My Recap of Manchala's Title at Wimbledon 14U Tournament; Eight Questions with Bloomfield Hills Challenger Semifinalist Michael Zheng; Pareja Receives Qualifying Wild Card for WTA 500 in Washington DC

The European 14s championships are underway in Most Czechia this week, and after covering the Wimbledon 14-and-under event two weeks ago, I recognize quite a few of the names. Three of the four boys semifinalists competed at Wimbledon and are making a quick surface change back to clay, including champion Jonas Waelti of Switzerland.

The Wimbledon 14-and-under girls finalist Mariia Kocherzhenko of Ukraine is the No. 1 seed in Most, and she has advanced to the semifinals. For links to draws, live scoring and live streaming, see the Tennis Europe live blog page.

My coverage of the Wimbledon tournament, which focuses on Isha Manchala capturing the first title for an American in the event's five-year history, can be found today at the Tennis Recruiting Network.

In my post Monday, I covered Michael Zheng's first round win and provided his comments on the grass court season and his Wimbledon third round appearance. Below is the rest of my interview with Columbia's two-time NCAA singles champion.

 Today at the Cranbrook Tennis Classic in Bloomfield Hills, the sixth-seeded Zheng advanced to his seventh semifinal at the Challenger level with a 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-3 win over No. 2 seed Adam Walton(Tennessee) of Australia. Zheng has advanced to the final five of the six times he has appeared in a Challenger semifinal. He will face No. 8 seed Jake Fearnley(TCU) of Great Britain, who beat JJ Wolf(Ohio State) 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3.  In the top half, No. 1 seed Alex Michelsen defeated defending champion Mark Lajal 6-3, 6-4 and will face lucky loser DK Suresh(Wake Forest) of India, who beat 2025 CTC finalist Andres Martin(Georgia Tech) 3-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(6). Martin didn't face a break point in the match, yet still lost; Suresh saved two of the three break points he faced, and used some expert volleying in the second and third sets to eke out a win.

Eight Questions with Michael Zheng:

Colette Lewis: Did being in the final of the Wimbledon Junior Championships help you in your men's main draw debut this year?

Michael Zheng: Not a lot of players have had that experience, playing on grass, so even though it's my first real season playing on grass, I had in juniors, had the success in the juniors. So that's always in the back of your mind that you know you can play well on grass, so it definitely helped. Playing on grass, feeling the courts, knowing that I played really well there, really helped.

CL: What was behind your decision to skip this year's USTA American Collegiate US Open Wild Card Playoff?

MZ: I think the scheduling was just a little bit tough. It was between staying a little longer on the hard, and prepare for that, or go to Europe and try to give myself the best possible chance to do well at Wimbledon. I think it does take a couple of tournaments to get used to the grass, the movement is a little bit different, so we just decided, with the way it was scheduled, it would be tough. If I was in England, going back and forth and trying to make it back in time for Wimbledon(qualifying), it probably wouldn't give me the best chance to do well in qualies.

CL: Did the fact that you had qualified for the Australian Open and Roland Garros play into that scheduling decision?

MZ: Yes, I think that was definitely a factor, just the confidence against these guys at that level. My dad has always told me that grass suits my game, and I hadn't done that well on clay, hadn't played on it in two years, and am already qualifying in Paris, so on grass, a surface where I feel more comfortable, why not give myself that chance to qualify there?

CL: Do you have an agent?

MZ: I just signed with GSE a couple of days ago. They're not announcing it yet, but soon. 

CL: How do you look back on your final college season? I think a lot of people were surprised that you lost six matches. Were you surprised by that?

MZ: A little bit. I was expected to do well, I had just won NCAAs and I had a good run in Australia. I think the timing with everything was a little bit unfortunate. I went to Australia, did better than expected, but missed our (ITA) Kickoff(Weekend) match and when I got back from Australia I was hurt, so I was out for a couple of weeks actually, on the sidelines coaching. 

I think I was, I don't want to say de-motivated, because I wanted to win, but it was tough, with the injury, and guys were also playing really well against me. But I think I definitely underperformed a little bit during the season. I think I started playing better toward the end, and then we were a little bit unlucky that we drew UVA in the second round at NCAAs. I lost a tough match to (Dylan) Dietrich, who is playing really well, on their home courts. It was definitely a tough season, but you learn a lot.

CL: Were you able to attend your Columbia graduation?

MZ: I missed it unfortunately. I was in France. I think if I'd have lost in second round of qualies I could have made it. I ended up bringing my cap and gown there and took some pictures, but unfortunately I missed the walk.

