Six Americans Qualify for US Open Junior Championships; Navarro Top Seed in Girls Draw; Ahn Moves On to Second Week in Women's Singles; Riedi and Jacquemot Win Repentigny Grade 1 Titles

©Colette Lewis 2019--
Flushing Meadows NY--

Three US boys and three US girls qualified for the US Open Junior Championships today at the Cary Leeds Tennis Center in the Bronx, joining 31 other Americans in the main draw, with play beginning Sunday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

Elvina Kalieva defeated Kailey Evans, also of the US, 6-2, 7-5; Skyler Grishuk will make her main draw junior slam debut after a 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 win over Martyna Kubka of Poland and Alexandra Yepifanova advanced with a 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over Jiangxue Han of China.

The US boys advancing are Blaise Bicknell, who beat Blu Baker of Great Britain 6-4, 7-5; wild card Cash Hanzlik, who defeated Roman Burruchago of Argentina 6-2, 6-1 and Kalamazoo 16s finalist Aidan Mayo, who came back to beat Stefan Storch of Australia 1-6, 7-6(2), 6-3.

Emma Navarro is the top seed in the US Open girls draw, with Diane Parry of France No. 2 and Alexa Noel No. 3.  Hurricane Tyra Black[8] and Abigail Forbes[13] are the other seeded American girls.

Seeded US boys are No. 3 Martin Damm, No. 6 Toby Kodat and No. 10 Brandon Nakashima.

The USTA National 18s champions have both decided to play the juniors after losing in the first round of the main draw in singles. Katie Volynets, who did not need a wild card because she got in via her WTA ranking, and Zachary Svajda, who is using the junior wild card that goes to the National 18s winner.

Emilio Nava, who did not enter but was given a wild card, was the source of a problem with the initial draw, which had him facing top seed Shintaro Mochizuki of Japan, the Wimbledon boys champion. As the No. 9 ranked player in the ITF junior rankings, Nava would be seeded in any possible scenario, so the boys draw will probably have to be revised.

I didn't go to junior qualifying today, opting instead to watch some of the juniors and former collegians at the USTA BJKNTC. I didn't get there in time to see much of the second round doubles match between Kalamazoo 18s champions Toby Kodat and Martin Damm and French Open champions Andreas Mies and Kevin Krawietz of Germany, but I did manage to attend their press conference after their 6-2, 7-5 loss.

Damm was candid about the difference between the wild card team of Mitchell Krueger and Tim Smyczek they faced in the first round, and the German team.

"I think the first round showed that we could hang with these guys," Damm said. "Obviously they are not doubles guys, they're singles guys, but still they're better than us. So beating them gave us a lot of confidence. We knew these guys won French Open, and they are an actual doubles team. We had our chances early on; we were up 1-0 two break points, had some break points to break back, but we let the first set slip away. Second set, same thing. We had a break point to go up 5-3, but they played a good point. At 5-all, I guess the nerves got to us."

Damm said the speed of the game at this level was something they had to get accustomed to in a hurry.

"First of all, there are way better players here," Damm said, in contrasting the experience in New York to that of Kalamazoo. "It's all a lot faster. The problem solving is also a lot faster, and one thing was getting used to it. They serve better, they know what they're doing in those tight situations. So I guess getting used to that, adapting to that was the hardest part."

Damm, 15, and Kodat, 16, are the youngest team to win a men's doubles match at the US Open according to the USTA.

Coco Gauff's run at the US Open came to an end tonight against top seed and defending champion Naomi Osaka of Japan, 6-3, 6-0, but the feel-good stories for American women continued nonetheless, with qualifier Taylor Townsend and wild card Kristie Ahn advancing to the round of 16 with straight-sets wins today.  Townsend defeated unseeded Sorana Cirstea of Romania 7-5, 6-2, backing up her second round win over Simona Halep by continuing her commitment to serve and volley tennis.  She will play No. 15 seed Bianca Andreescu of Canada Monday.

The 27-year-old Ahn, who had not won a main draw match at a slam prior to this week, beat former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 7-5 and will play Belgian Elise Mertens, the No. 25 seed, on Labor Day. Ben Rothenberg spoke to Stanford graduate Ahn and her parents about their differences of opinion regarding the significance of her excelling at tennis in this article for the New York Times.

While there are four US women still alive in singles, American men are done after today's third round. John Isner and Tennys Sandgren both lost today.

Saturday’s third round singles matches featuring Americans:

Naomi Osaka[1](JPN) d. Coco Gauff[WC] 6-3, 6-0
Taylor Townsend[Q] d Sorana Cirstea(ROU) 7-5, 6-2
Kristie Ahn[WC] d Jelena Ostapenko(LAT) 6-3, 7-5

Marin Cilic[22](CRO) d. John Isner[14] 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-4
Diego Schwartzman[20](ARG) d. Tennys Sandgren 6-4, 6-1, 6-3

Sunday’s third round women's singles matches featuring Americans:
Serena Williams[8] v. Petra Martic[22](CRO)
Madison Keys[10] v Elina Svitolina[5](UKR)

Sunday's first round girls singles matches featuring Americans:
Emma Navarro[1] v Hong Yi Cody Wong(HKG)
Gabriella Price[WC] v Helene Pellicano(MLT)
Allura Zamarripa[WC] v Antonia Samudio(COL)
India Houghton[WC] v Qinwen Zheng[5](CHN)
Natasha Subhash[WC] v Jessica Bouzas Maneiro(ESP)
Chloe Beck v Melodie Collard(CAN)
Katie Volynets v Carole Monnet(FRA)(removed from initial oop)
Katrina Scott[WC] v Alina Charaeva[10](RUS)
Alexa Noel[3] v Darja Semenistaja(LAT)

Sunday's first round boys singles matches featuring Americans:

Tyler Zink v Harold Mayot[7](FRA)
Alexander Bernard[WC] v Arthur Cazaux(FRA)
Dali Blanch[WC] v Arthur Fery(GBR)
Martin Damm[3] v Stijn Pel(NED)
Cannon Kingsley v Wojciech Marek(POL)
Ronald Hohmann[WC] v Jiri Lechecka[15](CZE)
Eliot Spizzirri v Matteo Arnaldi(ITA)
Ronan Jachuck[WC] v Thiago Tirante[5](ARG)

The ITF Grade 1 in Canada concluded today, with No. 13 seed Leandro Riedi of Switzerland defeating No. 4 seed Valentin Royer of France 6-0, 3-6, 6-4 for the boys title and No. 7 seed Elsa Jacquemot of France defeating Carole Monnet, also of France, 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 to take the girls title.

Top seeds Gauthier Onclin of Belgium and Valentin Royer of France defeated No. 5 seeds  Leandro Riedi and Dominic Stricker of Switzerland and 6-4, 2-6, 10-6 for the boys doubles title, while
No. 8 seeds Aubane Droguet and Selena Janicijevic of France beat No. 4 seeds Zhuoxuan Bai of China and Jacquemot 6-2, 6-0 to earn the girls doubles championship.