Clash of Future UCLA Teammates Set in All-USA Boys ITF J300 Indian Wells Semifinals; Frodin Earns Shot at Top Seed Kostovic; Eight Americans Reach Doubles Finals; ITF J300 San Diego Wild Cards; Quinn, Crawley Win $100K Hurd Grants

©Colette Lewis 2024--
Indian Wells CA--

Kaylan Bigun and Rudy Quan will meet again at the FILA International Junior Championships ITF J300 semifinals Saturday, a rematch of their quarterfinal thriller from last year, when Quan saved three match points to upset Bigun 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-3. Bigun booked his spot in the semifinals with a 6-3, 6-3 win over No. 9 seed Ian Mayhew, while Quan took out unseeded Bernardo Munk Mesa of Spain 6-4, 6-1.

Aside from it being a round later, and much cooler and cloudier conditions today than a year ago, there will be similarities to their match last year, with Bigun again the No. 1 seed here at Indian Wells Tennis Garden and Quan again competing as a wild card. What's different is a new bond, with both set to compete for the UCLA Bruins this fall. 

Bigun admitted that he had a few flashbacks from that quarterfinal loss to Quan last year during his win today.

"When I was up 6-3, 5-3, 40-love today, I was like here we go," said the 17-year-old left-hander, who spotted Quan checking out that last game. "I saw Rudy peeking from behind and I thought, of course this guy is here. But Rudy and I are really good friends, hang out back home a lot, so I'm looking forward to going after him tomorrow and he's going to come after me, so it should be fun."

Bigun pointed to his ability to maintain his focus throughout today's match as the primary reason he found a way to halt Mayew's ITF J300 winning streak.

"The match was close the whole time," said Bigun, who trailed 3-0 in the second set. "Coming into the match, if you look at the guy's record this year he's 16-0, so he knows how to win. The score was 3 and 3, but I think it was really competitive, every game was close and if I had lost my focus for a little bit, he would have definitely gotten the upper hand. I wanted to maintain my intensity throughout the whole match and that's something like I felt I did well; I think that might have been the difference maker."

Bigun is not defending his title next week at the J300 in San Diego, but will be competing in Southern California, using one of his ITF Junior Accelerator Program entries to compete in the USTA Pro Circuit $25K in Calabasas.

Quan started slowly against Munk Mesa, but found a way to neutralize the Spaniard's big forehand, going from 2-0 down to 5-3 up in the first set. Although Quan was broken serving for the set, he broke at love to win it, and by the time Quan had built a 4-1 lead in the second set, Munk Mesa appeared resigned to a loss, putting up minimal resistance in the last two games.

Like Carlos Alcaraz in the men's draw, defending champion Cooper Woestendick moved closer to a second final, beating wild card Mitchell Lee 7-5, 6-3.  Woestendick, the No. 2 seed, will face No. 10 seed Jack Kennedy, who defeated No. 13 seed Matisse Farzam 6-4, 6-2.

Kennedy, 15, is on a 13-match winning streak in ITF Junior Circuit competition, with two J200 titles last month in the Dominican Republic. He will be playing in his first J300 semifinal Saturday.

While Kennedy extended his winning streak, 14-year-old Christina Lyutova's ended today at 21, with the Russian qualifier losing to top seed Teodora Kostovic of Serbia 6-2, 6-3. Kostovic's depth of shot, and her commitment to attacking Lyutova's second serve proved to be the difference.

Kostovic will face No. 3 seed Thea Frodin, who won the only three-set match of the day, beating unseeded Olivia Center 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

The 15-year-old Frodin, who reached the Orange Bowl 16s final in December, has posted impressive results throughout 2024, going 17-3 and winning a J200 last month in the Dominican Republic. 

The loss in the Orange Bowl final helped Frodin identify what she needed to improve, with a particular emphasis on getting over the finish line when it was in sight.

"I struggled a little bit with closing out matches," said Frodin, who still lives in Woodland Hills California, but trains regularly with the USTA in Lake Nona and has had the support of USTA's head of women's tennis Kathy Rinaldi this week. "I felt really confident, but then I get nervous toward the end. But working on the things I wasn't as strong in last year gave me confidence, and that helped me close out matches better."

