Gaines Ousts No. 3 Seed, Qualifier Gowda Beats No. 4 Seed in Second Round of College Park J300; Antonius, Johnson and Penickova Advance in US Open Qualifying; Kennedy Defers Enrollment at UVA Until January

©Colette Lewis 2026--
College Park MD--

Tuesday was the first day of action for the seeds at the World Tennis J300 in College Park and ten of them did not survive, with five boys seeds and five girls seeds falling to unseeded players on another perfect weather day at the Junior Tennis Champions Center.

And the upsets weren't confined to lower seeds, with Jerrid Gaines Jr. defeating No. 3 seed Arnav Paparkar of India 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 and qualifier Thara Gowda eliminating No. 4 seed Ailina Sol Larraya Guidi of Argentina 6-4, 6-1.

Gaines, who had lost to Paparkar in three set May's J300 in Belgium on clay, didn't change his strategy, but did approach the match with a different mindset.

"I had to adjust a couple of things in terms of the mental," said the 17-year-old from Florida. "Just trusting myself, having that confidence. Sometimes I would lack confidence, but the key for me is to have that deep belief in those hard moments, because I do put in the work, and deserve to believe I can do whatever I put my mind to."

Gaines, a wild card, said he thought the court speed favored him more in this match than in their previous one, although he does like clay.

"I felt my ball was doing a little bit more on him," Gaines said. "So I was able to dictate the points a little bit more."

Gaines showed signs of frustration during the match, including several racquet tosses that went unnoticed by the roving officials, which he said was more physical than mental.

"I was playing great, but I was just a little bit worried because my knee started to hurt," Gaines said. "It was oh no, not now."

Gaines will face No. 15 seed Safir Azam in the only all-USA boys match in the third round. Azam, who defeated Rihards Neimanis of Latvia 6-4, 6-1 today, beat Gaines more than a year ago in their previous meeting in the third round of a J100 in the Dominican Republic, but Gaines is ready to extend his run this week.

"Obviously the tournament has a lot of great players," Gaines said. "But I think I could go deep in the tournament. You just have to put your head down and work, and just see what happens."

Gowda has had a much tougher journey to the third round, as the top seed in the qualifying tournament. She did receive a bye, but in the second round, her first match, she trailed Anastasia Pleskun 5-2 and 6-2 in the match tiebreaker before coming back for a 3-6, 6-3, 10-8 win.

"I was unusually calm in that tiebreaker to be honest," said Gowda, a 17-year-old from Michigan. "I don't really know why. But my dad just told me to make the balls, deep middle, huge margins, and that helped a lot. She was missing more than I was, and I should probably do that more often."

Gowda won her final round qualifying match with the loss of just four games, but had a three-set battle with Tea Kovacevic of Bosnia in the first round yesterday. It looked as if she was headed to another three-setter today, when she fell behind 3-0, but she rebounded to win six of the last seven games.

"In the first set I was just playing so solid, some of the best tennis I've played in a while, I wasn't really doing anything wrong," said Gowda, who has verbally committed to the University of Michigan for 2027. "In the second set, I have no idea what happened, I started shaking so much, and I wasn't moving my feet enough. How do you go from playing so good, to missing every ball? And then my dad coached me and said, get it in, move your feet, use bigger margins. And I gained some confidence, started playing better and I got back on serve. From there, she just started making more mistakes, and I pulled it out."

Gowda said her win today was her best in World Tennis junior circuit competition, with Larraya Guidi currently No. 14 in the world. 

"I don't know if I've played anyone in the Top 20 before, so she's the best player I've beaten," said Gowda, who was a quarterfinalist at the USTA National Championships in San Diego two weeks ago. "It's good to know I can be at that level."

Gowda acknowledges that the pressure she felt in qualifying is much different from what she felt today or in the USTA Pro Circuit events she has played. 

"In these higher level tournaments, I'm definitely the lower ranked player against whoever I play, so I just go out there, swing freely, with nothing to lose," said Gowda, who has a WTA ranking of 989. "I don't feel as nervous as playing qualifying, when I'm supposed to win; it's more relaxed than qualifying or a lower level tournament."

The other qualifier to advance to the third round is Antoine Genereux of Canada, who beat No. 11 seed Kirill Filaretov of Russia 7-6(5), 6-4.

