Osuigwe Reaches ITF Junior Masters Semifinals; Duval, Day to Meet in $80K Macon Semis; ITA Fall Championships Wild Cards, At-Large Selections Announced

The round robin stage of the ITF Junior Masters in Chengdu China is complete, with the top two seeds in the both the boys and girls fields advancing to the knockout round.

No. 1 seed Whitney Osuigwe moved into the semifinals by finishing 3-0 in her group. The 15-year-old French Open girls champion defeated Elena Rybakina of Russia 6-3, 6-4, a win that put Maria Carle of Argentina through to the semifinals with a 2-1 record.

No. 2 seed Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine also went 3-0 in the round robin play, beating Kaja Juvan of Slovenia 6-2, 7-6(1).  Juvan also advanced to the semifinals, finishing second in the group with a 2-1 record.

Group Liang:
*Whitney Osuigwe[1](USA) def.  Elena Rybakina(RUS) 6-3, 6-4
*Maria Carle(ARG) def. Sofia Sewing(USA) 7-5, 6-4

Group Li:
*Marta Kostyuk[2](UKR) def. *Kaja Juvan(SLO) 6-2, 7-6(1)

Maria Osorio Serrano(COL) def. Wang Xin Yu(CHN) w/o

Saturday's semifinals:

Osuigwe[1] vs. Juvan

Kostyuk[2] vs. Carle

Live streaming and live scoring links are available at the ITF Junior Circuit home page.  The ITF article on the girls matches is here.

In addition to Carle, Argentina has two more semifinalists, with Axel Geller and Sebastian Baez reaching the knockout round with wins today.

Geller, the No. 2 seed, had to beat Hsu Yu Hsiou of Taiwan, his partner in winning the Wimbledon doubles title this summer, in straight sets to advance, and the Stanford freshman met that standard with a 6-3, 6-2 victory.  Baez, who beat Geller in straight sets on the first day, needed a straight-sets win too, and he got it when Trent Bryde retired. No. 1 seed Wu Yibing of China had already clinched his place in the semifinals, and he lost, meaning that none of the boys went undefeated in their group.  Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland is the other semifinalist.

Group Yong:
Axel Geller[2](ARG) def. Hsu Yu Hsiou(TPE) 6-3, 6-2

Sebastian Baez(ARG)  def.  Trent Bryde(USA) 6-4, 4-1, ret.

Group Shuai:
Jurij Rodionov(AUT) def. Wu Yibing[1](CHN) 6-4, 6-2

Emil Ruusuvuori(FIN) def. Marko Miladinovic(SRB) 7-5, 6-1

Saturday's semifinals:

Wu[1] vs. Baez

Geller[2] vs. Ruusuvuori

The article on the boys final round robin action is here. 

At the $80,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit event in Macon Georgia, defending champion Kayla Day and wild card Vicky Duval will meet in Saturday's semifinals, with the winner taking the lead in the USTA's Australian Open Wild Card Challenge.  No. 8 seed Day, who won the AO wild card last year primarily due to her title in Macon, beat Jamie Loeb 6-1, 6-4 in Friday's quarterfinals, while Duval took out Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.  The top half semifinal features Rebecca Peterson of Sweden and Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia.

The ITA's National Fall Championships begin next Wednesday in Indian Wells, and the fields are now set, with the at-large players and wild cards announced.

The men's ITA wild cards went to Ohio State's JJ Wolf, whose run to the title at the Harlingen Futures kept him from playing the Midwest Regional, and Mississippi State's Nuno Borges, who has a preseason ranking of No. 2. The Oracle wild card was given to Baylor's Bjoern Peterson. North Carolina's Will Blumberg, the ITA All-American champion, is not in the field; he told me in Tulsa that he might not play in the Fall Championships, with the Charlottesville Challenger scheduled for the same week. Ohio State's Mikael Torpegaard also qualified, but is not playing.

The women's ITA wild cards were given to Kate Fahey of Michigan, No. 6 in the preseason rankings, and Eleni Christofi of Georgia, No. 10.
The Oracle wild card went to Theresa Van Zyl of Baylor.

The complete list of competitors is available at the ITA website.

Bobby Knight has more on the selections and the official criteria for receiving an at-large entry at College Tennis Today.