Chavatipon Advances to Grade 1 Asuncion Bowl Semifinals; Four Americans Reach Grade 4 Semis in Mexico; Quarterfinalists at Claremont $15K Include Jenson Brooksby; Giron Moves On at Dallas Challenger

Sixteen-year-old Charlotte Chavatipon has advanced to the semifinals of this week's ITF Grade 1 in Paraguay, the first time in her career that she has gone past the quarterfinals in ITF Junior Circuit competition. Chavatipon, the No. 12 seed, defeated No. 2 seed Mylene Halemai of France 6-2, 6-4 in today's quarterfinals, her third consecutive straight-sets win.  Chavatipon will face No. 7 seed Ana Luiza Cruz of Brazil. The two other Americans in the quarterfinals, unseeded Madison Sieg and No. 11 seed Tara Malik, lost today, leaving Chavatipon as the last American in singles or doubles this week in Paraguay.

At the Grade 4 in Mexico, three US boys have advanced to the semifinals, although not top seed Max McKennon, who today lost to No. 7 seed Alex Barrena of Argentina 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.  Barrena will face No. 6 seed Daniel Milavsky in one semifinal, with No. 4 seed Jackson Ross and No. 8 seed Marcus McDaniel meeting in the other.  The only US girl to advance to the semifinals is top seed Elaine Chervinsky, who will play unseeded 14-year-old Annabelle Xu of Canada next.

At the $15,000 ITF World Tennis Tour event in Claremont, four Americans have reached Friday's quarterfinals: qualifier George Goldhoff(Texas), Henry Craig(Denver), Jenson Brooksby and Jordi Arconada(Texas A&M).  Goldhoff will play the only seed remaining in the draw, No. 1 Colin Sinclair(Cornell) of the Northern Mariana Islands. Kalamazoo 18s champion Brooksby, who recently signed with Baylor for this fall and received his entry based on his ITF Junior ranking, will face Craig, who beat Brooksby last spring in the final round of qualifying at the Calabasas Futures. Arconada will play Jose Olivares of the Dominican Republic, while the other quarterfinal features qualifier Lucas Poullain, a Florida State senior from France, and Michail Pervolarakis of Greece, a former Portland standout.

At least four Americans have advanced to the quarterfinals of the ATP 110 Challenger at the T Bar M Club in Dallas, with top seed Mackenzie McDonald possibly the fifth. Former UCLA Bruin McDonald, who reached the final last year in Dallas, losing to Kei Nishikori, faces No. 16 seed Dustin Brown later tonight.  The Challenger has been featured this week on Tennis Channel, which is great exposure for that level of the game.

No. 3 seed Reilly Opelka defeated No. 15 seed Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil 6-4, 6-4 and No. 6 seed Bjorn Fratangelo reached the quarterfinals with a 7-6(3), 7-6(2) win over Jared Hiltzik(Illinois).   No. 14 seed Mitchell Krueger advanced to the quarterfinals in his home town, beating Mario Vilella Martinez of Spain 6-2, 6-1 this afternoon. Unseeded Marcos Giron(UCLA) continued his excellent start to the year, beating lucky loser Emilio Gomez(USC) of Ecuador 6-3, 6-4. Giron, already at a career-high of 225 beginning this week, can move into the Top 200 with a win Friday over Krueger.  The other quarterfinalists all have college backgrounds: No. 4 seed Jason Jung(Michigan) of Taiwan, No. 9 seed Dominik Koepfer(Tulane) of Germany and No. 10 seed Brayden Schnur(North Carolina) of Canada.