was normal," Wang said. "I did change my strategy slightly to move her more, I guess, because she's not feeling well."

Wang said she was "so happy" to have finished her first round match Monday and be done with her second early in the day.

"I can just relax now, but I have doubles later," said Wang, who faces wild card Julia Seversen, a 7-6(6), 6-0 winner over No. 9 seed Thara Gowda.

Carlota Moreno was not as fortunate, as she had to complete her first round match this morning, but the Las Vegas semifinalist had no trouble in the second round against No. 5 seed Sarah Ye, taking a 6-1, 6-1 decision. Moreno will play Camille Allegre, who defeated No. 10 seed Adla Lopez 6-0, 6-1.

Briley Rhoden took out No. 6 seed Carrie-Ann Hoo 6-1, 7-5 and will play fellow qualifier Armira Kockinis, who beat Karlin Schock 6-1, 6-3.

The highest seed to fall was No. 3 Olivia Traynor, who was beaten by Kalista Papadopoulos 6-3, 6-3.

Papadopoulos had come close to defeating an ITF Top 100 junior on several occasions but hadn't been able to close, so she was pleased with how she handled losing her 3-1 lead in the second set. 

"When I was up 3-1 I kind of saw the finish line," said the 17-year-old, who has committed to Princeton for 2027. "And in my previous matches with Top 100 players, I did the same thing, and then I would get tight. So when I got to 3-all, I said 'I'm not going to lose this set making the same mistake as previously.' So I just told myself to block out the score, block out the nerves, you have to go now. If you lose the set, lose it going for it, not because you're nervous and have all these emotions."

At 3-1 in the second set Papadopoulos also had to block out the drama on the court next to hers, when No. 14 seed Anya Arora went down with what appeared to be a rolled ankle when leading Reilly Rhodes 7-5, 1-0.  Her cries of pain could be heard throughout the tournament courts, but after a visit from the trainer and the tournament referee, with a wheelchair at the ready if needed, Arora resumed play and won the break point she held when she fell to go up 2-0. While she continued to struggle with her movement and lost the next six games, Arora recovered to take the match 7-5, 2-6, 6-1.

Papadopoulos said the match adjacent to hers had been a source of heightened emotions throughout her first set, and when all the commotion of an injury added to it, she blamed that as a reason for her own loss of focus.

"I think I used it as an excuse when I lost the game to 2-3," Papadopoulos said. "I kind of let my emotions take over, but then I thought, she (Traynor) is dealing with it too. On the changeover I said 'you can't be thinking about that.' Everyone in the facility had to listen to it, you know what I mean, it's not just me. And my previous matches helped a lot; to be able to do something different after all the hard losses I've had, it's really good."

Papadopoulos will play Emery Combs, who defeated Brooke Wallman 6-2, 6-4, with the head-to-head 1-1, both in J100s last fall. The only seed left in the bottom half of the draw is No. 2 Hollie Smart of Great Britain, who will play Caroline Shao. Shao defeated No. 13 seed Hannah Ayrault 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.

Top seed Melije Clarke defeated Abril Cardenas Olivares of Mexico 6-4, 6-1 and will play No. 15 seed Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann. The third qualifier through to the third round is Sophie Suh, who beat No. 12 seed Isabelle DeLuccia 7-6(3), 6-4. Suh will face No. 8 seed Capucine Jauffret.  Arora's opponent Wednesday is No. 4 seed Lani Chang.

The boys draw lost only four seeds, and only one in the Top 8, with Quincy Yao of Canada beating No. 8 seed Agassi Rusher 6-4, 6-4. 

Las Vegas finalist Ford McCollum defeated No. 9 seed Marcel Latak 6-4, 6-0 and Erik Schinnerer beat No. 13 seed Mauricio Schtulmann Gasca of Mexico 6-2, 6-4.

Wild card Dhakshish Aryan Basavaraju, who ran his record to 19-2 this year on the ITF Junior Circuit with a 7-6(5), 6-1 win over No. 11 seed Zavier Augustin, said his 2026 surge is primarily the result of a change in his mindset.

"It's been my mentality and preparation," said the 16-year-old, who trains with Sukhwa Young at Eric Dobsha Tennis in Tampa Florida. "In 2025, it was a rough start, my mentality was all over the place and it was mostly because I didn't prepare before my matches. Now I'm taking my tennis seriously, like it's a job. I do what I need to, and it gives me confidence when I'm on court. Mentally I've gotten so much stronger and it's helped me a lot."

Basavaraju, who was born in India but moved to the US when he was 5, rebounded from down 5-2 in the first set, saving a set point, but took control in the tiebreaker, as Augustin's control on his often lethal forehand began to desert him.

