My Annual Intriguing Questions Article; Australian Open Junior Championships Begin Saturday, Feature 13 Americans; Takizawa and Geng Win Bolton U14 Titles; Two NCAA Champions Advance at Indian Wells Challenger

Every January, when I have no tournaments to cover, I take the down time to look at some of the issues I see on the horizon in junior and college tennis for the Tennis Recruiting Network. I've found the Eight Intriguing Questions format works well to address these topics, although there's nothing magical about that number and I could probably do 10 or 12 if necessary. But limiting it to eight allows me to prioritize and focus, and I believe this year's questions, e.g. the Orange Bowl, NIL, USTA Player Development, UTR's future, are important ones for the future of the college and junior tennis communities.

The Australian Open Junior Championships begin Saturday(tonight here in the United States) with six American girls and seven American boys in the draw. Only four of them play their first round matches Saturday:

Saturday's first round Australian Open Junior matches featuring Americans:
Alanis Hamilton v Vittoria Paganetti(ITA)
Kate Fakih v Rositsa Dencheva(BUL)

Jagger Leach v Daniil Sarksian(RUS)
Roy Horovitz[10] v Egor Pleshivtsev(RUS)

The other Americans competing are qualifier Aspen Schuman, Iva Jovic[8], Tyra Grant[9], Mia Slama, Matthew Forbes, Max Exsted, Cooper Woestendick, Kaylan Bigun[5] and Alex Razeghi[6].

Although the boys seeds are quite similar to last week's J300 in Traralgon, an unusually large number of girls did not play that warm-up event, including top seed Renata Jamrichova(SVK), No. 2 seed Sara Saito(JPN), No. 3 seed Kaitlin Quevedo(ESP), No. 5 seed Tereza Valentova(CZE) and No. 7 seed Alena Kovackova(CZE).  

The ITF preview and notes for the Junior Championships can be viewed here. It's great to have these from the ITF every year at all the junior slams, with the only exception the US Open. 

Four Americans are in action Saturday in third round singles at the Australian Open, with Taylor Fritz, Coco Gauff and Amanda Anisimova moving into the round of 16 with wins Friday.

Friday's third round results of Americans:

Coco Gauff[4] d.  Alycia Parks 6-0, 6-2

Amanda Anisimova d. Paula Badosa(ESP) 7-5, 6-4

Andrey Rublev[5](RUS) d. Sebastian Korda[29] 6-2, 7-6(6), 6-4

Taylor Fritz[12] d. Fabian Marozsan(HUN) 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2

Adrian Mannarino[20](FRA) d. Ben Shelton[16] 7-6(4), 1-6, 7-6(2), 6-3, 6-4

Saturday's third round matches featuring Americans:

Alex Michelsen v Alexander Zverev[6](GER)

Tommy Paul[14] v Miomir Kecmanovic(SRB)

Sloane Stephens v Anna Kalinskaya(RUS)

Emma Navarro[27] v Dayana Yastremska[Q](UKR)

The Tennis Europe Category 1 14U tournament this week in Bolton England concluded today, with Eddie Herr 14s champion Joyce Geng of Canada and qualifier Taiki Takizawa of Australia claiming the singles titles. Geng, the No. 6 seed, defeated unseeded Nauhany Vitoria Leme da Silva of Brazil 6-4, 6-3 and Takizawa's eighth win of the week was a 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 decision over unseeded Quentin Dodin of France.

In the boys doubles final between unseeded teams, Ireland's Patrick Breen and Great Britain's Eric Lorimer defeated Dodin and Thomas Grevoul of France 6-4, 6-2.  The girls doubles title went to top seeds Yui Komada and Ran Wakana of Japan, who beat Leme da Silva and Japan's Sakino Miyazawa 6-2, 6-3 in the final. 

Next week is the Tennis Europe Super Category Les Petits As in Tarbes France, where national qualifying has begun, and international qualifying starts Saturday. Two US boys, Elliott Awomoyi and Tomas Laukys, are competing in the international qualifying.

The semifinals of the Southern California Open ATP Challenger 50 in Indian Wells will feature two NCAA singles champions, 2019's Paul Jubb(South Carolina) of Great Britain and 2017's Thai Kwiatkowski(Virginia). Kwiatkowski, the No. 6 seed, defeated No. 2 seed Marco Trungelliti of Argentina 7-5, 6-3, and will face No. 3 seed Brandon Holt, who beat former USC teammate Daniel Cukierman of Israel 6-2, 3-6, 6-0. The 24-year-old Jubb, who used a protected ranking for entry after being out for six months early last year, defeated unseeded Omni Kumar(Duke) 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-1 for his first Challenger semifinal since October of 2022. Jubb will face No. 4 seed Mitchell Krueger, who defeated Learner Tien(USC) 6-4, 7-6(6) to reach his first Challenger semifinal since last February.