Nakashima Sweeps Through Next Gen ATP Finals Undefeated; Michelsen Advances to First Pro Circuit Final; Braswell and Andrade Reach Austin $25K Final; Shelton and Eubanks to Meet in Second Straight Challenger Final in Knoxville; Montgomery Plays for Title in Calgary $60K

Brandon Nakashima has won the championship at the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan, defeating Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic 4-3(5), 4-3(6), 4-2 in tonight's final to become the first American to win that title. The 21-year-old from San Diego, who won the Kalamazoo 16s title in 2017 and was a 18s finalist in 2018, did not drop a match throughout the week. After beating Lehecka in straight sets in group play, Nakashima did it again today, joining Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Stefanos Tsitsipas as champions at the 21-and-under event, which began in 2017.

The former Virginia Cavalier won $432,750 as the champion, bringing his ATP career prize money total in singles competition over $1.5 million. 

For Nakashima's thoughts on his year, see this article from the ATP website.

Alex Michelsen is through to his first USTA Pro Circuit final at the $15,000 tournament in Winston-Salem North Carolina, after defeating fellow ITF Top 40 junior Pedro Rodenas(Duke) of Spain 6-1, 6-4. Michelsen, who has committed to Georgia, had lost his previous two Pro Circuit semifinals this year. The 18-year-old from Southern California, seeded No. 5, will face No. 2 seed Toby Samuel of Great Britain, the University of South Carolina junior, who won last week's $15K in Fayetteville Arkansas. Samuel defeated NC State's Robin Catry of France 6-1, 6-2 in today's semifinals. 

After rain disrupted play Friday at the $25,000 men's USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Austin Texas, quarterfinals and semifinals in singles were played today, with University of Texas junior Micah Braswell, a wild card, reaching the final. Braswell, the 21-year-old from Sarasota Florida, had never won a match on the USTA Pro Circuit prior to this week. Today, he defeated qualifier Eric Hadigian(Gonzaga/Pepperdine) 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinals and former Longhorn Christian Sigsgaard of Denmark 6-4, 6-4 in the quarterfinals. Braswell will play No. 6 seed Andre Andrade, the recent Florida star, who beat No. 3 seed Alexander Cozbinov(UNLV) of Moldova 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinals and No. 5 seed Colin Markes(Texas) 7-5, 6-1 in the semifinals. Andrade, a 23-year-old from Ecuador, will be playing in his second Pro Circuit final and his first at the $25K level.

At the women's $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Champaign Illinois, UCLA freshman Fangran Tian won her first Pro Circuit singles title. The 19-year-old from China, who reached a Pro Circuit final a year ago, defeated former ITA Collegiate No. 1 Sara Daavettila(North Carolina) 6-1, 6-3, winning all five of her matches in straight sets.

For the second week in a row, Ben Shelton(Florida) and his friend and mentor Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech) will meet in a Challenger final, after both won tough three-setters today in Knoxville. No. 4 seed Shelton was down a set and 3-1 to No. 7 seed Enzo Couacaud of France, but won four straight games from that point in the second set, closed it out to even the match, then got a late break in the third to earn a 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-4 win. Shelton, the reigning NCAA singles champion, will be playing in his fifth Challenger final, with his win last week over Eubanks delivering his first Challenger title.

Eubanks, the No. 3 seed, defeated top seed Michael Mmoh 6-7(2), 7-5, 6-2 in a bizarre semifinal that featured score disputes, line call chaos and multiple visits to the court by the USTA supervisor. 

Both are very much alive in the USTA Australian Open Wild Card Challenge, which concludes next week, so Sunday's result has significant implications for that.

Former Tennessee Volunteers Hunter Reese and Tennys Sandgren won the doubles title today, beating Martin Damm and Mitchell Krueger 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 10-5 in a final featuring two unseeded teams. Reese and Sandgren had ended the three-Challenger winning streak of top seeds Julian Cash(Mississippi St/Oklahoma St) and Henry Patten(UNC-Asheville) of Great Britain in the semifinals 7-6(5), 6-4.

