Americans Chica, Augustin, Lee and Hazelitt Sweep Titles on ITF Junior Circuit; Put and Kovacevic Claim European 14s Championships; Kostovic and Preda Top Seeds at This Week's European 18s Championships

The ITF Junior Circuit was packed with tournaments last week; 26 in total, with none above the J200 level. I recapped the J200 in Montreal, with Lachlan Gaskell taking the boys singles title and Claire An the girls doubles title in my post Saturday. Jacob Olar won the boys doubles title at the J200 in South Africa with Nikolai Barsukov of Germany. The No. 3 seeds defeated No. 2 seeds Ivan Iutkin of Russia and Kriish Tyagi of India 6-0, 1-6, 11-9 in the final. It's the 17-year-old Olar's seventh ITF Junior Circuit doubles title, all with different partners, but the first above the J100 level.

Americans swept all titles at the ITF J60 in Mexico, with 16-year-old Jacob Lee and 14-year-old Jordyn Hazelitt getting two titles apiece.

They were the first two titles for Hazelitt, who was unseeded, but didn't drop a set and beat the top two seeds; in the singles final she took out No. 1 Marianne Angel of Mexico 6-4, 6-0. In doubles No. 8 seeds Hazelitt and Lyla Middleton also won the title without the loss of a set, beating top seeds Ana Camila Celis Avila and Zoe Levresse Zavala of Mexico 6-4, 6-2 in the final.

Lee, a 16-year-old from Georgia, the No. 4 seed, won his fourth ITF Junior Circuit title with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 win over No. 16 seed Navneet Raghuram in an all-US final. In the doubles final, Lee and compatriot Anirudh Dhanwada, the No. 5 seeds, defeated No. 2 seeds Luis Andres Flores Avila and Guillermo Marcio of Mexico 6-2, 6-2. Lee now has three doubles titles, with two coming at J60s this month with Dhanwada.

At the J60 in Honduras, 16-year-old Zavier Augustin won his first ITF Junior Circuit singles title to go with the six doubles titles he's earned, five of which have come this year. Augustin won the doubles title with Sean Grosman, with the No. 2 seeds beating top seeds Oliver Moises Aguilar Gasperin of Mexico and Lucas Martin Velasco of Colombia 7-5, 7-5 in the final. The following day, Augustin, the top seed, and No. 7 seed Grosman faced off in the singles final, with Augustin earning a 6-3, 6-4 victory.

Daniela Chica, who reached the final two weeks ago at the J60 in Cartagena, avenged her loss in the final to Marcella Roversi in the semifinals and went on to win last week's J30 in Barranquilla Colombia. The 17-year-old top seed defeated Isabella Pisarczyk 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 for her third ITF Junior Circuit singles title. She partnered with Luciana Chica, who I assume is her younger sister, for the doubles title, with the unseeded pair beating No. 2 seeds Roversi and Alessia Franco 6-3, 6-4 in an all-US final.

The European Championships are usually held in July, but not this year, with the 14s taking place last week in the Czech Republic and the ITF J300 Regional Championships moving from its usual location in Switzerland to Austria.

At the 14s last week, there was what I would consider a big upset in the final, with top seed Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic, who is up to 104 in the ITF junior rankings losing to No. 2 Tea Kovacevic of Bosnia 6-7(7), 6-4, 6-4. Kovackova did win the doubles title, with Katerina Zajickova. The weather was poor, leading to an indoor final and short scoring in doubles.

Stan Put of the Netherlands took the boys 14s singles title, with the No. 7 seed repeating his Wimbledon 14U round robin win over Scott Watson of Great Britain, who was the No. 3 seed this week. Put defeated Watson 6-0, 4-6, 6-4. No. 4 seeds Pavel Dufek and Matyas Marsik of the Czech Republic won the boys doubles title.

For more on the 14s championships, and links to all the draws, see the Tennis Europe tournament page.

The J300 was scheduled to begin today in a new venue in Oberpullendorf Austria, but rain caused many matches to be canceled.

The European 18s Championships top eight seeds:

Boys:

1. Luca Preda, Romania

2. Henry Bernet, Switzerland

3. Wiliam Rejchtman Vinciguerra, Sweden

4. Andres Santamarta Roig, Spain

5. Izan Almazan Valiente, Spain

6. Oskari Paldanius, Finland

7. Andreas Timini, Cyprus

8. Jan Klimas, Czech Republic

Girls:

1. Teodora Kostovic, Serbia

2. Jeline Vandromme, Belgium

3. Vittoria Paganetti, Italy

4. Alena Kovackova, Czech Republic

5. Monika Stankiewicz, Poland

6. Eliska Tichackova, Czech Republic

7. Julia Stusek, Germany

8. Joy De Zeeuw, Netherlands

The girls event features most of the top European girls who have not moved on to pro tennis, but the boys field is missing quite a few players I would have expected to play: Charlie Robertson(GBR), Mees Rottgering(NED), Maxim Mrva(CZE) and Jan Kumstat(CZE), and Max Schoenhaus, all with another year of junior eligibility. This is a good opportunity to collect points for next year's ranking and for the Top 10 finish this year that would earn them the eight ATP Challenger wild cards for 2025. In fact, the 2006 players, such as Theo Papamalamis[11](FRA) and Tomasz Berkieta[13](POL) would benefit from the points in that race to the Top 10, so the relatively weak boys field surprises me.

Links to live streaming and live scoring can be found at the Tennis Europe tournament page.