Kalamazoo Draws; Scott Posts Another WTA Top 100 Win in Concord; Decatur $25K Qualifying Complete; Universal Tennis Announces New National Junior Events This Fall

The draws for the USTA Boys 18 and 16s National Championships in Kalamazoo have been posted, with play beginning on Friday for the 18s, with the top 32 seeds having byes. I provided the list of the Top 32 seeds in last night's post; there were two withdrawals: No. 7 seed Victor Lilov in the 18s and No. 10 seed Roy Horovitz in the 16s. In the 18s, Gavin Young moved to the No. 16 seed, Quinn Vandecasteele to the No. 32 seed and Luke Casper to a 33 seed from unseeded.  In the 16s, Stefan Regalia moved up to 16, Vincent Yang to 32 and Carter Pate from unseeded to a 33.

Links to printable PDF versions of the draws can be found at the ustaboys.com website.

In addition to the ATP 500 Citi Open in Washington DC and the WTA 500 Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose California, there are two other professional events in the US on this week's calendar: another WTA 125, this week in Concord Massachusetts, and another US Pro Circuit men's $25,000 tournament, this week in Decatur Illinois.

Katrina Scott, who is likely to be one of the top seeds at the upcoming USTA Girls 18s Nationals(draws are not out yet), earned her second WTA Top 100 win in as many weeks today in Concord. The 17-year-old wild card defeated No. 5 seed and ATP No. 94 Lauren Davis 7-6(1), 7-5 in the first round. She will play Caroline Dolehide, who beat qualifier Robin Anderson(UCLA) 6-3, 6-4. Yesterday, wild card Lulu Sun, the rising University of Texas sophomore from Switzerland, won her first round match over Kurumi Nara of Japan 6-1, 6-3. Sun will play No. 3 seed Madison Brengle in the second round. Charleston 125 champion Varvara Lepchenko won her first round match over Tatjana Maria of Germany 6-0, 6-3, but Charleston finalist Jamie Loeb lost to Usue Arconada 7-6(11), 2-6, 6-4.

Qualifying for the main draw in Decatur, which begins Wednesday, concluded today, with Americans Eliot Spizzirri(Texas), Nathan Ponwith(Arizona State) and Preston Brown advancing to the main draw. Wild cards went to Blu Baker of Great Britain, Cannon Kingsley(Ohio State), Govind Nanda(UCLA) and Alfredo Perez(Florida). The top seeds are Australia's Jason Kubler, who won the Lexington Challenger last week, and Sasikumar Mukund of India.

Wild card Claire Liu has advanced in San Jose, beating Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

In Washington DC, wild card Brandon Nakashima(Virginia) celebrated his 20th birthday with another win, beating Alexei Popyrin of Australia 6-3, 6-3. Wild card Jenson Brooksby(Baylor) avenged his Hall of Fame Open final loss to Kevin Anderson(Illinois) 7-6(4), 6-3 yesterday. Other Americans advancing to the second round include Denis Kudla, Mackenzie McDonald(UCLA), who beat Nick Kyrgios of Australia 6-4, 6-4, Tennys Sandgren(Tennessee), Steve Johnson(USC), Jack Sock and Marcos Giron(UCLA). Giron lost today in the second round, to No. 7 seed Cameron Norrie(TCU) of Great Britain 6-4, 6-3.  Sebastian Korda, the No. 12 seed, won his second round match, beating Vasek Pospisil of Canada 7-5, 6-4.

Universal Tennis has announced a new national junior competition called the Junior National Pathway, which will begin with regional competitions this fall in 13U, 15U and 17U age divisions. The winners of the 15U and 17U regionals will qualify for the Junior National Championships and College Showcase to be held in Las Vegas at Darling Tennis Center on December 3-8 during ITA Coaches Convention. The regional sites are shown in the screenshot below.  For more information, see this article from Universal Tennis.