CL: What are your thoughts about the Electronic Line Calling at ATP Challengers this year?

MZ: I think it's better, just in general. You aren't arguing calls with line judges; with Electronic Line Calling it's set. You can think that maybe it's wrong, but you can't really do anything about it and it saves a lot of time with the arguments and all that. It gives you peace of mind and it's probably more accurate than whatever you see. I think it's better.

CL: What's your schedule for the rest of the summer?

MZ: From here I'm going to Los Cabos (ATP 250), instead of DC. I think I'm eight out of qualifying for Montreal (ATP 1000), so if I can sneak in, I'll play there. I'm also signed for Lexington(ATP Challenger 75) so if I can't get in to Montreal, I'll play Lexington. I just signed for Cincinnati(ATP 1000) qualies, so maybe play that.

While Zheng won't be playing the Mubadala Open in Washington DC, tomorrow's first round of qualifying matches feature many other young Americans.

Wimbledon boys champion Jordan Lee, who received a wild card, will play No. 7 seed Moez Echargui(Nevada) of Morocco in Lee's ATP-level debut. Australian Cruz Hewitt, the Wimbledon boys finalist and wild card recipient, faces No. 8 seed Dusan Lajovic of Serbia.

2025 NCAA singles finalist Trevor Svajda received a wild card for qualifying and will play No. 12 seed Elias Ymer of Sweden. His brother Zachary is the top seed in qualifying and will face Stefan Kozlov. Kozlov and Lee received a men's doubles qualifying wild card. The fourth wild card in men's singles qualifying went to Aryan Shah of India, who joined Wake Forest in January.

Andres Martin, who lost in Bloomfield Hills late this afternoon, is on Saturday's schedule not before 3 p.m. in a first round qualifying match No. 5 seed Christopher O'Connell of Australia. The winner of that match plays the winner of the Lee-Echargui match for a spot in the main draw.

The men's qualifying draw is here.

There are only four qualifiers who receive entry into the women's main draw, versus six qualifiers on the men's side, so only two qualifying wild cards are awarded.  Seventeen-year-old Julieta Pareja received one of the and she will face No. 6 seed Polina Iatcenko of Russia in the first round tomorrow. The other wild card was given to 20-year-old Clervie Ngounoue, who is originally from the DC area; she will play No. 7 seed Varvara Lepchenko of the United States. The other Americans in qualifying are Carolyn Ansari(Auburn) and Lea Ma(Georgia).

The women's qualifying draw is here.

USTA National Clay Court Championships Final Results; Svajda, Pareja and Johnson Claim USTA Pro Circuit Titles

It's been a long travel day after 10 fantastic days of tennis on the grass courts of London, so I'll keep this post short with the weekend's USTA Clay Courts finals results, and a brief review of the USTA Pro Circuit winners. I'll try to catch up on the World Tennis junior results and other significant results from the holiday weekend earlier in the month in posts this week.

USTA Clay Court National Championships Results:

(links to draws in headers)

B12s (Lake Nona FL)

Singles final: Miguel Valencia[1] d. Milan Nair[2] 6-3, 6-3

Doubles final: Samuel Hartley and Louis Xu[9] d. Milan Nair and Zachary Burunov[4] 6-1, 4-6, 6-3

Boys 14s (Dothan AL)

Singles final: Nathan Lee d. Sebastian Cheaney[9] 6-3, 2-6, 6-3

Doubles final: Wyatt Markham and Evaan Mohan[2] d. Nathan Lee and Blount Williams[9] 6-0, 6-4

Boys 16s (Delray Beach)
Singles final: Gurbaaz Narang[12] d. Joshua Dolinksy[9] 7-6(5), 6-4

Doubles final: Joseph Kim and Aryan Ponugoti[9] d. Trishiv Premanand and William Goodwin[8] 6-2, 6-3

Boys 18s (Delray Beach)
Singles final: Tristan Stratton[10] d. Noah Bayon[17] 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(1)

Doubles final: Alexander Wriedt and William McEwan[2] d. William Freshwater and Lucas Smith[1] 6-3, 4-6, 6-3

G12s (Greensboro NC)

Singles final: Lindy Zhou[1] d. Lerong Yao[9] 6-0, 6-3

Doubles final: Ayenxavia Calugay and Lerong Yao[2] d. Sofia Pizarro and Suzannne Kang[3] 1-6, 6-2, 6-3