Against Center, Frodin was able to put that confidence to the test after failing to convert two match points serving at 5-3, 40-15. Several forehand errors later, Center had a break point, but Frodin forced an error with a big backhand to save it, then came up with an ace out wide to earn her third match point. Showing off her variety, Frodin hit a delicate volley winner that Center could not even consider reaching, putting herself in a third J300 semifinal in 2024.

Frodin, with her relatively recent debut at the top of the junior game, doesn't have a lot of intel on Kostovic.

"I actually have never seen her play before," Frodin said. "This is my first time hearing about her, so I'm just going to try to go into the match playing aggressive, just playing my game, and hopefully that will work."

The other girls semifinal will feature No. 2 seed Iva Jovic against unseeded Valerie Glozman, after both posted straight-sets victories.

Jovic defeated No. 12 seed Monika Ekstrand 6-4, 6-2 to reach the Indian Wells J300 semifinals for the second straight year, while Glozman defeated Anita Tu 6-3, 6-2 to improve on her quarterfinal finish here last year and reach her first J300 semifinal. Jovic and Glozman were teammates, along with last year's Indian Wells champion Clervie Ngounoue, on the Junior Billie Jean Cup team that won the world 16-and-under title in 2022.

The doubles semifinals were played on Friday afternoon, with American champions assured in Saturday's finals.

Jagger Leach will be defending his 2023 title, won with Joseph Oyebog last year, with new partner Nikita Filin, after the No. 3 seeds defeated the unseeded team of Dominick Mosejczuk and Jack Secord 6-3, 7-6(4). Up 6-3, 5-4, Filin was broken serving for the match, and Filin and Leach trailed 4-1 in the tiebreaker, but raised their level to claim the final six points of the match to close it out in straight sets. 

The will face No. 4 seeds Ian Mayew and Kase Schinnerer, who defeated Noah Johnston and Benjamin Willwerth 6-3, 6-4.

The only seeded team to advance to the girls doubles semifinals have reached the final, with Alanis Hamilton returning to the final for the second straight year, this time with Claire An. Hamilton, who lost in the final last year with Kayla Chung as her partner, and An, the No. 5 seeds defeated the unseeded wild card team of Welles Newman and Maggie Sohns 6-2, 6-4. 

An and Hamilton will play Alyssa Ahn and Bianca Molnar, who defeated the only international team in the semifinals, Sarah Fajmonova of the Czech Republic and Nadia Lagaev of Canada, 7-6(4), 6-2.

Qualifying for next week's ITF J300 North American Closed in San Diego begins Saturday at the Barnes Tennis Center. The qualifying draws have been posted, with Vihaan Reddy the top seed in the boys qualifying and Maria Araoz-Gosn the No. 1 seed in girls qualifying.

The main draw wild cards awarded as of now are:

Boys:

Nischal Spurling

William Kleege

AJ Abarca

David Adamson

Girls:

Maggie Sohns

Welles Newman

Elizabeth Ionescu

Emily Deming

Rachel Lee

Alyssa Ahn

I was so busy earlier this week that I missed the announcement of the annual Universal Tennis Foundation Hurd Awards for 2024, which were given to Georgia's Ethan Quinn and North Carolina's Fiona Crawley. Quinn, who is in his first full year as a pro after winning the NCAA singles title as a freshman last year, and Crawley, a senior at UNC, will each receive $100,000 to help in their transition to the professional tours. 

New this year are $40,000 grants to the runners-up, with Ohio State senior Cannon Kingsley and Duke graduate Chloe Beck receiving those funds for 2024.  

There was also an announcement of a newly created Hurd Award Select Pro Team, described as "additional deserving elite collegiate players who, along with the Champions and Finalists, will be invited to attend a Youth Performance Institute conference this summer where Dr. Loehr will speak and offer mentorship.

The 2024 Hurd Award Select Pro Team includes Lea Ma (Georgia), Kari Miller (Michigan), Ayana Akli (South Carolina), Micah Braswell (Texas), Andres Martin (Georgia Tech), and Garrett Johns (Duke)."

See the UTR release for more on this year's recipients.