Girls Top Seed Out at ITF J5 in Texas; Oviedo Earns First ITF Junior Circuit Title in Nicaragua; Recent UTR Pro Tennis Tour Results
The ITF Junior Circuit's fall hard court swing in the United States began today at a J5 in McKinney Texas. The two lower-level events on this swing have stayed in Texas (they have been in various cities in that state over the years) even as the ITF JB1 which concludes it moved from Tulsa Oklahoma in 2018 and is now an indoor tournament in Nicholasville Kentucky. It is disappointing to see this tournament as a 32 draw, but next week's tournament, a J4 in Corpus Christi, is a 64-player draw, which is what these events have been in the past.
Three of the boys who competed at Les Petits As in France earlier this month played qualifying in McKinney over the weekend; all three lost, but Maxwell Exsted and Darwin Blanch made the main draw as lucky losers and both won their first round matches today.
Kalamazoo 16s finalist Lucas Brown is the boys top seed and will play Blanch in the second round.
The top seed in the girls draw, Sophie Williams, lost to qualifier Ava Bruno 6-2, 7-5 in today's first round. Bruno is one of three qualifiers to advance, as did lucky loser Cenan Liu of Canada.
Last week at the J5 in Nicaragua, Aida Oviedo won her first ITF junior circuit title, taking the singles championship. The 15-year-old from Las Vegas, seeded No. 3, defeated No. 7 seed Maria Araoz-Gosn 6-3, 6-0 in an all-USA final. Leah Kuruville won the girls doubles title, partnering with Anika Maldonado of Guatemala. The top seeds defeated Oviedo and her partner, Linda Segura of the US, the No. 2 seeds, 6-4, 6-0 in the final.
At the J5 in Azerbaijan, 17-year-old Baylen Brown won her first ITF Junior Circuit title in girls doubles, with partner Maria Pukhina of Russia. The No. 3 seeds took the trophy when their opponents retired leading 2-1 in the first set.
Two US girls reached the finals of J3s in Europe. Sonya Macavei, seeded No. 3, lost to top seed Irina Balus of Slovakia 6-0, 6-1 in the final in Spain and Lara Smejkal, the No. 6 seed, lost to No. 8 seed Andrea Obradovic of Serbia 6-4, 6-0 in the final in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This week features the rescheduled J1 in Belgium, which has always been before the French Open in the spring. Two Americans are in the draws: Sebastian Sec and Krystal Blanch. As the 15 seed, Blanch has a bye. Sec won his first round match today. US Open boys doubles champion Coleman Wong of Hong Kong is the top boys seed; Sofia Costoulas of Belgium is the No. 1 girls seed.
It's been over a month since I posted results from the UTR Pro Tennis Tour in the United States, so here's the latest. Marcela Zacarias continues to collect titles and prize money, but others have been able to break through, with the winners receiving $3475, and the finalists $1750. For the results from May through early August, see this post.
WOMEN:
August 23 New York
Tatiana Makarova d. Jessica Livianu 5-7, 7-5, 6-0
August 23 Newport Beach
Marcela Zacarias d. Solymar Colling 6-4, 6-1
August 30 Dallas
Marcela Zacarias d. McCartney Kessler 6-4, 3-6, 6-2
September 6 Bradenton
Sophie Chang d. Anastasia Sysoeva 6-3, 6-2
September 12 Bradenton
Ena Koike d. Anastasia Sysoeva 3-6, 6-1, 6-3
September 12 Dallas
Quinn Gleason d. Marcela Zacarias 7-5, 6-4
MEN:
August 16 Naples
Jake Van Emburgh d. Jorge Panta 2-6, 6-3, 6-3
August 22 Newport Beach
Tristan Boyer d. Raymond Sarmiento 6-3, 6-4
August 23 Naples
Jorge Panta d. Matthew Segura 6-3, 6-5 ret.
August 29 Newport Beach
Tristan Boyer d. Drew Baird 6-3, 6-4
August 30 Dallas
Luc Fomba d. Evan Zhu 7-6(3), 6-7(1), 7-5
September 6 Bradenton
Kiranpal Pannu d. Rubin Statham 1-0 ret.
September 12 Bradenton
Michal Lusovsky d. Michal Schmid 7-6(2). 3-6, 6-2
2 comments:
Does anybody know the idiotic reason UTR Pro tournaments require the solo chair umpire to make ALL line calls without having any line officials? This is beyond stupid. I watched some matches played in Texas and the Referee was smart enough to hide dipping snuff in the official until all matches were completed.
Because UTR pro events are low level events, it is what it is. The economics and supply of enough umps means there will be 1 official per match. The idea is that it eliminates enough of the cheating that the players decide the matches. Unlike juniors where a skilled cheater can win way more matches than their skills should allow. In almost every UTR match with a chair ump, the match results will go as they should. It will be very rare a few bad calls will change the match results.
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