USA Teams Advance to Semifinals at ITF 14U World Junior Tennis Team Competition; SoCal Girls and NorCal Boys Claim Battle of Sections Title; Kalamazoo 16s Doubles Seeds; My Cracked Racquets Preview of USTA Nationals

Two routine doubles victories put the USA's girls and boys teams into Friday's semifinals at the ITF World Junior Tennis 14U team event in Prostejov Czech Republic, despite losses by both of their No. 1 singles players. 

The third-seeded boys beat No. 4 seed Korea 2-1, with Jack Kennedy getting 39-minute 6-0, 6-0 win over Gyeom Do at No. 2 singles, but Keaton Hance lost to Se Hyuk Cho, the Wimbledon 14U champion this year, 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-4. Kennedy and Hance had no trouble in the deciding doubles match however, taking that contest from Do and Cho 6-2, 6-2. 

The second-seeded girls got a win at No. 2 singles from Capucine Jauffret, who beat unseeded Brazil's Pietra Rivoli 6-1, 6-1. But Shannon Lam, who had been rolling through her round robin matches, lost at No. 1 singles to Victoria Barros 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.  As with the boys, the deciding doubles wasn't tense, with Lam and Jauffret defeating Leticia Marangoni and Barros 6-2, 6-2.

The girls will face No. 4 Germany in Friday's semifinals; the top seeds from the Czech Republic will play No. 3 seeds Slovakia in the other semifinal.

The boys draw was not nearly as predictable, with No. 8 seed Kazakhstan facing No. 2 seed Germany in one semifinal and the US boys taking on unseeded Switzerland in the other.

For more on the US girls win today and comments from captain Kathy Rinaldi, see this article from the ITF Junior website. The boys article, focusing on the German team, is here.

Live streaming and scoring can be found here.

In another major team competition here in the United States, the USTA Battle of the Sections, a revamped event that now includes both 16s and 18s, concluded on Wednesday in Claremont California and Grand Rapids Michigan.

The Northern California boys, seeded No. 3 defeated top seed Southern California 8-4 to take the title, with rain forcing the final day of competition inside.  Top-seeded Southern California  defeated No. 4 seed Texas 10-2 to claim the girls title.

Players get in some last-minute practice Thursday on Courts 4&5
Play begins 8 a.m. Friday for B18s

The Kalamazoo 16s doubles draws are out, with first round matches scheduled for late Saturday afternoon. (The 18s doubles draw is here; they play two rounds on Friday afternoon).

The top 16 seeds in 16 doubles:

1. Matthew Forbes and Chase Fralick

2. Mitchell lee and Cooper Woestendick

3. Cole Henceroth and Nicholas Snyder

4. Ian Mayew and Oliver Narbut

5. Stiles Brockett and Cassius Chinlund

6. Krish Gupta and Karan Rayhavendra

7. Declan Galligan and Cyrus Mahjoob

8. Evan Burnett and Cooper Han

9. Joseph Oyebog and Paris Pouatcha

10. Maximus Dussault and Maxwell Exsted

11. Dylan Jaen and Jake Kennedy

12. Alex Feies and Jon Gamble

13. Aidan Atwood and Jimin Jung

14. Augustin Miramontes and Cayden Wang

15. Krish Arora and Rudy Quan

16. Ilyas Fahim and Nicholas Patrick

My Kalamazoo preview article will go up first thing Friday at the Tennis Recruiting Network, and today I did a preview of Kalamazoo/San Diego for the Great Shot Podcast with Alex Gruskin of Cracked Racquets, which is available now. 

Live streaming will again be available this year at Stowe Stadium, thanks to Tennis Analytics, and is expanding to include courts 4 and 5. You can find the five streams here.