Ten US Juniors Advance at Roland Garros Junior Championships, Second Seed Penickova Upset; Paul and Tiafoe Reach RG Quarterfinals; Kypson Wins Second Straight Challenger; Smith, Swan Claim SoCal Pro Series Titles

Six Top 8 seeds made early exits today in the opening round of the Roland Garros Junior Championships, but as with their senior counterparts, the American boys were the stars of the day, winning seven of nine first round matches played Sunday.

No. 2 seed and 2024 Roland Garros semifinalist Kristina Penickova was the highest seed to fall, with the 15-year-old Australian Open finalist beaten by Rositsa Dencheva of Bulgaria 6-4, 6-1. The 18-year-old Dencheva won back-to-back W15s on clay in late March and early April and has broken into the WTA Top 500 as a result; she was not an unseeded player anyone wanted to see in the first round. She had more winners and fewer unforced errors than Penickova, a testament to Dencheva's defense and Penickova's erratic ground strokes. 

No. 4 seed Teodora Kostovic's struggles at junior slams continue, with the 17-year-old from Serbia losing to Mia Pohankova of Slovakia 7-6(3), 6-3. Kostovic, who has won seven ITF J300 titles, including five last year, just reached the final of a W75 in Serbia on clay two weeks ago, making this loss even more surprising. She has yet to advance past the quarterfinals of any junior slam.

Equally surprising was the first round loss by another Serbian, No. 6 seed Luna Vujovic. The 15-year-old had won the J500 in Milan two weeks ago, so her 7-6(3), 3-6, 6-0 loss to French wild card Dune Vaissaud, 96 in the ITF junior rankings was a shock.

2024 Orange Bowl champion and No. 5 seed Tereza Krejcova of the Czech Republic also lost, going out to Sonja Zhenikhova of Germany 7-6(5), 6-2.

In the boys draw, No. 3 seed Oskari Paldanius of Finland, an Australian Open boys semifinalist, was beaten by qualifier Stefan Haita of Romania 6-7(9), 6-3, 6-3.

Both the American qualifiers in action today earned their first junior slam wins in their junior slam debuts.  Ronit Karki, who was the first boy out of the main draw, defeated fellow qualifier Manas Dhamne of India 7-5, 6-3. Dhamne, playing in his first junior event this year after competing in men's ITF and ATP Challengers, received entry into qualifying via his ATP ranking of 716. Karki looked much more comfortable on the clay than Dhamne and his superior depth kept Dhamne playing more defense than he would prefer.

Leena Friedman, who beat the top seed in qualifying to advance to the main draw, also looked very much at home on the clay, but she had no advantage in experience on it, as she faced another qualifier in Brooke Black of Great Britain. Friedman played an exceptionally clean match, with ten winners and just eight unforced errors, while Black was far too error-prone to put any pressure on the 18-year-old from New York.

Sunday's first round junior results of Americans:

Keaton Hance[16] d. William Rejchtman Vinciguerra(SWE) 4-6, 6-1, 6-3

Jack Satterfield d. Daniel Jade[WC](FRA) 6-7(4), 6-1, 6-2

Maxwell Exsted d. Mathys Domenc[WC](FRA) 6-3, 6-4

Jagger Leach[5] d. Zangar Nurlanuly(KAZ) 6-1, 1-6, 6-0

Noah Johnston d. Hyu Kawanishi[SE](JPN) 6-0, 6-4

Ronit Karki[Q] d. Manas Dhamne[Q](IND) 7-5, 6-3

Linus Lagerbohm[Q](FIN) d. Ryan Cozad 6-4, 6-3 

Ryo Tabata[13](JPN) d. Dominick Mosejczuk 6-4, 6-4

Jack Secord d. Damien Clerc[WC](FRA) 6-4, 7-5

Rositsa Dencheva(BUL) d. Kristina Penickova[2] 6-4, 6-1

Leena Friedman[Q] d. Brooke Black[Q](GBR) 6-1, 6-0

Julieta Pareja[9] d. Deniz Dilek(TUR) 6-3, 6-3

Maia Burcescu[Q](ROU) d. Maya Iyengar 6-1, 6-2

Thea Frodin[15] d. Cindy Langlais[WC](FRA) 5-7, 6-4, 6-3

Nellie Taraba Wallberg(SWE) d. Annika Penickova[14] 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 

Four Americans will play their first round matches Monday, with all three girls and four of the seven boys winning today playing their second round matches Monday.