"I realized I just have to make a couple of more balls in the court, be gritty, make him play an extra ball and that got me back," said Basavaraju, who won back-to-back J60s in Guatemala last month and reached the quarterfinals in Las Vegas. "In the breaker, his forehand actually broke down and in the second set, at 2-1, he kind of fell apart."

Basavaraju had never played a J200 until last week or a J300 until this week, so he is soaking it all in.

"Every round I win is like, great," said Basavaraju. "Because I've never been at this stage in this level tournament. It's great to be around here in this environment, where I've never been. It's an great opportunity."

Basavaraju's third round opponent is No. 7 seed Safir Azam, who beat Kamil Stolarczyk 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 in a nearly three-and-a-half hour match.

Top seed Andrew Johnson defeated Orange Bowl 16s champion Mattias Reyniak 6-0, 6-4 and No. 2 seed Gavin Goode, who needed a wild card because he forgot to enter, beat Felix Roussel of Canada 6-3, 6-2.

Many of the first round doubles matches scheduled for later this evening were not played, so there will be two rounds of doubles on Wednesday for some players. The weather forecast is calling for sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s.

Afternoon Showers Disrupt Round 1 at ITF J300 in Tucson; Qualifier Kockinis Faces Fourth Match in Three days Tuesday; Four ITF J30 Titles for Americans Last Week

©Colette Lewis 2026--
Tucson AZ--

A clear and dry morning for the first round of the ITF J300 tournament at the Tucson Racquet club turned into a mess by mid-afternoon, when thunder and lightning arrived in the desert, interrupting the ten singles matches in progress and keeping the last two matches on the schedule from starting. 

The Tucson Racquet and Fitness Club is large, with pickleball, padel and 25 tennis courts, as well as a swimming pool and beach volleyball courts, with the tournament being played on ten courts, with three courts available for practice and warmup.  

Every match is being chaired, which I have not seen at the J300 level since this event was last held at the USTA's Carson facility in 2019. That tournament was used for umpire training and coaching, and so it is for this one, with US Open Referee Jake Garner, US Open Chief Umpire Andrew Walker and Gold Badge umpire James Keothavong, who mentors umpires through his association with the ITF Officiating School.

Because all matches are chaired, live point by point scoring is available, at iOnCourt. And in another upgrade, balls are changed at the completion of the first 11 games and 13 games thereafter, rather than after players split sets. 

While only 20 of the 32 first round matches were completed, there was drama, with local wild card Vikram Narendran, who has no ITF ranking, pushing ITF No. 228 Rowan Qalbani to two tiebreakers before falling 7-6(5), 7-6(1) in two hours and 20 minutes. Narendran had a group of friends in attendance, but with no seating and no unimpeded viewing on eight of the 10 courts, they had to gather behind one end of the court, in a small walkway between rows to show their support. Keshav Muthuvel beat fellow qualifier Sebastian Godoy 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in two hours and 20 minutes and qualifier Armira Kockinis survived a two-hour and 35-minute battle with Hanne Estrada of Mexico to post a 6-4, 6-7(7), 6-1 victory.

Kockinis would have welcomed a shorter match after playing two qualifying matches yesterday, and the 16-year-old from Southern California had an opportunity to end it with two match points in the second set tiebreaker, but was able to put aside the disappointment of not converting them, taking control early in the second set.

"I got through the first set 6-3, then messed up a little bit," said the 2025 Easter Bowl 16s champion. "In the third, I just tried to put the second set behind me, focus on what I could do, be more aggressive, go for my shots, and I got through it."

Kockinis admitted that she came into the 10 a.m. match feeling exhausted.

"I was extremely tired, but I just went into it with the mindset to give it everything I've got," Kockinis said. "I'm going to leave everything out there on the court."

One of the other factors in Kockinis's fatigue was the quick turnaround from her semifinal loss at the J200 in Las Vegas Friday. Not eligible for a special exempt because she was not on Saturday's schedule in Las Vegas, Kockinis did not receive a wild card for Tucson, so was faced with the prospect of three qualifying matches. Fortunately she did not have to play Saturday, as the qualifying draw did not fill, and as the No. 3 seed in qualifying, she got a bye, 

"It was definitely a grind," Kockinis said. "I lost on Friday, tried to get a special exempt, but that didn't happen, so I caught the first flight out, got in about 10 p.m., went to bed at 1."

Kockinis had not played Estrade, the 2024 IMG International 16s champion, but she found a strategy to avoid Estrade's best shot.

"She has a really clean backhand," Kockinis said. "Anytime I hit it anywhere short, or in her strike zone on the backhand side, she would hit it super clean, if not a winner. In the third set, I was more aggressive and got ready for her backhands that were coming, mixed it up a little bit, and served really well. So I got through it."

Kockinis is planning to play San Diego next week and the Easter Bowl the week after that, so she is ready for more.

