US Boys Fall in Australian Open Quarterfinals; Antonius, Lee and Tuck Reach Les Petits As Quarterfinals; All-USA Semis at Coffee Bowl; Ngounoue Advances at Vero Beach W75; ITA Kickoff Weekend Begins Friday

The last two Americans competing in singles at the Australian Open Junior Championships bowed out Thursday, with No. 5 seed Kaylan Bigun dropping a 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-2 decision to No. 2 seed Nikolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway and unseeded Cooper Woestendick losing to No. 4 seed Rei Sakamoto of Japan 7-5, 6-3. 

Budkov Kjaer had lost a three-setter to Bigun in the Orange Bowl quarterfinals last month, and he'll have another opportunity for revenge Friday against Sakamoto, who beat him 6-4, 6-1 in last week's final at the ITF J300 in Traralgon.

The other boys semifinal is between two unseeded players, with 17-year-old Jan Kumstat of the Czech Republic defeating No. 16 seed Hayden Jones 6-7(2), 6-3, 7-5 and 16-year-old Mees Rottgering of the Netherlands beating Amir Omarkhanov of Kazakhstan 6-2, 6-0 in the quarterfinals. None of the four boys semifinalists had ever been to the quarterfinals of a junior slam before this week; Kumstat, who is making his junior slam debut several weeks after turning 17, has never even reached a J300 final.

Due to rain late in the day Thursday, only one of the girls semifinals is set.  Top seed Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia put an end to the run of 14-year-old wild card Ksenia Efremova of France 6-2, 6-1, while Japan's Ena Koike, seeded No. 10, defeated No. 15 seed Vlada Mincheva of Russia 7-6(6), 6-0. Jamrichova has now made the semifinals of the last three junior slams and leads Koike 2-0 in the head-to-head, with the most recent in the semifinals of ITF Junior Finals in October.

The other two matches quarterfinals were in progress when they were postponed, with No. 16 seed Iva Ivanova of Bulgaria leading No. 12 seed Mingge Xu of Great Britain 5-4 in the first set, and No. 2 seed Sara Saito of Japan leading No. 6 seed Emerson Jones of Australia 4-1 in the first set. 

Those two matches and both semifinals are on Friday's schedule, with the boys semifinals also scheduled for Friday.

The doubles semifinals did not begin and were pushed to Friday as well, with both the semifinals and finals on the schedule. Saito and Koike are in the doubles semifinals, and I believe that if they were to reach the doubles final, they would have the option to move it to Saturday. If Saito beats Jones, and she and Koike win their doubles semifinal, she would have three and a half matches to play in one day. The same scenario applies to Xu, who is also in the doubles semifinals.

Doubles semifinals:

Kaylan Bigun and Jagger Leach v Petr Brunclik(CZE) and Viktor Frydrych(GBR)[5]

Cooper Woestendick and Max Exsted v Federico Cina(ITA) and Rei Sakamoto(JPN)[1]

Tyra Grant and Iva Jovic[3] v Ena Koike(JPN) and Sara Saito(JPN)[1]

Julie Pastikova(CZE) and Julia Stusek(GER) v Mingge Xu(GBR) and Hannah Klugman(GBR)[2]

No. 2 seeds Desirae Krawczyk(Arizona State) and Great Britain's Neal Skupski(LSU) will play for the mixed doubles title Friday against No. 3 seeds Jan Zielinski(Georgia) of Poland and Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan. Krawczyk is going for the career slam, having won at least one mixed title at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open.

Coco Gauff lost to defending champion Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 7-6(2), 6-4 in the women's semifinals; Sabalenka will face Qinwen Zheng of China in Saturday's final.

Three American boys have advanced to Les Petits As quarterfinals: No. 2 seed Michael Antonius, who has lost a total of three games in three matches, No. 3 seed Jordan Lee and No. 16 seed Tabb Tuck. Lee defeated last week's champion at Bolton in three sets, while Tuck earned a quick victory over the No. 4 seed.

Thursday's third round results of Americans at Les Petits As

Pablo Pradat[WC](FRA) d. Teodor Davidov[12] 6-2, 7-6(5)

Izan Banares Lasala[11](ESP) d. Izyan Ahmad[8] 6-2, 6-4

Jordan Lee[3] d. Taiki Takizawa[15](JPN) 6-1, 1-6 6-3

Tabb Tuck[16[(WC) d. Richard Krizan[4](SVK) 6-1, 6-1

Michael Antonius[2] d. Evgenii Kafelnikov[14](RUS) 6-0, 6-1

Jana Kovackova[1](CZE) d. Margaret Sohns[15] 3-6, 6-2, 6-4

Xinran Sun(CHN) d. Lani Chang[WC] 6-4, 6-0

Friday's quarterfinals matches featuring Americans:

Jordan Lee[3] v Stan Put(NED)

Tabb Tuck[16](WC) v Pablo Pradat(FRA)

Michael Antonius[2] v Bernardo Carvalho(BRA)

Draws are here, links to live streaming and live scoring are here.

Last night in the second round of the ITF J300 Coffee Bowl in Costa Rica, qualifier Ian Mayew defeated top seed Nikita Filin 6-1, 7-6(1), and Yubel Ubri defeated Rafael Botran of Guatemala 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals, making six US boys in the final eight. Three of the boys quarterfinals are late matches, but one of the all-US quarterfinals is complete, with Max Dussault defeating Dominick Mosejczuk 6-2, 6-2. Of the eight quarterfinalists, there is just one seed remaining: Miguel Tobon of Colombia. 

The girls quarterfinals are complete, and all four advancing to the semifinals are Americans. Top seed Katie Rolls cruised past Jeline Vandromme of Belgium 6-4, 6-0; No. 7 seed Shannon Lam defeated No. 4 seed Margot Phantala of France 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 and will play Rolls next.

In the bottom half, 14-year-old Kristina Penickova defeated No. 3 seed Monika Ekstrand 6-0, 7-6 and will face 15-year-old Thea Frodin, who beat Naomi Xu of Canada 6-0, 2-6, 6-4. 

See the tournament website for results, draws and Friday's schedule.

Clervie Ngounoue, who won her first Pro Circuit title two weeks ago at the W35 in Naples, advanced to the quarterfinals of the W75+hospitality USTA event in Vero Beach Florida. Ngounoue, a wild card entry, defeated qualifier Sayaka Ishii of Japan 6-4, 6-3 in today's second round. Ishii, 18, and Ngounoue, 17, had met four times in ITF junior play, splitting those matches; this was their first meeting on the Pro Circuit. Ngounoue will face No. 2 seed Maria Carle(Georgia) of Argentina in Friday's quarterfinals. 

The ITA Division I Kickoff Weekend begins Friday, with 30 four-team regionals across the country. The draft, which was held last summer, allows teams to choose their regional in attempting to qualifying for the National Team Indoor Championships, with draft position determined by the order of their final rankings from 2023. The top 15 teams in the rankings host, with the National Indoor hosts receiving direct entry. The Columbia men and Washington women are the hosts this year. 

If you've forgotten who chose to go where, here are the drafts for women and men. 

Chris Halioris at College Tennis Ranks has posted events pages for both men and women, with links to live scoring and video. Submitted lineups and previews are also available for the men. 

Cracked Racquets will be providing coverage of action from 20 of the 30 sites, either on ESPN+ or on their Cracked Racquets YouTube Channel. For more on which regional can be viewed where, see this article from the ITA.

The Great Shot Podcast has a women's preview with Alex Gruskin and John Parsons; Parsons' No-Ad No Problem podcast has a men's preview with Ethan Moszkowski.