Klugman and Tagger Meet for Roland Garros Girls Title; Unseeded Germans Mcdonald and Schoenhaus in Boys Final, Willwerth and Johnston Make Doubles Final; Smith Advances to ATP Challenger 125 Semis; Vidmanova and Stoiana Meet Again; Central Arkansas Drops Tennis

It hasn't been easy for the only seed remaining in singles at the Roland Garros Junior Championships, with No. 8 seed Hannah Klugman of Great Britain coming from a set down on three occasions this week, including today's semifinal with unseeded Rositsa Dencheva of Bulgaria. 

After dropping the first set 6-1, with Dencheva hitting 11 winners and making just six unforced errors, Klugman once again rebounded in the second set, taking it 6-3 while posting a positive winners to unforced error ratio of 14-10.  Klugman, already competing in her tenth junior slam at the age of 16, didn't have to save a match point, as she did in her 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 quarterfinal win over qualifier Sarah Fajmonova of the Czech Republic, but the last set was tense. After letting her 3-1 lead go by getting broken at love at 3-2, Klugman got the break right back and consolidated it for a 5-3 lead. Dencheva couldn't derail that momentum, with her forehand going awry at the worst possible time, and Klugman had to do little to claim the 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 decision.

Klugman, the first British girl in the Roland Garros final since Michelle Tyler in 1976, will face unseeded Lilli Tagger of Austria in Saturday's championship match, after Tagger defeated top seed Emerson Jones of Australia 6-4, 7-6(5) in the other semifinal, avenging her quarterfinals loss to Jones at the Australian Open this year. Tagger, the first Austrian girl ever to reach a Roland Garros final, has not dropped a set this week, and she won her only meeting with Klugman in March, in the semifinals of the W35 in Spain 6-4, 6-7(7), 6-3. Tagger is one of two girls in the quarterfinals with a one-handed backhand, with Luna Cinalli of Argentina the other.

The boys final will be the first at Roland Garros between two 17-year-old Germans after Niels Mcdonald defeated No. 13 seed Ryo Tabata of Japan 6-2, 6-2 and Max Schoenhaus beat No. 9 seed Ivan Ivanov of Bulgaria, one of the pre-tournament favorites, 6-3, 6-4. Mcdonald needed only 55 minutes to record his fourth straight-sets win of the week; his only loss of a set came in his upset of top seed Andres Santamarta Roig of Spain in the third round. Tabata did not play at the level of his previous matches, with his 30 unforced errors contributing to the brevity of the match. 

Schoenhaus trailed 3-0 in the second set, but he showed none of the nerves that had cropped up in his 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(11) quarterfinal win over No. 6 seed Benjamin Willwerth, where he saved two match points. After he broke Ivanov to go up 5-4, Schoenhaus took a 30-15 lead after an unforced error by Ivanov, then hit a (one-handed) backhand winner to earn two match points, and calmly stroked a volley winner to convert the first.

The last time two unseeded boys reached the Roland Garros final was 2010, when Agustin Velotti of Argentina defeated Andreas Collarini, who then represented the United States, but now plays for Argentina. 

Neither Schoenhaus nor Mcdonald has ever won an ITF Junior Circuit singles title above the J200 level, although Schoenhaus did win the Wimbledon boys doubles title last year with Alex Razeghi.

Both singles finals will be played, consecutively, on Court Simonne-Mathieu, the third biggest court at Roland Garros. There is rain in the forecast, and that court does not have a roof.

Saturday's boys doubles final will feature No. 7 seeds Noah Johnston and Benjamin Willwerth, who defeated No. 8 seeds Jagger Leach and Great Britain's Oliver Bonding 6-4, 2-6, 10-7 in today's semifinal.  They will face No. 2 seeds Oskari Paldanius of Finland and Alan Wazny of Poland, who beat No. 3 seeds Keaton Hance and Jack Kennedy 6-1, 6-2.  Willwerth and Johnston won three ITF doubles titles last year, while Johnston has won two J300 titles this year, one with Leach and the other with Jacob Olar.

