My Conversation with USTA National Coach Jose Caballero; ITF J500 Milan Acceptances Include 13 Americans; Joint Reaches W75 Charlottesville Semifinal; Woestendick and Razeghi Play for Vero Beach $15K Doubles Title Saturday

When I travel to major junior tournaments I see many of the same players, families, officials and coaches. In that latter category are the USTA National Coaches, many of whom have been in those positions for many years. One of those is Jose Caballero, a National Coach for men's tennis, and with all the talk last month about the Jose Higueras email criticizing the USTA management and board for their lack of support for Player Development, I thought it might be a good idea to talk to someone on the PD side. Although I'm aware of most of the duties of a USTA National Coach, just from observing them over the years, many people in the junior tennis world aren't quite sure what the job entails. 

So, while at the ITF J300 in San Diego, I sat down with Caballero to discuss how he came to be a coach and a USTA coach, and what his responsibilities are, whether he is traveling or back at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona. We also discussed the impact of the recent budget cuts and why he's unlikely to follow many of his former colleagues now coaching college tennis. The interview appears today on the Tennis Recruiting Network. 

The acceptances for next month's ITF J500 Trofeo Bonfiglio in Milan Italy were released this week, with eight US boys and five US girls getting into the main draw.

The US boys entered are Kaylan Bigun, Cooper Woestendick, Jack Kennedy, Ian Mayew, Alexander Razeghi, Maxwell Exsted, Roy Horovitz and Matthew Forbes. Jagger Leach is next in.

The US girls entered are Tyra Grant, Kaitlyn Rolls, Iva Jovic, Thea Frodin and Shannon Lam. A trio of US girls are first, third and fourth out of the main draw: Kate Fakih, Kristina Penickova and Christasha McNeil. 

As of now, both 2024 Australian Open junior champions, Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia and Rei Sakamoto of Japan, are entered. The tournament, finishing just one week before the Roland Garros Junior Championships, often has fields nearly as strong as those in Paris. The RG acceptance list should be out next week.

Eighteen-year-old Maya Joint of Australia continues to post wins at the top level of the ITF women's World Tennis Tour, advancing to Saturday's semifinals with a 6-3, 6-4 win over No. 7 seed Hanna Chang at the W75 in Charlottesville Virginia. Joint, a University of Texas signee, will face unseeded Luisa Chrico in the semifinals; Chirico defeated No. 4 seed Valentini Grammatikopoulou of Greece 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

In the top half, No. 1 seed Kayla Day will face No. 3 seed Lulu Sun(Texas) of Switzerland. Day defeated No. 8 seed Varvara Lepchenko 7-6(6), 7-5, while Sun got past No. 5 seed Elvina Kalieva 6-2, 3-6, 6-4.

The only American still alive at the Savannah Challenger, No. 6 seed Tristan Boyer, lost in the quarterfinals today to unseeded Maxime Janvier of France 2-6, 6-2, 6-3. Janvier will face qualifier Andres Andrade of Ecuador. The former University of Florida star, a member of the 2021 NCAA championship team, had never reached a Challenger quarterfinal until this week in Savannah.  Former University of Virginia standout Alexander Ritschard of Switzerland, also an NCAA team champion, is the only seed left, at No. 5. He will play Dmitry Popko of Kazakhstan in the top half semifinal.

With Boyer's loss, Nicolas Moreno de Alboran will clinch the USTA Roland Garros wild card, according to Challenger expert Damian Kust, who has been tracking it the past month.

2021 US Open girls champion Robin Montgomery has inserted herself in the conversation for the women's Roland Garros wild card, by using her wild card to reach the third round of the Madrid WTA 1000 this week. Today she beat WTA No. 28 Katie Boulter of Great Britain 1-6, 6-3, 6-4. 2021 USTA National 18s champion Ashlyn Krueger has also advanced to the third round, beating WTA No. 16 Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia 6-3, 6-3.

Four Americans have advanced to the semifinals of the $15,000 men's USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Vero Beach Florida: No. 2 seed Garrett Johns, Will Grant, Victor Lilov and Miles Jones.

Duke senior Johns, the No. 2 seed, defeated wild card Rudy Quan 6-4, 6-4 and will face former Florida Gator Grant, who came back to beat wild card Chad Kissell(Valparaiso) 5-7, 6-2, 6-4. Jones ended the run of qualifier Dian Nedev of Bulgaria 6-3, 6-1 and Lilov, the No. 3 seed, defeated Louisville fifth-year Etienne Donnet of France, the No. 8 seed, 6-1, 6-3. 

Cooper Woestendick and Alexander Razeghi hadn't partnered in doubles before this week, but the two 17-year-olds are rolling through the draw, advancing to the final with a 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 3 seed Miguel Angel Cabrera of Chile and Ivan Marrero Curbelo of Spain. Razeghi and Woestendick, the latter with nine ITF Junior doubles titles, including the Australian Open boys championships this year, beat top seeds Sekou Bangoura(Florida) and Noah Schachter(Texas A&M) 6-3, 6-4 yesterday. They will play the unseeded Jones brothers, Miles and Alex, who defeated another all-junior team of Meecah Bigun and Mitchell Lee 6-3, 3-6, 10-7.

Exsted Reaches Quarterfinals at ITF J500 Offenbach; Joint, Quan Advance to USTA Pro Circuit Quarterfinals; FSU Seeking Masters Student for Tennis Research; SEC, Big Ten, ACC Announce Men's Conference Awards

The quarterfinals are set for the ITF J500 in Offenbach Germany, with 17-year-old Max Exsted advancing to the quarterfinals of a J500 for the first time in his career. Exsted, the No. 11 seed, defeated unseeded Joaquin Guilleme of Nicaragua 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(1) today and will face top seed Nicolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway on Friday. Budkov Kjaer defeated unseeded Samuele Seghetti of Italy 6-0, 6-0 in today's third round. 

Katie Rolls is through to the quarterfinals in the girls doubles, with partner Jeline Vandromme of Belgium, who are the No. 5 seeds.

The majority of the teenagers in action today at the USTA Pro Circuit events in Charlottesville Virginia and Vero Beach Florida lost, but two 18-year-olds have advanced to Friday's quarterfinals.

At the W75 in Virginia, University of Texas signee Maya Joint of Australia defeated No. 2 seed Ann Li 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the quarterfinals against No. 7 seed Hanna Chang. Joint, who started the year by reaching the final round of women's qualifying at the Australian Open, has played nine ITF women's events this year (including a W125) and has made at least the quarterfinals in all of them.  Now inside the WTA Top 250 in the live rankings, Joint can start thinking about Roland Garros and Wimbledon women's qualifying.

Qualifier Akasha Urhobo and Liv Hovde both had to finish their first round matches held over from Tuesday, with Urhobo losing to Kathinka Von Deichmann of Lichtenstein and Hovde falling to No. 8 seed Varvara Lepchenko, both 7-5 in the third.

Of the five US juniors competing in the second round of the men's $15,000 tournament in Florida, only one advanced to the quarterfinals, and he got through by beating another junior.

UCLA signee Rudy Quan avenged his 2023 ITF J300 Indian Wells loss to 17-year-old Cooper Woestendick with a 6-3, 6-2 victory in the second round today, advancing to the quarterfinals of a USTA Pro Circuit tournament for the first time. Quan, a wild card, will face No. 2 seed Garrett Johns, a senior at Duke, who beat Alex Razeghi 6-3, 6-4. 

At the ATP Masters 1000 in Madrid today, 16-year-old wild card Darwin Blanch lost to Rafael Nadal 6-1, 6-0 in a first round match.

I received an email this week notifying me of an opportunity for tennis-related research for a Masters student at Florida State University. If you are, or will soon be, a college graduate with a tennis background, please contact Dr. Rodenberg about this position.

"Starting Fall 2024, Florida State University will offer a fully-funded Masters student position (tuition waiver, stipend, and health insurance) for one individual looking to do tennis-specific research and teaching.

The position will have both on-court and off-court elements, including co-authorship publication potential.

College and professional tennis players are encouraged to apply. All applicants must possess an undergraduate degree before Fall 2024, but a GRE score is not required.

The deadline to apply is June 1, 2024. For further details, please contact Dr. Ryan Rodenberg:

Ryan M. Rodenberg, JD/PhD
Professor
Florida State University       
850-645-9535

Three more conference award announcements came out today, for the Big Ten men, ACC men and SEC men. That leaves the ACC women, the Big 12 men and women and the Pac-12 men and women to be announced. Click on the headings to see the all-conference teams.