Monday's first round junior matches featuring Americans:

Maximus Dussault v Dante Pagani(ARG)

Benjamin Willwerth[6] v Ty Host(AUS)

Jack Kennedy[4] v Kerem Yilmaz[SE](TUR)

Capucine Jauffret[Q] v Emerson Jones[1](AUS)

Monday's second round matches featuring Americans:

Jack Secord v Nikita Bilozertsev[14](UKR)

Ronit Karki[Q] v Alexander Vasilev[11]

Jack Satterfield v Thilo Behrmann(AUT)

Keaton Hance[16] v Neils Mcdonald(GER)

Julieta Pareja[9] v Eva Bennemann(GER)

Leena Friedman[Q] v Julia Stusek[12](GER)

Thea Frodin[15] v Sarah Melany Fajmonova[Q](CZE)

Some first round doubles matches are also on Monday's schedule. The top seeds in the boys draw are Amir Omarkhanov of Kazakhstan and Andres Santamarta Roig of Spain; Jack Kennedy and Keaton Hance are the No. 3 seeds.

Emerson Jones of Australia and Hannah Klugman of Great Britain are the top seeds in the girls doubles, with Australian Open girls champions Annika and Kristina Penickova the No. 2 seeds.

Tommy Paul and Frances Tiafoe both reached with Roland Garros men's singles quarterfinals with straight-sets victories today. The last American man to reach the Roland Garros quarterfinals was Andre Agassi in 2003; the last time two American men advanced to the quarterfinals was 1996, when Pete Sampras and Jim Courier played each other. That won't happen this year, with Paul going against defending champion Carlos Alcaraz of Spain and Tiafoe taking on Italy's Lorenzo Musetti.

There is also an American woman guaranteed in the quarterfinals, with Hailey Baptiste and Madison Keys meeting in fourth round Monday.

Sunday's fourth round results of Americans:

Aryna Sabalenka[1](BLR) d. Amanda Anisimova[16] 7-5, 6-3

Tommy Paul[12] d. Alexei Popyrin[25](AUS) 6-3, 6-3, 6-3

Carlos Alcaraz[2](ESP) d. Ben Shelton[13] 7-6(8), 6-3, 4-6, 6-4

Frances Tiafoe[15] d. Daniel Altmaier(GER) 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(4)

Monday's fourth round matches featuring Americans:

Coco Gauff[2] v Ekaterina Alexandrova[20](RUS)

Jessica Pegula[3] v Lois Boisson[WC](FRA)

Madison Keys[7] v Hailey Baptiste

Patrick Kypson won his second straight ATP Challenger and the fifth of his career today at the 75 in Little Rock Arkansas. The 25-year-old qualifier, who won the Bogota 50 two weeks ago, defeated wild card Michael Zheng, a rising senior at Columbia, 6-1, 1-6, 7-5.  The former Texas A&M All-American led 5-2 in the third set and had three match points serving at 5-3, but Zheng fought them off. With Zheng serving at 5-6 in the third, he saved two more match points, but Kypson kept his perfect record in Challenger finals intact by converting his sixth match point.

In Sunday's doubles final between two unseeded teams, Aziz Dougaz(Florida State) of Tunisian and Antoine Escoffier of France defeated Andres Andrade(Florida) of Ecuador and Nicolas Mejia of Colombia 6-2, 6-3.

The first week of the SoCal Pro Series is in the books, with Keegan Smith and Katie Swan earning the titles at the $15,000 tournaments at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego.

No. 2 seed Smith, a former All-American at UCLA, defeated unseeded University of San Diego graduate Savriyan Danilov of Russia 6-2, 6-3 in the men's final to earn his first singles title since 2022. The 26-year-old from San Diego didn't drop a set this week.

In the women's tournament, unseeded Katie Swan of Great Britain returned to competition this spring after a chronic back injury and won her first title since 2022 with a 6-4, 6-0 win over top seed Dejana Redanovic of Serbia. Swan, who reached 118 in the WTA rankings in 2022, will now head to England for the grass season.

Much more on the finals, including extensive interviews with the champions, can be found in this release by Damian Secore for USTA SoCal.