Qualifier Kalieva Defeats Second Seed Black in Belgium G1; Seven Americans Begin French Open Junior Qualifying Thursday; Final 2019 ITA Division I Rankings Don't Have NCAA Singles Champions Finishing No. 1

The girls draw at the ITF Grade 1 in Belgium is down to the last eight, with just three seeds remaining: top seed Leylah Fernandez of Canada, No. 7 seed Annerly Poulos of Australia and No. 8 seed Carole Monnet of France. Among the unexpected quarterfinalists is 15-year-old qualifier Elvina Kalieva who beat fellow American Hurricane Tyra Black, the No. 2 seed, 6-4, 6-0 today in the third round. Kalieva, the 2017 Junior Orange Bowl 14s champion, has not lost a set in her five wins this week. She plays Monnet in the quarterfinals.  Katrina Scott, 14, also advanced to the quarterfinals, beating unseeded Ekaterina Vinnik of Russia 6-1, 6-1 today. The unseeded Scott has lost just three games in her past two matches.

The No. 2 seed in the boys draw was also eliminated today, with Shunsuke Mitsui of Japan losing to unseeded Leandro Reidi of Switzerland 6-1, 6-3. The last US boys still in the draw, Ronan Jachuk, lost to No. 5 seed Keisuke Saitoh of Japan 7-6(5), 6-3. 

Black and Gabby Price, seeded No. 3, have advanced to the doubles semifinals, and will play No. 7 seeds Skyler Grishuk and her partner, Carol Lee of Northern Mariana Islands.

Qualifying for the French Open Junior Championships, which begin Sunday, starts Thursday with three US girls and four US boys in the draws. Charlotte Owensby, Chloe Beck[5] and Charlotte Chavatipon[7] are the American girls looking to win two matches to advance to the main draw. Robin Montgomery, who was the first player out of the main draw, is not in qualifying, so I'm assuming she got in, probably when one of the special exemptions was not used. I believe Monnet is the only player competing in Belgium eligible for a special exemption.

The US boys who made the qualifying for the French Open Junior Championships are Andres Martin, Will Grant[12], Jacob Bullard[15] and Dali Blanch[11].

Sloane Stephens[7] was the only US woman to win her second round match today at the French Open, although Sonya Kenin did advance to the third round when Bianca Andreescu of Canada withdrew before their second round match Thursday. US women in action in the second round on Thursday are Amanda Anisimova, Serena Williams[7], Madison Keys[14] and Danielle Collins. Taylor Fritz, the only US man remaining in singles, plays Roberto Bautista Agut[18] of Spain.

The final rankings for singles and doubles were released today by the ITA, and because I was working at the NCAA Division III tournament, I did not post last week's team rankings, so they are also included. Both team champions finished in the No. 1 spots, but the only individual No. 1 who won the NCAA title are men's doubles champions Maxime Cressy and Keegan Smith of UCLA. Katarina Jokic of Georgia finished ahead of Estela Perez-Somarriba of Miami, who beat her in the NCAA final. Men's singles champion Paul Jubb finished third and UCLA's Gabby Andrews and Ayan Broomfield, the women's doubles champions, finished second.

Click on the headings to go to the full list of ITA rankings.

Final 2019 Women’s Division I Team Top 10:
1. Stanford
2. Georgia
3. North Carolina
4. Duke
5. South Carolina
6. Pepperdine
7. UCLA
8. Vanderbilt
9. Texas
10. Washington

Final Women’s Division I Singles Top 10:
1. Katarina Jokic, Georgia
2. Estela Perez-Somarriba, Miami
3. Kate Fahey, Michigan
4. Ingrid Martins, South Carolina
5. Makenna Jones, North Carolina
6. Fernanda Contreras, Vanderbilt
7. Alexa Graham, North Carolina
8. Kelly Chen, Duke
9. Sophie Whittle, Gonzaga
10. Michaela Gordon, Stanford

Final Women’s Division I Doubles Top 5:
1. Mia Horvit and Ingrid Martins, South Carolina
2. Gabby Andrews and Ayan Broomfield, UCLA
3. Angela Kulikov and Rianna Valdes, USC
4. Alana Smith and Anna Rogers, North Carolina State
5. Janet Koch and Nina Khmelnitckaia, Kansas

Final 2019 Men’s Division I Team Top 10:
1. Texas
2. Wake Forest
3. Ohio State
4. Florida
5. Virginia
6. Baylor
7. North Carolina
8. USC
9. Mississippi State
10. TCU

Final Men’s Division I Singles Top 10:
1. Nuno Borges, Mississippi State
2. JJ Wolf, Ohio State
3. Paul Jubb, South Carolina
4. Alex Rybakov, TCU
5. Carl Soderlund, Virginia
6. Christian Sigsgaard, Texas
7. Oliver Crawford, Florida
8. Yuya Ita, Texas
9. Brandon Holt, USC
10. Petros Chrysochos, Wake Forest

Final Men’s Division I Doubles Top 5:
1. Maxime Cressy and Keegan Smith, UCLA
2. Sven Lah and Jimmy Bendeck, Baylor
3. Nuno Borges and Strahinja, Mississippi State
4. Mazen Osama and Patrick Kaukovalta, Alabama
5. Timo Stodder and Preston Touliatos, Tennessee

Tennis Recruiting Network spoke with coaches about the new Super Regional format this year and in this article there are a variety of views about the pros and cons of reducing the number of finals site teams from 16 to 8.