Big Ten Men's Awards

Player of the Year: Ozan Baris, Michigan State

Freshman of the Year: Aristotelis Thanos, Michigan State

Coach of the Year: Ty Tucker, Ohio State

SEC Men's Awards

Player of the Year: Johannus Monday, Tennessee

Freshman of the Year: Danil Panarin, Vanderbilt

Coach of the Year: Cedric Kauffmann, Kentucky

ACC Men's Awards

Player of the Year: Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc, Florida State

Freshman of the Year: Dylan Dietrich, Virginia

Coach of the Year: Dwayne Hultquist, Florida State

Previously announced awards:

SEC Women's Awards

Player of the Year: Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

Freshman of the Year: Lucciana Perez, Texas A&M

Coach of the Year: Drake Bernstein, Georgia

Big Ten Women's Awards

Player of the Year: Kari Miller, Michigan 

Freshman of the Year: Luciana Perry, Ohio State

  

Coach of the Year: Ronni Bernstein, Michigan 

Top Three Girls Seeds Out at ITF J500 Offenbach; First ATP Points for Lee, Woestendick at Vero Beach $15K; 122nd Edition of The Ojai Underway; SEC and Big Ten Women's Conference Awards Announced

The round of 16 is set at the ITF J500 in Offenbach Germany, with just one American and neither of the top two girls seeds still in contention. No. 11 seed Max Exsted advanced to the third round with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Sergio Planella Hernandez of Spain today; on Thursday he will face unseeded Joaquin Guilleme of Nicaragua for a spot in the quarterfinals.

The top two seeds in the boys draw, Nikolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway and Luca Preda of Romania, have moved into the third round with two routine straight-sets wins, but the top three girls seeds are out, exiting in the first round. Top seed Emerson Jones of Australia lost to Nellie Taraba Wallberg of Sweden 6-0, 6-3, No. 2 seed Hannah Klugman of Great Britain was beaten by Vittoria Paganetti of Italy 6-4, 7-6(1) and Mingge Xu of Great Britain fell to Neus Torner Sensano of Spain 7-6(6), 6-1. It may be some consolation to that trio of seeds that all of the girls who beat them won their matches today and are through to the round of 16. 

No. 8 seed Katie Rolls, who won the last J500 this year, at the Banana Bowl in Brazil, lost in the second round to Eliska Tichackova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-2.

In my post Tuesday, I mentioned all the top juniors competing at this week's $15,000 men's USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Vero Beach Florida, and five advanced to Thursday's second round.  Seventeen-year-old Cooper Woestendick and 18-year-old Mitchell Lee earned their first ATP points, with Woestendick beating Jake Van Emburgh(Oklahoma/Ohio State) 7-5, 6-4 and Lee getting a 6-4 retired win over No. 4 seed Jaimee Floyd Angele of France. 

Kaylan Bigun, wild card Rudy Quan and Alexander Razeghi already have ATP rankings but added another point to their totals today. Bigun defeated Sekou Bangoura(Florida), who was playing in his first event in almost a year, 6-0, 6-1 in 57 minutes; Quan took out No. 6 seed Nathan Ponwith(Georgia/Arizona State) 6-0, 7-6(5) and Razeghi beat fellow 17-year-old Nikita Filin, a qualifier, 6-4, 6-4.

Razeghi gets No. 2 seed Garrett Johns(Duke) next, while Bigun faces qualifier Dian Nedev of Bulgaria, who beat top seed Christian Langmo(Miami)6-4, 6-7(2), 6-4.  Quan and Woestendick will play for a spot in the quarterfinals; in their only previous meeting, in the quarterfinals of last year's ITF J300 in Indian Wells, Woestendick won 6-3, 6-1. Lee will face fellow wild card Chad Kissell(Valparaiso) in the second round, after Kissell defeated qualifier Cody Benton 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.

For more on today's action in Vero Beach, including quotes from Kaylan Bigun and Rudy Quan, see this article from Harvey Fialkov. 

One of the oldest and most revered tennis tournaments in the United States began this week in Ojai California. The 122nd edition of the tournament will feature the final Pac-12 conference tournaments, with the upcoming realignments leading to the demise of undoubtedly the most significant conference in college tennis. Past Ojai competitors Bob and Mike Bryan are being honored this year for their contributions to the sport and will perform with their band after a fundraising dinner. A junior clinic with the twins is also on the schedule.

The tournament also features community college, Division III, juniors, boys high school and men's and women's opens in a festival of tennis on courts throughout the region. Draws for all events can be found under the tournament information tab on the Ojai home page.

Each year I try to post the Power Five (plus Ivy) conference awards, which are released in no particular order and no discernible schedule. The first two came out today, with the SEC announcing its women's all-conference first and second teams and all-freshmen team, as well as these top awards:

Player of the Year: Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

Freshman of the Year: Lucciana Perez, Texas A&M

Coach of the Year: Drake Bernstein, Georgia

It was a good day to be a Luciana and a Bernstein, as the Big Ten's freshman and coach of the year mirroring those of the SEC. The Big Ten also revealed its team sportsmanship awards as well as all-conference teams.

Player of the Year: Kari Miller, Michigan 

Freshman of the Year: Luciana Perry, Ohio State

  

Coach of the Year: Ronni Bernstein, Michigan 

Juniors Flood Vero Beach $15K; Urhobo Qualifies at Charlottesville $75K; Schwaerzler Beats Top Seed Wolf at Savannah Challenger; USTA Roland Garros Wild Card Race Update; No Change Atop ITF D-I Rankings

The USTA Pro Circuit features three tournaments this week: a $15K in Vero Beach Florida for men, the ATP Challenger 75 in Savannah Georgia and a W75 for women in Charlottesville Virginia.

With the ITF's Junior Reserve program, the $15,000 tournaments always feature top juniors, but given the paucity of events at this level this year, the Vero Beach is particularly popular with younger players, especially those preparing for a trip to Europe next month for the Milan ITF J500 and the Roland Garros Junior Championships. 

The boys who received main draw entry based on their junior rankings are Alexander Razeghi, Cooper Woestendick and Kaylan Bigun. ITF J300 Indian Wells champion Rudy Quan received a wild card, and Mitchell Lee won a wild card tournament for his spot in the main draw. Nikita Filin qualified for the main draw today, as did 19-year-old Cody Benton, a North Carolina State signee. Filin will play Razeghi in the first round; Razeghi is 4-0 in their previous meetings, but the most recent was back in the semifinals of Kalamazoo in 2021, where Razeghi claimed the 16s title.

The other two wild cards were given to Chad Kissell(Valparaiso) and Matthew Segura.

Christian Langmo(Miami) is the top seed; Garrett Johns, in his fifth year at Duke, is the No. 2 seed.

The field for the women's tournament in Charlottesville obviously has attracted a significant number of top players, including top seed Kayla Day, currently 84 in the WTA rankings. 

Qualifying concluded today, with 17-year-old Akasha Urhobo reaching the main draw with a three-hour 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 win over former Baylor standout Melany Solange Krywoj of Argentina. Other Americans qualifying include Sophie Chang, Jaeda Daniel(Auburn/NC State), Victoria Flores(Georgia Tech/Pepperdine), Gabriella Price and Rasheeda McAdoo(Georgia Tech). 

Wild cards were awarded to University of Virginia senior Hibah Shaikh, Texas signee Ashton Bowers, Katrina Scott and Alana Smith(NC State). Bowers lost  6-3, 6-4 to Louisa Chirico, whom she had beaten two weeks ago in Boca Raton. The other three wild cards play qualifiers in the first round Wednesday.

The latest USTA Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge standings have changed dramatically with two weeks remaining for women and just one, this week, for men. Tallahassee Challenger finalist Mitchell Krueger has tied Nicolas Moreno de Alboran atop the men's race,and Sachia Vickery has moved into women's top spot. Standings below, with the current ATP/WTA rankings in parentheses.

Men's Standings:
T1. Nicolas Moreno de Alboran (138) -- 63
T1. Mitchell Krueger (239) -- 63
3. Michael Mmoh (114) -- 50
4. Stefan Kozlov (451) -- 38
5. Tennys Sandgren (260) -- 28

Women's Standings:
1. Sachia Vickery (129) -- 110
2. Katie Volynets (105) -- 57
3. Katrina Scott (407) -- 49
4. Varvara Lepchenko (244) -- 48
5. Akasha Urhobo (564) -- 37

Krueger is through to the second round of the Savannah Challenger after beating No. 8 seed Clement Tabur of France 6-3, 6-2 this afternoon. His quarter has opened up with No. 2 seed Michael Mmoh retiring in his match with alternate Aidan Mayo at 4-6, 6-4, 2-0. The other two players in Krueger's quarter are qualifiers.

