April Aces; ITF J100 Titles for Phillips, Traynor, Payne and Rusher; Draws Out for NCAA D-III Team Championships; Jovic and Nava Officially Named Recipients of USTA's Roland Garros Main Draw Wild Cards

My monthly column for the Tennis Recruiting Network is out today, highlighting the top performances of juniors and former collegians in April. A couple of 14-year-olds and a former collegian twice their age are among those who won titles last month.

American juniors won seven singles titles on the ITF Junior Circuit last week, with four of those J100 titles. 

At the J100 in Coral Gables Florida, Americans swept all four titles. Easter Bowl 18s champion Bella Payne won the girls singles title, her first singles title on the ITF Junior Circuit. The 17-year-old left-hander, seeded No. 13, didn't drop a set all week, defeating 14-year-old Scarlett Fagan, the No. 15 seed 6-3, 6-2 in the final.

Sixteen-year-old Agassi Rusher, who won four ITF Junior Circuit singles title last year, won his biggest in Coral Gables, with the No. 3 seed defeating No. 15 seed Sean Grosman 7-5, 7-5 in the final.

Top seeds Zavier Augustin and Navneet Raghurman won the boys doubles title, beating No. 2 seeds Sasha Colleu of France and Nikolas Stoot 6-4, 6-2 in the final. No. 3 seeds Jodyn Hazelitt and Fagan won the girls doubles championship, defeated unseeded Katiana Gonzalez and Switzerland's Francesca Saroli 6-3, 6-2 in the final.

At the J100 in Costa Rica, 18-year-old Sklar Phillips swept the boys titles, earning his first career singles title on the ITF Junior Circuit and his second career doubles title.  Seeded No. 4, Phillips defeated No. 6 seed Benjamin Azar of Canada in the singles final 2-6, 6-1, 6-4. In doubles, Phillips and Erik Schinnerer, the top seeds, defeated Azar and Jacob Lee, the No. 2 seeds, 6-3, 5-7, 10-8 in the final. 

Seventeen-year-old Olivia Traynor won her biggest title, with the No. 2 seed defeating No. 4 seed Brooke Wallman 6-2, 6-0 for her third singles title on the ITF Junior Circuit. No. 2 seeds Sophia Cedeno and Colombia's Isabella Collazos won the doubles title, beating Traynor and Costa Rica's Lucia Gallegos, the No. 3 seeds, 6-2, 6-4 in the championship match.

At the J30 in Jamaica, 15-year-old Kamil Stolarczyk and 14-year-old Aarini Bhattacharya went back-to-back, after winning titles two weeks ago at the first J30 in Montego Bay. Stolarczyk, the No. 1 seed, took the title when No. 5 seed Luca Ugei retired at 1-1 in the final. 

The unseeded Bhattacharya swept the titles for the second straight week, beating No. 7 seed Kathryn Cragg 6-0, 6-2 in the singles final, and partnering with Gianna Graci for the doubles title. The No. 4 seeds defeated unseeded Briana Houlgrave of the Bahamas and Danica Struiken of the Netherlands 6-1, 6-4 in the final.

Unseeded Joah Dunwoody and James Scholer won their first ITF Junior Circuit titles in the doubles final, beating top seeds David Bvunzawabaya and Pedro Vargas 3-6, 6-2, 10-5 in the all-USA final. 

At the J30 in Colombia, unseeded 16-year-old Sarah Delgado claimed her first ITF Junior Circuit title, defeating No. 6 seed Elaine Grace Yoshii Fichtner of Japan 6-1, 6-1 in the final. It was the rare J30 that was a 48-draw, and because Delgado was unseeded, she won six matches, the first five over Colombians, to win the title. 

In addition to those noted above, there were three other doubles titles for Americans.

Theo Hegarty and and Owen Guistwite won the boys doubles title at the J100 in Quebec City Canada, with the unseeded pair beating No. 4 seeds Cadence Benchetrit and Quincy Yao of Canada 7-5, 7-6(0) in the final. 

Kaya Moe won the girls doubles title, with Canadian Clemence Mercier. The top seeds defeated No. 3 seeds Laurence Demers of Canada and Lingling Zhu of China 6-4, 6-1 in the final. Moe, the top seed in singles as well, lost in the final to Demers 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Eaden-Zack Harron, who won the singles title two weeks ago at a J30 in Ruwanda, won the doubles titles last week in the same location, with Shurya Swarup of India. The top seeds defeated unseeded Malay Keyurbhai Minjrola of India and Filippo Mizzi of Italy 6-2, 6-0 in the final. 

The biggest US ITF tournament since the J300 in San Diego in March is this week in Plantation, where the tournament has been upgraded from a J100 to a J200. This is the first tournament at that level that the United States has had in a very long time, which is an indication that the increase in ITF tournaments in both quantity and quality is a priority for the USTA.

The top seeds this week are both Americans, with Aspen Schuman No. 1 in the girls draw and Maxwell Dussault No. 1 in the boys draw. Ava Rodriguez and Lachlan Gaskell are the No. 2 seeds. Delray Beach J100 champion Zaire Clarke is the No. 3 seed, Coral Gables champion Bella Payne is not seeded. Boys Delray Beach J100 champion Sascha Colleu of France is the No. 8 seed; Coral Gables champion Agassi Rusher is the No. 13 seed. 

