USA Teams Continue Dominance at Junior Davis Cup and Junior BJK Cup; Newman, Sohns, Chang Advance at Orlando W35; ITA D-I Conference Masters, Sectionals Begin Thursday with Final NCAA Entrants Decided

The United States teams came into this week's ITF Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup 16-and-under World Finals as the defending champions and No. 1 seeds, and both teams have lived up to those expectations after the completion of group play today in Santiago Chile.

The US girls posted their third straight 3-0 victory, this time over No. 6 seed Poland, with Kristina Penickova defeating Antonina Snochowska 6-3, 6-3 at No. 2 singles.

Julieta Pareja followed with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Barbara Kostecka at No. 1 singles to clinch the tie and first place in the group. 

Penickova and Pareja were both on last year's Junior BJK Cup championship team.

Pareja and Annika Penickova won the doubles match, beating Oliwia Sybicka and Snochowska 7-6(3), 6-1

The girls quarterfinals, which will be played Friday, with Thursday a day off:

USA[1] v Japan
Great Britain[7] v Czech Republic[4]

France[3] v Taiwan[8]
Poland[6] v Romania[2]

The US boys also earned a third consecutive 3-0 win, beating No. 5 seed Brazil today. Andrew Johnson beat Livas Eduardo De Carvalho Damazio 6-1, 6-0 in 55 minutes at No. 2 singles for a 1-0 lead. 

Michael Antonius lost the opening set to Leonardo Storck Franca at No. 1 singles, but rebounded for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win, which clinched the tie and eliminated Brazil from the quarterfinals.

Johnson and Jordan Lee won the doubles match over De Carvalho Damazio and Carlos Eduard Lino 6-2, 7-5.

Two of the seeded boys teams--No. 5 Brazil and No. 6 Canada-- did not advance to the quarterfinals.

USA[1] v Spain

Korea[7] v Turkey[8]

Czech Republic[3] v Japan[4]

Germany v France[2]

While the 16-year-old girls are competing in Chile, three girls a year younger are having notable results at the W35 in Orlando.

Qualifier Welles Newman and wild card Maggie Sohns, who were on the 2024 ITF World Junior Tennis team that finished second to the Czech Republic in the 14U team competition, moved into the second round with wins today.

Newman defeated fellow qualifier Panna Bartha of Hungary 6-0, 7-5 and will face No. 5 seed Victoria Hu(Princeton) in Thursday's second round.

Sohns defeated qualifier Sophia Biolay(Central Florida) of France 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 and will face No. 3 seed Katarina Jokic(Georgia) of Serbia in the second round.

Qualifier Lani Chang, who doesn't turn 15 until next month, also advanced to the second round, beating Lan Mi(Cal) of China 6-0, 5-7. 6-2. Chang, the daughter of Michael Chang and Amber Liu, often travels with her father, who serves as her primary coach, but he is in France this week with Learner Tien(USC), who he is now coaching. Tien reached the quarterfinals of the ATP 250 in Metz with a win today.

Chang will play University of Georgia sophomore Anastasiia Gureva of Russia Thursday; Gureva defeated Stanford freshman Monika Ekstrand, the No. 4 seed, 6-0, 6-4 yesterday. Thea Frodin and Akasha Urhobo[8] are the other juniors through to the second round.

The last competitors in this month's NCAA individual championships will be decided this weekend with the ITA's Conference Masters tournament in San Diego, and eight Sectional Championships across the country.

The four semifinalists at the Conference Masters will earn entry into the NCAAs.  The top four men's seeds, all of whom have first round byes, are Michael Zheng(Columbia), Edward Winter(Pepperdine), Emon van Loben Sels(UCLA) and Martin Borisiouk(NC State).

The top four women's seeds, with the top two receiving first round byes, are Ayseguil Mert(Georgia), Mao Mushika(Cal), Vivian Ovrootsky(Arizona State) and Zoie Epps(Louisiana Tech). 

The draws are here. Streaming will be available at the ITA YouTube Channel.

Six singles players and three doubles teams will advance to the NCAAs from each of the Sectional tournaments. 

The top four seeds from each Sectional:

MEN:

East (North Carolina) 

1. Nicolas Kotzen, Columbia

2. Lucas Andrade da Silva, South Carolina

3. Manfredi Graziani, Penn

4. Noa Vukadin, Clemson

South (Georgia)

1. Jack Loutit, Kentucky

2. Arda Azkara, Georgia

3. Corey Craig, Florida State

4. Niccolo Baroni, Mississippi State

Central(Michigan)

1. Sebastian Dominko, Notre Dame

2. Cosme Rolland De Ravel, TCU

3. Jack Anthrop, Ohio State

4. Khololwam Montsi, Texas A&M

West(Cal)

1. Dominique Rolland, UC-Santa Barbara

2. Lasse Poertner, Pepperdine

3. Gustavo Ribeiro de Almeida, Pepperdine

4. Alex Chang, Stanford

WOMEN:

East(North Carolina)

1. Lavinia Tanasie, NC State

2. Kaitlyn Carnicella, South Carolina

3. Gabriella Broadfoot, NC State

4. Victoria Osuigwe, NC State

South(LSU)

1. Valeria Ray, Vanderbilt

2. DJ Bennett, Auburn

3. Leyla Britez Risso, Tennessee

4. Raquel Gonzalez, Miami

Central(Texas A&M)

1. Maria Sholokhova, Wisconsin

2. Lily Jones, Michigan

3. Daianne Hayashida, Iowa

4. Kyoka Kubo, Kansas

West(Washington)

1. Mayu Crossley, UCLA

2. Emilija Tverijonaite, Arizona State

3. Reese Carter, Washington

4. Krisha Mahendran, Southern Cal

Links to all eight draws can be found at the ITA tournament page.