Wild Cards Ngounoue, Quinn Advance to BNP Paribas Open Final Round Qualifying; Quevedo Wins W15 in Spain; Both Top Seeds Ousted on Day One of ITF J500 Banana Bowl; USA's Outdoor ITF Junior Circuit Starts in Las Vegas

Two of the teenage qualifying wild cards at the BNP Paribas Open posted wins today, joining Robin Montgomery and Liv Hovde in the final round of women's qualifying Tuesday. 

Clervie Ngounoue, who received her wild card for winning the ITF J300 Indian Wells title last March, showed again that the conditions suit her, beating French veteran Alize Cornet. Cornet had a dismal serving day, with 10 double faults and 39% first serve percentage, and the match ended with five consecutive breaks of serve.

Ngounoue has already earned two WTA Top 100 wins, both last year, so this isn't a personal best, with Cornet ranked No. 104. But she'll get a chance at a third Top 100 win tomorrow against No. 4 seed Taylor Townsend, who defeated Iva Jovic 6-1, 6-2. Jovic did make it to Indian Wells after playing the W35 final in Houston yesterday afternoon, but after playing seven straight days last week, Jovic was a longshot to beat WTA No. 83 Townsend on the eighth.

Reigning NCAA champion Ethan Quinn(Georgia), who turns 20 next week, earned the best win by ranking of his career today, beating No. 10 seed and ATP No. 103 Quentin Halys of France 6-1, 7-5. Quinn will face Andrea Vavassori of Italy for a place in the main draw Tuesday.

Wild cards Stefan Dostanic(USC) and Cooper Woestendick lost their first round men's qualifying matches, with Dostanic losing to Sumit Nagal of India 6-2, 6-2 and Woestendick, the 2023 ITF J300 champion, falling to Vit Kopriva of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-3.

Other Americans advancing to the final round of qualifying with wins today are Hailey Baptiste, Zachary Svajda and Nicolas Moreno de Alboran(UC-Santa Barbara), with five more US men still to play tonight. Kayla Day, Bernarda Pera and Claire Liu also are in the final round of qualifying Tuesday.

The main draw begins Wednesday, with the men's and women's singles draws released today. 

At the ITF women's World Tennis Tour W15 in Spain, 18-year-old Kaitlin Quevedo, who now represents Spain after switching from the United States at the start of year, won her fourth title on the Pro Circuit. Quevedo, the No. 7 seed, claimed the title when No. 5 seed Natalia Szabanin of Hungary retired in the final trailing 6-2, 3-1.

The ITF J500 Banana Bowl is in a new Brazilian city this year, Blumenau, the history of which can be found in the ITF preview of the event. I'm not sure if the new location is responsible, but the fields are weak, with the girls qualifying draw, which was 100 percent Brazilian, not filling, and the boys qualifying featuring players from just two countries: Brazil and Argentina. 

The last player into the boys main draw after all the withdrawals was ranked 315; at the J500 Orange Bowl in December the last player in was 140.  The girls draw had the 777th-ranked player make the main draw; the girls Orange Bowl cutoff last year was 144.

Despite the apparent lack of depth in draws, both No. 1 seeds were beaten today in the first of two days featuring opening round matches. Fourteen-year-old Angelica Sara of Italy took out 2023 Eddie Herr champion Wakana Sonobe of Japan 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 and wild card Joao Pedro Didoni Bonini of Brazil beat Australian Open quarterfinalist Amir Omarkhanov of Kazakhstan 1-6, 6-4, 6-2.

With the J300 in Indian Wells next week, most Americans decided against competing this week in Brazil, with seven US girls and three US boys beginning competition, including seeds Maxwell Exsted[9], Kaitlyn Rolls[9] and Maya Dutta[13].  The unseeded Americans are Calvin Baierl, Maximus Dussault, Sydney Jara, Kayla Moore, Gabriella Mikaul, Ligaya Murray and Trinetra Vijayakumar.

Baierl, Dutta, Jara and Murray lost their first round matches today, with Moore picking up a win and the rest opening play Tuesday.

Mayu Crossley of Japan, the No. 2 seed and defending Banana Bowl champion, won the J300 warmup title in Porto Alegre yesterday, with the top seed defeating qualifier Neus Torner Sensano of Spain 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the final. 

No. 2 seed Hoyoung Roh of Korea swept the boys titles in Porto Alegre, beating unseeded Nathan Trouve of France 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in singles and partnering with Atakan Karahan of Turkey for the doubles championship. The top seeds defeated No. 4 seeds Timofei Derepasko of Russia and Justin Engel of Germany 6-3, 4-6, 11-9 in the final. Roh is the No. 4 seed in Blumenau this week.

Kaitlyn Rolls won the doubles title, with Emily Sartz-Lunde of Norway. The No. 2 seeds defeated No. 3 seeds Jeline Vandromme of Belgium and Mika Buchnik of Israel 6-2, 6-2 in the final.

The ITF spring outdoor hard court swing in the United States begins this week in at the J60 in Las Vegas. Abishek Thorat and Canadian Eliana Kook are the top seeds.