ITF World No. 1 Junior Tauson Enters Milan Grade A, Fourteen Americans Receive Main Draw Acceptance; Ohio State Men and North Carolina Women No. 1 in USTA/Tennis Channel Poll

photo by Samuel Elias via Unsplash

Acceptances for the Grade A in Milan, one of the biggest tournaments on the ITF Junior Circuit, were released today by the ITF, with the girls field led by World No. 1 and Australian Open champion Clara Tauson of Denmark.  Although boys No. 1 Chun Hsin Tseng of Taiwan has not entered, nor has Australian Open champion and No. 2 Lorenzo Musetti of Italy (something of a surprise given the tournament's location and the fact that Musetti just turned 17), seven of the current boys Top 10 have.

Among those are defending champion and World No. 3 Adrian Andreev of Bulgaria, who has not played a junior event this year, and No. 6 Emilio Nava, who has not played a junior tournament since reaching the Australian Open boys final in January.

In addition to Nava, the six other American boys entered (with their current ITF junior rankings) are: Cannon Kingsley(13), Martin Damm(19), Zane Khan(20), Eliot Spizzirri(26), Toby Kodat(28) and Tyler Zink(35). The ranking cutoff for the boys was 59. US boys in qualifying are Dali Blanch, Jacob Bullard, Andrew Dale, Will Grant, Mark Mandlik, Ronan Jachuck, Andres Martin and Blaise Bicknell.

Aside from Tauson, just one other Top 10 girl is entered: Qinwen Zheng of China.

The US girls receiving direct acceptance into the main draw are Hurricane Tyra Black(13), Emma Navarro(15), Alexa Noel(19), Elli Mandlik(21), Lea Ma(27), Robin Montgomery(60) and Chloe Beck(63). The cutoff for girls was 67.  US girls in qualifying are Charlotte Chavatipon, Charlotte Owensby, Kylie Collins, Skyler Grishuk, Jenna DeFalco, Ellie Coleman, Hibah Shaikh, Katrina Scott, Madison Sieg and Tara Malik.

The tournament is scheduled from May 20-26.

A few Americans have already made their way over to Europe for the clay season, with this week's Grade 1 in France featuring four US boys and two US girls. Unfortunately, two days of rain have prevented the second round of singles from beginning, with No. 2 seed Toby Kodat and No. 5 seed Tyler Zink yet to play a match in the 48-player singles draw. The two US girls, qualifier Rebecca Lynn and Michelle Sorokko, did win their first round matches, as did unseeded Andres Martin. The top seeds are Bu Yunchaokete of China and Anastasia Tikhonova of Russia.

The latest USTA/Tennis Channel Division I poll is out, with the Ohio State men remaining at No. 1 and North Carolina taking over the top spot after Georgia's loss to South Carolina in the SEC tournament final.  The top 16 teams in the men's poll are the same as in this week's ITA rankings, just rearranged, but the women's Top 16 has three different teams, with Michigan, UCF and Miami in the USTA/TC poll, replacing USC, Cal and NC State, all in the ITA's Top 16.

USTA/Tennis Channel Division I Men's Top 16, April 24, 2019
(previous week's rankings in parentheses):
1. Ohio State (1)
2. Wake Forest (2)
3. Texas (3)
4. Florida (4)
5. Mississippi State (9)
6. Virginia (5)
7. Baylor (10)
8. UCLA (6)
9. North Carolina (7)
10. USC (11)
11. Columbia (12)
12. TCU (8)
13. Stanford (14)
14. Tennessee  (16)
15. Illinois (15)
16. Texas A&M (13)

USTA/Tennis Channel Division I Women's Top 16, April 24, 2019
1. North Carolina (2)
2. Georgia (1)
3. Stanford (3)
4. South Carolina (6)
5. Duke (4)
6. Pepperdine (5)
7. Texas (7)
8. Kansas (16)
9. Vanderbilt (8)
10. Oklahoma State (10)
11. Michigan (11)
12. UCLA (13)
13. Florida State (12)
14. Washington (15)
15. UCF (18)
16. Miami (17)