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Sunday, January 20, 2019

Forbes, Mochizuki Win Titles at ITF Grade 1 Coffee Bowl; Collins, Tiafoe Make Australian Open Quarterfinals; Second Round of AO Juniors Features Seven Americans; Bangoura Claims WTT M15 in Naples; Les Petits As Begins Monday

Abigail Forbes won her first ITF Grade 1 title Saturday night, at the Coffee Bowl in Costa Rica.  The 17-year-old from North Carolina, who has committed to UCLA, defeated unseeded 15-year-old Melodie Collard of Canada 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 in the championship match.  Martin Damm fell short in his quest for a first Grade 1 title, falling to top seed and fellow 15-year-old Shintaro Mochizuki of Japan 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

Mochizuki had already captured one title earlier in the day, partnering with Spencer Whitaker.  The No. 8 seeds defeated Damm and Will Grant, the No. 6 seeds, 4-6, 6-3, 10-6 in the final.  No. 5 seeds Michaela Kadleckova of Slovakia and Shavit Kimchi of Israel beat unseeded Jenna DeFalco and Hibah Shaikh 6-4, 6-1 to capture the girls doubles title.

Danielle Collins and Frances Tiafoe advanced to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open Sunday with wins over seeds.  Collins annihilated No. 2 seed and former champion Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-0, 6-2 in 56 minutes, with 29 winners against one of the best defenders in women's tennis. Two-time NCAA champion Collins, who will play unseeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia Tuesday, is the first college woman to reach the quarterfinals of a slam since Lisa Raymond made it that far in Australia in 2004.  For more on Collins' win, see this article from the Australian Open website.

On his 21st birthday, Frances Tiafoe defeated No. 20 seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 7-5, 7-6(6), 6-7(1), 7-5 to reach the quarterfinals of a major for the first time. Tiafoe, the 2015 Kalamazoo 18s champion, is the first Kalamazoo 18s champion to reach a slam quarterfinal since Michael Chang, who won Kalamazoo at age 15 in 1987 and the French Open two years later. For more on Tiafoe's win, see this AO website article.

Amanda Anisimova and Sloane Stephens lost their fourth round matches Sunday:

Petra Kvitova[8(CZE)] d. Amanda Anisimova 6-2, 6-1
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova(RUS) d. Sloane Stephens[5] 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-3
Danielle Collins d. Angelique Kerber[2](GER) 6-0, 6-2
Frances Tiafoe d. Grigor Dimitrov[20(BUL) 7-5, 7-6(6), 6-7(1), 7-5

Monday's fourth round matches featuring Americans:

Simona Halep[1](ROU) v Serena Williams[16]
Madison Keys[17] v Elina Svitolina[6](UKR)

At the Australian Open Junior Championships, four of the six US players in action Sunday advanced, with only No. 12 seed Tristan Boyer and lucky loser Sasha Wood suffering defeats.  No. 13 seed Emilio Nava, unseeded Zane Khan, No. 6 seed Lea Ma and unseeded Emma Navarro join Cannon Kingsley[9], Eliot Spizzirri[16] and Toby Kodat in Monday and Tuesday's second round. Six seeds lost in the first round, but none were among the top eight seeds.

Sekou Bangoura kept an impressive streak going for American men today. The former University of Florida star won the title at the $15,000 ITF World Tennis Tour in Naples Florida, becoming the fifth American to win a title in five tournaments held in the United States this month. The 27-year-old from Florida, seeded No. 4, defeated No. 3 seed Pedro Sakamoto of Brazil 7-6(6), 6-0 to join Marcos Giron, JJ Wolf, Brandon Holt and Govind Nanda in the winner's circle.

At the women's $25,000 WTT event in Daytona Beach, top seed Francoise Abanda of Canada fell in the final, with No. 6 seed Anna Bondar of Hungary claiming a  6-7(3), 7-6(5), 7-5 decision after more than three hours of play.

At the women's $25,000 WTT event in Guadeloupe, Quinn Gleason(Notre Dame) and Luisa Stefani(Pepperdine) of Brazil won the doubles title. The top seeds defeated unseeded Vladica Babic(Oklahoma State) of Montenegro and Rosalie Van Der Hoek of the Netherlands 7-5, 6-4 in the final.  No. 2 seed Urszula Radwanska won the singles title, beating No. 6 seed Ana Sofia Sanchez of Mexico 6-1, 2-6, 6-1 in today's final.

The draws for Les Petits As are out, with eight Americans, four boys and four girls, competing in Tarbes France.  Learner Tien is seeded No. 15, while Bolton semifinalist Kyle Kang, Cooper Williams and Joseph Phillips are unseeded.  Bolton semifinalist Katherine Hui is the No. 12 seed, while Kaitlyn Carnicella, who did not play Bolton, is seeded 11th. Qavia Lopez and Liv Hodve, who also did not play Bolton, are the other two US girls in the draw.  Clervie Ngounoue, who did play Bolton, is not in the draw, nor is Brenda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic, who beat Ngounoue in the Eddie Herr 14s final. (Correction: Brenda is in the draw). Brenda's older sister Linda is the top seed in the girls draw. The top seed in the boys draw is Bolton champion Alexander Blockx of Belgium.

Junior Orange Bowl 14s champion Melisa Ercan of Turkey, who was initially in qualifying when the entries were announced, did get into the main draw, but is not seeded. That's odd, because Bolton champion Victoria Mboko of Canada, who Ercan beat convincingly in the Junior Orange Bowl final, is the No. 5 seed.

Top eight girls seeds:
1. Linda Fruhvirtova(CZE)
2. Sofia Costoulas(BEL)
3. Maria Sara Popa(ROU)
4. Anastasiia Gureva(RUS)
5. Victoria Mboko(CAN)
6. Cadence Brace(CAN)
7. Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva(AND)
8. Kristyna Tomajkova(CZE)

Top eight boys seeds:
1. Alexander Blockx(BEL)
2. Branko Djuric(SRB)
3. Maxim Zhukov(RUS)
4. Mihai Alexandru Coman(ROU)
5. Yaroslav Demin(RUS)
6. Patrick Schoen(SUI)
7. Georg Eduard Israelan(GER)
8. Marc Majdandzik(GER)

Live scoring is available at Tennis Ticker.  Live streaming is available at the tournament website.

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