JJ Wolf's struggles continue, with the former Ohio State All-American losing in the first round for the third straight week.  As was the case last week, Wolf lost to a top ITF junior using the ATP Accelerator program to secure entry, with No. 1 junior Joel Schwaerzler beating Wolf 6-2, 6-1 tonight in Savannah. Schwaerzler, who lost to Krueger in the quarterfinals last week at the Tallahassee Challenger, is up to 740 in the ATP live rankings.

The latest Division I team and individual rankings came out today, and these are the last ones before the NCAA selection show, which is Monday April 29 for the men's and women's team events. The individual selections will be announced via a press release Tuesday April 30.

The biggest change is the move of the Big 12 conference champions Texas men, who are now No. 2, behind Ohio State. I'm including the Top 17 in the women's singles and doubles, due to the injury to North Carolina's Reese Brantmeier, who will not be participating despite her rankings.

ITA Women's D-I Team Top 16, April 23, 2024

1. Oklahoma State

2. Michigan

3. Stanford

4. North Carolina

5. Virginia

6. Pepperdine

7. Georgia

8. UCLA

9. Texas

10. Cal

11. Southern Cal

12. Ohio State

13. Texas A&M

14. NC State

15. Florida

16. Tennessee

Singles:

1. Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

2. Amelia Rajecki, NC State

3. Kari Miller, Michigan

4. Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina

5. Ange Oby Kajuru, Oklahoma State

6. Fiona Crawley, North Carolina

7. Rachel Gailis, Florida

8. Carolyn Ansari, Auburn

9. Connia Ma, Stanford

10. Ayana Akli, South Carolina

11. Alexa Noel, Miami

12. Lisa Zaar, Pepperdine

13. Sofia Cabezas, Tennessee

14. Savannah Broadus, Pepperdine

15. Celia-Belle Mohr, Vanderbilt

16. Anastasiya Komar, Oklahoma State

17. Sarah Hamner, South Carolina

Doubles:

1. Elizabeth Scotty and Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina

2. Janice Tjen and Savannah Broadus, Pepperdine

3. Ange Oby Kajuru and Anastasiya Komar, Oklahoma State

4. Alina Shcherbinina and Dana Guzman, Oklahoma

5. Fiona Crawley and Carson Tanguilig, North Carolina

6. Metka Komac and Avelina Sayfetdinova, Texas Tech

7. Mary Stoiana and Mia Kupres, Texas A&M

8. Jaedan Brown and Kari Miller, Michigan

9. Sofia Cabezas and Elza Tomase, Tennessee

Men's D-I Team Top 16:

1. Ohio State

2. Texas

3. Virginia

4. TCU

5. Kentucky

6. Tennessee

7. Columbia

8. Wake Forest

9. Florida State

10. Oklahoma

11. Arizona

12. Harvard

13. Duke

14. NC State

15. South Carolina

16. Mississippi State

Singles:

1. Eliot Spizzirri, Texas

2. Johannus Monday, Tennessee

3. Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc, Florida State

4. Chris Rodesch, Virginia

5. Micah Braswell, Texas

6. Oliver Tarvet, San Diego

7. Jake Fearnley, TCU

8. Toby Samuel, South Carolina

9. Ozan Baris, Michigan State

10. Alex Martinez, Oklahoma

11. Jack Pinnington Jones, TCU

12. Murphy Cassone, Arizona State

13. Andres Martin, Georgia Tech

14. Radu Papoe, Cornell

15. Cooper Williams, Harvard

16. JJ Tracy, Ohio State

Doubles:

1. Garrett Johns and Pedro Rodenas, Duke

2. Robert Cash and JJ Tracy, Ohio State

3. DK Suresh and Holden Koons, Wake Forest

4. Joshua Lapadat and JJ Mercer, Kentucky

5. Sebasian Gorzny and Pedro Vives, TCU

6. Johannus Monday and Angel Diaz, Tennessee

7. Etienne Donnet and Natan Rodrigues, Louisville

8. Tyler Zink and Isaac Becroft, Oklahoma State

Eight Americans Begin Play Tuesday at ITF J500 in Germany; First of Three J100s in Florida Underway; Kovackova Sweeps Another Tennis Europe U14 Super Category Event; Blanch Draws Nadal in Madrid Masters

The third ITF J500 of the year is this week in Germany, with eight Americans competing in the 64-player singles draws, which begin Tuesday in Offenbach. No. 8 Katie Rolls and No. 11 Max Exsted are the seeded Americans, with the others Noah Johnston, Stiles Brockett, Trinetra Vijayakumar, Maya Iyengar, Leena Friedman and qualifier Gabriella Mikaul. Mikaul, the number 1 seed in qualifying, had to play only one match, with neither the boys nor the girls qualifying draws filling up their 32 spots.

The fields are strong however, with the winners of February's Cairo 500, Luca Preda of Romania[2] and March's Banana Bowl 500 Oliver Bonding of Great Britain[3] both in the boys draw; Rolls won the girls title at the Banana Bowl; Cairo girls champion Rositsa Dencheva of Bulgaria is not in Germany this week, but December's Orange Bowl J500 champion, Hannah Klugman of Great Britain, is the No. 2 seed.

Emerson Jones of Australia is the girls top seed, with last week's champion at the J300 in France, Nikolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway, the No. 1 seed in the boys draw.

This tournament will have a major impact on the acceptances for the Roland Garros Junior Championships, with entries closing April 30.

Those who are not traveling to Europe this spring still have ample tournaments on clay here in the United States, with three J100s on the Har-Tru in Florida, beginning this week in Delray Beach.

These are extremely popular events, with both the boys and girls 64-player qualifying draws full this week, with eight girls and eight boys making the 64-player main draws.

Singles action began today, with both top seeds, Calvin Baierl and Nancy Lee, advancing in straight sets. Fourteen-year-old Christina Lyutova, playing for the first time since reaching the quarterfinals at the Indian Wells ITF last month, is the No. 3 seed.

In addition to Tyra Grant's title at the J300 in France last week, one other American claimed a title on the ITF Junior Circuit, with 18-year-old Yontha Tadoum sweeping singles and doubles at the J30 in Cameroon. It was Tadoum's first singles title on the ITF Junior Circuit, and her sixth doubles title.

There were seven more doubles titles, in addition to Noah Johnston's in France and Tadoum's in Cameroon, with the biggest of those won by Mark Krupkin and Dylan Long at the J100 in Canada. The No. 2 seeds defeated unseeded Zackary Kimelman and Aedan Malik of Canada 6-4, 6-2 in the final. 

American teams swept the doubles at the J60 in Panama, with Ava Rodriguez and Ella Olofson taking the girls title and Bardo Bucknell and Jacob Maravillas earning the boys title.

As in Panama, at the J30 in Barbados, both doubles champions were from the United States, with John Gentek and Taylor Yarnell winning the boys title and sisters Aleksandra and Natasha Jerkunica taking the girls title.

Three Americans won doubles titles at the J30 in Mexico City. Dillon Beckles, a singles finalist, and Chase Kelley won the boys doubles, with Londyn McCord, also a singles finalist, and Mexico's Azul Lopez Vazuquez taking the girls doubles championship. 

Thirteen-year-old Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic has added another pair of Tennis Europe Super Category 14-and-under titles to her resumé, sweeping singles and doubles last week in Maia Portugal. The 2023 Junior Orange Bowl 14s champion, seeded No. 1, beating No. 2 seed Viktorija Cesonyte of Lithuania 6-2, 6-2 in the singles final. The doubles final was much closer, with Kovackova and Czech partner Katerina Zajickova, seeded No. 2, saving three match points in their 6-3, 4-6, 12-10 win over No. 3 seeds Ayse Bal of Turkey and Laura Chlumska of the Czech Republic. 

No. 4 seed Eric Lorimer of Great Britain won the boys singles, via a walkover, when No. 8 seed Plamen Kolev of Bulgaria suffered an injury late in his semifinal match and was unable to compete in the final. 

For more on the tournament, see this article from Tennis Europe.

The ATP draw was announced today at the Madrid Masters 1000, and 16-year-old wild card Darwin Blanch was drawn to face Rafael Nadal. His reaction to that news via snapchat went viral. 

