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Saturday, January 29, 2022

Ngounoue Reaches Les Petits As Final, Captures Doubles Championship; Godsick Claims J1 Title in Ecuador; Filin Sweeps J4 Titles for Second Straight Week; Ten Schools Earn ITA Team Indoor Slots; Collins Falls in Australian Open Final

It's been an extremely busy week for junior tennis, and when you throw in the ITA Division I Kickoff Weekend, there's a lot to cover.

Sunday in Tarbes France, Carel Ngounoue will play for the Les Petits As title, after defeating fellow American Keaton Hance 6-4, 7-5. Ngounoue, the No. 10 seed, will face No. 3 seed and doubles partner Thijs Boogaard of the Netherlands in the championship match, after Boogaard made quick work of unseeded Matei Todoran of Romania 6-2, 6-0.

Ngounoue's older sister Clervie reached the girls final at the prestigious 14-and-under tournament two years ago and won the doubles title, which Carel has matched. He and Boogaard, seeded No. 1, defeated unseeded Diego Dedura-Palomero and Niels McDonald of Germany 6-2, 6-3. The only set they lost in their five victories came in their 6-3, 6-7(5), 10-7 semifinal win over Hance and Ford McCollum Friday.

The girls final will feature unseeded Hannah Klugman of Great Britain and No. 3 seed Julia Stusek of Germany.  Klugman continued her impressive play with a 6-2, 6-2 win over No. 5 seed Polina Kuharenko of Belarus, while Stusek came from behind to take out top seed Alena Kovackova of the Czech Republic 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Like Boogaard and Ngounoue, Stusek already has one Les Petits As title heading into the singles final. She and Laura Samsonova of the Czech Republic, also the top seeds, defeated No. 3 seeds Sona Depesova of Slovakia and Alisa Oktiabreva of Russia 7-5, 6-2 in today's girls doubles final.

Julieta Pareja of the United States won the consolation tournament for those losing in the first round. Pareja had the misfortune of meeting Klugman her opening match.

Live streaming of the finals should be available, beginning at 7:30 a.m. Eastern, with the girls final first, followed by the boys.

I usually try to cover ITF J1s that feature multiple Americans throughout the week, but with all the US success in the Australian Open and Les Petits As, I couldn't manage it this week for the tournament in Ecuador.  As has been the case in several major tournaments in South America since the pandemic, the draw size was reduced, this time to 32 from the usual 64.

Nicholas Godsick won the boys singles title, his first on the ITF Junior Circuit on any level. Godsick the No. 2 seed, defeated No. 4 seed Martin Vergara del Puerto of Paraguay 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 in today's final. 

No. 2 seed Luca Udvardy of Hungary won the girls singles title, beating unseeded Madeleine Jessup of Taiwan 6-4, 7-6(4) in the final. Jessup defeated top seed Lucciana Perez Alarcon of Peru in the first round and continued to roll until the final.

Daniella Ben-Abraham reached the girls doubles final, with China's Yichen Zhao. The unseeded pair lost to Udvardy and Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia, also unseeded, 6-0, 6-0 in the championship match.

At the J4 in Costa Rica this week, Nikita Filin won his 18th straight match in a two-week stretch, once again claiming both the singles and doubles titles. The 15-year-old from the Chicago area was the top seed in both draws, beating unseeded Alejandro Arcila of Colombia, who won the Junior Orange Bowl 14s last month, 6-2, 6-1 in the singles final. Filin, who was a wild card entry, partnered with Marko Mesarovic to defeat No. 2 seeds Roy Horovitz and Mexico's Santiago Padilla Cote 6-3, 6-4. Filin had won the doubles title with Horovitz at last week's J4 in Costa Rica.  

Ria Bhakta won the girls singles title, with the top seed coming out on top when No. 3 seed Natalia Perez of Puerto Rico retired trailing 3-1 in the first set. No. 4 seeds Sage Loudon and Brooklyn Olson won the girls doubles title, beating No. 3 seeds Victoria Sasinka and Rose Seccia 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in the all-USA final. Olson won the doubles title at last week's J4 with Perez.

Another US boy swept J4 titles this week, with Ilyas Fahim taking singles and doubles in Iran. The 16-year-old from Virginia, seeded No. 8, defeated top seed Suleyman Deniz Gursoy of Turkey 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-3 to earn his first ITF Junior Circuit singles title. Seeded No. 3 in doubles with Yunes Talavar of Iran, the pair defeated the unseeded team of Ege Altas and Baran Sivasli of Turkey 6-4, 6-0 in the final.

Day Two of the ITA Kickoff Weekend ended with eight of the women's participants at next month's ITA Division I Team Indoor decided, and two of the men's.

Those eight women's teams are Texas, Virginia, Georgia, Southern Cal, Cal, Washington, North Carolina and Auburn. Washington and Auburn were No. 2 seeds in their region, Southern Cal was a No. 3 seed.  Southern Cal's win over No. 1 Baylor was a 4-3 thriller, with freshman Grace Piper clinching for USC at line 5. And No. 1 Virginia just managed to squeeze past No. 2 Stanford, with NCAA singles champion Emma Navarro defeating freshman Connie Ma 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-4 at No. 1 singles to clinch the 4-3 win for the Cavaliers. Washington defeated UCLA 4-3, with Nika Zupancic clinching at line 3 for the Huskies.

