Kennedy and Pareja Advance at ITF J500 in Milan; Quinn Qualifies for Roland Garros; Payne and Ekstrand Reach W35 Orlando Quarterfinals; SoCal Pro Series, JMTA College Combine Begin Soon

The quarterfinals are set for Friday at the ITF J500 Trofeo Bonfiglio in Milan, with two Americans still in contention in singles.

No. 11 seed Julieta Pareja, playing in just her second tournament since reaching the semifinals of the WTA 250 in Bogota in early April, defeated Nauhany Leme Da Silva of Brazil 6-1, 6-3 to advance to a quarterfinal meeting with Lilli Tagger of Austria. Although unseeded, the 17-year-old Tagger won a W35 in March and is up to 506 in the WTA rankings. Pareja, 16, is at 317, a career high.

The other seeded American, No. 8 Thea Frodin, lost to No. 9 seed Lunca Vujovic of Serbia 6-2, 7-6(1) in today's third round. Unseeded Rositsa Dencheva of Bulgaria, who has been playing mostly on the ITF women's World Tennis Tour, beat top seed and Orange Bowl champion Tereza Krejcova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2 in the second round and No. 14 seed Beatrise Zeltina of Latvia 6-3, 6-4 today. Five US boys were seeded this week, but only No. 7 seed Jack Kennedy has managed to make it to the quarterfinals, although five American boys did advance to today's round of 16.

For the second week in a row, Kennedy played Jack Satterfield, beating him in three sets in the semifinals of the J300 in Santa Croce Italy and in today's third round 7-5, 7-5. Kennedy will play top seed Oskari Paldanius of Finland, who squeezed past No. 16 seed Noah Johnston 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-4. Paldanius and Kennedy played in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in January, with Paldanius winning 7-6(6), 7-5.

Unseeded Ronit Karki lost to No. 8 seed Timofei Derepasko of Russia 6-3, 6-2 and No. 2 seed Jagger Leach was beaten by Pierluigi Basile of Italy 6-2, 7-6(2).  

Kennedy and Hance, the No. 5 seeds in doubles and last week's champions in Santa Croce, have reached the semifinals, as has Frodin, who is playing this week with Yoana Konstantinova of Bulgaria. 

Live scoring is available at the tournament website.

Due to rain earlier in the week, the final round of qualifying at Roland Garros will extend through Friday, but the main draws were published today. Fifteen US men are in the draw, including Ethan Quinn(Georgia), who qualified today with a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(5) win over Thiago Tirante of Argentina, the 2019 ITF World Junior Champion. Quinn, who competed in the US Open main draw as the 2023 NCAA singles champion, has qualified for a slam for the first time with his win today.

The other two American men left in the qualifying lost today in the second round, with Eliot Spizzirri(Texas) losing to Giulio Zeppieri of Italy 6-2, 6-3 and Nicolas Moreno de Alboran(UC-Santa Barbara) falling to Lukas Klein of Slovakia 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-4.

There will be either 18 or 19 US women in the main draw, depending on the outcome of the final round qualifying match Friday between Taylor Townsend and Daria Saville of Australia. Townsend defeated Hanna Chang, in a match resumed late in the third set, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(5). Varvara Lepchenko lost her final round qualifying match to Nina Stojanovic of Serbia 4-6, 6-1, 7-5.

Below are the matchups for Americans this weekend; it's surprising that with so many US players in the draw, none have to play a fellow American. Click on the headings for the draws.

MEN:

Top Half (Monday/Tues)

Learner Tien v Alexander Zverev[3](GER)

Marcos Giron v Tallon Griekspoor(NED)

Aleks Kovacevic v Emil Ruusuvuori(FIN)

Mackenzie McDonald v Novak Djokovic[6](SRB)

Bottom Half(Sunday/Monday)

Reilly Opelka v Rinky Hijikata(AUS)

Brandon Nakashima[28] v Mariano Navone(ARG)

Emilio Nava[WC] v Botic van de Zandschulp(NED)

Frances Tiafoe[15] v Roman Safiullin(RUS)

Jenson Brooksby v Jaime Faria(POR)

Sebastian Korda[23] v Luciano Darderi(ITA)

Alex Michelsen[32] v qualifier

Taylor Fritz[4] v Daniel Altmaier(GER)

Tommy Paul[12] v qualifier

Ben Shelton[13] v Lorenzo Sonego(ITA)

WOMEN:

Top Half(Sunday/Monday)

Danielle Collins v Jodie Burrage(GBR)

Amanda Anisimova[16] v qualifier

Peyton Stearns[28] v Eva Lys(GER)

Bernarda Pera v Caroline Garcia(FRA)

Iva Jovic[WC] v Renata Zarazua(MEX)

Caroline Dolehide v Greet Minnen(BEL)

Bottom Half(Monday/Tuesday)

Ashlyn Krueger v Suzan Lamens(NED)

Katie Volynets v qualifier

McCartney Kessler v Elena-Gabriela Ruse(ROU)

Alycia Parks v Karolina Muchova[14](CZE)

Ann Li v qualifier

Jessica Pegula[3] v Anca Todoni(ROU)

Madison Keys[7] v qualifier

Sofia Kenin[31] v Varvara Gracheva(FRA)

Hailey Baptiste v Beatriz Haddad Maia[23](BRA)

Robin Montgomery v Diane Parry[WC](FRA)

Emma Navarro[9] v Jessica Bouzas Maneiro(ESP)

Coco Gauff[2] v Olivia Gadecki(AUS)

The quarterfinals at the W35 in Orlando will feature two American teenagers who have been on quite a roll the past several months. 

Seventeen-year-old wild card Bella Payne, the Easter Bowl 18s champion, defeated No. 4 seed Makenna Jones 6-2, 6-1 in the second round today. Payne, who won ITF J100 and J200 tournaments earlier this month, played her first Pro Circuit tournament a month ago. She will face qualifier Jamilah Snells(Louisville) in the quarterfinals. 

Eighteen-year-old Monika Ekstrand, the No. 6 seed this week, has played seven of the last eight weeks and has won two W35 titles in that span. The Stanford recruit will take on No. 2 seed Katrina Scott in the quarterfinals, with Ekstrand having beaten Scott 6-4, 6-4 in the first round en route to the Boca Raton W35 title two weeks ago. Ekstrand beat 17-year-old Alexis Nguyen 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 in today's second round. 

I would like to take this opportunity to make sure that you're aware of a couple of my sponsors' upcoming events.

The John McEnroe Tennis Academy's ninth annual College Combine is scheduled for June 28th and June 29th at Sportime/JMTA in Port Washington New York. The deadline to apply in Saturday May 31st.  For more information, click on the ad to the left, or check out this press release.

The SoCal Pro Series is now set to begin its fourth year, with seven consecutive weeks of men's and women's $15,000 tournaments in Southern California beginning next Monday. I have an article in the works about this Circuit, which will be serving as a template for increasing ITF-level events in the United States in the next two years. 

Registration for pre-qualifying for the last three events is still open; click on the ad to the left for more information.