Maggie Sohns defeated No. 8 seed Yihan Qu of China 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(1), while Adla Lopez's 6-0, 6-1 win over No. 13 seed Renee Alame of Australia was more than an hour shorter. Wild card Reiley Rhodes defeated No. 16 seed Olivia Traynor 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, but it was Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann's three-hour and 32-minute 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(3) win over No. 12 seed Maria Pop of Romania that drew the crowds to Court 17, with the other second round matches concluding and the first round of boys doubles occupying most of the other courts.

Pop served for the match at 5-3 in the third, but couldn't finish off Drenser-Hagmann. In the tiebreaker, Pop took a 3-1 lead, but Drenser-Hagmann began to construct points to get the backhands she wanted, while also hitting a drop shot winner and an overhead winner as she claimed the last six points of the match.

Australian Open champion and top seed Ksenia Efremova of France defeated USTA National 16s champion Shristi Selvan, a wild card, 6-2, 7-5 and No. 2 seed and Wimbledon champion Anna Pushkareva of Russia survived a bruising first set before defeating Canadian wild card Clemence Mercier 7-6(10), 6-0.

In addition to Paparkar and Filaretov, the other boys seeds to fall on Tuesday were No. 5 seed Ryan Cozad, who lost to Felix Roussel of Canada 6-2, 3-6, 6-1; No. 12 seed Savva Rybkin of Russia, who retired against wild card Joseph Lee at 1-6, 7-5; and No. 16 seed Benjamin Azar of Canada, who was beaten by Teodor Davidov 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Top seed Vincent Reisach of Germany defeated wild card Mason Vaughan 6-2, 6-2 and No. 2 seed Yannik Alvarez beat qualifier Kahven Singh 6-1, 6-0.

Singles will begin at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, with the second round of both boys and girls doubles in the afternoon, with the seeded teams playing for the first time.

Live scoring is available at iOnCourt; live streaming links and links to the order of play and draws are here.

The first round of qualifying at the US Open is now complete and five of the nine US teens given wild cards have advanced to the second round.

In addition to Jordan Lee and Julieta Pareja, who won their first round matches Monday, Michael Antonius, Andy Johnson and Kristina Penickova picked up wins today. Antonius started the day with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Great Britain's Henry Searle, with Penickova following with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Elli Mandlik. Andy Johnson closed out the evening for Americans with an improbably third set comeback on Court 17, beating ATP No. 160 Taro Daniel of Japan 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 after trailing 4-1 in the final set. Johnson, who turned 17 on Sunday, hit 35 winners to Daniel's 10, with most of those coming in the final five games, when he could do no wrong, riding the support of the crowd to the second round. All three boys on the USA's champion Junior Davis Cup team last fall have posted victories in their first US Open men's qualifying competition.

Tuesday's results of US teens:

Michael Antonius d. Henry Searle(GBR) 6-1, 6-2

Tristan Schoolkate(AUS) d. Jack Secord 6-3, 6-2 

Andy Johnson d. Taro Daniel(JPN) 2-6, 6-2, 6-4

Kristina Penickova d. Elli Mandlik 7-5, 6-2

Nao Hibino d. Janae Preston 7-6(4), 6-1

Harriet Dart[29](GBR) d. Jordyn Hazelitt 6-0, 6-7(1), 6-1

Martyna Kubka(POL) d. Annika Penickova 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-2

Wednesday's second round matches for US teens:

Michael Antonius v Kei Nishikori[WC](JPN)

Andy Johnson v Liam Draxl(CAN)

Jordan Lee v Daniel Rincon(ESP)

Julieta Pareja v Iryna Shymanovich(BLR)

Kristina Penickova v Harriet Dart[29](GBR)

The ITA released its preseason and newcomer rankings today (men here; women here) and when Kalamazoo 18s champion Jack Kennedy didn't appear on the newcomers list for men, the speculation as to why began. I reached out to Jack Kennedy and this is his statement:

"I can confirm that I have deferred my enrollment to UVA until January. My decision is about wanting to utilize as many wild cards that I have earned and finish this year with a focus on playing as many main draw Challengers as possible. I started the year at 975 and I'm now 386. I want to see how I can finish the year playing mostly a pro schedule." 

Although there is no reference to it in his statement, the $140,000 prize money he'll earn in a first round appearance at the US Open, money he could not accept if he were enrolled this fall at Virginia, was also certainly a factor in his decision.