July Aces; Clervie Ngounoue and Bella Payne Top Seeds in San Diego; US Open Junior Acceptances; All US Women Out at Paris Olympics, Paul Reaches Singles and Doubles Quarterfinals

My monthly Aces column at Tennis Recruiting Network is up a bit early, with July's edition coming out today, which is probably a good thing, with August such a busy time for me. I didn't intend for the column to be mostly about former college players, but there were so many milestones for them on the Pro Tours that they dominated the narrative. My apologies to those juniors and current and recent collegians who won a $15K or a $25K title this month, as there simply wasn't room to feature them, but I hope that's just a temporary situation.

One of the few juniors who did make the grade last month was Clervie Ngounoue, who won the W50 in Dallas last week. Ngounoue was announced today as the top seed at the USTA 18s National Championships in San Diego, which is the expected position for the defending champion.

The top 16 seeds in G18s:

1. Clervie Ngounoue
2. Akasha Urhobo
3. Iva Jovic
4. Tyra Grant
5. Valerie Glozman
6. Aspen Schuman
7. Ashton Bowers
8. Claire Hill
9. Alanis Hamilton
10. Victoria Osuigwe
11. Julieta Pareja
12. Anita Tu
13. Addison Lanton
14. Avery Nguyen
15. Alexis Nguyen
16. Kristina Penickova

It's a little surprising to see Kristinia Penickova, who is No. 12 in the ITF world junior rankings No. 16 here. Like Kalamazoo, there are a few top players not competing: ITF No. 19 Katie Rolls and Elizabeth Ionescu, who withdrew. The draw has not yet been posted for the 18s, but what quarter No. 5 seed Valerie Glozman falls in will be something to monitor. The complete list of seeds can be found here.

The girls 16s draw has been posted, and can be found here. The complete list of seeds is here.

The top 16 seeds in G16s:

1. Bella Payne

2. Thara Gowda

3. Isabelle DeLuccia

4. Olivia Traynor,

5. Sobee Oak

6. Karlin Schock

7. Reagan Levine

8. Carrie-Anne Hoo

9. Nicole Weng

10. Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann

11. Carlota Moreno

12. Lani Chang

13. Emerey Gross

14. Lyla Middleton

15. Ellery Mendell

16. Nancy Lee

The acceptances for the US Open Junior Championships were posted today, with all three of the boys slam champions entered: No. 1 Nicolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway(Wimbledon), No. 2 Kaylan Bigun of USA(Roland Garros) and No. 3 Rei Sakamoto of Japan(Australia).  The eight US boys who received direct entry are Bigun, Jagger Leach, Cooper Woestendick, Alexander Razeghi, Max Exsted, Ian Mayew, Jack Kennedy and Trevor Svajda. As at Wimbledon, Svajda received entry based on his ATP ranking of 641; Rudy Quan, who hopes to be recovered from the ankle sprain that is keeping him out of Kalamazoo, received entry into the qualifying based on his ATP ranking. The other boy receiving main draw entry via his ATP ranking is Justin Engel of Germany, who has won two $15Ks recently and is ranked 679.

The boys cutoff is 48, with Noah Johnston four out of main draw and Kase Schinnerer nine out. 72 is the current boys qualifying cutoff.

There are a couple of surprises among the girls acceptances, with Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia entered after the two-time junior slam singles champion was adamant that Wimbledon was her last junior event. Laura Samson of the Czech Republic is not entered, nor is Iva Jovic. Only six US girls are entered: Tyra Grant, Kristina Penickova, Katie Rolls, Aspen Schuman, Thea Frodin and Akasha Urhobo. Urhobo received main draw entry based on her WTA ranking of 319. The main draw cutoff for girls is 51.

Christasha McNeil and Maya Iyengar are 6 and 7 spots out of the main draw. The qualifying cutoff is currently 81.

The acceptances for the ITF J300 in College Park Maryland were also released today, which is two weeks prior to the US Open Junior Championships. All the American boys in the US Open main draw, save for Bigun, are entered, with Johnston making the main draw cutoff, which is 53.

Grant, Jovic and Schuman, a finalist last year, are not entered in College Park; Penickova, Rolls, Frodin, McNeil, Iyengar, Shannon Lam and Claire An are in the main draw, with that cutoff 67.

All the women from the United States were eliminated from medal contention today at the Paris Olympics, with only Tommy Paul left in men's singles and Paul and Taylor Fritz also advancing to the double quarterfinals. Rajeev Ram(Illinois) and Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M) are through to the medal round in men's doubles after their win today over Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal. They will face unseeded Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek of the Czech Republic in the semifinals. 

Today's results and tomorrow's schedule, from the USTA:

RESULTS - (WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 2024)

 

(4) Austin Krajicek/Rajeev Ram (USA) def. Rafael Nadal/Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) 62 64

 

(9) Tommy Paul (USA) def. Corentin Moutet (FRA) 76(6) 63

 

(1) Iga Swiatek (POL) def. (9) Danielle Collins (USA) 61 26 41 (ret.)

 

Lyudmyla Kichenok/Nadiia Kichenok (UKR) def. (4) Danielle Collins/Desirae Krawczyk (USA) 36 64 (10 7)

 

Gabriela Dabrowski/Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) def. (3) Coco Gauff/Taylor Fritz (USA)76(2) 36 (10 8)

 

(11) Lorenzo Musetti (ITA) def. (7) Taylor Fritz (USA) – 64 75

 

Muchova/Linda Noskova (CZE) def. (1) Coco Gauff/Jessica Pegula (USA) 26 64 (10 5)

 

(3) Taylor Fritz/Tommy Paul (USA) def. Robin Haase/Jean-Julien Rojer (NED) 63 64

 

TOMORROW’S ORDER OF PLAY (THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2024)

 

(9) Tommy Paul (USA) vs (1) Carlos Alcaraz (ESP) – Court Philippe-Chatrier – nb 14:00

 

(3) Taylor Fritz/Tommy Paul (USA) vs Daniel Evans/Andy Murray (GBR) - Court Suzanne-Lenglen 4th match

 

(4) Austin Krajicek/Rajeev Ram (USA) vs Tomas Machac/Adam Pavlasek (CZE) - Court Simonne-Mathieu – nb 15:00

Tien Withdraws, Svajda Top Seed in Kalamazoo 18s; Grumet No. 1 in 16s Division; US Open Qualifying Acceptances; Qualifying Concludes at Lexington W75 and Edwardsville $25K; Collins, Fritz and Paul Advance at Olympics

Learner Tien won his first round match today at the ATP Challenger 75 in Lexington, beating Rio Noguchi of Japan 6-4, 6-1, and shortly thereafter withdrew from the USTA National Championships in Kalamazoo. As the defending champion coming into last year's tournament, Tien was the top seed, and he would have been again this year, with his ATP ranking of 242 the best of any player competing in Kalamazoo this century. 

Without Tien, the top seed goes to 2023 finalist Trevor Svajda, the only other player in the draw who has won an ITF Pro Circuit title. 2022 16s champion Darwin Blanch, a $15K finalist two weeks ago in Tunisia, is the No. 2 seed, followed by Roland Garros boys champion Kaylan Bigun. Jagger Leach, who was projected as a top eight seed, withdrew today with an elbow injury.

