My Recap of Wimbledon 14U Tournament; Vandecasteele, Baris, Stoiana and Banerjee Reach USTA Pro Circuit Semifinals; Ngounoue Draws Top Seed in WTA Washington DC Qualifying; Wolf and Fritz to Meet in Atlanta Open Semis

The second year of Wimbledon's 14-and-under invitational tournament had its challenges, with bad weather causing a major disruption in the four-day event, but there's no question that two of the world's top players in that age division emerged as champions, despite their zigzagging between clay and grass and back to clay.

Mark Ceban, the boys champion, won Les Petits in January; Luna Vujovic of Serbia, the girls champion, went on to win the European 14s Championships on clay the next week. My article on the tournament, with comments from both Ceban and Vujovic, is available today at the Tennis Recruiting Network.

Five current collegians are through to the semifinals at the three USTA Pro Circuit tournaments, two of whom qualified, with the other three unseeded.

Texas A&M rising junior Mary Stoiana continued her impressive run today at the $60,000 tournament in Dallas, defeating No. 6 seed Himeno Sakatsume of Japan 6-2, 6-3. Stoiana, who has now won five matches including qualifying, will play her third consecutive seed Saturday, No. 2 seed Yafan Wang, a 29-year-old from China. Wang defeated unseeded Makenna Jones(UNC) 6-4, 6-1 in today's quarterfinals. 

Top seed Madison Brengle lost to unseeded Yuliia Starodubtseva(Old Dominion) of Ukraine 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. The surging Starodubtseva, who is 15-5 in 2023, all in $25K and above events, plays unseeded YeXin Ma of China, who defeated No. 8 seed Renata Zarazua of Mexico 6-1, 7-5.

Although there is just one seed and one American in the semifinals, the top two seeds in doubles will face off in Saturday's all-US final, with No. 1 Jamie Loeb(UNC) and Jones taking on No. 2 Sophie Chang and Ashley Lahey(Pepperdine).

Two current collegians will play Saturday for a place in the final at the $25,000 tournament in Edwardsville Illinois, after straight set wins for Michigan State rising sophomore Ozan Baris and qualifier Quinn Vandecasteele, who is entering his fourth year at Oregon.

Baris defeated Kareem Al Allaf(Iowa) 7-5, 6-3, while Vandecasteele, who is having a breakout summer, beat No. 2 seed Naoki Nakagawa of Japan 6-1, 6-4, his 23rd win(including qualifying matches) this summer, against just five losses. It's the second $25K semifinal of the summer for the 19-year-old Baris, who reached the final in Wichita in June, falling to NCAA champion Ethan Quinn(Georgia). 

The other Edwardsville semifinal will feature top seed Aidan Mchugh of Great Britain, who won a three-hour quarterfinal battle with Learner Tien(USC) 7-6(7), 5-7, 6-2, and Shunsuke Mitsui of Japan, who beat Vito Tonejc of Croatia 7-5, 6-2. Mitsui is a rising junior at the University of Tennessee.

At the $15,000 tournament in Pittsburgh, Stanford's Pac-12 freshman of the year Samir Banerjee advanced to his second $15K semifinal of the year with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over No. 3 seed Ignacio Monzon of Argentina. The 19-year-old from New Jersey will face last week's $15K champion in Rochester, No. 6 seed Darian King of Barbados in the semifinals. King took out top seed Kyle Seelig(Ohio State) 6-3, 6-0. 

Wild card Felix Corwin, who was the assistant coach at Purdue last season but is no longer listed as such on the Boilermakers website, defeated No. 4 seed Bruno Kuzuhara, the 2022 Australian Open boys champion, 6-3, 6-4. Corwin's semifinal opponent is unseeded Juan Carlos Aguilar(Texas A&M/TCU) of Canada. Aguilar defeated Jesse Flores(UCF/Miami) of Costa Rica  4-6, 6-1, 6-3.

Wimbledon champion Clervie Ngounoue received a wild card into the WTA 500 Mubdala Citi DC Open qualifying, which begins Saturday in Washington DC. The 17-year-old, who now lives in Orlando, but grew up in DC, plays top seed and WTA No. 37 Anna Blinkova of Russia in the opening round. Ngounoue is expected to be the top seed at the USTA National 18s championships in San Diego, which begins a week from Sunday. Recent NC State graduate Alana Smith also received a qualifying wild card; she will play No. 4 seed Lauren Davis. 

In the ATP 500 qualifying in Washington DC, wild cards were given to North Carolina rising sophomore Benjamin Kittay of Potomac Maryland, recent University of Michigan graduate and All-American Andrew Fenty of Washington DC, Ryan Harrison and Bjorn Fratangelo. 

Storms have delayed the night session at the ATP 250 Atlanta Open, with No. 5 seed Chris Eubanks(Georgia Tech) scheduled to play Aleks Vukic(Illinois) of Australia; No. 7 seed Ugo Humbert of France is in the final quarterfinal, playing defending champion and No. 2 seed Alex de Minaur of Australia.

Earlier today, top seed Taylor Fritz beat wild card Kei Nishikori of Japan 6-4, 6-2 to advance to a first meeting with No. 8 seed JJ Wolf. Wolf, the former Ohio State All-American, defeated former Tulane star Dominik Koepfer of Germany 6-2, 6-3 today to reach his second ATP 250 semifinal of the year and the third of his career.