"This is only the beginning," said Kockinis, who plays No. 11 seed Karlin Schock Tuesday. "We're nowhere near almost done. But every day, I'll just give it what I've got, take care of my body and just compete."

Doubles are scheduled to begin Tuesday for unseeded teams, with seeds playing for the first time on Wednesday.  Capucine Jauffret and Great Britain's Hollie Smart are the No. 1 seeds in the girls draw, with Ryan Cozad and Gavin Goode the top seeds in the boys draw.

The ITF J300 in Porto Alegre Brazil this week has just one US boy in the 32-player draw, Jack Secord, the No. 3 seed. Seven US girls are in the draw, lucky loser Londyn McCord, Anita Tu, No. 4 seed Welles Newman, Ireland O'Brien, Yael Saffar, No. 8 seed Maggie Sohns and Kori Montoya.

In addition to the sweep of the boys titles and the girls doubles title at the J200 in Las Vegas, which I covered Saturday, there were four other titles for Americans on the ITF Junior Circuit last week, all at the J30 level.

Americans swept the singles titles in Madurai India, with 16-year-old Niyanth Badrinarayanan claiming his first ITF Junior Circuit title with a 6-2, 3-2 retired win over Tejas Ravi of India. Fourteen-year-old Reena Alavalapati won her first ITF Junior Circuit title with a 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(6) win over Aahida Singh of India. Both received entry into the round robin phase of the tournament via their World Tennis Number, so were not seeded in the knockout phase.

In Kingston Jamaica, unseeded 14-year-old Indra Vergne won his first ITF Junior Circuit singles title, beating No. 8 seed Tomas Tichy of Czechia 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 in the final. 

In Oslo Norway, 16-year-old Leyla Kilgour partnered with Johanna Andrea Corciova of Austria for the girls doubles title, with the top seeds beating Katerina Foldova of Czechia and Lea Gombarikova of Slovakia 4-6, 7-6(1), 10-7.

Zheng, Brantmeier Receive $100K Hurd Awards, Svajda and Lutkemeyer $40K as Finalists; Qualifying Complete, Johnson, Clarke Top Seeds at ITF J300 Tucson

photo credit: Universal Tennis Foundation

This year's Hurd Awards were nearly a foregone conclusion after Reese Brantmeier of North Carolina and Michael Zheng of Columbia won the NCAA singles titles in November in Lake Nona. Both Americans, both seniors, both interested in pursuing careers in professional tennis, it would have been shocking if they had not received the $100,000 grants to assist them in that pursuit.

Recently the Universal Tennis Foundation and Paula Hurd added a grant for two finalists, with this year's recipients of the $40,000 grant SMU junior Trevor Svajda, who is expected to join the pro circuit after this season, and UCLA senior Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer.

All four winners are quoted in this release from UTR; the Tennis Channel segment below features former Hurd recipient Chris Eubanks explaining how the grant eased his transition into pro tennis, with UTR's Mark Leschly and Paula Hurd adding their comments on the accomplishments of all four winners. 

Congratulation to the winners of this year's Hurd Awards 🏆

Reese Brantmeier and Michael Zheng will receive $100k to help fund their burgeoning pro careers 👏 pic.twitter.com/oA4Gh1u2zZ

— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) March 8, 2026 

The main draw of the ITF J300 in Tucson begins Monday at the Tucson Racquet Club, although the seeded players will not take the court until Tuesday in the 48-player draws.

Qualifying concluded today with six boys and six girls earning their spots in the main draw, which means another match Monday. The girls qualifiers are Sylvana Jalbert, Ava Quincy Brewer, Armira Kockinis, Briley Rhoden, Anjani Vickneswaran and Sophie Suh, all of the United States. The boys qualifiers are Sebastian Godoy, Loic Massotte of Canada, Kristian Sharma, John Murphy, Keshav Muthuvel and Jack Dermenjyan.

The boys seeds:

1. Andrew Johnson

2. Gavin Goode

3. Tanishk Konduri

4. Xavier Massotte, CAN

5. Ryan Cozad

6. Vihaan Reddy

7. Safir Azam

8. Agassi Rusher

9. Marcel Latak

10. Roshan Santhosh

11. Zavier Augustin

12. Cooper Kose, AUS

13. Mauricio Schtulmann Gasca, MEX

14. Jerrid Gaines Jr.

15. William Kjellberg, SWE

16. Mason Taube

The girls seeds:

1. Melije Clarke

2. Hollie Smart, GBR

3. Olivia Traynor

4. Lani Chang

5. Sarah Ye

6. Carrie-Anne Hoo

7. Riyo Yoshida, JPN

8. Capucine Jauffret

9. Thara Gowda

10. Adla Lopez

11. Karlin Schock

12. Isabelle Deluccia

13. Hannah Ayrault

14. Anya Arora

15. Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann

16. Brooke Wallman

My on-site coverage in Tucson begins Monday, the first day of the three-week trip that moves to San Diego for the J300 North American Regional Championships next week and Indian Wells for the Easter Bowl the week after that.