The seven other women's teams heading to Madison Wisconsin will be determined tomorrow. We had our first No. 4 over No. 1 result, with Old Dominion beating host Georgia Tech 4-3 in the first round in Atlanta.

The first two men's teams in are Tennessee and Wake Forest, both of whom were No. 1 seeds. Ten more men's participants will be decided Sunday, with the final three regionals getting underway on Sunday and concluding Monday. 

Follow results throughout the next two days here. Cracked Racquets is providing live Red Zone coverage of several regionals on their YouTube Channel

WOMEN:

Texas[1] d. Florida Atlantic[4] 4-0
SMU[3] d. Rice[2] 4-2

SATURDAY FINAL:
Texas[1] d. SMU[3] 4-0


Virginia[1] d. James Madison[4] 4-0
Stanford[2] d. Arkansas[3] 4-2

SATURDAY FINAL:
Virginia[1] d. Stanford[2] 4-3

UCLA[1] d. Cal Poly[4] 4-0
Washington[2] d. Denver[3] 4-3

SATURDAY FINAL:
Washington[2] d. UCLA[1] 4-3

Cal[1] d. BYU[4] 4-0
Vanderbilt[2] d. San Diego[3] 4-1

SATURDAY FINAL:
Cal[1] d. Vanderbilt[4] 4-0

Georgia[1] d. North Florida[4] 4-0
Mississippi State[3] d. Iowa[2] 4-1

SATURDAY FINAL:
Georgia[1] d. Mississippi State[3] 4-1

Baylor[1] d. Kansas[4] 4-1
Southern Cal[3] d. Miami[2] 4-3

SATURDAY FINAL:
Southern Cal[3] d. Baylor[1] 4-3

Central Florida[1] d. UC-Santa Barbara[4] 4-2
Auburn[2] d. Arizona State[3] 4-3

SATURDAY FINAL:
Auburn[2] d. Central Florida[1] 4-0


North Carolina[1] d. UNC-Charlotte[4] 4-0
Tulsa[3] d. Oregon[2] 4-2

SATURDAY FINAL:
North Carolina[1] d. Tulsa[3] 4-0


Saturday first round women's matches (hosts in bold)

Duke[1] d. Nebraska[4] 4-0
Oklahoma[2] d. Furman[3] 4-1

Ohio State[1] d. Oklahoma State[4] 4-1
Tennessee[3] d. LSU[2] 4-0

Florida State[1] d. Illinois[4] 4-3
Florida[2] d. Florida International[3] 4-1

North Carolina State[1] d. Penn State[4] (alt for Iowa State) 4-0
Wake Forest[3] d. Northwestern[2] 4-2

Old Dominion[4] d. Georgia Tech[1] 4-3
Mississippi[3] d. Michigan[2] 4-1

Pepperdine[1] d. Columbia[4] 4-0
Notre Dame[2] d. Colorado[3] 4-1

Texas A&M[1] d. Princeton[4] 4-1
Texas Tech[3] d. South Carolina[2] 4-0

MEN:
Tennessee[1] d. Old Dominion[4] 4-0
Memphis[2] d. Western Michigan[3] 4-2

SATURDAY FINAL:
Tennessee[1] d. Memphis[2] 4-0

Wake Forest[1] d. Michigan[4] 4-3
Notre Dame[2] d. SMU[3] 4-3

SATURDAY FINAL:
Wake Forest[1] d. Notre Dame[2] 4-1

Saturday first round men's matches:

North Carolina[1] d. Northwestern[4] 4-0
Ohio State[3] d. Arizona State[2] 4-0

Virginia[1] d. Ball State[4] 4-0
Georgia Tech[2] d. Middle Tennessee State[3] 4-2

Mississippi State[1] d. Arkansas[4] 4-1
Kentucky[2] d. Alabama[3] 4-0

South Carolina[1] d. LSU[4] 4-1
Duke[2] d. Liberty[3] 4-1

Texas[1] d. Columbia[4] 4-0
Oregon[3] d. Oklahoma State[2] 4-0 

Florida[1] d. Princeton[4] 4-0
Florida State[2] d. UNC Wilmington[3] 4-0

USC[1] bye (Denver[3] drops out, no replacement)
Harvard[4] d. Pepperdine[2] 4-3

TCU[1] d. Portland[4] 4-0
Tulsa[3] d. Wichita State[2] 4-2

Texas A&M[1] d. UCLA[4] 4-0
Arizona[2] d. Texas Tech[3] 4-1

Mississippi[1] d. Oklahoma[4] 4-1
North Carolina State[3] d. Illinois[2] 4-2

Top seed and WTA No. 1 Ashleigh Barty won the women's singles title Saturday at the Australian Open, ending a 44-year drought for her country. Barty defeated two-time NCAA champion Danielle Collins, the No. 27 seed, 6-3, 7-6(2) coming from 5-1 down in the second set to avoid a third set. Collins, who won the NCAA singles titles in 2014 and 2016 will make her WTA Top 10 debut on Monday.  For more on Collins's thoughts on her run to the final, see this article from the Australian Open website.

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