Sixteen-year-old Tyra Grant started well in her match with WTA No. 83 Laura Siegemund, but the 36-year-old from Germany came back to post a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 win in the first round of the Madrid qualifying.

Four Top Seeds Win Conference Titles, but Florida State Ends ACC Run of Virginia Men; Madrid Masters 1000 Wild Cards for Grant and Blanch; Stephens Claims WTA 250 Title

Five Power 5 conference tournament titles were decided today (the Oklahoma State women won the Big 12 title last night over Texas) and four of them went, with varying degrees of difficulity, to the No. 1 seeds: the North Carolina women, Texas men, Kentucky men and Georgia women. The shocking result came early in the day, with the Florida State men, seeded No. 6, coming back to defeat three-time defending champion Virginia 4-3 after trailing 3-1.

The match, which began at 10 a.m. and finished at 1:30 p.m., was played indoors at the Cary Tennis Center in North Carolina. Top seed Virginia, who hadn't lost an ACC match in four regular seasons and had claimed the conference tournament title the past three years, looked on their way to a fourth after taking the doubles point with a 6-0 shutout at line 1 and a routine 6-3 win at line 2, although Florida State had taken line 3.

The teams split first sets, so Virginia was in position for a win by just holding on in those three matches, and senior Alex Kiefer did his part at line 5, taking out Joshua Dous-Karpenschif 6-2, 6-3, and giving FSU the daunting task of having to win four of the five remaining singles matches to get the win.

Jamie Connel, the hero of the Seminoles 4-3 win over Wake Forest in Saturday's semifinals, got that uphill climb started when, in the only other match that finished in straight sets, he defeated Jeffrey Von Der Schulenburg 6-4, 7-6(0) at line 3. With the remaining four matches all going to three sets, Florida State was obviously still in it, but when Virginia's Dylan Dietrich closed out Youcef Rihane 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to make it 3-1, the Cavaliers just needed one of the three matches still out.

Even when Loris Pourroy made it 3-2 with a 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 win over Inaki Montes at line 2, and Alex Bulte beat Mans Dahlberg 6-7(1), 6-3, 6-2 at line 6 to tie it at 3, prospects for Virginia's escape looked good, with Chris Rodesch up 5-2 over Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc in the third set. Cornut-Chauvinc had recovered mentally from his third overrule (and point penalty) and the subsequent Rodesch let cord ace that had allowed the Virginia senior to hold for 4-2, and had managed to extend the match by saving two match points with Rodesch serving at 5-3 40-30. But Rodesch earned two more match points with Cornut-Chauvinc serving at 4-5, 30-40 only to fail to convert those, and the FSU senior, who had beaten Rodesch in their previous meeting in Tallahassee in March, took control. He broke Rodesch and served out the match, to deliver the first ACC title in program history.

For more on the historic win for Florida State, see this article from seminoles.com.

The ACC women's championship, played after the men's match, also indoors, went to the University of North Carolina, who defeated No. 2 seeds Virginia 4-1. The Tar Heels took the doubles point, but Virginia came out strong in singles, taking four first sets. 

But UNC began to work their way back, led by Elizabeth Scotty, who had dropped the first set 6-0 in her match with Hibah Shaikh at line 2. Scotty took the second set, Reilly Tran closed out her first set and Fiona Crawley was up a set on Annabelle Xu at line 1, so a path began to emerge for the defending NCAA champions. Scotty and Tran closed out those matches to give North Carolina a 3-0 lead, and although Natasha Subhash earned a point for the Cavaliers with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 win over Carson Tanguilig at line 3, and Crawley and Anika Yarlagadda were early in third sets, freshman Tatum Evans closed out the victory, beating Melodie Collard 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 at line 6.  See goheels.com for the full box score.

At the Big 12 conference tournament in Stillwater, Texas easily won the rubber match against rival TCU, with the Longhorns earning a 4-0 victory. After taking the doubles point, Texas got straight-sets singles wins from Siem Woldeab at line 5, Pierre-Yves Bailly at line 4 and Gilles-Arnaud Bailly at line 3 to earn Texas's first Big 12 tournament title since 2018.

Like Texas, Kentucky went undefeated in both the regular season and the conference tournament, with the Wildcats beating No. 11 seed South Carolina 4-2 in Baton Rouge.  After the doubles point was decided in a tiebreaker on Court 1, in favor of Kentucky, South Carolina came out strong in singles and took a 2-1 lead with Toby Samuel beating Taha Baadi at line 1 and freshman Sean Daryabeigi defeating Jaden Weekes at line 3. 

But once Kentucky freshman Eli Stephenson came from 5-2 down in the first set to take it 7-6(4) at line 6, the tide turned in Kentucky's favor. The Wildcats got straight-set wins from Charlelie Cosnet at line 4 and Joshua Lapadat at line 2 to take a 3-2 lead and Stephenson closed out Carter Morgan 6-3 in the second set for the clinch. The only three-set match of the day was at line 5, with Jack Loutit and Jelani Sarr at 4-3 in the third.

The SEC women's final closed out the day, with Georgia defeating No. 2 seed Texas A&M 4-1 at the new indoor tennis facility in Athens. The Aggies, who had struggled a bit in their 4-2 semifinal win over Florida on Saturday, couldn't get going against a Georgia team that appears to be firing on all cylinders now. After taking the doubles point, Georgia got wins from Dasha Vidmanova at line 1, Mell Reasco at line 3 and Anastasiia Lopata at line 4, while Texas A&M picked up their point at line 5, with freshman Lucciana Perez beating Guillermina Grant. Carson Branstine, playing in just her third match since returning to A&M, finished her match with Vidmanova in tears after what appeared to be a hip injury suffered early in the second set. 

The last two conferences to play their tournaments are the Pac-12 and Big Ten, who finished their regular seasons today and will begin tournament play next week.

The WTA and ATP Masters 1000 in Madrid begins with qualifying Monday, and 16-year-old Tyra Grant, who won the ITF J300 in France yesterday has received a qualifying wild card. She will play No. 9 seed Laura Siegemund of Germany in the first round. 

The women's main draw is here.

Sixteen-year-old Darwin Blanch, who reached the semifinals of a men's ITF WTT $15K last week, has been awarded a main draw wild card, as have 2022 US Open boys champion Martin Landaluce of Spain and 2023 US Open boys champion Joao Fonseca of Brazil. The men's main draw will be held Monday.

Mitchell Krueger fell short in his quest for a second Challenger title in 2024, with Zizou Bergs of Belgium winning his second title in as many weeks at the ATP Challenger 75 in Tallahassee. The No. 2 seed defeated Krueger 6-4, 7-6(9) in a match delayed several hours at the start due to rain.

Sloane Stephens won her eighth WTA title today on indoor clay at the 250 event in Rouen France. The 31-year-old, seeded No. 6, defeated unseeded Magda Linette of Poland 6-1, 2-6, 6-2 in the final. 

Taylor Fritz lost in the final of the ATP 250 in Munich, his first career final on clay, with Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany earning his first ATP title at age 33 with a 7-5, 6-3 victory.

Grant Claims Second ITF J300 ITF in France; Krueger Reaches Tallahassee Challenger Final; Two Surprise Finalists for Men's SEC and ACC Conference Championships; Oklahoma State Women Win Big 12 Title, Continue Undefeated

Sixteen-year-old Tyra Grant won her second ITF J300 title today in Beaulieu-sur-Mer France, with the No. 2 seed recording a 6-3, 6-2 win over qualifier Lilli Tagger of Austria in the final. 

Grant, who won her first J300 title last May in Italy, also on clay, is not entered in next week's J500 in Germany, but has solidified her position as a favorite at Roland Garros in June.

The boys final, also between a top seed and an unseeded player, was much closer with No. 1 Nikolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway defeating Henry Bernet of Switzerland 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.

Mitchell Krueger defeated wild card Stefan Kozlov 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in the semifinals of the ATP Challenger 75 in Tallahassee Florida today to reach his second Challenger final of the year. The 30-year-old from Texas will face No. 2 seed Zizou Bergs of Belgium in the final, after Bergs advanced to his second straight Challenger final when unseeded Calvin Hemery of France retired trailing 3-6, 6-4, 4-1. Bergs and Krueger played last week in the quarterfinals of the Sarasota Challenger, with Bergs earning a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 win.

