Urhobo Qualifies at USTA Pro Circuit W35 in Naples, Noel Beats No. 3 Seed; Traralgon ITF J300 Qualifying Begins; Volynets, Kudla and Nava Advance at Australian Open Qualifying; Junior Orange Bowl 14s Videos

Sixteen-year-old Akasha Urhobo, fresh off a title Sunday at the UTR Pro Tennis Tour in Boca Raton, made the two-hour trip across the state for the qualifying of the USTA Pro Circuit W35 in Naples, where she was the No. 16 seed. Urhobo, a semifinalist at last month's ITF J500 Orange Bowl, defeated Riya Bhatia of India 6-2, 6-0 in yesterday's first round of qualifying; today she beat No. 8 qualifying seed Kayla Cross of Canada 6-3, 7-6(4) to reach the main draw. She will face fellow qualifier Tatiana Pieri of Italy in the first round Wednesday.

Other Americans qualifying for the main draw today are Adriana Reami(NC State) and Allura Zamarippa(Texas); Auburn sophomore Angella Okutoyi, an Ace in December for her ITF women's titles in Kenya, also qualified for the main draw and will play 18-year-old Cadence Brace of Canada in the first round Wednesday.

Wild cards were given to Miami's Alexa Noel, Duke signee Ava Krug, 18-year-old Sophia Cisse-Ignatiev and Ariana Pursoo. Pursoo withdrew from the Australian Open Junior Championships late last month. Noel was the only one playing her first round today, and she defeated No. 3 seed Grace Min 6-3, 7-5. 

Clervie Ngounoue defeated No. 7 seed Madison Sieg(USC) 6-1, 6-2 in the first round.

Louisa Chirico is the top seed; Canadian Layne Sleeth(Florida/Oklahoma) received what is designated on the draw as a junior exempt, but is certainly a collegiate accelerator spot in the main draw. Sleeth reached the NCAA singles final last May.

Qualifying for the ITF J300 in Traralgon Australia, the warmup for the Australian Open Junior Championships, begins Wednesday(tonight in the US). No American boys are in the 32-player draw, but four US girls are competing for a place in the main draw: Maya Dutta[9], Trinetra Vijayakumar, Allie Bittner and Olivia Center[7]. US girls in the main draw are Iva Jovic, Tyra Grant, Alanis Hamilton, Mia Slama, Kate Fakih and Aspen Schuman. Fakih, Schuman and the four girls in Traralgon qualifying are not in the main draw of the Australian Open Junior Championships after today's withdrawal deadline; Bittner and Vijayakumar are not even in qualifying for Melbourne as of now.

The US boys in the Traralgon main draw are Kaylan Bigun, Alex Razeghi, Roy Horovitz, Max Exsted, Cooper Woestendick and Jagger Leach. Matthew Forbes, who is still listed among the main draw entries of the Australian Open Juniors, did not enter Traralgon.

Three Americans advanced to the second round of the Australian Open qualifying Tuesday: Denis Kudla, Emilio Nava and Katie Volynets[3]. Michael Mmoh[5] and Sachia Vickery[31] lost their first round qualifying matches, with Vickery falling to 2023 Australian and Roland Garros girls champion Alina Korneeva of Russia 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.

Volynets plays her second round match against 2015 NCAA singles finalist Carol Zhao(Stanford) of Canada Wednesday (tonight in US); Kudla and Nava are not on Wednesday's schedule. Americans playing first round qualifying matches are Nicolas Moreno de Alboran, Brandon Nakashima[25]

Zachary Svajda[32], Maxime Cressy[19], Aleks Kovacevic[7], Ann Li, Hailey Baptiste[19], Elvina Kalieva and Elli Mandlik[8].

Below are the last of the videos of the finals of the three major junior tournaments in Florida in December. The Junior Orange Bowl B14s final is one video; the G14s final is two, with no suitable spot above and behind the court at Salvadore Park. All videos of the Eddie Herr, Orange Bowl and Junior Orange Bowl finals can be viewed at the tenniskalamazoo YouTube channel.