Qualifier Frodin Defeats Top Seed Stephens at Austin W50; Lee Sole US Winner on Opening Day of World Tennis Junior Finals; Texas Signs Former Junior No. 1 Pacheco; USA's Bille Jean King Cup Team Selected; Update for Email Subscribers

Seventeen-year-old qualifier Thea Frodin, the 2026 USTA National 18s champion in San Diego, claimed the best win of her career today at the W50 in Austin Texas, beating top seed and ATP No. 118 Sloane Stephens, the W100 champion in Edmond Oklahoma last week, 6-4, 6-4 in the second round. The 2026 Australian Open girls semifinalist will face another seeded veteran Thursday, with No. 5 seed Madison Brengle reaching the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-0 win over former Georgia All-American Mell Reasco of Ecuador. 

Qualifier Rebecca Munk Mortensen of Denmark, who beat No. 2 seed Akasha Urhobo in the first round, advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-1 win over qualifier Amelie Van Impe of Belgium, a sophomore at SMU. Mortensen signed with the University of Florida for the upcoming spring season, according to this announcement today.

The first matches of the WT Junior Finals are in the books, with Jordan Lee picking up the only victory for an American Wednesday. The Wimbledon boys champion, seeded No. 4, defeated No. 8 seed Yannik Alvarez of Puerto Rico 6-3, 6-4, coming from 3-0 down in the second set. Lee's opponent Thursday is No. 5 seed Ziga Sesko of Slovenia, who defeated top seed Jamie Mackenzie(TCU) of Germany 6-4, 6-4. 

No. 3 seed Keaton Hance lost to No. 7 seed Vincent Reisach 6-3, 6-4 and will face No. 6 seed Dimitar Kisimov of Bulgaria Thursday; Kisimov lost to No. 2 seed Thilo Behrmann of Austria 7-6(8), 7-6(3) Wednesday.

No. 4 seed Janae Preston, the only US girl in the field, lost to No. 7 seed Polina Skliar of Ukraine 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Preston will pay No. 2 seed Jana Kovackova of Czechia, who was also upset in the first day of play, losing to Mariia Makarova of Russia 7-5, 7-6(8).

Top seed and US Open girls champion Xinran Sun of China defeated No. 6 seed Anastasija Cvetkovic of Serbia 7-6(1), 6-2 and will face rival Anna Pushkareva of Russia, the Wimbledon girls champion and No. 3 seed, who lost to Sun in the US Open final after beating her in the Wimbledon final. 

Live streaming, which begins at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time tonight, with Skliar vs Makarova, can be found here.  Live scoring is available here.

In addition to Mortensen, there was another big collegiate signing announced today, with former World Tennis No. 1 Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez of Mexico committing to the University of Texas.

The 21-year-old, who reached No. 1 in the world after winning the J500 in Milan in May of 2023, will join the Longhorns for the upcoming spring season, according to today's release. This signing casts doubt on the likelihood that Matej Dodig of Croatia, now 138 in the ATP rankings, will join Texas for the spring season, with his signing announced in July. Dodig has won two Challengers made the finals of three others since that announcement, which said he would join Texas this fall, but he would hardly be the first recruit to change his plans after having success on the Challenger circuit.

The USTA announced its team for the Billie Jean King Cup tie next month against Hungary, which is scheduled for November 21-22 in Delray Beach Florida.

Coco Gauff, Madison Keys, Ann Li, Taylor Townsend and Nicole Melichar Martinez will be attempting to return the USA to the field that will play for the 2027 BJK Cup after losing to Belgium in April to get knocked out of the 2026 competition.  The Hungarian team is set to include Anna Bondar, Dalma Galfi, Amarissa Toth, Fanny Stollar and Adrienn Nagy. Bondar is Hungary's only WTA Top 100 singles player.

NOTE FOR EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:

After results of the survey I sent early last week, I've decided to scale back on the daily emails generated after each post. Beginning soon, emails with links to my daily posts will go out four times a week, on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I will continue to post daily and link to those posts on social media, but the emails will no longer go out daily.  If you are not currently subscribed and are interested in receiving these emails, please use the sign-up form in the left column of this page.