Top Girls Seed Jimenez Kasintseva Falls in French Open Second Round; Three American Juniors Advance in Doubles; Collins and Kenin Meet Wednesday for Spot in Semifinals

On Monday, the French Open Junior Championships lost Harold Mayot, the boys's No. 1 seed and Australian Open champion in the second round and on Tuesday, the girls No. 1 seed and Australian Open champion Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva suffered the same fate, with 18-year-old Alina Charaeva of Russia defeating the 15-year-old from Andorra 7-5, 2-6, 6-3.

Jimenez Kasintseva was one of nine girls seeds who did not make the round of sixteen, but the only one who lost in second round action today. No. 9 seed Alexandra Vecic of Germany was on the ropes against Ellie Coleman, the only American to advance to the second round in singles, but the 18-year-old Vecic came back from 6-2, 3-1 down to claim a 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-2 victory. Coleman played well in the first set, Vecic did not, but once she saved two break points serving at 1-3 in the second set, Vecic raised her level, and was able to dictate most of the points for the remainder of the match. 

Only six of the 16 boys seeds advanced to the third round, with No. 4 seed Natan Rodrigues of Brazil falling to Alex Barrena of Argentina 6-2, 6-1 and No. 5 seed Hanwen Li of China going out to Lilian Marmousez of France 6-2, 6-0. No. 12 seed Jeffrey Von Der Schulenburg of Switzerland lost to Luca Nardi of Italy 6-3, 6-2 and No. 11 seed Khololwam Montsi of South Africa lost to Felix Gill of Great Britain 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3.

I had meant to link to this feature article from the BBC yesterday about Stanford freshman Arthur Fery of Great Britain, the No. 9 seed at this week's French Junior Championships, who has advanced to the third round. Fery discusses his French connections, his stellar results on this summer's British Tour, and why he decided to play college tennis in the United States.

Another future collegian is into the boys third round with unseeded Guy Den Ouden of Netherlands set to compete for Pepperdine. Den Ouden will face No. 2 seed Arthur Cazaux of France in the third round Wednesday.

The first round of junior doubles was completed today, with both top seeds failing to advance and three Americans moving into the second round. In girls doubles, Coleman and partner Madison Sieg defeated Ziva Falkner of Slovenia and Matilda Mutavdzic of Great Britain 7-5, 6-2. Bruno Kuzuhara, partnering with Max Wiskandt of Germany, defeated Sebastian Gima of Romania and Lukas Neumayer of Austria 7-6(4), 1-6, 10-5.

Boys doubles top seeds Cazaux and Mayot gave a walkover to their opponents Fery and Gill and girls top seeds Weronika Baszak of Poland and Elsa Jacquemot of France lost to Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain and Guillermina Grant of Uruguay 6-3, 6-3.

In a men's doubles quarterfinal, Tommy Paul and Nicholas Monroe(North Carolina) lost to No. 9 seeds Nikola Mektic of Croatia and Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands 6-4, 6-4. In a women's doubles quarterfinal, No. 9 seed Sofia Kenin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands lost to No. 4 seeds Katerina Siniakova and Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 1-6, 6-4, 6-2.

In a fourth round women's singles match today, unseeded Danielle Collins advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 win over No. 30 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia. Collins, the two-time NCAA champion while at Virginia, was on fire in the first set, and took a 3-0 lead in the second set, but Jabeur adjusted, getting her drop shot working and serving well on the critical points. Collins, who began to look frustrated late in the second set, lost her first two service games in the third set, but broke back each time, and eventually took a 4-2 lead. That didn't last either, but Collins held easily to make it 5-4 and Jabeur double faulted at 30-all to give Collins a match point. Jabeur struck a good first serve that Collins awkwardly and defensively returned, but Jabeur's forehand found the net to put Collins in a Wednesday quarterfinal match against fellow Floridian Sofia Kenin.

Collins and Kenin have played three times, with Collins winning all three matches in straight sets, including early this year in a WTA Australian Open warmup in Adelaide, right before Kenin went on to claim the Australian Open women's title. 

Collins' press conference is here, and highlights of the Collins-Jabeur match are here.

Collins and Kenin are second on Chatrier on Wednesday, with Petra Kvitova and Laura Siegemund opening the women's singles action. In today's women's quarterfinals, 19-year-old Iga Swiatek of Poland continued to roll, beating qualifier Martina Trevisan of Italy 6-3, 6-1. Swiatek will play qualifier Nadia Podoroska of Argentina, who upset No. 3 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-2, 6-4.