In the past two months, 16-year-old Daria Gavrilova has won a gold medal at the Youth Olympic Games, the girls singles championship at the U.S. Open and now, a second straight Junior Fed Cup title for Russia. That is a list of accomplishments many tennis players would envy in a career, let alone a couple of months. Gavrilova went undefeated in San Luis Potosi, winning all five of her singles matches and both doubles matches she played the past two days. Today, against top seed China, Russia, seeded second, trailed 1-0, just as they had against Ukraine in the semifinals. But again Gavrilova won at No. 1 singles, beating Haochen Tang 6-2, 6-2 and, with the match on the line, took the doubles point with Margarita Gasparyan, beating Ran Tian and Saisai Zheng 7-4, 6-4. China may have had better depth than Russia, but Russia had the tournament's best player, and that was enough to repeat as champions.
The United States girls finished fourth, losing the bronze medal match to Ukraine 2-0, with both Kyle McPhillips and Krista Hardebeck suffering singles losses.
The Japanese boys claimed their first Junior Davis Cup title, defeating Canada 2-0. Until this tournament, I can't say I'd heard anything about Kaichi Uchida of Japan, but he was definitely the star of the JDC, going undefeated in five singles and four doubles matches. Against Canada, the doubles wasn't needed, as Kazuma Kawachi beat Ed Nguyen 7-6(4), 6-1, and Uchida took out Canada's No. 1 Filip Peliwo 6-2, 6-3. Japan was the third seed, Canada was seeded second. Top seed France finished in third place, defeating No. 4 Great Britain in the bronze medal match. It should be noted that all three of the British boys in Mexico are only 15 this year, meaning they are eligible to return to the competition next year too.
For complete results, as well as photos and interviews, see the ITF Junior website.
In the Pro Circuit finals today, 17-year-old Lauren Herring won her first Pro Circuit title, defeating 16-year-old Catherine Harrison 6-2, 6-3 at the $10,000 Amelia Island tournament. In the $10,000 men's event in Irvine, No. 6 seed Chris Guccione of Australia beat UCLA freshman Dan Kosakowski 6-3, 6-4, ending the qualifier's winning streak at 7. Nathaniel Gorham and Dennis Novikov won the doubles title by walkover. Second seed Vavara Lepchenko won the singles title at the $50,000 Lexus of Las Vegas tournament, beating No. 3 seed Sorana Cirstea 6-2, 6-2. Lindsay Lee-Waters and Megan Moulton-Levy too the doubles title with a 1-6, 7-5, 10-4 win over wild cards Irina Falconi and Maria Sanchez.
For complete draws, and the qualifying draws for the upcoming week's tournaments in Sacramento, Kansas City and Williamsburg, see the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.
Prequalifying is complete for the ITA All-American tournaments in California and Oklahoma. The eight women making into the Riviera qualifying are: Penn's Connie Hsu, North Carolina State's Sanaa Bhambri (Yuki's older sister), Florida's Joanna Mather and Alex Cercone, Baylor's Sona Novakova, Fresno State's Marianne Jodoin, Georgia Tech's Jillian O'Neill and UNLV's Lucia Batta. For the qualifying singles and doubles draws, see the ITA tournament site.
There are 16 men who earned spots in the 128-player qualifying draw at Tulsa. They are: Virginia's Justin Shane and Philippe Oudshoorn, Illinois State's Alexander Pelaez, UCLA's Clay Thompson, New Mexico State's Arthur Surreaux, Purdue's Krisztian Krocsko, Duke's Fred Saba and Christopher Mengel, Ohio State's Peter Kobelt and Nelson Vick, Georgia Tech's Dusan Miljevic and Juan Spir, Baylor's Sergio Ramirez, Texas Tech's Vitor Manzini, Maryland's John Collins and UC-Irvine's Chris Kearney.
Although the qualifying draw has not been posted yet, it should be up soon at the ITA tournament website. Live scoring is also available via Tulsa's website.
