Three Unseeded Players and Top Seed Advance to ITF J100 Las Vegas Finals; ITF J300 Indian Wells Wild Cards; Jovic Comes Back to Reach BNP Parbias Open Second Round

Saturday's singles finals are set at the ITF J100 in Las Vegas, with two unseeded Americans meeting for the girls title, and top seed Roshan Santhosh of California facing unseeded local resident Andre Alcantara for the boys singles championship.

Sixteen-year-old Natalie Kha of Chino Hills California, who won her first ITF title at the J30 in Claremont to start off the year, will face 15-year-old Yilin Chen of San Diego, who won her first ITF title at the J60 in her hometown in February.  Kha defeated No. 4 seed Thara Gowda, the last seed in the girls draw, 6-3, 6-3, while Chen came back to beat 14-year-old Anya Arora 4-6, 6-0, 6-1.

The 16-year-old Santhosh, who was a finalist last year in Las Vegas when it was a J60, is still seeking his first ITF Junior Circuit singles title, but he reached a J300 final in India in January, a result that resulted in his No. 1 seeding this week. The 17-year-old Alcantara won the J30 in Claremont to start the year, but he will more than double his ITF point total if he wins the title Saturday. Santhosh advanced with a tough 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(2) decision over No. 7 seed and Penn recruit Boxiong Zhang of China; Alcantara took out No. 2 seed Andrew Johnson 6-4, 6-3; Johnson had lost only seven games in his first four matches before dropping 12 to Alcantara today. 

Johnson did earn the doubles title today, with partner Marcel Latak. The No. 5 seeds defeated the sixth-seeded Canadian team of  Alec Barin and Loic Petrecca 6-3, 5-7, 10-6 in the final. 

Two unseeded teams from the United States played in today's girls doubles final with Bella Payne and Elena Zhao winning a thriller, beating Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann and Karlin Schock 3-6, 6-4, 11-9. 

The qualifying for the ITF J300 in Indian Wells next week begins Saturday; the draws and order of play will be posted later tonight. The wild card list I've received is as follows; I don't think it includes the wild cards that FILA is allocated as sponsor. Anna Frey, who is sponsored by FILA, is on the alternate list. She has the second best World Tennis Number, after Alexis Nguyen, among the girls entries. 

Fourteen-year-old Izyan Ahmad, who is also sponsored by FILA, is just two out of the main draw as of the freeze deadline, so he may have received one that he will not need. Las Vegas finalist Alcantara is listed in qualifying, which he won't be able to play, and he won't receive a special exempt because the the Las Vegas event is two grades below Indian Wells. So perhaps he will get a late wild card, several of which appear to be available from the list below, as there are usually six wild cards awarded in a 48-draw.

Girls qualifying:
Alexis Nguyen (she didn't need it; moved in on her own)
Anya Arora
Audrey Dussault

Girls main draw:
Janae Preston
Karlin Schock
Maggie Sohns

Boys qualifying:
Arin Pallegar
Sklar Phillips
Gabriel Jessup

Boys main draw:
Shaan Patel
Tanishk Konduri

At the BNP Paribas Open, 17-year-old wild card Iva Jovic advanced to the second round coming back from losing the first set 6-2 last night, when rain postponed her match with Jullia Grabher of Austria. Resuming play this afternoon, Jovic went up 4-1 in the second set, lost the break, but took the set 7-5, then raised her level in the third, taking it 6-0 with some peak tennis. Jovic plays No. 6 seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy in the second round Saturday.

2014 NCAA singles champion Marcos Giron(UCLA) got his best win ever by ranking, beating No. 4 seed and ATP No. 5 Casper Ruud of Norway 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-2.  He will play No. 26 seed Alexei Popyrin of Australia Sunday. 

Qualifier Colton Smith(Arizona) lost his second round match today to No. 31 seed Alex Michelsen 6-3, 6-4.