Southern Cal and Southern Sections Advance to USTA Boys National Team Final in Champaign; ITF Introduces College Assistance Program; Andreescu, Day Advance at WTA Events

Earlier today I posted links to the draws and the top 16 seeds for the Boys 18 and 16 Nationals in Kalamazoo, which begin on Friday.  Draws for the other Nationals are not out yet, but should be up in the next day or two, with most beginning play on Saturday. The Tennis Link sites for the other events:

Girls 18s and 16s in San Diego

Girls 14s in Rome Georgia (seeds are posted)

Girls 12s in Alpharetta Georgia

Boys 12s and 14s in Mobile

The 18s National Team Championships, where USTA sections compete against each other in a standard Division I college format, are winding up with the boys finals set for Tuesday in Champaign Illinois.  Top seed Southern California, who beat Missouri Valley 5-2, will face 5-8 seed Southern, who took out No. 2 seed Florida 5-2 in today's semifinals. Links to the draw, team lineups and live scoring for the boys can be found at the Tennis Link site.

The girls team championships, in Claremont California, are harder to follow, with no draws posted, but I believe the four sections in Tuesday semifinals (they are a round behind the boys) are Southern Cal, Midwest, Eastern and Southern.  There is live streaming available via a link on the Tennis Link site.

The ITF announced, in conjunction with its Grand Slam Development Fund, a new initiative to assist college players in their transition to pro tennis.  The ITF has for years provided assistance to many juniors from countries without deep development pockets via this fund, and now they are extending this to college players.  Currently six players, four men and two women, are receiving help over the summer:  Florida State's Guy Iradukunda of Burindi, Ole Miss's Gustav Hansson of Sweden, South Florida's Alexandru Gozun of Moldova, Florida State's Aziz Dougiz of Tunisia, and from New Zealand, Alabama's Erin Routliffe and Georgia Tech's Paige Hourigan.

Wimbledon girls champion Claire Liu will make her WTA main draw debut tonight at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, against former Cardinal star Nicole Gibbs.  Unfortunately, it will be too late for me to follow, with that match following the one between Jennifer Brady and Maria Sharapova, which begins at 10 p.m. EDT.   Earlier today, Liu's longtime Southern California rival Kayla Day won her first round match at the Premier event, beating Misaki Doi of Japan 6-4, 6-2.  The next opponent for the 17-year-old US Open girls champion is top seed Garbine Muguruza of Spain, who beat Day in three sets in the third round at Indian Wells this spring.

Another 17-year-old familiar to both Day and Liu had success today at the Citi Open in Washington DC.  Canadian wild card Bianca Andreescu claimed her first WTA main draw victory with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 decision over Camila Giorgi of Italy. Andreescu awaits the winner of the match between No. 2 seed Kristina Mladenovic of France and Tatjana Maria of Germany.

Tommy Paul, who reached his first ATP quarterfinal last week in Atlanta, received a wild card into the Citi Open this week and won his first round match today.  Paul moved into the second round against No. 7 seed Lucas Pouille of France when Casper Ruud of Norway retired trailing 3-6, 7-5, 3-0.