It was a first ATP Challenger doubles title for Simon Freund(LSU/UC-Santa Barbara) of Sweden and Johannes Ingildsen(Florida) of Denmark in Tallahassee this evening, with the unseeded pair defeating top seeds Will Blumberg(North Carolina) and Luis Martinez of Venezuela 7-5, 7-6(4).  Ingildsen, 26, and Freund, 27, served for the match at both 5-4 and 6-5, failed to convert two match points at 5-4 and yet still held their nerve in the tiebreaker to earn the victory.

I spent most of a cold and drab April day in Michigan watching SEC, ACC and Big 12 conference championship play on ESPN+, an option I really appreciate having this time of year. The semifinals went acoording to form in the women's ACC and SEC and in the men's Big 12, but there were two surprising results in the men's ACC and SEC.

Top seed and two-time defending NCAA champion Virginia extended its perfect ACC record during the past four years with a 4-1 win over Duke, with the Blue Devils sole point coming in doubles. 

Virginia will not meet No. 2 seed Wake Forest however, with No. 6 seed Florida State upsetting the Demon Deacons 4-3. The Seminoles won the doubles point and took lines No. 1 and No. 6 in straight sets, but the last four singles points were decided in three sets. Wake Forest fought back to tie it up with wins at lines 2, 4 and 5, so it came down to line 3, with Jamie Connel defeating Matthew Thomson 7-6 (6), 6-7 (4), 6-4 to put Florida State in their first conference tournament final since 2005. Virginia beat Florida State 4-1 in Tallahassee in the regular season. 

In the SEC, top seed Kentucky was impressive, defeating surprise semifinalist LSU 4-0 in Baton Rouge. LSU, the No. 13 seed, had  beaten No. 5 Texas A&M and No. 4 Auburn to reach the semifinals, but Kentucky, who has yet to lose in SEC play this year, was too strong today. Kentucky will face No. 11 seed South Carolina, who upset No. 2 seed Tennessee today 4-2.  The Gamecocks, who had lost 4-0 to the Volunteers three weeks ago in Knoxville, took the doubles point, but lost four first sets in singles and needed tiebreakers to take the two first sets they did claim. But after Tennessee took a 2-1 lead with wins at 1 and 6, South Carolina came back, holding on to the two matches where they had the lead, then getting their fourth point when freshman Jelani Sarr beat Angel Diaz at line 5, 2-6, 6-1, 7-5. It's the first time South Carolina had advanced to the conference tournament final. 

Kentucky beat South Carolina earlier this month in the regular season, in Columbia, 4-3.

In the day's most highly anticipated match, the top-seeded North Carolina women avenged their two losses this season to No. 4 seed NC State, and did it without much drama beating the Wolfpack 4-0. After taking the doubles point, the Tar Heels got straight sets wins in singles from Carson Tanguilig at line 3, Anika Yarlagadda at line 5 and Elizabeth Scotty at line 2. North Carolina will have an opportunity to avenge again their only other loss of the season, to Virginia at the National Team Indoor, in their third meeting of the year with the Cavaliers. The No. 2 seeds defeated No. 3 seed Florida State 4-0. UNC defeated Virginia in the regular season 4-1 two weeks ago in Chapel Hill.

The SEC women's final will also feature the top 2 seeds, with No. 1 Georgia, playing at home in Athens, facing Texas A&M. It's the fourth straight year the two teams will meet in the SEC conference tournament final.

The Aggies, who had Carson Branstine in the lineup for the first time in the quarterfinals Friday, beat No. 3 seed Florida 4-2, with Branstine clinching the win at line 1 after not finishing her first match of the season against Vanderbilt's Celia-Belle Mohr on Friday.

Georgia was ruthlessly efficient in their 4-0 win over No. 4 seed Tennessee, taking the doubles point and three singles points in straight sets.

TCU and Texas will play their rubber match in the men's Big 12 final Sunday, after top seed Texas beat No. 5 seed Oklahoma State 4-1 and No. 3 seed TCU defeated No. 2 seed Oklahoma 4-1 in Stillwater.  TCU won the first, non-conference, meeting between the two teams in a 4-3 thriller in Fort Worth; Texas beat TCU 5-0 in Austin three weeks later.

The women's Big 12 final was played Saturday night in Stillwater, with the Oklahoma State women keeping their perfect record intact heading into the NCAA tournament. The top-seeded Cowgirls defeated No. 2 seed Texas 4-0 to earn their first conference tournament title since 2016, ending the Longhorns' run as champions the past three years. 

US Teams Sweep Top Spots in All North and Central America ITF Team Competition Qualifying Matches; Blanch Advances to $15K Semifinal in Spain; Grant Reaches ITF J300 Final in France; Kozlov and Krueger Meet in Tallahassee Challenger Semifinals Saturday

The teams from the United States were favored to win all of their matches at this week's North and Central American and Caribbean Qualifying for the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup(16U) and the World Junior Tennis(14U) team competitions that the ITF holds every year. All four teams finished a perfect 3-0 to finish at the top of the four-team round robin competitions, and there's little doubt that the boys 14U team was the most dominant. After winning all six sets 6-0 yesterday against Guatemala, the boys lost only 3 games today against Mexico, in Jordan Lee's 6-1, 6-2 win at No. 1 singles.

Michael Antonius, the reigning Eddie Herr and Les Petits As champion, lost one game in his three singles matches and none in his two doubles matches.

I didn't receive the pdfs via email today, but below are the results of the US teams, as well as the final standings. Notable that Mexico will be sending two teams to the finals; Canada, which also had two second place finishes, and the United States are often the two countries that advance to Finals from this qualifying round. 

USA d. Canada 3-0 Junior Davis Cup

No. 2 singles:
Keaton Hance d. Felix Roussel 6-3, 7-6(3)

No. 1 singles:
Jack Secord d. Miko Lapalme 6-3, 6-2

Doubles:
Hance and Secord d. Lapalme and Quincy Yao 6-1, 5-7, 10-4

USA d. Mexico 3-0 Junior Billie Jean King Cup

No. 2 singles:
Shannon Lam d. Marianne Angel Gomez 6-3, 6-4

No. 1 singles:
Thea Frodin d. Hanne Estrada Cortes 5-7, 6-2, 6-4

Doubles:
Lamm and Frodin d. Angel Gomez and Abril Cardenas Olivares 6-4, 6-2

USA d. Mexico 3-0 World Junior Tennis

No. 2 singles
Michael Antonius d. Santiago Garcia Puente 6-0, 6-0

No. 1 singles
Jordan Lee d. Jaime Gomez Lopez 6-1, 6-2

Doubles:
Antonius and Teodor Davidov d. Gomez Lopez and Leonardo Calles Salinas 6-0, 6-0

USA d. Canada 3-0 World Junior Tennis

No. 2 singles:
Maggie Sohns d. Isabella Yan 6-3, 6-0

No. 1 singles:
Welles Newman d. Rachel Wu 6-3, 6-1

Doubles:
Newman and Sohns d. Yan and Wu  4-6, 6-3, 10-6 

(Corrected from Canada winning the doubles 4/22/24)

Final Standings:

Boys WJT
1. USA 3-0
2. Canada 2-1
3. Mexico 1-2
4. Guatemala 0-3

Girls WJT
1. USA 3-0
2. Mexico 2-1
3. Canada 1-2
4. Guatemala 0-3

Junior Davis Cup
1. USA 3-0
2. Mexico 1-2
3. Canada 1-2
4. Bahamas 1-2

Junior Billie Jean King Cup
1. USA 3-0
2. Canada 2-1
3. Mexico 1-2
4. Puerto Rico 0-3

Darwin Blanch has reached his second ITF men's World Tennis Tour semifinal of the year with a win today at the $15,000 tournament in Telde Spain. The unseeded 16-year-old, who trains at the Juan Carlos Ferrero Equelite Academy in Spain, defeated 18-year-old qualifier Albert Pedrico Kravtsov of Spain 6-7(3), 6-1, 7-6(4) in today's quarterfinals. The 2022 Kalamazoo 16s champion will play another Spanish player, No. 3 seed Diego Augusto Barreto Sanchez, who he beat 7-5, 7-5 in the first round of at a $15K at the end of February. Blanch, who made the semifinals last year at this tournament, and at another $15K last month, also in Spain, has yet to advance to a men's Pro Circuit final. 