Girls 14s (Plantation FL)
Singles final: Lucy Dupere[5] d, Zhongyi Zhou[11] 2-6, 7-6(2), 6-4

Doubles final: Christina Li and Kyndall Noel d. Ava Chua and Reese Ellingson[2] 7-6(1), 6-4

Girls 16s (Huntsville AL)
Singles final: Nikol Davletshina[1] d. Olivia Lin[2] 6-1, 7-6(4)

Doubles final: Nikol Davletshina and Daniela Davletshina d. Mehar Kaur and Emma Prose[6] 6-0, 6-1

Girls 18s (Mount Pleasant SC)
Singles final: Addison Lindsay [4] d, Julia Seversen[17]

Doubles final: Autumn Xu and Enya Hamilton[8] d. Blythe Sturman and and Elana Zarevtsky[9] 8-6

The Tennis Recruiting Network will begin their coverage of the Clay Courts Tuesday, with the Boys and Girls 12s championships leading off the articles about each gold ball winner in the eight divisions.

At this time last year Julieta Pareja was competing in the Wimbledon girls singles and doubles championships; 12 months later the unseeded 17-year-old from Southern California claimed her second W50 title of 2026 in Columbus Ohio yesterday without dropping a set. Pareja defeated No. 7 seed Sakura Hosogi of Japan 6-3, 6-3 in the final.

SMU's Trevor Svajda, the 2025 NCAA singles finalist, won his second career M25 title on his home courts in Dallas, with the 20-year-old from San Diego, seeded third, beating unseeded Ohio State rising senior Aidan Kim 6-3, 6-2 in yesterday's final.

And UCLA rising senior Spencer Johnson won his third SoCal Pro Series singles title in the seventh and final week of the circuit, with the top seed beating recent UC-Irvine standout Noah Zamora, the No. 2 seed, 7-6(2), 7-5 in Sunday's Rancho Santa Fe M15 final. Johnson closes out the SoCal Pro Series with 15 consecutive victories. 

For more on Johnson's recent run, and Veronika Miroshnichenko(Loyola Marymount) of Ukraine snapping the winning streak of Alina Shcherbinina(Baylor, Oklahoma) of Russia, see this article from Damian Secore for the USTA SoCal

website.

Twenty-one Americans Begin Play Sunday at Roehampton J300; All-Teen Final at Claremont W15; Johnson Plays for Another SoCal Pro Series Title at M15 Claremont; All-USA Final at Rome W35; Keys Wins Third Eastbourne Title; BBC Looks at Tennis Parenting

The World Tennis J300 Wimbledon warmup tournament begins Sunday in Roehampton, with ten US boys and 11 US girls in the main draw. Marcel Latak and Sarah Ye qualified for the main draw with wins today.

World Tennis junior No. 1 Xinran Sun of China withdrew several weeks ago, although the Roland Garros finalist is still entered at Wimbledon. Roland Garros girls champion Alisa Oktibreva, who did not enter Roehampton, withdrew from Wimbledon Juniors at the deadline Tuesday. The top girls seed at Roehampton is Ksenia Efremova of France, who won the Giorgi Armani Invitational yesterday at the Hurlingham Club in London. 

Roland Garros boys champion Luis Guto Miguel of Brazil is the top seed in Roehampton, with Jamie Mackenzie of Germany the No. 2 seed. 

Vihaan Reddy, who is through to Sunday's final at the J200 in Czechia, obviously can't play in the first round of Roehampton tomorrow, but he is still entered in Wimbledon qualifying, which begins next Thursday. Lani Chang withdrew from Roehampton, but is still entered at Wimbledon.

Americans competing in Roehampton Monday:
Jordan Lee
Michael Antonius[6]
Ryan Cozad
Andy Johnson[10]
Gavin Goode
Safir Azam
Keaton Hance[3]
Marcel Latak[Q]
Jack Secord
Tanishk Konduri

Jordyn Hazelitt[14]
Sarah Ye[Q]
Thea Frodin
Maggie Sohns[A]
Hannah Ayrault
Nancy Lee
Melije Clarke
Janae Preston[15]
Olivia Traynor
Welles Newman[16]
Anita Tu

Live scoring is available here. 

The SoCal Pro Series in Claremont California this week, will have three new finalists and a player going for his second straight title Sunday.

The women's W15 final will feature rising North Carolina freshman Alexis Nguyen , the No. 5 seed and rising Stanford sophomore and No. 7 seed Alyssa Ahn, the 2025 USTA Nationals 18s champion. The 19-year-old Ahn defeated unseeded Midori Castillo Meza of Mexico 6-2, 6-4 in today's semifinal, while the 18-year-old Nguyen beat top seed Alexandra Vagramov of Canada 6-4, 6-2. 