The junior slam run for twins Kristina and Annika Penickova[2] ended today, with sisters Alena and Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic avenging their loss in the semifinals of the Australian Open with a 4-6, 7-5, 10-3 victory today. The third-seeded Kovackovas will face the unseeded German team of Eva Bennemann and Sonja Zhenikhova, who beat unseeded Mia Pohankova of Slovakia and Tagger 7-5, 7-6(5).

In the men's doubles semifinal at Roland Garros today, No. 8 seeds Joe Salisbury(Memphis) and Neal Skupski(LSU) of Great Britain advanced to Saturday's final with a 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-6(10-7) win over No. 9 seeds Christian Harrison and Evan King(Michigan). Skupski will be playing for his second men's doubles major, after winning Wimbledon with Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands in 2023. Salisbury is seeking his fifth, having won the Australian Open in 2020 and the US Open 2021-2023 with Rajeev Ram(Illinois). In the 2022 US Open final, Salisbury and Ram beat Skupski and Koolhof for the title.

They will face No. 5 seeds Marcel Granollers of Spain and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina in the final. Granollers and Zeballos lost in the 2023 Wimbledon final to Skupski and Koolhof.

Former University of Florida star Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan, a member of the Florida NCAA championship team in 2017, is through to her second women's doubles final, after she and partner Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia defeated Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway and Eri Hozumi of Japan 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-5 in a semifinal between two unseeded teams. They will play No. 2 seeds Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini of Italy, who beat the No. 4 seeds Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider(NC State) of Russia 6-0, 6-1, on Sunday.

While the clay season is winding down, the grass season is just getting started, with an ATP Challenger 125 and a WTA 125 in Birmingham this week. No Americans have reached the semifinals at the WTA event, but two Americans are through to the semis in the ATP Challenger: Brandon Holt(USC) and recent Arizona graduate Colton Smith. 

Smith, who received entry as an alternate, defeated Lloyd Harris of South Africa 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-4, and will play No. 3 seed Rinky Hijikata(North Carolina) of Australia in the semifinals.  Holt, a 6-4, 6-3 winner over Adrian Mannarino of France, will face Otto Virtanen of Finland in the semifinals, after Virtanen beat Coleman Wong of Hong Kong 6-2, 7-5. Hijikata is the only seed remaining.

At the ATP Challenger 75 in Tyler Texas, Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M) is continuing to chalk up wins, with the Bogota 50 and Little Rock 75 champion reaching the semifinals with a 6-4, 7-5 win over wild card Trevor Svajda(SMU). Kypson will face unseeded 20-year-old Yi Zhou of China, a former ITF junior No. 5, for a spot in the final.  Qualifier Yibing Wu of China and Karue Sell(UCLA) of Brazil will play in the other semifinal, with no seeds remaining in the semifinals.

Another meeting between Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) and Dasha Vidmanova(Georgia) is coming Saturday in the semifinals of the W75 in Sumter South Carolina. Stoiana, the No. 7 seed, defeated Japanese qualifier Ena Koike 6-1, 7-6(6), while the unseeded Vidmanova beat Shrivalli Bhamidipaty of India 6-0, 6-4.  Stoiana and Vidmanova split their four college matches this year; Stoiana won their only Pro Circuit meeting in the quarterfinals of the W75 in Oklahoma last fall.

LSU rising sophomore Cadence Brace will face fellow unseeded Canadian Katherine Sebov in the other semifinal, after Brace defeated qualifier Jaeda Daniel(Auburn, NC State) 6-3, 6-2 and Sebov beat wild card DJ Bennett(Auburn) 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. 

Division I Central Arkansas(corrected from incorrect previous id as Arkansas State) announced today they would be discontinuing their women's tennis program. The school, which does not have men's tennis, has recently added beach volleyball and STUNT as varsity sports for women.