My Recap of ITF J300 College Park; 18 Americans Begin US Open Junior Qualifying Thursday; US Open Singles Success Continues for Americans; Ngounoue and Montgomery Oust No. 7 Seeds in Women's Doubles

If you didn't have the opportunity to read my daily coverage of last week's ITF J300 in College Park, check out my wrap-up, published today, at the Tennis Recruiting Network. Both College Park champions--Emerson Jones and Iliyan Radulov--have reached the quarterfinals at the J300 in Canada this week, so they are certainly demonstrating they are serious contenders at the US Open Junior Championships, which begin Sunday. The ITF preview of the Junior Championships is here.

For the first time that I'm aware of, the qualifying for US Open Junior Championships will be Thursday and Friday, rather than Friday and Saturday. The qualifying, which for many years was on the practice courts outside the gates of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, is now at the Cary Leeds Center in the Bronx. Play begins at 10 a.m. Thursday with 12 US girls and six US boys hoping to make their way to Flushing Meadows for the first round of play Sunday.

With the last-minute withdrawals, there are always changes in the wild card allocations, and this year, both Thea Frodin and Capucine Jauffret received qualifying wild cards that were not previously announced. Shannon Lam moved into qualifying on her own, freeing up one wild card and one wild card was reserved.

The other US girls in qualifying are wild cards Julieta Pareja, Nancy Lee and Annika Penickova, Jessica Bernales, Kaitlyn Rolls[10], Anya Murthy[11], Piper Charney[16] and National 18s doubles champions Olivia Center and Kate Fakih. Center and Fakih lost their main draw women's doubles match 6-0, 6-3 to No. 6 seeds Taylor Townsend and Leylah Fernandez of Canada this afternoon, so they will not have any time to process that experience before returning to junior competition.

The US boys in qualifying are wild cards Carel Ngounoue, Nikita Filin, Stiles Brockett, Jagger Leach and Calvin Baierl, with Andrew Delgado getting in on his own ranking.  I'm not sure what happened to Matthew Forbes, who was announced as a qualifying wild card as the consolation champion in Kalamazoo, but is not in the qualifying draw; he may have received a main draw wild card.

Two players who were in US Open junior qualifying but are still competing in Thursday's quarterfinals of the singles in Canada, Isabelle Lacy of Great Britain and Carlo Caniato of Italy, will receive special exemptions into the main draw.

Teenage doubles teams got their opportunity to test their games against the best today, and although three of the four came up short, they gained valuable experience playing in the main draw of the US Open.

Kalamazoo 18s champion Alex Frusina and Adhithya Ganesan had their winning streak snapped at 11 matches, with Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia and Tallon Greikspoor of the Netherlands getting a 6-4, 6-4 victory. Obviously nervous at the start, the 17-year-olds found their form midway through the first set, with Ganesan's serve particularly effective throughout the match. If they receive a wild card into the junior championships, they should be a formidable team against any of their peers.

I mentioned Fakih and Center's loss to Townsend and Fernandez earlier; they lost the first eight games before they finally got a hold of serve, but were more competitive the rest of the way.

2022 Kalamazoo 18s champions Ethan Quinn and Nicholas Godsick gave the 2019 US Open champions all they could handle, but Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal of Colombia earned a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 victory. Farah and Cabal have announced their retirement at the end of the year, so this is their final slam.

Robin Montgomery and Clervie Ngounoue were given wild cards in both singles and doubles, with Ngounoue receiving her singles wild card for winning the 2023 USTA National 18s title. Neither played well in their opening round losses in singles, but they earned an impressive win today, beating No. 7 seeds Ena Shibahara and Shuko Aoyama  7-6(8), 3-6, 6-3. Montgomery won the USTA National 18s and US Open girls doubles titles in 2021 with Ashlyn Krueger. Ngounoue won the USTA National 18s doubles title with Reese Brantmeier last year.

Thursday's complete order of play is here.

Wednesday's second round matches results of Americans:

Coco Gauff[6] d. Mirra Andreeva(RUS) 6-3, 6-2
Elise Mertens[32](BEL) d. Danielle Collins 3-6, 7-6(7), 6-1
Kaja Juvan[Q](SLO) d. Lauren Davis 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3
Bernarda Pera d. Xiyu Wang(CHN) 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2
Taylor Townsend d. Beatriz Haddad Maia[19](BRA) 7-6(1), 7-5
Jennifer Brady d. Magda Linette[24](POL) 6-1, 2-6, 6-2

Frances Tiafoe[10] d. Sebastian Ofner(AUS)] 6-3, 6-1, 6-4
Ben Shelton d. Dominic Thiem(AUT) 7-6(1), 1-0 ret.
Taylor Fritz[9] d. Juan Pablo Varillas(PER) 6-1, 6-2, 6-2
Borna Gojo[Q](CRO) d. Mackenzie McDonald 6-3, 6-4, 6-4
Benjamin Bonzi[WC](FRA) d. Christopher Eubanks[28] 7-6(6), 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(7)
Tommy Paul[14] d. Roman Safiullin(RUS) 3-6 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-3

Thursday's second round matches featuring Americans:

Madison Keys[17] v Yanina Wickmayer[LL](BEL)
Jessica Pegula[3] v Patricia Tig(ROU)
Sofia Kenin v Daria Kasatkina[13](RUS)
Sachia Vickery[Q] v Greet Minnen[Q](BEL)
Peyton Stearns v Clara Tauson(DEN)

Michael Mmoh[WC] v John Isner[WC]
Alex Michelsen[WC] v Nicolas Jarry(CHI)[23]