Ahn defeated Nguyen 6-1, 6-7(1), 7-5 in the semifinals in San Diego last year, but Nguyen has won both of their previous meetings during the SoCal Pro Series, in 2023 and 2025, in straight sets. It will be a first Pro Circuit title for Sunday's champion.

Spencer Johnson, the UCLA rising senior who swept the titles in Irvine last week, defeated top seed Aidan Kim of Ohio State in Friday's Claremont M15 quarterfinal 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. Today he took out wild card Jagger Leach, the rising Stanford sophomore, 7-6(4), 6-4, setting up a final against unseeded Sasha Rozin(Arizona) of Canada. Rozin defeated 2025 Kalamazoo 18s finalist Jack Satterfield(Vanderbilt) 6-1, 6-1 in today's bottom half semifinal. 

In the all-USA women's doubles final today in Claremont, unseeded UCLA teammates Kayla Chung and Ahmani Guichard won their first Pro Circuit title, defeating top seeds Paola Lopez and Amy Zhu(Michigan) 6-3, 6-2.

In the men's doubles final, unseeded Matt Kuhar(Bryant) and Henry Lieberman(Charlotte, UNC) beat (correction) Michael Blando(UC Riverside, Utah) and Hugo Hashimoto(Columbia) 7-5, 6-1. 

At the W35 in Rome Georgia, No. 6 seed Amelia Honer and No. 2 seed Ayana Akli will play for the first time on the Pro Circuit with the title on the line. Honer, the former UC-Santa Barbara All-American, who defeated No. 4 seed Sahaja Yamalapalli(Sam Houston) of India 6-3, 6-4 today, had beaten top seed Madison Brengle 6-5, retired in Friday's quarterfinals. Akli defeated qualifier Jo-Yee Chan(Oregon, San Diego State) 7-6(3), 6-1.

In the doubles final today, unseeded Jaeda Daniel(Auburn, NC State) and Lily Fairclough(USC) defeated No. 2 seeds Savannah Broadus(Pepperdine) and Kylie Collins(Texas, LSU, Oklahoma State) 7-5, 6-4.

Madison Keys won the WTA 250 in Eastbourne for the third time today, with the No. 2 seed defeating Tatjana Maria of Germany 7-5, 6-4 in the final. For more on Keys' eleventh WTA title, see this article from the BBC.

Ethan Quinn(Georgia) lost in the final of the ATP 250 in Mallorca, with Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain winning his first ATP title in his sixth appearance in a final. Davidovich Fokina's serve was the difference in his 7-6(4), 6-3 win, making 70 percent of his first serves to Quinn's 51 percent, and coming up with huge first serves in his last two service games to take a Quinn comeback out of the equation. For more on this final, and Davidovich Fokina's struggles in earlier championship matches, see this article from the ATP website.

The BBC published a lengthy feature yesterday titled How To Be A Good Tennis Parent. It contains valuable information for those new to that role, and for those who might need a reminder of the best practices for encouraging and nuturing a child's love of the sport.

Seven Americans Qualify for Wimbledon; Dudeney Prepares for Wimbledon Debut; Antonius Reaches Armani Invitational Final; Leach, Gowda Advance to M15 Claremont Quarterfinals; ITF Rebrands to World Tennis

Americans had their most successful Wimbledon final round of qualifying this century today at Roehampton, with four women and three men advancing to the main draw with victories today.

In 2021 six Americans reached the main draw via qualifying, but seven is the most since eight qualified in 1993, and it is the most at any major since eight qualified at the US Open in 2017.

Two-time NCAA champion Michael Zheng, a recent Columbia graduate, is now 9-0 this year in slam qualifying, with the 2022 boys finalist returning to the All-England Club for the first time since then with his three-set win over Colton Smith(Arizona)

Tristan Boyer(Stanford), who beat No. 7 seed Pablo Llamas Ruiz of Spain 7-5, 6-7(4), 7-6(2), 6-3, and Kayla Day, a 6-2, 7-5 winner over No. 14 seed Katarzyna Kawa of Poland, will also be making their main draw debuts at Wimbledon.

Mackenzie McDonald, Ashlyn Krueger, Robin Montgomery and Claire Liu, all of whom have played the main draw at one point in the past three years, booked their returns with victories today.

