Top Two Girls Seeds Ousted in Grade 1 Roehampton First Round; Xu, Rojas Win ITF Junior Circuit Singles Titles; Sixteen Americans Kick Off Wimbledon Main Draw Monday

Roehampton top seed Emma Navarro and No. 2 seed Qinwen Zheng of China got only one match on grass in preparation for the Wimbledon Junior Championships, with both losing in three sets today in the first round of the ITF Grade 1 tournament.

Navarro, No. 4 in the current ITF Junior rankings, lost to 18-year-old British qualifier Sasha Hill 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 and Zheng, No. 8 in the ITF Junior rankings, lost to Thasaporn Naklo of Thailand 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(4). French Open girls doubles champions Navarro and Chloe Beck, who also lost in the first round of singles today, are the No. 5 seeds this week in doubles, while Zheng is seeded No. 1 in doubles with Diane Parry of France.  US girls went 7-4 today in singles, with qualifier Alexandra Yepifanova, Robin Montgomery, Alexa Noel[8], Savannah Broadus, Hurricane Tyra Black[5], Katrina Scott and Elli Mandlik advancing; qualifier Charlotte Owensby lost to British wild card Holly Fischer 6-1, 6-2 and Abigail Forbes lost to No. 3 seed Parry 6-3, 0-6, 6-4.

All three US boys who are seeded this week won their first round matches: Martin Damm[4], Emilio Nava[7] and defending champion Brandon Nakashima[6]. The other three US boys advancing to the second round are Dali Blanch, Cannon Kingsley, and qualifier Andres Martin. Eliot Spizzirri, Govind Nanda and Tyler Zink lost their opening round matches today.

Live scoring is available for Roehampton via Tennis Ticker.

The list of ITF Junior tournaments played around the world this week is a long one, with two Americans picking up singles titles. At the Grade 4 on grass at the Merion Cricket Club, unseeded 15-year-old Valencia Xu, playing in just her third ITF Junior Circuit event, defeated unseeded Reilly Tran 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 for the girls title. Xu also made the doubles final, with Elise Wagle, with the No. 4 seeds falling to No. 3 seeds Ayana Akli and Nicole Hammond 6-2, 6-4 in the all-USA final.

No. 6 seed Credit Chaiyarin of Thailand, also 15, won the boys title, beating unseeded wild card Logan Zapp 6-4, 4-6, 6-5 ret.  Unseeded Juan Jose Bianchi and Benjamin Kittay won the boys doubles title in another all-USA final, beating No. 3 seeds Jeremie Casabon and Jeffrey Fradkin 6-3, 3-6, 10-8.

The Grade 4 in Aruba was a similarly US-dominated tournament, with the only non-US winner boys singles champion Juncheng "Jerry" Shang, who lives and trains in the US and has the appropriate immigration status for USTA events, but plays for China in ITF Junior Circuit events. The 14s Easter Bowl champion, seeded No. 6, defeated 15-year-old Victor Lilov, the No. 7 seed, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 for his second career ITF Junior Circuit singles title, with his first coming early last month.

Sixteen-year-old Sofia Camila Rojas won her second ITF Junior circuit title, with the No. 3 seed beating No. 7 seed Sonya Macavei 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the final. Macavei and her partner Zoe Hitt, the No. 1 seeds, took the doubles title, defeating No. 2 seeds Noa Dujardin of France and Jordana Ossa 6-3, 6-0 in the final. The boys doubles title went to No. 3 seeds Murphy Cassone and Joshua Miller, who beat unseeded Lilov and Connor Krug 6-2, 7-5 in the final.

Stefan Leustian reached the singles semifinals and won the doubles title at the ITF Grade 3 in Ukraine. Seeded third with Aleksandr Kalinin of Belarus, Leustian defeated unseeded Mikhail Kniazeu of Belarus and Ilya Snitari of Moldova 7-6(3), 7-6(6) in the championship match.

Two former collegians won the ITF World Tennis Tour $15,000 tournaments in the United States this weekend, with former Penn standout Connie Hsu of Taiwan winning the women's singles title in Shreveport Louisiana and former Florida All-American Diego Hidalgo of Ecuador taking the men's singles title in Rochester New York. The 27-year-old Hsu, seeded No. 3, defeated 18-year-old Alycia Parks, the No. 4 seed, 6-2, 6-3 in today's final. Hsu also won the doubles title, with former Oklahoma State star Vladica Babic of Montenegro. The top seeds beat No. 4 seeds Jennifer Elie and Australian Alexandra Osborne 6-2, 6-0 in the final.

Hidalgo, who won last week's $15K in Orlando, ran his winning streak to ten, with the No. 4 seed beating No. 7 seed Strong Kirchheimer(Northwestern) 7-6(8), 7-6(2) in today's final. No. 2 seeds Justin Butsch(LSU) and Sweden's Simon Freund(UC-Santa Barbara) won the doubles title in New York, defeating unseeded Vasil Kirkov and Zachary Svajda 7-5, 7-5 in the final.

Sixteen Americans are in action Monday as the Wimbledon fortnight begins, with Venus Williams against Coco Gauff undoubtedly one of the most intriguing matches on the schedule. Ben Rothenberg caught up with Gauff and her parents at Wimbledon for this New York Times article.

Monday's first round Wimbledon singles matches involving Americans:

Women:
Bernarda Pera v Maria Sakkari(GRE)[31]
Jennifer Brady v Petra Martic(CRO)[24]
Danielle Collins v Zarina Diyas(KAZ)
Kristie Ahn[Q] v Anastasija Sevastova(LAT)[12]
Madison Brengle v Marketa Vondrousova(CZE)[16]
Caty McNally[Q] v Heather Watson(GBR)
Shelby Rogers v Anett Kontaveit(EST)[20]
Jessica Pegula v Mihaela Buzarnescu(ROU)
Madison Keys[17] v Luksika Kumkhum(THA)
Venus Williams v Coco Gauff[Q]
Sonya Kenin[27] v Astra Sharma(AUS)

Men:
Denis Kudla v Malek Jaziri(TUN)
Bradley Klahn v David Goffin(BEL)[21]
Reilly Opelka v Cedrik-Marcel Stebe(GER)
Marcos Giron[Q] v Feliciano Lopez(ESP)[WC]