Jauffret Earns First ITF Title, Kennedy Claims Second Straight at J200 in Dominican Republic; Dencheva and Preda Champions at J500 in Egypt; Feature on Exsted Examines Life as Top Junior; Top Seeds Out at D-III Men's Indoor

Fifteen-year-old Jack Kennedy has been on winning streaks before, winning back-to-back J60s last May in Spain and going 37-7 in ITF Junior Circuit play at the J100 and below level. This year Kennedy has a record of 14-2 at J100s and above, with ten straight wins after taking his second straight J200 title in the Dominican Republic. 

Kennedy, the No. 4 seed, defeated 17-year-old wild card Aditya Govila of India, the No. 8 seed, 6-4, 6-2 in today's final, which should move him into the ITF Top 60. Unlike last week, he did drop a set in this week's run to the title, defeating qualifier Dylan Long 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. 

All four titles in Santo Domingo were captured by Americans, with both girls finals featuring only US juniors.

Sixteen-year-old Capucine Jauffret, the No. 13 seed, won her first ITF Junior Circuit title, beating top seed Shannon Lam 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. Jauffret are now 1-1 in ITF Junior Circuit competition, after Lam won last fall's match at the Pan Am J300 in Houston, but they are developing quite a rivalry. Lam won their third-place match at the Easter Bowl last year, but Jauffret took their consolation match at the Winter Nationals two months ago. 

Jauffret also reached the doubles final, with Monika Ekstrand. The No. 4 seeds lost to No. 2 seeds Christasha McNeil and Claire An 7-5, 5-7, 10-7 in the final.

The boys doubles title went to Joseph Oyebog and Abishek Thorat, with the eighth-seeded pair beating the unseeded team of Ivan Iutkin of Russia and Eyal Shumilov of Israel 6-3, 6-2. Oyebog and Thorat didn't drop a set in their four victories.

The J500 in Cairo Egypt also concluded today, with singles titles for No. 8 seed Rositsa Dencheva of Bulgaria and No. 4 seed Luca Preda of Romania. Dencheva defeated top seed Laura Samson of the Czech Republic 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 in the final; Preda, the 2023 Orange Bowl finalist, beat University of Kentucky signee Thomas Faurel of France 6-3, 6-2 for the title. 

Top seeds Jan Kumstat and Jan Klimas of the Czech Republic won the boys doubles title, beating No. 8 seeds Dmitrii Burtsev and Egor Pleshivtsev of Russia 6-2, 4-6, 10-7 in the final. The girls doubles title was claimed by the unseeded team of Asylzhan Arystanbekova and Sonja Zhiyenbayeva of Kazakhstan, who beat No. 2 seeds Teodora Kostovic of Serbia and Lucie Urbanova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 7-5 in the championship match. 

Features on young amateur players are quite rare, but already this month I've linked to articles about Fnu Nidunjianzan and Cooper Woestendick; now there's one on Woestendick's Australian Open championship doubles partner Maxwell Exsted from Jeff Day at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. This is truly a feature, exploring all the issues, the costs and benefits, of being a world class junior athlete. Every player in that category is different, but there are some questions and challenges they all face, and this article doesn't shy away from them. The only error I spotted was the reference to Hunter Heck, who is a senior at the University of Illinois, competing for the Fightining Illini.

There were not one but two upsets today at the ITA Men's Division III Team Indoor Championships, with top seed Case Western falling to No. 4 seed Washington-St Louis 4-3, and No. 3 seed Emory beating No. 2 seed Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 7-0. Washington-St Louis took the doubles point and lines 1, 4 and 5 to hold off the defending champions. Case Western defeated Washington-St Louis 5-1 in the final last year.