Sieg Takes Out Top Seed at ITF Grade 1 in Paraguay; Cressy's Win Streak Ends at Dallas Challenger; Poor Weather Plagues Claremont $15K

The fourth of the Grade 1s in Central and South America starting off the year is being played this week in Paraguay. After the first two or three, many American juniors returned to the US, at least for a week or two before the Grade 1 Banana Bowl and the Grade A in Porto Alegre in Brazil next week and the week after. But even with many fewer Americans in the draw, there is still news on their results to report this week at the Grade 1 Asuncion Bowl, with 15-year-old Madison Sieg taking out top seed Gabriela Martinez Asensi of Spain 7-5, 6-2 in today's second round. Sieg, the Eddie Herr 16s finalist and Orange Bowl 16s champion last year, had not had a particularly impressive start to the year, getting just two wins total in Costa Rica and Colombia, but with her recent success, she is a dangerous unseeded player to encounter early in a draw. 

The other US girls advancing to the third round are all seeded: Jenna De Falco[10], Tara Malik[11] and Charlotte Chavatipon[12].

In the boys draw, unseeded Blaise Bicknell and wild card Benjamin Kittay advanced to the second round, but both were beaten today.

At the Grade 3 in Auckland New Zealand, five US girls were in the draw, but only top seed Skyler Grishuk was able to advanced to the second round.

The Grade 4 in Mexico has drawn a dozen or so Americans, with Max McKennon and Elaine Chervinsky the top seeds.

There are no women's World Tennis Tour events this week in the United States, but there are two men's tournaments, a $15,000 event in Claremont California and the ATP 110 Challenger in Dallas.

The weather has been abysmal in California, with temperatures barely reaching 50 and rain, with snow in the higher elevations. None of the qualifying matches were played Monday, and two rounds of qualifying are scheduled for today, as well as six main draw singles matches.  The top seed in the tournament is Colin Sinclair (Cornell) of the Northern Mariana Islands, with wild cards going to Texas recruit Siem Woldeab, Winter Nationals champion Ishaan Ravichander, Duke recruit Omni Kumar and Penn recruit Aditya Gupta.

At the Dallas Challenger, the weather is not a factor, with the $135,400 tournament played indoors at the T Bar M Racquet Club.

UCLA senior Maxime Cressy, fresh from his title at the Cleveland Challenger Sunday, had to qualify for Dallas on Monday, which he did, giving him eight wins in eight days, starting with his qualifying win in Cleveland last Monday.  His streak ended today however, in the first round, with Christian Harrison beating him 6-4, 7-6(4).  Wild cards Alex Rybakov (TCU senior) and Evan King(Michigan) both are still alive, with Rybakov beating Stefan Kozlov 6-2, 6-1 in a first round match today and King, who won his first round match Monday, advancing to the third round when No. 5 seed Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia retired after losing the first set 6-3.  Mackenzie McDonald(UCLA) is the top seed, with Ryan Harrison seeded No. 2.

The tournament has attracted some star power in its doubles draw, with John Isner receiving a wild card and playing with Alex Kuznetsov, and Nick Kyrgios teaming up with Dallas area resident Mitchell Krueger. Neither team is seeded and have drawn the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds respectively.