The Division III men's and women's team championships begin this weekend with regional play, with the draws released today.

The seeds are never shown in D-III draws, so it's best to rely on the most recent rankings to determine the favorites.

In the men's draw, which features 44 teams, top-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, who will be hosting from the quarterfinals on this year, is in the upper left hand corner, with No. 4 Case Western in the bottom left quarter. No. 2 Dennison is in the top right quarter and No. 4 Tufts is in the bottom right quarter. Defending champion and No. 5 Chicago is in the Case Western quarter.

The women's draw, with 47 teams, has defending champion and top-ranked Chicago in the top left quarter, and No. 2 Emory is in the top right. But in the bottom left quarter, No. 3 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and No. 4 Middlebury are both there, with fifth-ranked Pomona Pitzer in the bottom right quarter with No. 6 Wesleyan.

The Division II selection shows are tonight, which begin with regional play to determine the 16 teams that will compete for the title in Altamonte Springs Florida Wednesday May 21 through Sunday May 25.

Click here for more on the women's Division II championships. The D-II men's championship page is here.

The USTA made it official today that Iva Jovic and Emilio Nava have won its Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge and will play in the main draw in Paris later this month. The complete release is below:

Rising Stars Iva Jovic, Emilio Nava Earn French Open Main Draw Wild Cards by Winning Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge

 

17-Year-Old Jovic Earns Wild Card into Third Consecutive Grand Slam Event; 23-Year-Old Nava to Make Second French Open Main Draw Appearance

 

ORLANDO, Fla., May 5, 2025 – American rising stars Iva Jovic and Emilio Nava have earned singles main draw wild cards into the upcoming French Open by winning the USTA'sRoland Garros Wild Card Challenge. The USTA and FFT have a reciprocal agreement in which main draw wild cards for the 2025 French Open and US Open are exchanged.

 

The 17-year-old Jovic finished the five-week Challenge with 142 points, earned by winning the USTA Pro Circuit W100 in Charlottesville, Va., (100 pts.) and reaching the second round at both the WTA 250 in Bogota (30 pts.) and the USTA Pro Circuit W100 in Bonita Springs, Fla. (12 pts.). Jovic's point total was enough to outlast a final-week push by former Roland Garros girls' singles champion Whitney Osuigwe, who could have won the Challenge on its final day by winning the Bonita Springs title. 

 

The Torrance, Calif., native Jovic has now earned wild cards into the last three Grand Slam singles main draws, after winning the USTA Girls' 18s national championship to enter the 2024 US Open and the USTA's Australian Open Wild Card Playoff to get into the 2025 Australian Open. She reached the second round in both of those events.

 

Nava won the men's Challenge with 119 points, thanks to his performance at consecutive USTA Pro Circuit ATP Challenger events, winning the title in Sarasota, Fla., (75 pts.) and reaching the final in Tallahassee, Fla., (44 pts.) amid a 19-match win streak. 

 

Nava previously qualified for the French Open in 2023 and competed in the US Open main draw in 2022-23, pushing Casper Ruud to four sets in the first round after qualifying the latter year. 

 

The Challenge was contested over the last five weeks, with each player's top three points-earning results counting toward their final Challenge point total. Only clay-court events at the M25 and W35 level and above counted toward the Challenge. 

 

Final Women's Standings: 

(Player's current ranking in parentheses)

1. Iva Jovic (120) -- 142

2. Whitney Osuigwe (158) -- 121
3. Julieta Pareja (328) -- 116
4. Caty McNally (283) -- 102
5. Varvara Lepchenko (119) -- 85

 

Final Men's Standings:

(Player's current ranking in parentheses)

1. Emilio Nava (137) -- 119
2. Ethan Quinn (114) -- 100
3. Colton Smith (162) -- 63
4. Chris Eubanks (110) -- 50
5. Eliot Spizzirri (121) -- 44

 

The USTA utilizes this Challenge format to award wild cards into the Australian, French and US Opens. Previous Americans to earn wild cards into the French Open via the Challenge and how far they advanced at Roland Garros are below, including Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul and Emma Navarro, who won the women's Challenge in 2023 to make her Grand Slam debut outside of the U.S. 

 

Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge Winners:

 

2024: Sachia Vickery (1R); Nicolas Moreno de Alboran (1R)

2023: Emma Navarro (2R); Patrick Kypson (1R)

2022: Katie Volynets (2R); Michael Mmoh (1R) 

2019: Lauren Davis (2R); Tommy Paul (1R)

2018: Taylor Townsend (2R); Noah Rubin (1R) 
2017: Amanda Anisimova (1R); Tennys Sandgren (1R) 
2016: Taylor Townsend (2R); Bjorn Fratangelo (2R) 
2015: Louisa Chirico (1R); Frances Tiafoe (1R)
2014: Taylor Townsend (3R); Robby Ginepri (1R)
2013: Shelby Rogers (2R); Alex Kuznetsov (1R)
2012: Melanie Oudin (2R); Brian Baker (2R)

 

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