The 18s top 16 seeds:

1. Trevor Svajda

2. Darwin Blanch

3. Kaylan Bigun

4. Cooper Woestendick

5. Alexander Razeghi

6. Maxwell Exsted

7. Ian Mayew

8. Jack Kennedy

9. Alex Frusina

10. Adhithya Ganesan

11. Dylan Long

13. Ronit Karki

13. Cyrus Mahjoob

14. Mitchell Lee

15. Saahith Jayaraman

16. Krish Arora

The 16s top 16 seeds:

1. Gus Grumet

2. Gavin Goode

3. Jack Secord

4. Yannik Alvarez

5. Ryan Cozad

6. Keaton Hance

7. Zavier Augustin

8. Andrew Johnson

9. James Quattro

10. Nikolas Stoot

11. Arjun Prabhakar

12. Justine Riley Anson

13. Micah Ward

14. Patel Shaan

15. Tanishk Konduri

16. Arin Pallegar

The 16s draw has been posted and can be found here. The 18s draw may yet be posted tonight, but is not up as of 9 p.m. My annual preview of the tournament for Tennis Recruiting Network will be out Friday, the first day of play for 18s singles and 18s and 16s doubles. 

The US Open qualifying acceptances were revealed today, with 219 the ranking cutoff for both men and women. Eleven US men are currently on the list, including Mackenzie McDonald, who is the first player on the alternate list and will get in with any withdrawal between now and the start of the qualifying tournament. There are 15 US women on this initial acceptance list, with Louisa Chirico, at 219, the last direct qualifying entry.

Once Kalamazoo begins on Friday, I won't have much time to track the three USTA Pro Circuit tournaments this week, including the ATP Challenger in Lexington, the women's W75 in Lexington and the men's $25,000 tournament in Edwardsville Illinois.

Although they have been dealing with rain and heat delays this week, the qualifying was completed on time today in Edwardsville, with six of the qualifiers Americans: Braden Shick(NC State), Aadarsh Tripathi(UCLA), Michael Zheng(Columbia), William Mroz(Illinois), Nicolas Kotzen(Columbia) and Gavin Young(Michigan).

Wild cards were awarded to Oliver Okonkwo(Illinois), Kyle Kang(Stanford), Adam Neff[8](UNC, SMU) and Preston Stearns(Ohio State).  The top seed is Andres Martin(Georgia Tech), with Colin Sinclair(Cornell) of the Northern Mariana Islands the No. 2 seed. Only two main draw matches were played today, with No. 4 seed Will Grant(Florida) and Kenta Miyoshi(Illinois) of Japan advancing to the second round.

At the W75 tournament in Lexington, four of the eight qualifiers are Americans: Katrina Scott, Whitney Osuigwe, Jessica Failla(USC, Pepperdine) and Lea Ma(Georgia).

Just two wild cards were awarded to Fiona Crawley(North Carolina) and Elizabeth Stevens(Kentucky), with Robin Anderson(UCLA) getting a special exempt spot after reaching the finals of the W50 in Dallas. Stevens lost to top seed Lily Miyazaki(Oklahoma) of Great Britain 6-3, 6-1 this evening.  In another first round match today, recent Michigan graduate Kari Miller, using one of her ITA/ITF Accelerator entries, defeated No. 3 seed and WTA 166 Talia Gibson of Australia 7-6(2), 6-0 for her first main draw USTA Pro Circuit victory since 2022. Rebecca Marino of Canada is the No. 2 seed this week in Lexington.

At the WTA 500 in Washington DC, 18-year-old wild card Clervie Ngounoue played 2022 NCAA singles champion Peyton Stearns in the first round, with the former Texas Longhorn earning a hard-fought 6-3, 7-6(3) victory.

Two-time NCAA champion Danielle Collins(Virginia) is the only American woman to advance to the singles quarterfinals of the Paris Olympics; Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz are through to the third round in men's singles.  Today's results of Americans and Wednesday's schedule, from the USTA:

RESULTS - (TUESDAY, JULY 30, 2024)

 

Donna Vekic (CRO) def. (2) Coco Gauff (USA) 76(7) 62

(7) Taylor Fritz (USA) def. Jack Draper (GBR) 67(3) 63 62

(3) Coco Gauff/Taylor Fritz (USA) def. Nadia Podoroska/Maximo Gonzalez (ARG) 61 67(6) (10 5)

(9) Danielle Collins (USA) def. Camila Osorio (COL) 60 46 63

(4) Danielle Collins/Desirae Krawczyk (USA) def. Despina Papamichail/Maria Sakkari (GRE) 61 63

(9) Tommy Paul (USA) def. Jakub Mensik (CZE) 63 61

Qinwen Zheng(6) (CHN) d. (11) Emma Navarro (USA)  67(7), 76(4), 61

(3) Taylor Fritz/Tommy Paul (USA) def. Felix Auger-Aliassime/Milos Raonic (CAN) 76 (14) 64

(4) Austin Krajicek/Rajeev Ram (USA) vs Alex De Minaur/Alexei Popyrin (AUS) 62 63

 

TOMORROW’S ORDER OF PLAY (WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 2024)

 

(4) Austin Krajicek/Rajeev Ram (USA) vs Rafael Nadal/Carlos Alcarez (ESP) - Court Philippe-Chatrier – 19:00

(9) Tommy Paul (USA) vs Corentin Moutet (FRA) – Court Suzanne-Lenglen – 1st match

(9) Danielle Collins (USA) vs (1) Iga Swiatek (POL) – Court Suzanne-Lenglen – 2nd match

(4) Danielle Collins/Desirae Krawczyk (USA) vs Lyudmyla Kichenok/Nadiia Kichenok (UKR) – Court Suzanne-Lenglen 5th match

(3) Coco Gauff/Taylor Fritz (USA) vs Gabriela Dabrowski/Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) - Court Simonne-Mathieu – 5th match

(7) Taylor Fritz (USA) vs (11) Lorenzo Musetti (ITA) – Court 14 – nb 1:00

(1) Coco Gauff/Jessica Pegula (USA) vs Karolina Muchova/Linda Noskova (CZE) – Court 14 – 2nd match

(3) Taylor Fritz/Tommy Paul (USA) vs Robin Haase/Jean-Julien Rojer (NED) – Court 14 – 3rd match

 

Quan Out of Kalamazoo with Injury, Tien Still Entered; Parks Takes Lead in US Open Wild Card Race; Rodriguez Sweeps Titles at ITF J100 in Colombia: Navarro, Collins, Gauff Advance at Olympics

Rudy Quan, one of the top contenders for the USTA 18s National Championships in Kalamazoo withdrew today due to an ankle sprain. The 18-year-old Quan, who won the ITF J300 in Indian Wells this spring in a rare ITF Junior Circuit appearance, beating Kaylan Bigun and Jack Kennedy in the semifinals and finals, had one of the best ATP rankings in the Kalamazoo field (818) due mostly to his ATP Challenger quarterfinal, two 15K quarterfinals and a 15K semifinal, all since that title in Indian Wells.

