Easter Bowl 14s Videos; Junior Davis and Billie Jean King Cup Finals Held in Chile This Fall; Clarke Wins First USTA Pro Circuit Main Draw Match at W50; Sioux Falls Challenger Upgrading to 100 Level

My videos of the USTA Level 1 Easter Bowl 14s finals are below; the 16s videos are next and will be live soon, with the 18s to follow. To see all videos from the two ITF J300s in Southern California, as well as the Easter Bowl 12s finals at the tenniskalamazoo YouTube channel.

2024 USA Jr BJK Cup champions

The International Tennis Federation announced yesterday that the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup finals will be hosted this year in Santiago Chile. The 16-and-under team competition has not been able to find a permanent home, or even a semi-regular venue and spot on the calendar, unlike the World Junior Tennis 14-and-under team competition, which has been located Prostejov Czech Republic for 25 years and has been the first week of August. 

This year the JDC and JBJKC will be November 3-9, at two different clubs in Santiago. The event has always been after the US Open, but as early as September and as late as the end of November. There is no mention of this being more than a one-year deal in the ITF's article on the competition's return to South America after 24 years.

2024 USA Jr Davis Cup champions

At the North and Central America and Caribbean qualifying today in Montreal for both the 16U and 14U teams, the United States won all four of its matches 3-0. The WJT girls defeated Mexico, the WJT boys beat the Dominican Republic, the JDC team topped Canada and the JBJK team defeated Mexico. 

Individual results can be found at the ITF's tournament page.

At the women's W50 in Zephyrhills Florida, 15-year-old Zaire Clarke earned her first main draw win on the Pro Circuit after qualifying yesterday. Clarke defeated wild card Jaeda Daniel(Auburn, NC State) 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 and will face a WTA Top 200 player for the first time in No. 1 seed Arina Rodionova of Australian. Rodionova, who at age 35, is 20 years older than Clarke, avenged her first round last week to Diletta Cherubini of Italy, with the WTA No. 172 posting a 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 win over the qualifier. 

Two seeds lost in the first round today, with wild card Ayana Akli(Maryland, South Carolina) defeating No. 5 seed Valeriya Strakhova of Ukraine 3-6, 6-3, 6-0, and qualifier Malaika Rapolu(Texas) defeating No. 8 seed Anna Rogers(NC State) 6-3, 6-2.

At the Tallahassee Challenger 75, No. 3 seed Mitchell Krueger has advanced to the quarterfinals with a 0-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(4) win over Geoffrey Blancaneaux of France. Michael Mmoh lost to Andy Andrade(Florida) of Ecuador 7-6(5), 1-6, 6-1. Patrick Maloney(Michigan), who surprised the heavily favored Jenson Brooksby last night in the first round contest between wild cards, will play Mathys Erhard of France tonight for a place in the quarterfinals against Krueger.

The recent Challenger in San Diego was at the 100 level, and the Phoenix Challenger in the second week of the BNP Paribas Open has always been at the 150 or 175 level, but in general, the longstanding Challengers on the USTA Pro Circuit have been 75s.  That's why it was surprising to me to read that this fall's Challenger in Sioux Falls South Dakota, in just its second year, will move from a 75 to a 100, but it's great news. For more on the second year of the tournament, scheduled for October 19-26, see this Argus Leader article.