Nine American Juniors Reach Australian Open Junior Championships Second Round; Thirteen Americans Ready for Les Petits As; No. 1 Virginia Falls at Home to South Carolina; Krueger and Nakashima Win Challenger Titles
Nine of the 13 American juniors competing in the boys and girls draws at the Australian Open have advanced to the second round, including qualifier Aspen Schuman. Schuman defeated No. 3 seed Kaitlin Quevedo, who recently changed her country affiliation from the United States to Spain, 7-5, 6-3 to join Mia Slama, Kate Fakih and Tyra Grant[9] in round 2. No. 8 seed Iva Jovic had five match points in the second set of her match with Vendula Valdmannova of the Czech Republic, but couldn't hold off Valdmannova, who won 1-6, 7-5, 6-4.
No. 6 seed Alex Razeghi beat 15-year-old wild card Cruz Hewitt of Australia, the son of Lleyton Hewitt, 6-2, 6-3 and was featured in Sunday's ITF boys article.
Sunday's first round matches featuring Americans
Alex Razeghi[6] d. Cruz Hewitt[WC](AUS) 6-2, 6-3
Cooper Woestendick d. Thanaphat Boosarawongse[Q](THA) 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-2
Diego Dedura-Palomero(GER) d. Max Exsted 6-2, 3-6, 6-4
Kaylan Bigun[5] d. Rohan Hazratwala[WC](AUS) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4
Nicolai Budkov Kjaer[2](NOR) d. Matthew Forbes 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-1
Vendula Valdmannova(CZE) d. Iva Jovic[8] 1-6, 7-5, 6-4
Aspen Schuman[Q] d. Kaitlin Quevedo[3](ESP) 7-5, 6-3
Tyra Grant[9] d. Reina Goto[Q](JPN) 6-2, 6-3
Just two Americans remain in the men's and women's singles draws at the Australian Open: Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz. No. 4 seed Gauff continued her stroll through the draw, beating Magdalena Frech of Poland 6-1, 6-2 to remain undefeated in 2024 and run her slam winning streak to 11; Fritz, the No. 12 seed, reached his first Australian Open quarterfinal with a 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 win over No. 7 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece. Amanda Anisimova lost to No. 2 seed and defending champion Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 6-3, 6-2.
Former collegians Cameron Norrie[19](TCU) of Great Britain and 2019 NCAA singles finalist Nuno Borges(Mississippi State) are playing Monday for a spot in the quarterfinals. Norrie faces No. 6 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany, while Borges, into the second week of a major for the first time, plays No. 3 seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia.
The Les Petits As tournament begins Monday in Tarbes, with eight US boys and five US girls contending for the world's most prestigious 14U title. I don't remember ever seeing so many Americans in the draws, but three boys--Michael Antonius[2], Jordan Lee[3] and Teodor Davidov[12]--all received entry based on their Tennis Europe rankings. Four other boys are those who qualified from the November USA Playoffs--Izyan Ahmad[8], Jason Eigbedion, Tabb Tuck[16] and Arjun Krishnan--and Tomas Laukys made it through international qualifying to give the US eight of the 64 players in the boys draw.
The five girls in the draw are the four USA Playoff winners--Welles Newman[8], Maggie Sohns[15], Caroline Shao and Janae Preston--plus wild card Lani Chang, the daughter of Michael Chang.
Junior Orange Bowl 14s champion Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic is the No. 1 seed, and she will play Junior Orange Bowl 12s champion Daniel Baranes of Israel, a wild card, in the first round.
Pavel Dufek of the Czech Republic is the top seed in the boys draw.
Draws can be found at the Tennis Europe tournament site. Links to live scoring and live streaming can be found at the Les Petits As tournament site.
It was a busy day in college tennis, with many of the top teams taking on quality opponents in advance of the Division I Kickoff Weekend that begins Friday. Both No. 1 and defending NCAA championship teams prepared by hosting two highly touted opponents, but the outcomes diverged dramatically.
The North Carolina women, with six returning starters, needed just over two hours to blank No. 3 Georgia, an impressive showing from start to finish. The Virginia men, who had just earned a huge win on the road last Thursday over No. 3 Texas, lost to No. 5 South Carolina 4-3, despite taking a quick doubles point to start. Both teams were missing their No. 2 players, UVA's Inaki Montes, who also did not play against Texas, and South Carolina's Connor Thomson. South Carolina was also missing its No. 3, James Story, but Gamecock freshman Sean Daryabeigi battled through Alex Kiefer at line 5 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 to clinch it. Five of the six singles matches went to a third set, so there was little to separate the two teams, but it's a huge confidence boost to South Carolina. Read the South Carolina recap here.
Rain continued into the Sunday morning at the Southern California Open ATP Challenger 50 in Indian Wells, but they did manage to get the two finals played. No. 4 seed Mitchell Krueger, who just turned 30, completed his semifinal this morning, beating Paul Jubb(South Carolina) of Great Britain 6-4, 6-4, then faced No. 3 seed Brandon Holt(USC), who had yesterday reached the final, his first at the Challenger level, with a win over Thai Kwiatkowski(Virginia). Holt struck first, but Krueger fought back to take the title 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, his first Challenger title since September of 2021.
Top seeds Ryan Seggerman (Princeton/UNC) and Patrick Trhac(Idaho State/Utah) took the doubles championship, their eleventh as a team and their third Challenger title, all coming since last July. They defeated Kwiatkowski and Alex Lawson(Notre Dame) 6-2, 7-6(3) in the final.
Qualifying for the second Indian Wells ATP Challenger 50 is underway, although rain is likely Monday as well.
No. 4 seed Brandon Nakashima(Virginia) won the title at the ATP Challenger 100 in Tenerife Spain, beating No. 2 seed Pedro Martinez of Spain 6-3, 6-4 in the final. It's the first Challenger title for Nakashima since 2021, and it brings his ATP ranking up to 103.
The titles at the two USTA Pro Circuit events this week went to unseeded Karue Sell(UCLA) of Brazil and Marie Benoit of France. Sell defeated No. 7 seed Tristan McCormick(Notre Dame/Georgia) 6-3, 3-0 ret. in the final of the $25,000 tournament in Ithaca New York. It's the fifth career Pro Circuit singles title for the 30-year-old Sell.
Top seeds Simon Freund(LSU/UC-Santa Barbara) of Sweden and Johannes Ingildsen(Florida) of Denmark won the doubles title, beating No. 3 seeds Pranav Kumar(SMU/Texas A&M) and Joshua Sheehy(Abilene Christian) 6-4, 7-6(4) in the final.
At the women's W35 in Naples Florida, No. 6 seed Benoit defeated unseeded Leonie Kung of Switzerland 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 in today's singles final. The doubles title went to No. 3 seeds Elvina Kalieva and Maria Kozyreva(St. Mary's) of Russia, who beat No. 2 seeds Lia Karatancheva of Bulgaria and Isabelle Haverlag of the Netherlands 6-0, 6-0 in the final.
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