At the ITF J300 in Beaulieu-sur-Mer France, Tyra Grant has advanced to the final, beating No. 8 seed Vittoria Paganetti of Italy 6-4, 6-3 in today's semifinals. Grant will face fellow 16-year-old Lilli Tagger of Austria, a qualifier, who thwarted an all-USA final with a 6-4, 6-0 win over No. 5 seed Katie Rolls. The boys final will feature top seed Nikolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway and unseeded Henry Bernet of Switzerland.

Mitchell Krueger and Stefan Kozlov will meet in the semifinals of ATP Challenger 75 in Tallahassee Saturday after both picked up straight-sets victories today. Wild card Kozlov beat Oliver Crawford(Florida) of Great Britain 6-2, 6-2 to reach his second Challenger semifinal of the year; Krueger defeated ITF World Junior No. 1 Joel Schwaerzler of Austria 7-5, 7-6(4) and will also be playing in his second Challenger semifinal of the year; he won the Indian Wells Challenger 1 in January. 

US Boys Win Six 6-0 Sets in ITF World Junior Tennis Victory, US Teams Continue Undefeated in North and Central American Qualifying; Johnston Earns Doubles Title, Rolls and Grant Reach Semis in ITF J300 in France; Top 10 Collegiate Women by UTR

There are dominating performances and then there is today's 3-0 win by the US boys in the second day of the North and Central America and Caribbean ITF World Junior Tennis qualifying in Lake Nona. With Eddie Herr 14s and Les Petits As champion Michael Antonius slotted for No. 2 singles this week, the US team was an overwhelming favorite to advance to August's finals in the Czech Republic, but opponent Guatemala couldn't win a game today, over three separate matches.  With Jordan Lee, the US No. 1 due to his slightly higher ITF ranking, pulled for today's match, Teodor Davidov moved into the No. 2 singles position and Antonius into the No. 1 spot, but Guatemala was shut out in both matches, as well as the doubles.

The Junior Davis Cup team again dropped a singles match, with Carel Ngounoue retiring at No. 1 singles against the Bahamas, but the deciding doubles went to the United States team of Jack Secord and Keaton Hance.

The girls teams both posted 3-0 victories, and the United States is the only country to be 2-0 in any of the four competitions, so their places in the finals are already guaranteed with one more day of play scheduled for Friday.

The standings after two days can be found here and the results from the four matches not involving the United States can be found here.

USA d. Bahamas 2-1 Junior Davis Cup

No. 2 singles:

Keaton Hance d. Jackson MacTaggart 6-2, 6-2

No. 1 singles:

Jerald Carroll d. Carel Ngounoue 6-4  ret.

Doubles: 

Jack Secord and Keaton Hance d. Carroll and MacTaggart 6-4, 6-2

USA d. Puerto Rico 3-0 Junior Billie Jean King Cup

No. 2 singles:

Kristina Penickova d. Aurora Lugo 6-2, 6-2

No. 1 singles: Shannon Lam d. Carolina Castro 6-1, 6-2

Doubles: Thea Frodin and Kristina Penickova d. Lugo and Victoria Cajigas 6-1, 6-0

USA d. Guatemala 3-0 World Junior Tennis

No. 2 singles:

Maggie Sohns d. Carmen Fuentes 6-4, 6-4

No. 1 singles:

Welles Newman d. Sofia Dallamora 6-1, 6-1

Doubles: 

Sohns and Sarah Ye d. Camilla Castillo and Dallamora 6-0, 6-2

USA d. Guatemala 3-0 World Junior Tennis

No. 2 singles:

Teodor Davidov d. Jose Anibal Martinez 6-0, 6-0

No. 1 singles:

Michael Antonius d. Martin Garcia 6-0, 6-0

Doubles:

Davidov and Jordan Lee d. Julian Garcia and Martin Garcia 6-0, 6-0

The ITF J300 in Beaulieu-Sur-Mer France has already produced one champion from the United States, with two US girls advancing to the singles semifinals.

Noah Johnston won the doubles title today, partnering with Gustavo Ribeirode Almeida of Brazil. The unseeded pair defeated Felix Blashaw and Theo Papamalamis of France, also unseeded, 7-6(5), 6-0 in the final. Johnston, a 16-year-old from South Carolina, has now won three J300 doubles titles this year, each with a different partner.

Katie Rolls, who is playing in her first tournament since capturing the J500 Banana Bowl last month, extended her winning streak to nine matches as she advanced to the semifinals. The No. 5 seed defeated unseeded Daphnee Mpetshi Perricard 7-6(2), 6-3 in today's quarterfinals; she will face qualifier Lilli Tagger of Austria in the semifinals.

No. 2 seed Tyra Grant came from behind to defeat unseeded Noemi Basiletti of Italy 3-6, 6-0, 6-4 in today's quarterfinals and will play No. 8 seed Vittoria Paganetti of Italy.

I mentioned in my Tuesday post of the ITA rankings that I hadn't seen the women's version of the collegiate Top 10 by UTR that had been posted for the men. It showed up today on Twitter, as follows, with ITA rankings in parentheses:

1. Alexa Noel, Miami (11)

2. Fiona Crawley, North Carolina (7)

3. Amelia Rajecki, NC State (5)

4. Fangran Tian, UCLA (39)

5. Katherine Hui, Stanford (not ranked)

6. Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina (4)

7. Ayana Akli, South Carolina  (9)

8. Kari Miller, Michigan (3)

9. Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M (1)

10. Nicole Khirin, Texas A&M (19)

As John Parsons pointed out, Carson Branstine, who has returned to compete for Texas A&M in the post season, is at 11.53, which would put her at the top of the list, with Noel currently at 11.52.

USA Teams Go 4-0 on Opening Day of ITF Junior Davis Cup, Bille Jean King Cup and World Junior Tennis North and Central American Qualifying; David Filer Memorial Court Established at Lake Nona; JTCC, Minor Family Among USTA Grassroots Award Winners

The favored United States teams won all four of their matches Wednesday in the opening day of the ITF North and Central America and Caribbean qualifying for the U16 and U14 team events that take place later this summer and fall.

The USTA is hosting the three-day event at the National Campus in Lake Nona, with the top two finishers from the four-team events advancing to the international Junior Davis Cup, Junior Billie Jean King Cup and World Junior Tennis finals.

The United States won their first matches in the World Junior Tennis competition for 14-and-under players without any trouble, going 3-0 and losing only 11 games total. 

United States d. Mexico 3-0 WJT girls:

No. 2 singles: Maggie Sohns d. Monserrat Temprana Falco 6-2, 6-2 

No. 1 singles: Welles Newman d. Paula Velaquez Osornio 6-2, 6-1 

Doubles: Newman and Sohns d. Temprana Falo  and Monserrat Montano 6-0, 6-0

United States d. Canada 3-0 WJT boys:

No. 2 singles: Michael Antonius d. Julian Mahdavi 6-0. 6-1

No. 1 singles: Jordan Lee d. Callum Mackinnon 6-3, 6-1

Doubles: Michael Antonius and Teodor Davidov d. Mackinnon and Luca Vicol 6-0, 6-0

Matches were definitely more competitive for the United States in the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup. Keaton Hance, who was a late substitute for Jack Kennedy, partnered with Carel Ngounoue to win the deciding doubles point against Mexico, after Ngounoue had won at No. 2 singles and Jack Secord had lost at No. 1 singles.

United States d. Mexico 2-1 Junior Davis Cup 

No. 2 singles: Carel Ngounoue d. Luis Andres Flores Avila 6-0, 6-1

No. 1 singles: Mauricio Schtulmann Gasca d. Jack Secord 1-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(5)

Doubles: Ngounoue and Keaton Hance d. Flores Avila and Guillermo Antonio Narcio Vazquez 7-5, 6-4

United States d. Canada 3-0 Junior Billie Jean King Cup

No. 2 singles: Kristina Penickova d. Charlize Celebrini 6-2, 7-5

No. 1 singles: Shannon Lam d. Nadia Lagaev 6-4 ,7-5

Doubles: Penickova and Thea Frodin d. Celebrini and Clemence Mercier 3-6, 6-2, 10-4

The results of the other four matches not featuring teams from the United States can be found here.

Many of the players who are competing in this week's event, and who have been at the USTA National Campus in the past month, will have stopped by a recently dedicated court to pay their respects to the memory of David Filer, a top junior player who died of brain cancer just over a year ago, at the age of 16. A camp was held in Filer's honor and a TEAM USA court was designated to his memory. Below are photographs from that camp and ceremony.

