Banerjee Receives Last Minute US Open Qualifying Wild Card, Out of College Park J1; Smejkal, Tindera Win Junior Circuit Titles; Post-Kalamazoo Podcast with Cracked Racquets

The domino effect when a player withdraws from the US Open can extend down to the junior level, as was demonstrated today when  Aljaz Bedene of Slovenia withdrew from the US Open men's main draw. That moved Taro Daniel into the main draw, and qualifying wild card Ulises Blanch into the qualifying draw on his own ranking, thus freeing up a qualifying wild card. That qualifying wild card was given to Wimbledon boys champion Samir Banerjee, who was the No. 2 seed this week at the ITF J1 tournament in College Park.

Although there were sporadic showers in the area throughout the day, the final round of qualifying came off without any delays. The eight girls qualifying for the main are Kailyn Carnicella, Ena Koike(JPN), Esha Velaga, Eria Jessel, Ariana Pursoo, Bayley Sheinin, Seren Agar and Alice Xu.  At least four lucky losers have also made the girls main draw.

The eight boys qualifying for the main draw today are Rohan Belday, Jonathan Irwanto, Eric Li, Aram Noroozian(CAN), Will Mayew, Ian Mayew, Brayden Michna and Alejandro Jacome Jaramillo(ECU). As of tonight, two lucky losers will receive entry into the main draw.

Play begins at 9 a.m. at the Junior Tennis Champions Center and University of Maryland courts. Draws and Monday's order of play can be found at the ITF Junior site.

Twenty ITF Junior Circuit tournaments were on the calendar this week, and two American girls came away with singles titles. Seventeen-year-old Laura Smejkal won her first ITF singles title at the J4 in Slovenia, with the No. 2 seed defeating qualifier Lea Aschenberger of Germany 6-2, 6-0 in the final. Smejkal also won the doubles title, her second on the ITF Junior Circuit. She and Brina Sulin of Slovenia, the No. 4 seeds, defeated the unseeded Slovakian team of Laura Cilekova and Zofia Cubonova 6-4, 3-6, 10-2 in the final.

At the J5 in El Salvador, 17-year-old Elizabeth Tindera won her first ITF Junior Circuit singles title, with the No. 5 beating top seed Hannah Chambers of Barbados 6-3, 6-3 in the final. Tindera had won her first ITF Junior Circuit title in doubles in Colombia two weeks ago. 

At the J2 in Mexico Yannik Rahman won the boys doubles title, with partner Martin Vergara del Puerto of Paraguay. The No. 2 seeds defeated the fourth-seeded American team of Luca Hotze and Kurt Miller 5-7, 7-6(4), 12-10 in the final. Top seeds Alejandra Cruz and Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez of Mexico won the singles titles.

And finally, at the J5 in Ecuador, 17-year-old Alyssa Perdomo won the doubles, partnering with Colombia's Sofia Loren Muñoz Muñoz for her first ITF Junior Circuit title. The unseeded pair defeated No. 2 seeds Tania Andrade Sabando and Andrea Robles Cuellar of Ecuador 5-7, 6-3, 10-4 in the final.

Eighteen-year-old Clara Tauson of Denmark won the WTA 125 in Chicago today, defeating Emma Raducanu of Great Britain 6-1, 2-6, 6-4. Tauson now at a career-high of 76 in the WTA live rankings. 

Emina Bektas(Michigan), Alexa Glatch and Catherine Harrison(UCLA) qualified for the WTA 250 in Cleveland with wins today.

Quinn Gleason followed up her first WTA Top 100 win yesterday over Anastasia Potapova of Russia with a victory in the final round of qualifying at the WTA 250 in Chicago. The former Notre Dame star defeated Makoto Ninomiya of Japan 6-3, 6-1 to advance to the main draw of a WTA tournament for the first time. Former Kentucky star Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia also advanced to the main draw, and she too will be making her WTA debut.

Alex Gruskin of Cracked Racquets and I rehashed the USTA Nationals, with the bulk of our conversation about the boys in Kalamazoo on this Great Shot podcast.  But we also discussed the girls in San Diego, the US Open wild card selections and the avenue for college tennis players to benefit from the new NCAA framework for name, image and likeness.