Two-time defending champion Learner Tien(USC), who beat Quan 6-4, 7-6(4) in the Lakewood $15K quarterfinals earlier this month, has not withdrawn from Kalamazoo, although he is playing the Lexington Challenger this week as a wild card. As a top seed, Tien would not play his first round match in Kalamazoo until Saturday, so if he were to lose early in Lexington he would have the option of competing in Kalamazoo, but that contigency complicates the making of the draw, which is traditionally published several days prior to Friday's first round. 

While the US Open main draw wild card offered to the Kalamazoo 18s champion is obviously the primary consideration, the chance to make history as the first three-time 18s champion also provides some motivation. The interesting twist this year is Tien's lead in the USTA US Open Wild Card Race, which has two more weeks remaining.

Tien currently leads with 97 points (last year's winner, Steve Johnson finished with 150), but both JJ Wolf and Mitchell Krueger are in the main draw this week at the ATP 500 in Washington, which obviously provides more points than a Challenger. The current men's standings, with the players ATP rankings in parentheses:

1. Learner Tien (242) -- 97
2. Nishesh Basavareddy (296) -- 52
3. Eliot Spizzirri (345) -- 47
4. Colton Smith (829) -- 41
5. Stefan Kozlov (367) -- 30

Alycia Parks, who won the WTA 125 in Poland this past weekend, is the new leader for the women. Kayla Day won the women's US Open main draw wild card last year with 171 points. 

1. Alycia Parks (102) -- 131
T2. Sophie Chang (254) -- 75
T2. Maria Mateas (201) -- 75
4. Mary Stoiana (498) -- 69
5. Clervie Ngounoue (299) -- 61

On the ITF Junior Circuit last week, 16-year-old Ava Rodriguez swept the titles at the J100 in Cali Colombia. The blue chip from Georgia, seeded No. 7, defeated No. 2 seed Pietra Rivoli of Brazil 6-2, 6-3 in the final, after having beaten top seed Valentina Mediorreal Arias of Colombia 6-1, 6-3 in the quarterfinals. Rodriguez defeated No. 12 seed Zaire Clarke 6-0, 1-6, 7-5 in the semifinals; they later took the doubles title, with the No. 5 seeds defeating the unseeded team of Camila Garcia Morales of Colombia and Gabriella Kellner 6-1, 6-3 in the final. It's the fourth, and biggest singles title for Rodriguez, who now has eight doubles titles on the ITF Junior Circuit, six of them this year, all with different partners. It's the second ITF Junior Circuit doubles title for the 15-year-old Clarke.

Seventeen-year-old Daniela Chica swept the titles at the J60 in Kingston Jamaica, with Brennon Chow taking the boys singles title. 

The top-seeded Chica defeated No. 2 seed Ireland O'Brien 6-3, 6-1 in the singles final, after taking the doubles title with Alessia Franco. The No. 4 seeds beat top seeds O'Brien and Allison Crane 3-6, 6-3, 106 in the final.

The 18-year-old Chow, seeded second, won his third ITF Junior Circuit title, all coming in Kingston, with a 4-0 retired win over top seed Agassi Rusher.

Top seeds Ian Miller and partner Xingyu Chen of China won the boys doubles, beating No. 2 seeds Rusher and Arjun Prabhakar 7-5, 6-1 in the final.

The other three singles titles for Americans came in J30 tournaments.

In the Philippines, unseeded 17-year-old Elijah Calaquian won his first two ITF Junior Circuit titles, taking the singles championship with a 6-3, 7-6(5) win over No. 2 seed Zi Yi Ou of Taiwan and claiming the doubles title with partner Mateo Rivas of the Philippines.

In Croatia, unseeded 15-year-old Natasha Jerkunica won her first ITF Junior Circuit singles title, beating No. 7 seed Maria Ustic of Great Britain 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the final. Natasha and her 13-year-old sister Aleksandra lost to the top seeds in the doubles final.

In Ecuador, unseeded 18-year-old Morgan Woodson won his first ITF Junior Circuit title, beating top seed Caio Dourado of Brazil 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 in the final.

Three American women have advanced to the round of 16 at the Paris Olympics, with Coco Gauff, Danielle Collins and Emma Navarro getting wins today. Today's results and tomorrow's schedule, courtesy of the USTA:

RESULTS - (MONDAY, JULY 29, 2024)

NOTE: Three American women reaching the third round is the most at an Olympics since three also did at Athens 2004 (Venus Williams, Chanda Rubin, Lisa Raymond).  

(2) Coco Gauff (USA) def. Maria Lourdes Carle (ARG) 61 61

Elina Svitolina (UKR) def. (5) Jessica Pegula (USA) 46 61 63

(9) Danielle Collins (USA) def. Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) 63 36 63

(11) Emma Navarro (USA) def. Viktoriya Tomova (BUL) 67(5) 64 61

(3) Taylor Fritz/Tommy Paul (USA) def. Felix Auger-Aliassime/Milos Raonic (CAN) 76(14) 64

(4) Austin Krajicek/Rajeev Ram (USA) vs Alex De Minaur/Alexei Popyrin (AUS) 62 63

 

TOMORROW’S ORDER OF PLAY (TUESDAY, JULY 30, 2024)

(2) Coco Gauff (USA) vs Donna Vekic (CRO) - Court Philippe-Chatrier – 1st match

(7) Taylor Fritz (USA) vs Jack Draper (GBR) - Court Suzanne-Lenglen – 1st match

(3) Coco Gauff/Taylor Fritz (USA) vs Nadia Podoroska/Maximo Gonzalez (ARG) - Court Simonne-Mathieu – 4th match

(9) Danielle Collins (USA) vs Camila Osorio (COL) – Court 14 – 1st match

(4) Danielle Collins/Desirae Krawczyk (USA) vs Despina Papamichail/Maria Sakkari (GRE) – Court 14 – 4th match

(9) Tommy Paul (USA) vs Jakub Mensik (CZE) – Court 6 – 2nd match

(11) Emma Navarro (USA) vs Qinwen Zheng (CHN) – Court 7 – 1st match

(4) Austin Krajicek/Rajeev Ram (USA) vs Thiago Monteiro/Thiago Seyboth Wild – Court 12 – 1st match – not before 1:30

USTA Pro Circuit Titles for Diallo, Ngounoue and Smith; Tien Receives Lexington Challenger Wild Card; Kessler Qualifies for WTA 500 in Washington DC: Five More Americans Join Fritz in Second Round at Paris Olympics

Robin Anderson and Clervie Ngounoue

For the second weeks in a row, two of the three titles on the USTA Pro Circuit went to Americans, with 18-year-old qualifier Clervie Ngounoue winning the W50 in Dallas and wild card Colton Smith, a rising senior at Arizona, claiming his first pro title at the men's $25K in Champaign.