Other notable qualifiers are wild cards Max Basing(Stanford) and, for the second year in a row, Oliver Tarvet(San Diego). Basing, who received a last-minute wild card into qualifying despite failing to advance to the final of the LTA's playoff, defeated Remy Bertola of Switzerland 2-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5, 6-2. Tarvet, who returned to San Diego for his senior year despite winning a round in the main draw last year, didn't drop a set in his three victories this week, beating Stefanos Sakellaridis of Greece 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 in today's final round of qualifying. For more on their successful qualifying runs, see this article from wimbledon.com.

Eighteen-year-old Tyra Grant, who played for the United States until a year ago, when she switched her representation to her mother's country of Italy, will make her women's Wimbledon debut after qualifying; she won the Wimbledon girls doubles title with Iva Jovic in 2024.

Thursday's final round Wimbledon qualifying matches featuring Americans:

Ashlyn Krueger[2] d. Polina Iatcenko(RUS) 7-6(8), 6-1

Alina Korneeva[3](RUS) d. Fiona Crawley 6-2, 6-0 

Leolia Jeanjean[23](FRA) d, Katie Volynets[5] 6-3, 6-4

Kayla Day[32] d. Katarzyna Kawa[14](POL) 6-2, 7-5

Claire Liu d. Elena Pridankina(RUS) 6-2, 4-6, 6-1

Robin Montgomery d. Marina Bassols Ribera(ESP) 3-6, 6-1, 6-1

Tristan Boyer d. Pablo Llamas Ruiz[7](ESP) 7-5, 6-7(4), 7-6(2), 6-3

Mackenzie McDonald[13] d. Christopher O'Connell[32](AUS) 6-3, 6-4, 6-4

Michael Zheng[26] d. Colton Smith 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3

The draw is scheduled to be announced at 10 a.m. local time Friday in London, which is 5 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. 

While collegians Tarvet and Basing were grinding through qualifying, Alice Dudeney was spared that ordeal, with the two-time doubles All-American at Florida receiving a main draw wild card. Dudeney was outside the WTA Top 1000 when she graduated from Florida last May, but in the past year has improved her ranking to a career-high of 246. In this article from the Independent, Dudeney explains why she chose the American college pathway, still not as prevalent for British girls as it has become for British boys, and how it prepared her for her steep climb in the past 12 months.

Michael Antonius is through to the final of the Giorgio Armani Junior Invitation at Hurlingham in London after defeating Yannick Alexandrescou of France today 7-6, 6-7(8), 10-5. Antonius will play Australian Cruz Hewitt, son of Lleyton Hewitt, who beat Kai Thompson of Hong Kong 6-3, 6-1.  The girls final will feature Ksenia Efremova of France and Nana Leme Da Silva of Brazil. Live streaming is available on YouTube.

Jagger Leach, who just completed his freshman year at Stanford, is playing his first non-collegiate event this week at the SoCal Pro Series M15 in Claremont California. The 19-year-old, who was out with an elbow injury for the second half of 2025, is through to the quarterfinals after defeating No. 6 seed Luca Pow(Wake Forest) of Great Britain 7-5, 6-3. Leach will face qualifier Oliver Ojakaar(Texas) of Estonia Friday.  Last week's Irvine M15 winner Spencer Johnson(UCLA), repeated his win over Bryce Nakashima(Ohio State) in that final today, by a 6-4, 6-3 score. Johnson will face another Buckeye in the quarterfinals in top seed Aidan Kim.

Recent Yale graduate Vignesh Gogineni is through to the quarterfinals after taking out No. 2 seed Kenta Miyoshi(Illinois) of Japan 6-2, 6-4.

In the SoCal Pro Series W15 in Claremont, 17-year-old lucky loser Thara Gowda has advanced to the quarterfinals, after beating No. 6 seed Anita Sahdiieva(Baylor, LSU) of Ukraine 6-3, 7-5 in the first round yesterday, Gowda defeated Caroline Driscoll(Denver, Stanford) 6-3, 7-6(3) today.

For more on Wednesday's first round action in Claremont, featuring comments from Leach, his mother Lindsay Davenport, 16-year-old qualifier Brooke Kwon and former Arizona standout Midori Castillo Meza, see this article from the USTA SoCal website.

The International Tennis Federation has changed its name, and will now be known as World Tennis. It will certainly take me some time to get used to this, as I've been using ITF to designate the organization for more than twenty years, but I'm going to try to use World Tennis in its place. If you see WT in a Zootennis headline, know that it refers to what was formerly known as the International Tennis Federation.