Andreescu and Roumane Win Les Petits As Titles; Klahn Claims Maui Challenger; Kumar, Kingsley, Lebedev Capture ITF TItles

I just returned from Ann Arbor, where I covered the Michigan women's 4-0 win over Yale at ITF Kickoff Weekend competition. I will have a thorough recap of that match for the Tennis Recruiting Network later this week. I will also do a complete rundown of all the Kickoff Weekend action in tomorrow's post.

Canadian Tennis has been much in the news lately, with Milos Raonic, Vasek Posipsil and Eugenie Bouchard reaching the highest levels of professional tennis, and although the country had no presence in the Australian Junior Championships this year, the younger age divisions look to be in taking inspiration from the trio above.  Today at Les Petits As, No. 12 seed Bianca Andreescu of Canada defeated No. 4 seed Claire Liu of the United States 6-4, 7-5, giving her country both the major European 14-and-under girls singles championships in January.  Maria Tanasescu won the Nike International Teen Tennis title last week in Bolton.

Liu looked as if she was going to force a third set when she went up 4-0 and had points for 5-0, but Andreescu held there and broke Liu. Liu broke again, for a 5-2 lead, but that would be the last game she would win. Liu had at least three set points serving for it at 5-4 (the live scoring would freeze and then jump ahead, so I can't be confident I have it completely correct), but didn't convert.  There were 173 points played in the match in 22 games, meaning the two girls averaged nearly eight points per game, and yes, it certainly seemed as if nearly every game went to deuce and beyond.

The boys title went to unseeded wild card Rayane Roumane of France, who defeated No. 11 seed and Teen Tennis champion Nicola Kuhn of Germany 5-7, 7-5, 6-1.  Roumane beat four seeds, including top seed Alen Avidzba of Russia, en route to the title.

For complete results, see the tournament website.

On the USTA Pro Circuit, Bradley Klahn was the only American to pick up a singles title.  The 2010 NCAA champion from Stanford won the $50,000 Challenger in Maui, beating 2008 ITF World Junior Champion Tsung-Hua Yang of Taiwan 6-2, 6-3 in today's final. Klahn didn't drop a set in the tournament, and will now see his ATP ranking go up to the low 80s with this win, his third Challenger title since last August.

Denis Kudla and Yasutaka Uchiyama of Japan won the doubles title, beating former UCLA teammates Nick Meister and Daniel Kosakowski 6-3, 6-2. Both teams were unseeded.

In Florida, at the $10,000 Weston Futures, veteran Victor Crivoi of Romania ended 19-year-old Kyle Edmund's winning streak, beating the Sunrise Futures champion 6-7(2), 7-5, 6-0 in today's final.  For more coverage of that tournament see the Challenger Tennis blog.  The doubles title went to Markus Eriksson and Milos Sekulic of Sweden, the No. 3 seeds, who beat top seeds and former Michigan teammates Evan King and Jason Jung 6-7(5), 7-6(4), 17-15.

At the $25,000 Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Daytona Beach, Anna Tatishvili of Georgia, who won three events in the United States last fall and made the final of two others, claimed another title, beating Allie Kiick of the United States 6-1, 6-3 in today's final. Tatishvili was seeded No. 1, Kiick was the No. 4 seed.  Nicole Melichar of the United States and Teodoro Mircic of Serbia won the doubles title. The No. 3 seeds beat top seeds Allie Will(Florida) and Asia Muhammad 6-7(5), 7-6(1), 10-1.

There are no ITF junior tournaments in the United States until late March, so those Americans looking to collect points must travel outside the United States this time of year.  Raveena Kingsley and Sameer Kumar have made the trip to India, with Kingsley winning the singles title last week at a Grade 2, and Kumar taking the boys doubles title.  At this week's Grade 3, Kingsley kept her streak going, taking the singles title again, and Kumar picked up another doubles title, as well as the singles championship.  Kumar, the No. 5 seed, didn't lose a set in the tournament, beating unseeded Mandresy Rakotomalala of France 6-4, 6-1 in the final.  He teamed with Isa Mammetgulyyev of Turkmenistan for the doubles title, with the No. 3 seeds defeating top seeds Wei-De Lin and Cing-Yang Meng of Taiwan 3-6, 6-4, 10-5.

The 15-year-old Kingsley, unseeded again this week, beat unseeded Ojasvinee Singh of India 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in the final, with her winning streak now at ten matches.

At the Grade 4 in the Czech Republic, New Yorker Alex Lebedev, who has recently verbally committed to Notre Dame, won his first ITF title.  The unseeded Lebedev, who has been playing in European ITFs all month, beat No. 5 seed Pawel Zawisza of Poland 7-5, 6-2 in the final.

At the Grade 1 Copa Barranquilla in Colombia, which I didn't follow as closely as I would have liked due to Australia and Tarbes, Americans had a good tournament.  Dasha Ivanova, the No. 4 seed, reached the semifinals, and on the boys side, Henrik Wiersholm, the No. 8 seed, and Jorde Arconada the No. 9 seed, who is playing ITF events under the Argentina flag, but is eligible for USTA events, also reached the semifinals.  Unseeded Logan Smith made the final, but lost to No. 2 seed Matias Zukas of Argentina 6-1, 6-1.

Ukraine's Olga Fridman, who won the Grade 1 Copa Gatorade last week, won the girls title, with the No. 4 seed beating top seed Domenica Gonzalez of Ecuador 6-4, 6-4 in the final.

Alex Rybakov and Wiersholm, the No. 3 seeds, won the doubles title, beating No. 2 seeds Zukas and Nicolas Alvarez of Peru 6-4, 7-6(2) in the final.  Usue Arconada and her partner Rafaella Baquerizo of Ecuador won the girls doubles championship, with the No. 5 seeds beating top seeds Jaqueline Cristian of Romania and Ivanova 6-3, 6-3 in the final.