At the ATP Challenger 75 in Chicago, former University of Kentucky All-American Gabriel Diallo won his third Challenger title, with the 22-year-old Canadian beating the rain to post a 6-3, 7-6(3) win over No. 6 seed Yunchaokete Bu of China in the championship match. The fourth-seeded Diallo, who turned pro in 2022 after his junior year at Kentucky, didn't lose a set all week, and his 17 aces in the final show why he is dangerous at both the Challenger and ATP level. It's Diallo's third Challenger title, with one in each of the past three years now; his current ATP ranking is 148.

Ngounoue won her seventh match in seven days today in the Dallas final, beating unseeded Robin Anderson(UCLA) 2-6 6-3, 7-5. Serving at 4-5 in the third set, Ngounoue held at love, broke in the next game, and closed out the match holding at love to earn her second Pro Circuit singles title, with both coming this year. Ngounoue is fortunate that she is not on Monday's schedule at the Washington DC WTA 500, where she has received a main draw wild card and will face Peyton Stearns(Texas) in the first round. She is still entered in the USTA 18s National Championships in San Diego, where she is the defending champion. 

The 21-year-old Smith, who reached the Dallas $25K final two weeks ago, defeated No. 4 seed Andre Ilagan(Hawaii) 6-4, 6-3 for his first Pro Circuit title. The unseeded Smith, a semifinalist in May's NCAA singles championships, is now 13-2 in the three USTA Pro Circuit tournaments he has competed in in the past five weeks. He defeated three of the top four seeds this week in claiming the title. Smith had been entered in qualifying at this coming week's $25K in Edwardsville Illinois, but is now showing as a late withdrawal. With a 64-player qualifying draw, play began today and the final round will be Tuesday. I don't know if Smith is eligible for a special exempt spot in the main draw this week or if he might receive a wild card, as the main draw is not yet posted. 

The draws for the ATP Challenger 75 in Lexington are out, with qualifying beginning today. Diallo is the No. 3 seed at the tournament at his collegiate hometown, with Bu the top seed (update: Bu has withdrawn) and Emilio Nava the No. 2 seed.

Learner Tien received a main draw wild card, indicating that he won't be playing Kalamazoo, but he has not yet officially withdrawn from the USTA Nationals, where he is the two-time defending champion. 

The other two main draw wild cards in Lexington were awarded to Bruno Kuzuhara and recent Kentucky graduate Taha Baadi of Canada.

The qualifying at the Mubadala Citi Open in Washington DC concluded today, with Americans earning three of the four spots available in the women's main draw: Amanda Anisimova, local favorite Hailey Baptiste and McCartney Kessler(Florida). Kessler won her first round match this year at the Australian Open, but has yet to post a win in a WTA tournament. The 25-year-old from Georgia will face Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic; Anisimova will play Sloane Stephens and Baptiste's first round opponent is Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.

Mitchell Krueger and Maxime Cressy(UCLA) are the two Americans who qualified; the men's draw is 48 players, so there were six qualifiers. Krueger plays Luca Nardi of Italy and Cressy faces Daniel Galan of Colombia. 

The second day of Olympic tennis was much more productive than the first, with all first round singles matches completed today. Five Americans won their opening matches, joining Taylor Fritz, who won his first round match Saturday. Today's results and tomorrow's schedule, courtesy of the USTA:

RESULTS - (SUNDAY, JULY 28, 2024)

 

(2) Coco Gauff (USA) def. Aja Tomljanovic (AUS) 63 60

(5) Jessica Pegula (USA) def. Vikorja Golubic (SUI) 63 64

(13) Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) def. Marcos Giron (USA) 61 64

(9) Danielle Collins (USA) def. Laura Siegmund (GER) 63 20 (ret.)

(9) Tommy Paul (USA) def. Luciano Darderi (ITA) 63 64

(11) Emma Navarro (USA) def. Julia Grabher (AUT) 62 60

Benjamin Hassan (LBN) def. Chris Eubanks (USA) 64 62

 

TOMORROW’S ORDER OF PLAY (MONDAY, JULY 29, 2024)

 

(2) Coco Gauff (USA) vs Maria Lourdes Carle (ARG) - Court Suzanne-Lenglen – NB 13:30

(5) Jessica Pegula (USA) vs Elina Svitolina (UKR) – Court Philippe-Chatrier – 4th match

(9) Danielle Collins (USA) vs Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) – Court 14 – 3rd match

(11) Emma Navarro (USA) vs Viktoriya Tomova (BUL) – Court 5 – 2nd match

(3) Taylor Fritz/Tommy Paul (USA) vs Felix Auger-Aliassime/Milos Raonic (CAN) – Court 13 – 5th match

(4) Austin Krajicek/Rajeev Ram (USA) vs Alex De Minaur/Alexei Popyrin (AUS) - Court Simonne-Mathieu – 4th match

 

Qualifier Ngounoue Beats Top Seed Day, Reaches Dallas W50 Final; Wild Card Smith Advances to Second $25K Final This Month in Champaign; Tien's Streak Ends in Chicago Challenger Semifinals; Fritz Wins, But Rain Disrupts First Day of Olympic Tennis

Eighteen-year-old qualifier Clervie Ngounoue has advanced to the biggest final of her professional career, defeating top seed Kayla Day 6-3, 6-4 in a battle of USTA National 18s champions at the USTA Pro Circuit W50 in Dallas. 

2023 USTA National 18s champion Ngounoue, who has now won six matches in six days, lost a set in her first qualifying match, but she has not dropped one since, beating the No. 7 Victoria Hu, No. 4 Manachaya Sawangkaew and No. 1 Day in succession. Day, the 2016 USTA National 18s champion, is currently 125 in the WTA rankings, but it's not close to Ngounoue's best win. The 2023 Wimbledon girls champion has two Top 100 wins, both in the past 12 months, over No. 35 Anna Blinkova of Russia in the Washington WTA qualifying last July and over No. 70 Claire Liu last September in the San Diego WTA qualifying.

At the WTA 125 this week in Poland, qualifier Alycia Parks defeated No. 5 seed Maya Joint of Australia, a rising freshman at Texas, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the final, which will give Parks the lead in the USTA's US Open Wild Card Challenge which has two more weeks to go. The 18-year-old Joint is now 140 in the WTA live rankings, the fourth-best ranking for any woman aged 18 or younger.

Her opponent in Sunday's final is unseeded 31-year-old Robin Anderson(UCLA), who defeated Texas A&M rising senior Mary Stoiana 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 in a three-hour semifinal.

In the Dallas doubles final, the unseeded team of Katrina Scott and Usue Arconada won their first title together, beating unseeded Jessica Hinojosa Gomez(Baylor) of Mexico Hiroko Kuwata of Japan 6-3, 6-3 for the championship. It's the first pro doubles title for the 20-year-old Scott; Arconada has eight now, many with Caroline Dolehide, but this is her first since 2021, after a long absence from the sport in 2022 and 2023.