Jacek Dabrowski, Pam Mozdzierz-Filer, David Filer IV, Eric Nunez

The USTA announced its Grassroots Awards today, and while I'm sure all winners are very much deserving of the recognition, I wanted to highlight two I have known personally, the Minor family and Junior Tennis Champions Center.

Family of the Year: The Minor Family - Chicago

 

This award was initiated in 1965 by Martin L. Tressel, president of the USTA in 1965-66, to emphasize the theme that "Tennis is a Family Game."  The award is awarded annually to the family who, in recent years, has done the most to promote amateur tennis, primarily on a volunteer basis. All members of the family should participate in some way, either as players or by offering their services in running programs or tournaments or in junior development activities. 

 

The Minor family from Chicago initially had little knowledge of the world of junior tennis–initially seeing it as a healthy sport with valuable life lessons for their three daughters. Discovering the girls' talent, they embarked on a family journey, traveling in their Chevy Suburban for junior tennis tournaments across the country. The daughters excelled, each earning Division I college tennis scholarships. Kristina became a lawyer; Jasmin, an Emmy-winning reporter; and Brienne, the first Black female to win an NCAA women’s singles individual championship, pursued a career on the pro tour. Inspired by their success, their parents, Kevin and Michelle, became mentors for other parents in Chicago on navigating tournament play. In 2022, Kevin tragically passed away, and at the time of his death, the Minor family rallied to solidify his legacy by creating a scholarship fund in his name. The scholarship fund raised nearly $30,000 within days of Kevin's death. Today, the Kevin Minor Legacy Fund awards $5,000 scholarships to junior female tennis players, supporting their journey from the junior circuit to college tennis.

NJTL of the Year Award – Junior Tennis Champions Center (JTCC) - College Park, Md.

 

The NJTL of the Year Award is given to chapters that positively impact youth through the powerful combination of tennis and education. Founded in 1969 by Arthur Ashe, Charlie Pasarell, and Sheridan Snyder, the NJTL network is a nationwide group of more than 250 nonprofit youth development organizations. Supported by the USTA Foundation through financial grants, scholarship opportunities, curricula, technical assistance and training, the NJTL network provides free or low-cost tennis and education programming to more than 150,000 under-resourced youth nationwide.

 

The mission of the Junior Tennis Champions Center (JTCC) is to transform lives in the communities it serves through sport and education by providing tennis for everybody. For 25 years, JTCC has helped grow the sport of tennis by providing a comprehensive tennis pathway for players of all abilities that emphasizes excellence on the tennis court, in the classroom, and in the community. The pathway starts with ‘Game On!’, which delivers free tennis and education to K-12 youth in Maryland and Washington, D.C., providing students with a unique combination of athletic, academic and social learning. JTCC partners with D.C. Public Schools, Prince George’s County Public Schools, D.C. Parks and Recreation, Maryland National Capital Parks and Planning, and Prince George’s County Police Athletic League to identify schools and recreation centers for programming. The program served more than 800 youth between September 2022 and August 2023.

 

Today's release, with all eight award winners, can be found here.

Easter Bowl 18s Finals Videos; No Changes Atop ITA D-I Rankings Entering Home Stretch of Season; Roland Garros Entry Lists; Four Americans Competing at ITF J300 in France

It's time to put a bow on the 2024 Easter Bowl, with the last of the finals videos, the 18s, below. To see the 12s, 14s, and 16s videos, go to the tenniskalamazoo YouTube channel, where you'll also find videos of the ITF J300 boys and girls finals in Indian Wells and San Diego.

My Easter Bowl photo gallery is up at Tennis Recruiting Network, with links to my recaps of all the Southern Californian junior events last month available here.

There are only two more weeks of individual rankings (three for team rankings) left in the Division I season, and the top spots, which have been the same for many weeks now, are still occupied by the Ohio State men, the Oklahoma State women, Eliot Spizzirri of Texas and Mary Stoiana of Texas A & M.

I've expanded my list of rankings to include the Top 16 in team and individual, to get a better feel for who is in position to host the first two rounds of NCAAs and which players are likely to be seeded in the individual tournament. The full lists can be found by clicking on the headings.

The UCLA women are making a late push and this week they moved into the Top 10 for the first time, bumping USC down a spot. With UCLA, USC and Cal all so closely grouped, the Pac-12 conference tournament at Ojai next week will be especially interesting. It's good to see Fiona Crawley of North Carolina finally back in the Top 10.

ITA Division I Women's Team Top 16, April 16, 2024

1. Oklahoma State

2. Michigan

3. Stanford

4. Virginia

5. North Carolina

6. Georgia

7. Texas

8. Pepperdine

9. Cal

10. UCLA

11. Southern Cal

12. Texas A&M

13. NC State

14. Florida

15. Ohio State

16. Auburn

ITA Division I Women's Singles Top 16:

1. Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

2. Ange Oby Kajuru, Oklahoma State

3. Kari Miller, Michigan

4. Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina

5. Amelia Rajecki, NC State

6. Carolyn Ansari, Auburn

7. Fiona Crawaley, North Carolina

8. Rachel Gailis, Florida

9. Ayana Akli, South Carolina

10. Connie Ma, Stanford

11. Alexa Noel, Miami

12. Celia-Belle Mohr, Vanderbilt

13. Savannah Broadus, Pepperdine

14. Lisa Zaar, Pepperdine

15. Anastasiya Komar, Oklahoma State

16. Sarah Hamner, South Carolina

ITA Division I Women's Doubles Top 8:

1. Elizabeth Scotty and Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina

2. Janice Tjen and Savannah Broadus, Pepperdine

3. Mary Stoiana and Mia Kupres, Texas A&M

4. Alina Shcherbinina and Dana Guzman, Oklahoma

5. Ange Oby Kajuru and Anastasiya Komar, Oklahoma State

6. Jaedan Brown and Kari Miller, Michigan

7. Metka Komac and Avelina Sayfetdinova, Texas Tech

8. Melodie Collard and Elaine Chervinsky, Virginia

In the men's rankings, the Columbia men defeated Harvard 4-3 (clinch score was 4-1) on Sunday in New York, and that was enough to lift them into the Top 8. But without a conference tournament, the Lions won't have the same opportunities for ranked wins as the other contenders for a Top 8 spot and will likely be passed in the next two weeks. NC State, who beat Duke and North Carolina last weekend, has made a big jump, from 16 to 11 and are in a good position now to host the first two rounds of the NCAAs.

UTR posted a tweet listing the Top 10 college men by their ratings and I thought I'd provide that along side the ITA rankings. There are definitely some discrepancies to ponder. I did not see a similar list for the women.

ITA Division I Men's Team Top 16, April 16, 2024

1. Ohio State

2. Virginia

3. TCU

4. Kentucky

5. Texas

6. Tennessee

7. Wake Forest

8. Columbia

9. Oklahoma

10. Arizona

11. NC State

12. Duke

13. Harvard

14. Texas A&M

15. Mississippi State

16. San Diego

ITA Division I Men's Singles Top 16:

1. Eliot Spizzirri, Texas

2. Johannus Monday, Tennessee

3. Micah Braswell, Texas

4. Chris Rodesch, Virginia

5. Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc, Florida State

6. Oliver Tarvet, San Diego

7. Alex Martinez, Oklahoma

8. Jake Fearnley, TCU

9. Murphy Cassone, Arizona State

10. Jack Pinnington Jones, TCU

11. Andres Martin, Georgia Tech

12. Ozan Baris, Michigan State

13. Cooper Williams, Harvard

14. Radu Papoe, Cornell

15. Toby Samuel, South Carolina

16. JJ Tracy, Ohio State

UTR Top 10

1. Nishesh Basavareddy, Stanford (ITA No. 19)

2. Jacob Fearnley, TCU (8)

3. Stefan Dostanic, Southern Cal (unranked)

4. Oliver Tarvet, San Diego (6)

5. Micah Braswell, Texas (3)

6. Murphy Cassone, Arizona State (9)

7. Eliot Spizzirri, Texas (1)

8. Cannon Kingsley, Ohio State (17)

9. Gilles-Arnaud Bailly, Texas (39)

10. Trevor Svajda, SMU (34)

ITA Division I Men's Doubles Top 8:

1. Garrett Johns and Pedro Rodenas, Duke

2. DK Suresh and Holden Koons, Wake Forest

3. Robert Cash and JJ Tracy, Ohio State

4. Johannus Monday and Angel Diaz, Tennessee

5. Sebastian Gorzny and Pedro Vives, TCU

6. Hunter Heck and Karlis Ozolins, Illinois

7. Joshua Lapadat and JJ Mercer, Kentucky

8. Sebastian Dominiko and Jean Marc Malkowski, Notre Dame

The main draw entry lists for Roland Garros were published today, with 15 US women and 11 US men accepted into the main draw.The men's full list is here and the women's full list is here. The qualifying tournament entries will not be announced for another two weeks. 

