Twenty-six American Juniors Begin US Open Qualifying Friday; Gauff Wins Again, Damm and Kodat Get Doubles Victory at US Open

Qualifying for the US Open Junior Championships begin Friday at the Cary Leeds Tennis Center in the Bronx. Seventeen US girls and nine US boys hope to win to matches there in the next two days to reach the main draw at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

The draw gods were not kind to last Saturday's ITF Grade 1 boys finalists, with College Park champion Karlis Ozolins of Latvia and runnerup Micah Braswell playing each other in the first round of qualifying. Ozolins is the top seed, while Braswell was given a wild card. The other American boys in the qualifying draw are Aidan Mayo[WC], Mark Mandlik, Cash Hanzlik[WC], Andrew Dale, Victor Lilov[WC], Bruno Kuzuhara[WC], Andres Martin and Blaise Bicknell.

With more than half the girls field from the US, one match is between two Americans: wild card Karina Miller and No. 3 seed Skyler Grishuk. The other US girls in qualifying are Jenna Defalco, Kimmi Hance[WC], Kailey Evans[13], Valencia Xu[WC], Gianna Pielet, Emma Jackson[11], Madison Sieg, Alexandra Yepifanova[9], Hibah Shaikh, Tara Malik[16], Tsehay Driscoll[WC], Kylie Collins[14], Charlotte Owensby[8] and Qavia Lopez[WC].

Plenty of excitement was generated Thursday at the US Open, with matches postponed from Wednesday cramming the schedule. Qualifier Taylor Townsend earned her first Top 10 win, saving a match point in her 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) win over No. 4 seed and Wimbledon champion Simona Halep late this afternoon on Ashe.

Then came 15-year-old Coco Gauff, who fought past qualifier Timea Babos of Hungary on Armstrong 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. Just two years ago, Gauff was making her junior slam debut at the US Open; now she is the youngest woman to make the third round in New York since Anna Kournikova in 1996. She will play defending champion and No. 1 seed Naomi Osaka of Japan Saturday.

Wild card Kristie Ahn and Sofia Kenin also picked up wins today, as did John Isner, Denis Kudla and Tennys Sandgren.

Kalamazoo 18s doubles champions Martin Damm and Toby Kodat are into the second round after defeating fellow wild cards Tim Smyczek and Mitchell Krueger 7-6(6), 7-5 tonight. They will play No. 12 seeds and French Open champions Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies of Germany in the second round.

San Diego champions Abigail Forbes and Alexa Noel lost to Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland and Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain 7-6(3), 6-2 tonight.

NCAA champions Maxime Cressy and Keegan Smith of UCLA are first up on Friday on Court 5.

Thursday's second round singles matches featuring Americans:

Taylor Townsend[Q] d. Simona Halep[4](ROU) 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4)
Caroline Wozniacki[19](DEN) d. Danielle Collins 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
Coco Gauff[WC] d. Timea Babos[Q](HUN) 6-2, 4-6, 6-4
Jelena Ostapenko(LAT) d. Alison Riske 6-4, 6-3
Sofia Kenin[20] d. Laura Siegemund(GER) 7-6(4), 6-0
Julia Goerges[26](GER) d. Francesca Di Lorenzo[WC] 7-5, 6-0
Kristie Ahn[WC] d. Anna Kalinskaya[Q](RUS) 6-2, 6-3

Alexander Zverev[6](GER) d. Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
John Isner[14] d. Jan-Lennard Struff(GER) 6-4, 7-6(4), 7-6(5)
Nikoloz Basilashvili[17](GEO) d. Jenson Brooksby[Q] 3-6, 7-6(3), 7-5, 6-2
Tennys Sandgren d. Vasek Pospisil(CAN) 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-4
Denis Kudla d. Dusan Lajovic[27](SRB) 7-5, 7-5, 0-6, 6-3

Friday’s third round singles matches featuring Americans:
Serena Williams[8] v Karolina Muchova(CZE)
Sofia Kenin[20] v Madison Keys[10]
Denis Kudla v Novak Djokovic[1](SRB)

At the ITF Grade 1 in Canada, the last American still alive, No. 8 seed Eiliot Spizzirri, lost in the quarterfinals to No. 13 seed Leandro Riedi of Switzerland 5-7, 6-1, 6-1. Riedi will face No. 10 seed Tristan Schoolkate of Australia. In the other boys semifinal, No. 4 seed Valentin Royer of France will play unseeded Francesco Maestrelli of Italy. Maestrelli is also in the draw in the US Open qualifying, so it remains to be seen which match he will play. I would have thought he would be eligible for a special exemption into the US Open, but apparently not. Perhaps he hadn't moved into qualifying as of the freeze date, I'm not sure, but it seems odd that he would have signed in for qualifying while still in the tournament in Canada.

The girls semifinals have Jada Bui of Canada playing Carole Monnet of France, and No. 6 seed Sohyun Park of Korea facing No. 11 seed Elsa Jacquemot of France.