US Open Junior Championships Singles Wild Cards; Fifteen Americans Begin Play at US Open Monday; Covid Leads to Withdrawal of B18s Doubles Champions Shelton and Kuzuhara; Blanch, Tindera, Smejkal Add ITF Junior Circuit Titles, Czaplinski Earns First

All but two of the singles wild cards have been announced for US Open Junior Championships, which begin Monday September 6 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, after being canceled last year due to the pandemic.

The girls main draw wild cards:

Tatum Evans (16s National champion)
Amelia Honer (USTA Clays 18s champion)
Liv Hovde
Sarah Hamner
Eleana Yu
TBD

The boys main draw wild cards:

Colton Smith (third place 18s Nationals)

Alexander Razeghi (16s National champion)

Ryan Colby (USTA Clays 18s champion)

Aidan Mayo

Aidan Kim

Michael Zheng

Hovde would have received a main draw wild card as the Easter Bowl champion under the criteria of previous years, so it is good to see her receive one, even without any official guarantee of a wild card for that title this year. Hamner earned a wild card into qualifying by finishing fifth this year in San Diego 18s, but she was upgraded to a main draw wild card.

The girls qualifying wild cards:

Yuina Igarash(Japan)
Ariana Pursoo (USTA 18s Clays finalist)
Theadora Rabman
Qavia Lopez

The boys qualifying wild cards:
Kyle Kang (18s Nationals fifth place)
Yu Tanaka (Japan)
Nicholas Heng (USTA 18s Clays finalist)
TBD

I've never understood the reasoning behind the qualifying wild cards for Japanese players, which has been going on for years; I have never learned what the US receives in return. And with two fewer wild cards this year due to the smaller draws, I would think that particular gesture could be suspended, given the circumstances.

Play begins at the US Open on Monday at 11:00 a.m, with 15 of the 43 Americans in action. The top half of both the men's and women's draw are where most of the US players fell, with nearly double the number of Americans (28) set to play their matches on Tuesday.

Monday's first round singles matches featuring Americans:

Ann Li v Kristina Kucova[Q](SVK)

Madison Keys v Sloane Stephens

Coco Gauff[21] v Magda Linette(POL)

Alycia Parks[WC] v Olga Danilovic[Q](SRB)

Emma Navarro[WC] v Christina McHale

Danielle Collins[25] v Carla Suarez Navarro(ESP)

Bernarda Pera v Tamara Zidansek(SLO)

Frances Tiafoe v Christopher Eubanks[Q]

John Isner[19] v Brandon Nakashima[WC]

Sam Riffice[WC] v Grigor Dimitrov[15](BUL)

Marcos Giron v Antoine Hoang[Q](FRA)

Spizzirri and Zink won the US Open boys doubles title in 2019

The doubles draws were released this evening, and I noticed that USTA Kalamazoo 18s champions Ben Shelton and Bruno Kuzuhara were not in the men's draw. A short time later, the University of Florida twitter account reported that Shelton was withdrawn due to "Covid-19 protocols". Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech) and Bjorn Fratangelo will assume that wild card.

2019 US Open boys doubles champions Eliot Spizzirri(Texas) and Tyler Zink(Georgia/Oklahoma State) were among those receiving wild cards. The others are Mitchell Krueger and Michael Mmoh, Robert Galloway(Wofford) and Alex Lawson(Notre Dame), Sam Querrey and Steve Johnson(USC), Evan King(Michigan) and Hunter Reese(Tennessee) and Jackson Withrow(Texas A&M) and Nathaniel Lammons(SMU).

The women's doubles wild cards went to Usue Arconada and Whitney Osuigwe, Hailey Baptiste and Emma Navarro(Virginia), Madison Brengle and Claire Liu, Lauren Davis and Ingrid Neel(Florida), 2021 NCAA champions Makenna Jones and Elizabeth Scotty of North Carolina, 18s National champions Ashlyn Krueger and Robin Montgomery and Sania Mirza and CoCo Vandeweghe.

There were 19 ITF Junior Circuit events in addition to the J1 in College Park that I covered, with Americans capturing four singles titles. 

Three of those went to girls who had won titles earlier this month. Seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Tindera, who won last week in El Salvador, took the title this week at the J5 in Panama. Tindera, the No. 4 seed, defeated No. 5 seed Carolina Reynoso of the Dominican Republic 6-3, 6-0 in the final.  

Seventeen-year-old Lara Smejkal, who won a J4 last week in Slovenia, added another there this week. The No. 6 seed, Smejkal defeated No. 9 seed Panna Bartha of Hungary 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 in the final. 

Sixteen-year-old Krystal Blanch won her second J3 title of the month in Spain, after winning earlier in Poland. Blanch, the No. 2 seed, defeated No. 8 seed Celine Simunyu of Ireland 6-3, 6-4 in the final. 

Tommy Czaplinski won his first ITF title this week at the J5 in Panama, with the unseeded 16-year-old beating No. 8 seed Julian Alonso of Spain 6-3, 6-2. He also reached the doubles final, with partner Wil Jenkins of Great Britain.