Top Seeds, All Seven Americans Ousted at ITF J500 in Germany; Quarterfinals Set at J100 in Delray Beach; Horovitz Earns First ATP Point; Kypson Reaches Savannah Challenger Quarterfinals

The top seeds in both the girls and boys singles draws at this week's J500 in Offenbach Germany lost in the first round Tuesday, with Gloriana Nahum of Benin defeating Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia and Federico Bondioli of Italy beating Iliyan Radulov of Bulgaria. The 16-year-old Nahum, who is 122 in the ITF junior rankings, defeated Jamrichova, ITF No. 18, 6-4, 6-1. Bondioli, who is No. 29 in the ITF junior rankings and won February's J500 in Egypt, defeated No. 4 Radulov 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Both Nahum and Bondioli also won their second round matches today to make the round of 16. Boys No. 2 seed Yaroslav Demin of Russia also exited in the first round, falling to Max Dahlin of Sweden 6-4, 7-6(6).

Just three Americans reached the second round--Darwin Blanch, Meecah Bigun and Alexia Harmon. Blanch lost 6-3, 7-5 to No. 16 seed Joel Schwaerzler of Austria; Bigun lost 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-3 to No. 15 seed Paul Barbier Gazeu of France and Harmon lost 6-4, 6-1 to Amelia Waligora of Belgium.

Alexander Frusina and his partner, Hoyoung Roh of Korea took out the top seeds in doubles, beating reigning Orange Bowl champions Radulov and Adriano Dzhenev 6-0, 4-6, 10-4 in the first round today.

The quarterfinals are set for Thursday at the J100 this week in Delray Beach Florida, with seven US girls and four US boys still in the hunt for the singles titles.

Top seed Max Exsted will play No. 11 seed Michael Kouame of France; Piotr Andrzejewski will face No. 8 seed Miguel Tobon of Colombia; No. 9 seed Matisse Farzam will play No. 4 seed Bernardo Munk Mesa of Spain and No. 12 seed Abhishek Thorat will face Elias Sumann of Austria.

Top seed Tyra Grant's quarterfinal opponent is Tianmei Wang; No. 13 seed Sophia Webster will face wild card (and Easter Bowl 14s champion) Nancy Lee; Maria Aytoyan will play No. 16 seed Akasha Urhobo and Nicole Okhtenberg will face the only international player left in the girls draw, No. 2 seed Roisin Gilheany of Australia.

Rain has continued to be a problem at the $15,000 men's USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Vero Beach Florida, with seven of the 16 first round matches unfinished when play was postponed today.  Sixteen-year-old wild card Roy Horovitz, making his Pro Circuit debut this week, earned his first ATP point, beating qualifier Miguel Cabrera of Chile 6-3, 6-3 to reach the second round. 

Top seed Diana Shnaider of Russia defeated wild card Whitney Osuigwe 7-5, 6-3 today at the $60,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Charlottesville, and will play Ann Lin in the second round Thursday. Shnaider said in this post-match interview that she will probably not return to NC State for her sophomore year. Qualifier Grace Min beat No. 2 seed Nao Hibino of Japan, who is 300 spots above her in the WTA rankings, 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-3. No. 3 seed Emma Navarro(Virginia) blanked Robin Montgomery 6-0, 6-0.

Patrick Kypson continues to enhance his chances of winning the USTA's Roland Garros wild card race. The former Texas A&M star reached the quarterfinals of the ATP Challenger 75 in Savannah today, beating Evan Zhu(UCLA) 4-6, 6-2, 6-1. Kypson, who plays No. 4 seed Nicolas Kicker of Argentina on Friday, leads in the wild card race, but can be passed by any of the remaining Americans, if they win the title this week: Alex Rybakov, Mitchell Krueger, Martin Damm, Tristan Boyer and Bjorn Fratangelo.