At the men's $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Champaign, 21-year-old wild card Colton Smith, a rising senior at Arizona, has advanced to his second $25K final of the month. Smith, who lost to Adam Neff as a qualifier two weeks ago in Dallas, defeated No. 3 seed Cannon Kingsley(Ohio State) 6-3, 6-7(7), 6-4 in today's semifinals. Smith will face No. 4 seed Andre Ilagan(Hawaii), who beat No. 6 seed Harrison Adams(Texas A&M) 6-0, 6-7(5), 7-5. The 23-year-old Ilagan, who won two $15Ks last year, will be playing in his first final of 2024.

The doubles title went to Tyler Zink(Georgia, Oklahoma State) and Canada's Cleeve Harper(Texas), with the No. 3 seeds beating the unseeded Ohio State team of Kingsley and Preston Stearns 6-4, 6-4. It's the second title for the pair, with the first coming at a $15K in Pittsburgh in 2022. Harper now has two pro doubles titles, Zink, the 2019 US Open boys doubles champion, has 13.

The 28-match winning streak of 18-year-old Learner Tien(USC) came to an end today in the semifinals of the ATP Challenger 75 in Chicago, with the wild card losing to No. 6 seed Yunchaokete  Bu of China 6-4, 7-5. Bu avenged his second round loss to Tien at the Bloomfield Hills Challenger earlier this month with a much more patient game plan, which proved more sustainable than his blasting winners strategy in Michigan. 

Bu will face former University of Kentucky All-American Gab Diallo of Canada, with the No. 4 seed defeating qualifier Jake Fearnley(TCU) 6-2, 6-3 in the top half semifinal.

The unseeded Australian team of Luke Saville and Li Tu won the doubles title in Chicago, beating No. 3 seeds and former North Carolina Tar Heels Mac Kiger and Canada's Benjamin Sigouin 6-4, 3-6, 10-3. 

Rain all day in Paris confined the first round Olympic tennis matches to the two covered courts at Roland Garros, so most of the singles and doubles matches are now on Sunday's schedule. Taylor Fritz, the No. 7 seed, had his match moved inside, and he advanced to the second round with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan. The only other Americans to play Saturday were top women's doubles seeds Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff, who defeated Daria Saville and Ellen Perez(Georgia) of Australia 6-3, 6-1.

Below are the USA singles matches scheduled for Sunday, with this information provided by the USTA.

(2) Coco Gauff (USA) vs Aja Tomljanovic (AUS) – Court Philippe-Chatrier – 3rd match - NB - 19:00

 

(5) Jessica Pegula (USA) vs Vikorja Golubic (SUI) – Court Suzanne-Lenglen – 3rd match

 

Marcos Giron (USA) vs (13) Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) – Court Simonne-Mathieu – 1st match

 

(9) Danielle Collins (USA) vs Laura Siegmund (GER) – Court Simonne-Mathieu – 2nd match

 

(9) Tommy Paul (USA) vs Luciano Darderi (ITA) – Court 7 – 3rd match

 

(11) Emma Navarro (USA) vs Julia Grabher (AUT) – Court 10 – 5th match

 

Chris Eubanks (USA) vs Benjamin Hassan (LBN) – Court 11 – 2nd match

 

My Wimbledon 14U Recap; Tien Rolls on at Chicago Challenger; All-USA Semifinals in Dallas and Champaign; House Settlement Tennis Roster Limits Set; 2025 NCAA Individual Championships Slated for USTA National Campus

My Tennis Recruiting Network article on this month's 14-and-under tournament at Wimbledon is up today, featuring Americans Jordan Lee and Raya Kotseva, who discussed their experience playing on grass and being a part of the tennis festival that is Wimbledon. I also was able to provide some coverage of the championship matches, with Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic adding to her already impressive resume, and Takahiro Kawaguchi of Japan putting himself at the forefront of the best 14-year-olds in the world.

The USTA 16s and 18s National Championships begin a week from today in Kalamazoo, with the participation of two-time defending champion Learner Tien(USC) increasingly in doubt.  The 18-year-old wild card from Irvine California won his 28th consecutive match today at the ATP Challenger 75 in Chicago, beating No. 8 seed Seongchan Hong of Korea 6-3, 6-1 to advance to the semifinals. Tien, who is on an eight-match Challenger winning streak after claiming the Bloomfield Hills Challenger at the start of this month, will take on No. 6 seed Yunchaokete Bu of China for a place in the Chicago final. Tien and Bu played in the second round in Bloomfield Hills, with Tien mounting an impressive comeback in his 0-6, 7-5, 6-0 win.  

Tien, now 240 in the ATP live rankings, is the last American still in contention, so he will increase his lead in the USTA Wild Card Challenge. That makes the Kalamazoo US Open wild card less urgent, and his ATP ranking would be the best of any player to compete in Kalamazoo this century. Frances Tiafoe, who won the Kalamazoo 18s title in 2015, was came in at 284 that year.

With Cincinnati Open ATP Masters 1000 qualifying beginning Sunday August 11, the day of the Kalamazoo final, Tien would have to forego one of the four qualifying wild cards he might be offered if he played Kalamazoo. The lure of winning an unprecedented third 18s singles title may not be enough with so many possibilities opening up due to this streak.

The other semifinal at the Chicago Challenger features two former college stars: Great Britain's Jake Fearnley, a recent TCU graduate, and Canada's Gabe Diallo, who left Kentucky in 2022 after his junior year.  Qualifier Fearnley defeated Brandon Holt(USC) 6-3, 6-2 and Diallo, seeded No. 4, beat Mitchell Krueger by the same score.

Tien isn't the only USTA National 18s champion to reach a semifinal this week, with Clervie Ngounoue, the 2023 San Diego champion, reaching the final four at the USTA Pro Circuit W50 in Dallas. Ngounoue, a qualifier, defeated No. 4 seed Manachaya Sawangkaew (Oklahoma State) of Thailand 6-2, 7-5 and will face top seed Kayla Day in the semifinals Saturday. Day beat last week's Evansville W75 champion Sophie Chang 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 in the quarterfinals today. Ngounoue, who received a main draw wild card into the WTA 500 in Washington DC next week, has drawn 2022 NCAA singles champion Peyton Stearns(Texas) in the first round.

Texas A&M rising senior Mary Stoiana, who reached the Evansville final, defeated Catherine Harrison(UCLA) 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-2 to set up a semifinal with another former Bruin, Robin Anderson. Anderson beat Elvina Kalieva 3-6, 6-1, 6-1.

As with the women in Dallas, all the semifinalists at the USTA Pro Circuit men's $25,000 tournament in Champaign are from the United States.

Arizona rising senior Colton Smith defeated top seed Aidan McHugh of Great Britain 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 to advance to the semifinals in Illinois. Smith, a wild card, will play No. 3 seed Cannon Kingsley(Ohio State), who beat Noah Schachter(Texas A&M) 6-3, 6-4. In the bottom half, No. 4 seed Andre Ilagan(Hawaii) will face No. 6 seed Harrison Adams(Texas A&M). Ilagan advanced when qualifier Gavin Young(Michigan) retired trailing 6-4, 3-1; Adams defeated University of Illinois rising junior Kenta Miyoshi of Japan 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.