US WOMEN: (15)

Coco Gauff

Jessica Pegula

Danielle Collins

Madison Keys

Emma Navarro

Sloane Stephens

Caroline Dolehide

Taylor Townsend

Sofia Kenin

Amanada Anisimova (protected ranking)

Ashlyn Krueger

Peyton Stearns

Bernarda Pera

Kayla Day

Emina Bektas

US MEN (11)

Ben Shelton

Taylor Fritz

Tommy Paul

Frances Tiafoe

Sebastian Korda

Christopher Eubanks

Marcos Giron

Alex Michelsen

Mackenzie McDonald

Brandon Nakashima

Aleks Kovacevic

This is usually the day I highlight the USTA Pro Circuit tournaments, but there aren't any this week, except for the Tallahassee Challenger, which I wrote about yesterday. Through the first 15 weeks of the year, USTA Pro Circuit tournaments for women are down to 9, from 13 in 2023; the men (not counting Challengers) are down to 7, from 11 in 2023. It goes without saying that this is not a positive development.

After last week's ITF Junior Circuit tournament in Bulgaria, there is another J300 in Europe this week, in France, with four Americans competing in the main draw. This is another of the unfortunate 32-player draws, which really shouldn't be allowed in J300 events; the ITF can continue to "recommend" 48-main 24-qualifying draws (which provides eight more playing opportunities in each draw), but unless they require it for their biggest events, tournaments will continue to do as they please, from what I've seen so far this year.

Noah Johnston was the only American boy in the draw, and he drew top seed and ITF No. 4 Nikolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway and lost 6-0, 6-2. The three US girls in the draw all advanced to the round of 16: Leena Friedman, Katie Rolls[5] and Tyra Grant[2]. Top seed Emerson Jones of Australia lost her first round match to Daphnee Mpetshi Perricard of France 5-7, 6-2, 7-6(3).

First ITF Junior Circuit Titles for Mekhael, Ikwueme and Ahmad; USTA Roland Garros WC Challenge Standings; Searle Beats Top Seed Wolf, Kuzuhara and Lilov Qualify at Tallahassee Challenger; Easter Bowl 16s Finals Videos

In addition to the three titles won by Americans at the J200 in Canada last week, which I covered on Friday and Saturday, six more titles were claimed by US players in J30s and J60s last week on the ITF Junior Circuit.  The three singles titles earned were the first ITF Junior Circuit titles for 13-year-old Izyan Ahmad, 15-year-old Ariana Ikwueme and 16-year-old Nicholas Mekhael.

Ahmad, who was a B14s finalist last month at the USTA Easter Bowl, was making his ITF Junior Circuit debut last week at the J30 in Mexico City. I'm not sure how he made the main draw without a wild card, but unseeded, Ahmad won six matches, five in straight sets, to claim the title. In the championship match, he beat unseeded Nicolas Rivera Paz of Mexico 7-6(1), 6-2.

At the J30 in Trinidad and Tobago, Ikwueme also won her first title without the benefit of a seed, although it was the ninth ITF Junior Circuit tournament she's played. The five-star freshman from Virginia defeated No. 7 seed Ciara Harding 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the all-US final. Harding did capture the girls doubles, with partner Tajaswini Narala. The unseeded American pair defeated No. 2 seeds Daisy Clifford of Great Britain and Jordane Dookie of Trinidad and Tobago 3-6, 6-3, 10-5 in the final. Colter Amey took out the top seed in the boys draw and reached the final. 

At the J60 in the Dominican Republic, Americans won three titles, including Mekhael's in boys singles. After defeating the top seed in the second round, Mekhael cruised into the final without dropping a set, while receiving two retirements. In the all-US championship match, the five-star junior from New Jersey defeated No. 12 seed Matthew Shaprio 6-2, 6-2.

Thirteen-year-old Lani Chang, daughter of Michael Chang and Amber Liu, made her ITF Junior Circuit debut and reached the final. There was no qualifying for the girls, so she was directly into the main draw, where she beat four seeds, including a victory over the top seed in the semifinals, before falling to No. 8 seed Yihan Qu of China 6-1, 6-0. 

Jordan Papadopoulos and his partner Xingyu Chan won the doubles title in the Dominican Republic, with the eighth-seeded pair beating No. 2 seeds Giancarlo Rosario and Jossting Cruz of the Dominican Republic 7-5, 6-3 in the final. The unseeded team of Regina Alcobe Garibay and Briley Rhoden won the girls doubles title, beating top seeds Ika Raju Kanumuri of Indian and Yasmin Vavrova of Slovakia 2-6, 6-3, 10-7 in the final. 

Last week's W35 in Boca Raton had an impact on the USTA's Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge standings, although Katie Volynets retains her lead from the week before. But two good weeks from Katrina Scott and Akasha Urhobo put them in the Top 5; Liv Hovde also moved into the top 4 with her title last week.

There was little change in the men's rankings, with Nicolas Moreno de Alboran(UC-Santa Barbara) continuing to lead, although Tennys Sandgren did move into the top 5 with his semifinal run at the Sarasota Challenger last week. There are two more weeks for the men (including this week) and three more weeks for the women to earn ATP/WTA points, with the best three results counting in the race.

Men's Standings after Week 2 (current rankings in parentheses):

1. Nicolas Moreno de Alboran (140) -- 63
2. Michael Mmoh (111) -- 50
T3. JJ Wolf (102) -- 25
T3. Aleks Kovacevic (97) -- 25
5. Tennys Sandgren (264) -- 22

Women's Standings after Week 2:

1. Katie Volynets (104) -- 57
2. Katrina Scott (412) -- 49
3. Akasha Urhobo (641) -- 37
4. Liv Hovde (272) -- 35
T5. Amanda Anisimova (238) -- 32
T5. Shelby Rogers (350) -- 32

The qualifying is complete and first round action has begun at the ATP Challenger 75 in Tallahassee Florida, with a big upset to start the tournament this evening.  2023 Wimbledon boys champion Henry Searle of Great Britain, currently 764 in the ATP rankings, took on top seed JJ Wolf(Ohio State) tonight and came away with the 7-5, 7-6(6) victory in a tense, well-played first round match.

Wolf, currently 102 in the ATP rankings, has lost in the first round as the top seed in the USTA Pro Circuit Challengers two weeks in a row now and is in danger of not making the main draw of Roland Garros this year.  Searle was granted a place in the main draw by virtue of the ATP/ITF Accelerator Program; ITF World No. 1 junior Joel Schwaerzler of Austria, utilizing his second straight Accelerator spot in a Challenger main draw, also got a victory today, his first, by beating Giovanni Fonio of Italy 6-2, 6-4. The two 18-year-olds will play each other in the second round Wednesday.

Young Americans Bruno Kuzuhara and Victor Lilov advanced to the main draw with final round qualifying wins over Alex Rybakov(TCU) and Ajeet Rai of New Zealand, respectively. 

Three top American juniors received wild cards into qualifying Alexander Razeghi, Roy Horovitz and Ian Mayew. Alexander Frusina and Australian Open boys champion Rei Sakamoto of Japan were also in qualifying via the Accelerator program. But only Mayew managed to win his first round match Sunday, beating former Baylor All-American Adrian Boitan of Romania 6-4, 6-4.  Mayew lost to No. 3 seed Corentin Denolly of France 7-6(4), 6-3 after leading 4-1 in the first set tiebreaker in today's final round of qualifying.

Wild cards were awarded to Stefan Kozlov, who beat 2022 Orange Bowl champion Gerard Campana Lee of Korea 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 in the first round today; Kaylan Bigun, who won a round last week in Sarasota as a qualifier; and Duarte Vale(Florida) of Portugal. I'm surprised no current Florida State players or alums are among the wild cards. No. 3 seed Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M) lost to Calvin Hemery of France 7-6(2), 6-3 in first round action today. 

Videos of the Easter Bowl 16s finals are below. The boys 16s is considerable longer than the girls because the boys final was played a day early and was therefore the only final going at the time, while the girls final was played while the 18s final were also in progress.  My photo gallery from the Easter Bowl is up at the Tennis Recruiting Network and can be found here.