Easter Bowl Grade B1 Acceptances; Lincer and Epps Advance to ITF Grade 2 Semifinals; Fritz Through to Semifinals in Doha; Indoor Champions Top New ITA Division II Rankings
The acceptances for the ITF Grade B1 Easter Bowl were posted today, and, as usual, that list mirrors the acceptances of the San Diego Grade 1 the week before, minus most of the international players.
Juncheng Shang of China and Sean Cuenin of France are playing the Easter Bowl, which is closed to US players, but also can include those international players who have formal immigration status in this country. What's odd about Cuenin's entry is that he is not in the Grade 1 International Open of Southern California the week before.
Shang is one of four ITF Top 10 boys on the Easter Bowl list, which also includes Bruno Kuzuhara, Dali Blanch and Alexander Bernard. Blanch has withdrawn from the IOSC the week prior, so he may not play the Easter Bowl either. Leo Borg of Sweden has also withdrawn from the Grade 1 IOSC.
The girls acceptance list doesn't include any ITF Top 10 players, with the top-ranked players entered the same as the IOSC: Madison Sieg, Alexandra Yepifanova and Elvina Kalieva. Nikita Vishwashe, who has trained in Arizona for many years, is the only international player accepted on the girls side.
The cutoffs for the Easter Bowl are unusually divergent, with the boys cutoff at 263 and the girls at 379.
The acceptances for the Easter Bowl 12s, 14s, and 16s are also posted now on the USTA site, with many of the champions at this week's Spring Individual Championships also making the trip to California for the Easter Bowl.
At this week's ITF Grade 2 in the Dominican Republic, two American girls have advanced to the semifinals, with qualifier Gracie Epps and wild card Olivia Lincer meeting on Friday for a place in the finals.
Epps defeated lucky loser Madeleine Jessup 6-3, 6-3 and Lincer took out wild card Eva Elbaz of France 6-1, 6-0. In the top half, No. 1 seed Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic will play unseeded Marina Stakusic of Canada. The last US boy in the singles draw, Azuma Visaya, lost to No. 5 seed Lui Maxted of Great Britain 6-1, 6-3.
Both Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula lost today in the quarterfinals of the WTA 1000 in Dubai, but Taylor Fritz picked up a big win at the ATP 250 in Doha, defeating No. 4 seed Denis Shapovalov of Canada 5-7, 6-3, 7-5. Fritz's first win over Shapovalov at the ATP tour level puts him in the semifinals against Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia, who defeated No. 2 seed Roger Federer 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 today.
Caty McNally defeated Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-4 last night to reach the quarterfinals and will play wild card Eugenie Bouchard of Canada tonight at the WTA 250 in Guadalajara Mexico. Lauren Davis lost in the quarterfinals today to fellow qualifier Elisabetta Cocciaretto of Italy 6-3, 6-0.
The first ITA Division II rankings since the Team Indoor championships were released today, and unsurprisingly, both champions are perched at No. 1. As with Division I, this is a coaches poll, not computer rankings, but unlike Division I, the rankings include 25 teams, not 50. The full list for men is here and for women is here.
ITA Division II Men's Team Top 10 Rankings, March 11 2021(previous ranking in parentheses)
1. Columbus State (1)
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