The qualifying for the ATP and WTA 500s in Washington DC begins Saturday, with all four of the men's qualifying wild cards going to former collegians: Eliot Spizzirri(Texas), Tristan Boyer(Stanford), Thai Kwiatkowski(Virginia) and Andrew Fenty(Michigan).

Two important pieces of news from college tennis today, with the House settlement roster limits for all sports announced today. (This is for the Power 4 conferences, other schools have the option of opting out if they decide not to share revenue with student-athletes according to this Yahoo sports article). Beginning with the 2025 academic year, roster spots are capped at 10 for both men and women. According to this article from cbssports.com, all scholarships can now be divided, which has been the case for men's tennis, who have 4.5 scholarships, but not for women, who currently have eight full scholarships.

"Schools will also have flexibility in sharing scholarships, with all sports now labeled as "equivalency sports," allowing for partial scholarships to be distributed to players in football and basketball. Those sports were previously tabbed as "head-count sports," which required players to be on full scholarship."

As a non-revenue sport, tennis is not at the forefront of the explanations, so it will take more time to understand what the impact these roster limits will have on the sport as schools begin to make their decisions on funding.

The 2025 NCAA singles and doubles championships will be held at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, according to this tweet from John Parsons. Baylor was announced as the 2024 host some time ago, and they are hosting the 2025 NCAA team championships in May, but the 2025 individual championships in the fall, in their second year of a pilot program, did not have a site until this announcement. It was rumored that Georgia, which will have the 2026 NCAA team championships, was not interested in hosting the individuals and that seems to have been the case.

Fearnley Ousts Top Seed at Chicago Challenger; Ngounoue Among Seven Americans in Dallas W50 Quarterfinals; Six US Quarterfinalists at Champaign $25K; European Championships Move to September; Olympic Draws

The strong field at the ATP Challenger 75 this week in Chicago resulted in Great Britain's Jake Fearnley needing to get through qualifying to earn a place in the main draw. But the recent TCU graduate continues to show he'll contend for Challenger titles all summer, reaching the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(3) win today over top seed Terence Atmane of France.

Fearnley, who won the Nottingham Challenger last month as a qualifier, earned his first ATP Top 100 win, over China's Jerry Shang, in that event. His win today over ATP 118 Atmane, from 2-4, 15-40 down in the third set, is the second best by ranking of his career.

Fearnley will play Brandon Holt(USC) in Friday's quarterfinals, after Holt defeated Marc Polmans of Australian 6-4, 7-6(4) to reach his eighth Challenger quarterfinal of the year.

Wild card Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) lost to No. 3 seed Hugo Grenier of France 6-4, 6-0. 

The three Americans in the Chicago quarterfinals--Learner Tien, Mitchell Krueger and Holt--are by far the fewest on the USTA Pro Circuit this week.

Seven US women have advanced to the quarterfinals at the W50 in Dallas, including Clervie Ngounoue, who turned 18 last week. Ngounoue, who like Fearnley was the top seed in qualifying, defeated No. 7 seed Victoria Hu(Princeton) 7-6(7), 6-4 and will face the only non-American remaining, No. 4 seed Manachaya Sawangkaew(Oklahoma State) of Thailand, who beat wild card Katrina Scott 7-6(6), 6-3.

Sophie Chang and top seed Kayla Day will meet in the other top half quarterfinal, while in the all-US bottom half, Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) will play Catherine Harrison(UCLA) and Elvina Kalieva will face Robin Anderson(UCLA). None of the four quarterfinalists in the bottom half are seeded.

The men's $25K in Champaign features six American quarterfinalists, including wild card Colton Smith(Arizona) and qualifier Gavin Young(Michigan). Seeded Americans advancing are No. 3 Cannon Kingsley(Ohio State), No. 4 seed Andre Ilagan(Hawaii) and No. 6 Harrison Adams(Texas A&M). The sixth American in the quarterfinals is former Texas A&M star Noah Schachter. Top seed Aidan McHugh of Great Britain, a finalist at last week's $25K in East Lansing, and rising Illinois junior Kenta Miyoshi of Japan, a wild card, are the other two quarterfinalists.

McHugh plays Smith, Kingsley faces Schachter, Young gets Ilagan and Adams plays Miyoshi.

I heard at Wimbledon that the European Championships, usually played in July, have been moved, for all three divisions, to September. I wasn't able to work out why they moved, but the 14s will be in Most Czech Republic the week of September 9th, the 18s ITF J300 Closed will be in Oberpullendorf Austria the week of September 16th, and the 16s will be in Parma Italy, the week of September 23rd.

Usually the points earned from the ITF J300, which had been held for many years in Klosters Switzerland, would count toward the US Open Junior acceptances, but they will not be of any help this year. 

Links to the information on these events can be found at the Tennis Europe site.

The draws for the Paris Olympic tennis events were released this morning. Play begins Saturday at Roland Garros.

Women's singles: https://www.itftennis.com/media/12851/paris-2024-olympic-tennis-event-womens-singles-draw.pdf

Men's singles: https://www.itftennis.com/media/12852/paris-2024-olympic-tennis-event-mens-singles-draw.pdf

Women's doubles: https://www.itftennis.com/media/12849/paris-2024-olympic-tennis-event-womens-doubles-draw.pdf

Men's doubles: https://www.itftennis.com/media/12850/paris-2024-olympic-tennis-event-mens-doubles-draw.pdf

Mixed doubles: https://www.itftennis.com/media/12848/paris-2024-olympic-tennis-event-mixed-doubles-draw.pdf

US Open Wild Card Challenge Standings; Tien Stretches Win Streak to 27; Ngounoue Receives WTA 500 Washington DC Wild Card; Gauff Chosen as Olympic Flag Bearer; Samson Reaches WTA Semifinal in Prague

The USTA provided the latest US Open Wild Card Challenger standings today, with the first week of women's results producing a tie at the top, with three weeks to go.

Maria Mateas(Duke) and Sophie Chang, who both won ITF W75s last week in Granby Canada and Evansville Indiana are leading, with Evansville finalist Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) in third Both Chang and Stoiana are in this week's W50 in Dallas and have advanced to the second round. Alycia Parks is playing a WTA 125 in Poland on hard courts, so is earning points there by qualifying and reaching the quarterfinals.

Learner Tien(USC) continues to lead the men's standings, with the points from his Bloomfield Hills Challenger victory three weeks ago, with Eiliot Spizzirri(Texas) and Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) in second and third.  

Tien, who won a $15K two weeks ago, which doesn't count in the WC Challenge, defeated qualifier Aidan Mayo 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3 this afternoon at the ATP Challenger 75 in Chicago to reach Friday's quarterfinals, with Basavareddy playing his second round match against No. 3 seed Hugo Grenier of France Thursday. Tien, who now has won 27 consecutive matches, is up to 249 in the ATP live rankings. Results from the Lexington Kentucky and Lincoln Nebraska Challengers will also count, as will any results from the ATP/WTA 500s next week in Washington DC.

