Americans Sweep Australian Open Junior Doubles Titles; Lee, Antonius and Tuck Reach Semifinals at Les Petits As, Girls Top Seed Kovackova Ousted; Lam and Penickova Meet Saturday in Costa Rica ITF J300 Final

Because I plan to stay up tonight to watch the Australian Open Juniors singles finals, I will put up a second post much later tonight that covers those two matches and tonight's boys semifinal results at the ITF J300 Coffee Bowl.

But we had a busy day Friday in Melbourne and Tarbes, with two titles for American doubles teams at the Australian Open and three American boys reaching the semifinals at Les Petits As.

Due to rain on Thursday, the doubles semifinals and finals were both played on the same day, which was possible when those players in both singles and doubles losing in the doubles semifinals.

No. 3 seeds Tyra Grant and Iva Jovic defeated top seeds Sara Saito and Ena Koike of Japan 6-3, 7-6(4) in the semifinals, with that second set as close as they came to dropping a set throughout the tournament. In the final, the two-time Orange Bowl champions defeated unseeded Julie Pastikova of the Czech Republic and Julia Stusek of Germany 6-3, 6-1. Pastikova and Stusek had surprised No. 2 seeds Mingge Xu and Hannah Klugman of Great Britain 6-3, 1-6, 10-8 in the semifinals. It's the first junior slam title for Jovic; Grant won the Roland Garros doubles title last June with Clervie Ngounoue. 

Although they were unseeded, Max Exsted and Cooper Woestendick were not taken lightly by any of their opponents after they had captured the doubles title at ITF J300 in Traralgon last week. Exsted and Woestendick dropped just one set in their five wins, in the semifinals against top seeds Rei Sakamoto of Japan and Federico Cina of Italy, who they had also beaten in the semifinals at Traralgon. After that semifinal win, they took on No. 5 seeds Petr Brunclik of the Czech Republic and Viktor Frydrych of Great Britain, who had beaten Kaylan Bigun and Jagger Leach 6-7(5), 6-3, 10-5 in the semifinals. Exsted, 16, and Woestendick, 17, won the championship match 6-3, 7-5 to earn their first junior slam titles.

Exsted and Woestendick replicated the accomplishments of Cooper Williams and Learner Tien at last year's Australian swing, winning titles at both Traralgon and the Junior Championships.

It is the first time since 1992 that two all-American teams have swept the boys and girls slam doubles titles. 

In Saturday's singles finals, the home country will have a definite favorite for the first time since 2016, when Oliver Anderson won the boys singles title. No. 6 seed Emerson Jones of Australia came from 1-4 in the first set (quarterfinal match suspended at that time due to rain) to beat No. 2 seed Sara Saito of Japan 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 advancing to the semifinals, where she downed No. 16 seed Iva Ivanova of Bulgaria 6-4, 6-1. Ivanova had defeated No. 12 seed Mingge Xu of Great Britain 6-4, 6-3 in the other rain delayed quarterfinal.

The top half semifinal, with both players having won their quarterfinals before the rain Thursday, was a close one, with top seed Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia finally getting over the semifinal hump at a junior slam with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 win over No. 10 seed Ena Koike. Jones, who won last week's ITF J300 in Traralgon, is the first Australian girl since Jessica Moore in 2008 to reach the final in Melbourne. Jamrichova, who reached the semifinals at Wimbledon and the US Open juniors last year, would be the second Slovakian girls champion in Australia, with Tereza Mihalikova winning the title in 2015.

The boys final will also feature this year's Traralgon champion, with No. 4 seed Rei Sakamoto of Japan now on a 11-match winning streak. Sakamoto earned his second win over No. 2 seed Nikolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway in that stretch; after beating him in the Traralgon final 6-4, 6-1, he took a 6-2, 6-4 decision in Friday's semifinals. 

His opponent in the final would not have been on anyone's short list of contenders, but unseeded Jan Kumstat of the Czech Republic is growing in confidence with each win in his first junior slam. He defeated unseeded Mees Rottgering of the Netherlands 6-1, 6-3 in the semifinals. 

In the mixed double final, No. 3 seeds Jan Zielinski of Poland and Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan saved a match point to defeat No. 2 seeds Desirae Krawczyk(Arizona State) and Great Britain's Neal Skupski(LSU) 6-7(5), 6-4, 11-9. It's the first mixed title for both, although Hsieh has six major doubles titles and is going for a seventh in Australia with Elise Mertens of Belgium. Zielinski, a 2017 NCAA doubles finalist while competing for the University of Georgia, reached the men's doubles final in Australia last year. For more on the mixed final, see this article from the ATP.

Three of the four semifinalists at Les Petits As are from the United States, with all three boys in Friday's quarterfinals putting up wins today.

No. 2 seed Michael Antonius has kept his opponents to an average of one game a match this week, which is just what unseeded Bernardo Carvalho of Brazil got in Antonius's 6-1, 6-0 victory. Antonius will play No. 16 seed Tabb Tuck, who beat fellow wild card Pablo Pradat of France 6-2, 6-2 for his fourth consecutive straight-sets victory. Tuck and Antonius met in the final of the Eddie Herr 12s in 2022, with Antonius winning that match 6-1, 6-2.

No. 3 seed Jordan Lee has dropped sets in his last two victories; today he defeated unseeded Stan Put of the Netherlands 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. Lee will face No. 11 seed Izan Banares Lasala of Spain, who beat unseeded Rafael Thao-Keuang of France 6-1, 6-0. 

We know there will be an American in the singles final; on Saturday two other Americans will play for the doubles title. Izyan Ahmad and Teodor Davidov will face France's Quentin Dodin and Thomas Grevoul in the final between two unseeded teams.

Top seed and Junior Orange Bowl 14s champion Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic was upset in the quarterfinals today, with No. 7 seed Mariia Makarova of Russia securing a 6-2, 6-4 victory. Makarova will play No. 5 seed Anna Pircher of Austria, who beat Xinran Sun of China 2-6, 6-2, 6-0. No. 2 seed Kseniia Ruchkina of Russia, a 6-3 6-1 winner over Grace Bernstein of Sweden, will face Nauhany Leme Da Silva of Brazil, who beat Ida Wobker of Germany 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The draws can be found here.

The girls final is set at the ITF J300 Coffee Bowl in Costa Rica, with No. 7 seed Shannon Lam to face unseeded Kristina Penickova after four Americans battled in today's semifinals. The 15-year-old Lam took out top seed Katie Rolls 6-4, 6-1; the 14-year-old Penickova, who won the Eddie Herr 16s title last month, defeated Thea Frodin 6-4, 6-4.

The boys semifinal between qualifier Ian Mayew and Max Dussault is also an all-US contest; Matisse Farzam will face the only international boy and seed, Colombia's Miguel Tobon[2], in the other semifinal.