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Friday, January 31, 2020

Ngounoue, Razeghi Reach Singles Semis and Doubles Finals at Les Petits As; Junior Finals Set at Australian Open; Nava Advances to Weston $25K Semifinal

No. 5 seeds Clervie Ngounoue and Alexander Razeghi posted big wins at today's Les Petits As quarterfinals, taking out the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds. Ngounoue defeated top seed Nikola Bartunkova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-2, while Razeghi came from behind to beat No. 2 seed Martin Landaluce of Spain 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Ngounoue, who has not lost more than four games in any set this week in Tarbes, takes on No. 3 seed Weronika Ewald of Poland for a place in the final. Ewald defeated German qualifier Josy Daems 7-5, 6-3. There are no seeds left in the bottom half, after the Czech Republic's Brenda Fruhvirtova, who should have been seeded, defeated No. 13 seed Sarah Iliev of France 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-3. Fruhvirtova will face unseeded Hannah Read of Great Britain, who beat Tamara Kostic of Austria 6-2, 7-6(4).

Razeghi's opponent in the semifinals is unseeded Janis Simmen of Switzerland, who beat No. 4 seed Petr Brunclik of the Czech Republic 6-0, 6-2. In the top half semifinal, No. 3 seed Oleksandr Ponomar of Ukraine will face No. 1 seed Atakan Karahan after both breezed through their quarterfinal matches.

Ngounoue and Razeghi also advanced to Saturday's doubles finals after posting doubles wins after their singles victories. Ngounoue and Brooklyn Olson, the No. 4 seeds, defeated unseeded Sophya Devas and Mingge Xu of Great Britain 6-3, 6-1 and will play the unseeded team of Ena Koike and Sara Saito in the final. Olson won the Bolton doubles title last week with Mia Slama.

Razeghi and Mitchell Lee, also the No. 4 seeds, advanced to the doubles final with a 1-6, 7-5, 10-5 win over the unseeded team of Landaluce and Rafael Segado Esteve of Spain. Last week's champions in Bolton will face the unseeded team of Luis Garcia Paez of Spain and Gabriel Ghetu of Romania for the title Saturday.

The Australian Open junior finals are tonight, with a boys champion from France guaranteed. Top seed Harold Mayot defeated unseeded Timo Legout, also of France, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 and will take on No. 5 seed Arthur Cazaux, who also came back from a set down to beat No. 12 seed Karlis Ozlins 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. Cazaux, who won last week's Grade 1 in Traralgon, is on an 11-match winning streak.

The girls final will feature unseeded Weronica Baszak of Poland, one of the rare junior girls with a one-handed backhand, against No. 9 seed Viktoria Jimenez Kasintseva of Andorra. Baszak defeated Alexandra Vecic of Germany 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 and Jimenez got past No. 13 seed Zhuoxuan Bai 6-3, 6-2.

The doubles titles were decided Friday, with the fourth-seeded team of Alexandra Eala of the Philippines and Priska Nugroho of Indonesia beating the unseeded team of Ziva Falkner of Slovenia and Matilda Mutadzic of Great Britain 6-1, 6-2 in the girls final. No. 5 seeds Nicolas David Ionel of Romania and Leandro Riedi of Switzerland won the boys doubles title, beating No. 6 seeds Ozlins and Mikolaj Lorens of Poland 6-7(8), 7-5, 10-4.

For more on the semifinals and finals, see this article from the ITF website.

Sofia Kenin plays in the women's final against Garbine Muguruza of Spain after the junior singles matches, and another American is also on Saturday's schedule: Kenin's doubles partner this tournament, Bethanie Mattek-Sands. Mattek-Sands and Jamie Murray of Great Britain defeated former US college stars Astra Sharma(Vanderbilt) and JP Smith(Tennessee) of Australia 6-3, 7-6(4). The unseeded Mattek-Sands and Murray face No. 5 seeds Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic and Nikola Mektic of Croatia in the final.

At the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Weston Florida, last year's Australian Open boys finalist Emilio Nava is through to the semifinals. The 18-year-old Nava, a wild card, defeated top seed Javier Barranco Cosano of Spain 7-6(5), 7-6(5) in today quarterfinals, reaching his second semifinal of a $25K this year. Nava will play No. 3 seed Christian Lindell of Sweden Saturday.

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