The current standings from the USTA release:

Three weeks remain in the Challenge for both men and women. The current top of the men's and women's standing (player's current ranking in parenthesis)

MEN
1. Learner Tien (258) -- 75
2. Eliot Spizzirri (343) -- 47
3. Nishesh Basavareddy (303) -- 46
4. Stefan Kozlov (365) -- 30

WOMEN
T1. Sophie Chang (260) -- 75
T1. Maria Mateas (206) -- 75
3. Mary Stoiana (463) -- 49
4. Hina Inoue (355) -- 23
5. Jada Robinson (672) -- 19

The men's wild card will go to the American with the highest cumulative total of ATP singles ranking points earned from their best four results over six weeks. The Men's Challenge counts outdoor and indoor hard-court events at the 25-level and above around the world.

The women's wild card will go to the American with the highest cumulative total of WTA singles ranking points earned from their best three results over four weeks. The Women's Challenge counts outdoor and indoor hard-court events at the 35-level and above around the world.

Speaking of the Washington DC Mubadala Citi Open next week, it was announced today that Clervie Ngounoue, the 2023 Wimbledon girls and USTA National 18s champion, would be receiving a main draw wild card, as will 2021 US Open girls champion Robin Montgomery, both of whom are from the DC area.

The wild card release:

The Mubadala Citi DC Open, the fifth largest professional tennis event in the United States and the only combined ATP-WTA 500 level tennis tournament in the world, has announced its main draw wildcards ahead of the highly-anticipated 55th edition of the tournament, July 27 - August 4. The event, which annually takes place in Washington D.C. at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park, has awarded main draw wild cards to World No. 9, 2024 Madrid champion and Olympic Gold medalist Andrey Rublev, 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu, former World No. 2 and 2021 Roland Garros quarterfinalist Paula Badosa, 2021 Wimbledon semifinalist and 2022 Australian Open quarterfinalist Denis Shapovalov, four-time ATP champion Reilly Opelka and Washington, D.C. natives and teenagers Robin Montgomery and Clervie Ngounoue. Two additional ATP main draw wild cards will be announced at a later date.

Montgomery, 19, is an alumnus of the Junior Tennis Champions Center (JTCC) in College Park, Maryland. She currently sits at a career-high WTA Ranking of No. 133. Montgomery concluded her junior career in 2021 by sweeping the US Open girls' singles and doubles titles. This year, she reached the third round in Madrid and took a set off World No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka, recorded her first WTA quarterfinal in ’s-Hertogenbosch and advanced through the qualifying draw at Wimbledon before winning her maiden Grand Slam main draw singles match at the professional level.

Ngounoue, 18, grew up playing on the courts at Rock Creek Park Tennis Center. She made her WTA debut last year in DC and defeated top seed Anna Blinkova in the opening round of qualifying, two weeks after winning the Wimbledon girls' singles title. In the time since, Ngounoue captured her first career ITF singles title, advanced through qualifying at the WTA Tour event in San Diego and teamed with Montgomery to reach the third round in last year's US Open women's doubles draw.

In addition, the men’s and women’s singles qualifying draws will feature recent Wimbledon doubles champion Taylor Townsend, former World No. 9 Roberto Bautista Agut and 2021 Roland Garros quarterfinalist Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. 2019 Roland Garros finalist Amanda Anisimova and Louisa Chirico have accepted qualifying wild cards. Other notable names in the qualifying draws include last year’s DC quarterfinalist J.J. Wolf and D.C. native Hailey Baptiste, who defeated former World No. 1 Karolina Pliskova last year at Rock Creek Park.

Ngounoue, who qualified at this week's Dallas W50 and has advanced to the second round, will travel from coast-to-coast next week, with the USTA Nationals starting Sunday August 3 in San Diego.

The Washington DC 500s have good fields considering that the Olympic tennis competition begins this Saturday at Roland Garros and run until Sunday August 4.  For more about the Olympic tennis competition, see these articles from the WTA and the ATP websites.

Americans competing are Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Danielle Collins(Virginia), Emma Navarro(Virginia), Desirae Krawczyk(Arizona State), Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Chris Eubanks(Georgia Tech), Marcos Giron(UCLA), Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M) and Rajeev Ram(Illinois).

The draws will be released on Thursday.

Coco Gauff has been selected by her fellow USA Olympic competitors to be a flag bearer at the opening ceremony, which is Friday in Paris, joining Lebron James in leading the Team USA delegation. For more on Gauff's selection, see this article.

Laura Samson, who was the No. 2 seed, lost in the third round earlier this month at the Wimbledon Junior Championships, but the 16-year-old Czech quickly put that disappointment behind here this week after receiving a wild card into the WTA 250 in Prague. After defeating qualifier Tara Wurth of Croatia 6-0, 6-2 in the first round, the 2024 Roland Garros girls finalist beat No. 2 seed Katerina Siniakova 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 for her first top 50 win. She had not played anyone in the Top 200 before facing Siniakova. Today Samson, No. 3 in the ITF junior rankings, defeated qualifier Oksana Selekhmeteva of Russia 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 to reach the semifinals, where she'll face No. 6 seed Magdalena Frech of Poland. 

See this article from the WTA website for all the "youngest since" milestones Samson has accomplished with this run.

My Wimbledon Junior Championships Recap; USTA National Hard Courts Wild Cards; Qualifying Concludes at USTA Pro Circuit Events in Dallas, Champaign

I hope you had an opportunity to read my daily coverage of the Junior Championships at Wimbledon here, but if you didn't, I've summarized the historic titles for Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia and Nicolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway in this article for the Tennis Recruiting Network. Also featured are American doubles champions Iva Jovic, Tyra Grant and Alex Razeghi, whose titles made it five straight years that the United States has had Wimbledon junior champions.

Those three Americans will be among the contenders at the USTA National Championships next month in San Diego and Kalamazoo, which now have their full 192-player fields, following the selection of the wild cards, listed below.

USTA National Championships Wild Cards

Boys 18s:
Krish Arora
Meecah Bigun
Joseph Oyebog Jr
Jordan Reznik
Evan Sharygin
Abhishek Thorat

Girls 18s:

Ashton Bowers

Alex Ackman

Sydney Jara

Sophie Llewellyn

Anya Murthy

Mia Yamakita

Boys 16s:

Jerrid Gaines Jr.

Keaton Hance

Marcel Latak

Ford McCollum

Navneet Raghuram

Vihaan Reddy

Girls 16s:

Hannah Ayrault

Maria Aytoyan

Chukwumelije Clarke

Zaire Clarke

Ariana Ikwueme

Nicole Okhtenberg

Boys 14s:

Elliott Awomoyi

Diego Custodio

Luke Jones

Daniel Malacek

Girls 14s:

Adelina Iftime

Addyson Munroe

Boys 12s:

Reynold Griffin

Oliver Rottcher

Girls 12s:

Cathryn Chartrand

McClellan Cooley

The USTA Girls Nationals in San Diego put out a press release today on the return of defending champion Clervie Ngounoue this year, who is warming up for the August 4th start date for 18s this week at the USTA Pro Circuit W50 in Dallas.

Ngounoue was the top seed in qualifying and she advanced to the main draw with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Jada Robinson today.  She will face 2015 NCAA singles champion Jamie Loeb(North Carolina) in the first round Wednesday.