Cozad, Yoshida Win ITF J200 Las Vegas Titles; Goode Takes ITF J300 Tucson Wild Card, Liutova a Late Withdrawal; Auburn Women Beat LSU, Texas Men Fall to LSU; Zheng Keeps AO Earnings

Ryan Cozad won his first ITF Junior Circuit singles title in more than year today at the J200 in Las Vegas, with the top seed defeating doubles partner Ford McCollum, the No. 10 seed, 6-0, 6-1. The University of Virginia recruit, who had claimed his ninth ITF Junior Circuit doubles title Friday, partnering with McCollum, dropped just one set in his six singles victories. Cozad now has three career singles title on the ITF Junior Circuit.

No. 5 seed Riyo Yoshida of Japan won the girls singles title, beating No. 2 seed Hollie Smart of Great Britain 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 in today's final. It's Yoshida's second ITF J200 title, and her seventh overall.

All four finalists are expected to compete in next week's ITF J300 in Tucson, but there was a late withdrawal, with Kristina Liutova pulling out today. That leaves Melije Clarke as the only current ITF Top 50 girl in the draw.

The girls draw in Tucson lost a top 50 player in Liutova, but the boys gained one with the notice that Gavin Goode has accepted a wild card into the main draw. The ITF Junior No. 23 was not entered in Tucson, although he did enter the San Diego J300 the following week.

The other main draw wild cards went to Justin Riley Anson, Dhakshish Aryan Basavaraju, Daniela Del Mastro, Julia Seversen and Tanvi Pandey.

The qualifying began today in Tucson, but there were very few matches, with the boys unable to fill a 24-player draw, with the five players with byes needing to win only one match to qualify for the main draw.

The girls did have enough qualifying entries for the standard 48 draw, but 21 players received byes into the second round. The second round winners will play two qualifying matches Sunday with those six winners playing another match in the main draw Monday.

At the J300 in Paraguay, No. 5 seed Damir Zhalgasbay of Kazakhstan won the boys title, beating No. 2 seed Yannik Alvarez of Puerto Rico 6-4, 6-4 for his first ITF J300 singles title.

Top seed Sol Ailin Larraya Guidi of Argentina won the girls singles title, her first at the J300 level, beating unseeded Camila Rodero of Chile 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Qualifying is underway for the ITF J300 in Porto Alegre Brazil, with Londyn McCord, the No. 1 seed, the only American in qualifying. 

Thara Gowda lost in the semifinals of the W15 in Canada, with top seed Ariana Arseneault(Georgia, Auburn) of Canada beating the 17-year-old qualifier from Michigan 6-3, 6-2. Arseneault will face No. 4 seed Dasha Ivanova in Sunday's final.

Last night in Austin, second-ranked Texas lost to No. 6 LSU 4-3 in SEC play, adding to the chaos atop the men's rankings, after No. 1 Ohio State fell to Baylor on Thursday night. LSU's Olaf Pieczkowski, a 21-year-old from Poland new to the Tigers roster, came from 5-2 down in the third set to beat Sebastian Gorzny 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 at line 1, clinching the fourth point for LSU. LSU won the doubles point and got wins at 2, 4 and 1 to pull off the upset. Texas is right back out there tonight, hosting No. 7 TCU.

The fourth-ranked LSU women hosted fifth-ranked Auburn today in Baton Rouge, with Auburn claiming a 4-2 victory. Auburn won the doubles point, but lost four first sets in singles. LSU quickly tied the match with a win at line 6, but victories for Auburn and lines 4 and 5, the two matches where they had won the first sets, put them back in the lead. And in the three remaining matches, Auburn had forced third sets, losing at No. 2, but getting a win at line 3 from Angella Okutoyi to clinch it, with line 1 unfinished.

Auburn is now 21-1, with their sole loss coming in the semifinals of the Team Indoor, to champion Georgia. 

Front Office Sports (thanks to Courtney Nguyen for highlighting the article in her Daily Bagel newsletter) has followed up on the issues of NCAA compliance regarding Michael Zheng's Australian Open earnings, with Zheng able to accept the money without jeopardizing his eligibility this spring because the money can be used for expenses throughout the calendar year, not the academic year in which it was earned. Whether the Reese Brantmeier settlement, yet to be announced, will affect this rule is unknown right now, but Zheng can fund the start of his pro career without any worries about the NCAA rules. 

The Universal Tennis Foundation's Hurd Award for American collegians was scheduled to be selected on Friday, with the announcement of the men's and women's winners and finalists expected Sunday, when Tennis Channel airs a special segment on  Zheng will have another source of funds for his pro career expenses when he receives that $100,000, which he does not have to use during this year.