Other Americans qualifying are wild card Bridget Stammel(Vanderbilt), wild card Alexis Blokhina(Stanford), Sara Daavettila(North Carolina) and Dalayana Hewitt.

Two of last week's W75 finalists received special exempt entries: Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) and Kayla Cross. Kari Miller(Michigan) used one of her ITA/ITF Accelerator entries and there were four wild cards awarded: Drew Morris, SMU rising senior; Emma Charney, USC rising junior; Katrina Scott and Kimmi Hance, UCLA rising senior. Only two first round matches were played today at the rare summer event on indoor hard courts, with Scott beating Charney and Robin Anderson(UCLA) defeating Sahaja Yamalapalli(Sam Houston State). Kayla Day is the top seed; the only other junior in the draw is Akasha Urhobo.

At the USTA Pro Circuit men's $25,000 tournament in Champaign Illinois, two of the eight qualifiers are Fighting Illini, giving that program seven of the 32 players in the draw: qualifiers Lucas Horve(recent graduate) and Gabrielius Guzauskas(rising senior), Zeke Clark(assistant coach), wild cards Alex Petrov(recent graduate), William Mroz(rising senior) and Kenta Miyoshi(rising junior) of Japan and Karlis Ozolins(rising senior) of Latvia.

The fourth wild card went to Arizona rising senior Colton Smith, with Rochester $15K champion Alex Bernard(Ohio State) and Rochester finalist Tyler Zink(Georgia, Oklahoma State) getting special exempt spots. 

Seven of the eight qualifiers are Americans, with Canadian Cleeve Harper(Texas) the exception; in addition to Guzauskas and Horve, US qualifiers are Aidan Kim(Florida, Ohio State), Kyle Kang(Stanford), Connor Bruce(Dayton), Gavin Young(Michigan) and Adhithya Ganesan(Florida). 

Ganesan is the only player competing in Champaign that is expected in Kalamazoo for the tournament's August 2 start.

The first round of the ATP Challenger 75 in Chicago is nearly complete, with lightning delaying the final match between top seed Terence Atmane of France and Micah Braswell(Texas) with Atmane leading 7-6(4), 1-2.

Among those advancing to the second round are qualifiers Jake Fearnley(TCU) of Great Britain and Aidan Mayo, with the latter facing wild card Learner Tien Wednesday; Brandon Holt(USC); wild card Nishesh Basavareddy and 2019 NCAA singles champion Paul Jubb of Great Britain.

Teams for ITF World Junior Tennis 14U Team Championships Announced; Pareja Extends Winning Streak to 15 with ITF J200 Title in Colombia; Hoo, Ahmad, Budacsek Claim ITF Junior Circuit Titles; Tien's Streak Reaches 26 at Chicago Challenger

The teams for the ITF World Junior Tennis 14-and-under Team Championships were announced today, with the United States teams competing in Prostejov in the Czech Republic next month featuring all five of the Americans who played the Wimbledon 14-and-under tournament two weeks ago.

The US boys team consists of Michael Antonius, Jordan Lee and, the one participant who did not play the Wimbledon event, Teodor Davidov. USTA National Coach Sylvain Guichard is the captain. 

The US girls team is Welles Newman, Maggie Sohns and Raya Kotseva, who recently switched her country representation from Bulgaria to the United States. At Wimbledon, I confirmed with Kotseva, who has lived for years in Las Vegas, that she had recently received her green card. USTA National Coach Thierry Champion is the captain.

There are seven countries that have teams for both boys and girls: Argentina, Czech Republic(hosts), Japan, Korea, Great Britain, Morocco and USA, with 25 countries having at least one team. All four of the boys in the Wimbledon 14U semifinals are competing in Prostejov: champion Takahiro Kawaguchi of Japan, finalist Lee, Donjae Kim of Korea and Stan Put of the Netherlands. Two of the girls semifinalists, champion Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic and Great Britain's Megan Knight are representing their countries, as are several other boys and girls who did not win their round robin groups.

Fifteen-year-old Julieta Pareja won her first ITF Junior Circuit singles title two weeks ago at a J100 in Medellin Colombia and followed that up last week with the title at the J200 in Bogota, both on clay. With her ITF women's W15 title in Rancho Santa Fe in June, Pareja now has a 15-match winning streak, and she has not lost a set in either of her two ITF Junior Circuit championship runs. In Bogota, the ninth-seeded Pareja beat No. 2 seed Christasha McNeil in the final 6-1, 6-1. She is now at 106 in the ITF junior rankings, up 44 spots from last week.

Calvin Baierl, the No. 3 seed, reached the boys singles final, falling to Luis Guto Miguel of Brazil 7-5, 7-5 in the championship match.

Fifteen-year-old Carrie-Ann Hoo won her third, and biggest, ITF Junior Circuit title of her career at the J100 in the Dominican Republic. Hoo, seeded No. 11, defeated No. 7 seed Isabella Marton of Canada 6-2, 7-5 in the final, while also making the doubles final with Brooke Wallman. All three of Hoo's ITF Junior Circuit singles titles have come in 2024.

At the J30 in El Salvador, 14-year-old Izyan (Zizou) Ahmad won his second consecutive singles title, and his third this year. Seeded No. 3, Ahmad defeated the top seed in the semifinals and then unseeded Jeronimo Duque Salazar of Colombia 6-0, 6-1 in the final. Fifteen-year-old Sophia Budacsek swept the girls titles, with the No. 2 seed winning her first singles title with a 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 victory over top seed Carlota Balseiro of Argentina. Budacsek and Balseiro were on the same side of the net for the doubles final, with the top seeds defeating No. 2 seeds Viktoria Monge of Ecuador and Alison Ramirez of Guatemala 6-2, 6-4 for the title. 

The sixth ITF Junior Circuit title of the week came at the J30 in Jamaica, with 16-year-old Taylor Yarnell winning his second doubles title with Jerry Han of Canada. The top seeds defeated unseeded Mac Goldemberg and Hong Kong's Terry Lau 7-5, 6-1 in the final. 

The final round of qualifying and six first round singles matches were played today at the ATP Challenger 75 in Chicago, with attention again focused on 18-year-old wild card Learner Tien and his winning streak. Tien won his 26th consecutive match this evening, beating No. 2 seed Benjamin Bonzi of France 6-4, 6-4. Tien, who didn't face a break point, broke Bonzi serving at 4-5 in each set. At 133 in the ATP rankings, Bonzi represents the best win of Tien's career. He now faces the winner of Tuesday's match between Juan Pablo Ficovich of Argentina and qualifier Aidan Mayo. 

The others who qualified today are: Great Britain's Jake Fearnley(TCU), who missed today's White House visit by the NCAA champion TCU team; Estonia's Mark Lajal; Michael Zheng(Columbia); Tung-Lin Wu of Taiwan and Japan's James Trotter(Ohio State).

Wild cards were given to Tien, Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) and Andrew Fenty(Michigan).

An ATP feature on Tien and his winning streak was published Friday.