Eighteen-year-old Robin Montgomery has advanced to the final of the ITF World Tennis Tour $60,000 tournament in Calgary Canada, her second $60K final this fall. The 2021 US Open girls champion, seeded No. 5, defeated No. 7 seed Jamie Loeb(UNC) 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(3) tonight and will play unseeded 31-year-old Urszula Radwanska of Poland for the title. Radwanska beat No. 2 seed Eudice Chong(Wesleyan) of Hong Kong 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the other semifinal. It will be the third meeting this year between Radwanska and Montgomery, with Montgomery winning on grass in a Nottingham $25K this summer and Radwanska winning in the quarterfinals of the $60K in Toronto just a few weeks ago.

Top seeds Catherine Harrison(UCLA) and Sabrina Santamaria(USC) won the doubles title in Calgary, beating the unseeded junior pair of Kayla Cross and Marina Stakusic of Canada 7-6(2), 6-4. 

Nakashima Makes Next Gen ATP Final; Shelton, Mmoh and Eubanks Reach Knoxville Challenger Semifinals; Michelsen, Rodenas Meet in Winston-Salem $15K Semifinals; USA's Les Petits As Qualifiers Decided; BJK Cup Over for Americans

After reaching the semifinals at the Next Gen ATP Finals last year as a 20-year-old, Brandon Nakashima has gone one step beyond that in his final year of eligibility, defeating Jack Draper of Great Britain 4-3(6), 1-4, 4-2, 4-3(5) today to reach Saturday's championship match. The former Virginia Cavalier will face Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic, after Lehecka dealt Dominic Stricker of Switzerland his first loss in the competition 4-1, 4-3(4), 2-4, 4-1.  Nakashima defeated the 21-year-old Lehecka 4-1, 4-3(2), 4-2 in group play on Wednesday.

For more on Nakashima's win today, see this article from the ATP website.

The semifinals are set for the ATP Challenger 80 in Knoxville Tennessee with Charlottesville finalists Chris Eubanks(Georgia Tech) and Ben Shelton(Florida) still in the mix, along with top seed Michael Mmoh. 

No. 4 seed Shelton, who won his first Challenger title last week in Charlottesville, defeated No. 6 seed Aleks Kovacevic(Illinois) 7-5, 6-4 in today's quarterfinals and will face No. 7 seed Enzo Couacaud of France, who beat No. 2 seed Stefan Kozlov 6-3, 7-5. Eubanks, the defending champion in Knoxville, defeated unseeded Lucas Gerch(Oklahoma State) of Germany 6-3, 6-2 and will play Mmoh in the semifinals. Mmoh defeated Tennys Sandgren(Tennessee) 6-3, 6-4, a setback for Sandgren in his attempt to catch Shelton in the Australian Open Wild Card Challenge, at least this week.

Two ITF Top 40 juniors will face off for the first time tomorrow in the semifinals of the men's $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Winston-Salem North Carolina, with No. 5 seed Alex Michelsen playing No. 6 seed Pedro Rodenas of Spain. Michelsen, who has committed to Georgia for 2023, defeated qualifier James Story(South Carolina) of Great Britain 7-6(8), 7-5 and Rodenas, a freshman at Duke, beat No. 3 seed Alex Knaff(Florida State) of Luxembourg 7-5, 6-4.  The other semifinal will feature South Carolina junior Toby Samuel[2] of Great Britain and qualifier Robin Catry of France.  Catry, a senior at NC State, defeated No. 8 seed Eduardo Nava(TCU/Wake Forest) 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(6) and Samuel beat No. 7 seed Taha Baadi(Wake Forest/Kentucky) of Canada 7-5, 6-4.

Samuel and Ben Jones, also of Great Britain, won the doubles title today. The No. 3 seeds defeated the unseeded team of Catry and teammate Luca Staeheli of Switzerland 6-3, 6-1 in the final. 

Play at the $25,000 men's Pro Circuit tournament in Austin Texas was rained out today, with the singles quarterfinals and semifinals and the doubles semifinals pushed back to Saturday. 

The women's $15,000 Pro Circuit tournament in Champaign Illinois started a day earlier than usual, so the singles final will take place Saturday, with the doubles final played today.

Former North Carolina All-American Sara Daavettila is through to her first Pro Circuit final after beating wild card Kate Duong, an Illinois junior, 6-3, 6-2. Daavettila will face UCLA freshman Fangran Tian of China, also unseeded, for the title. Tian defeated Ania Hertel(Georgia) of Poland 6-3, 6-4.

The Illini did get a title this week, with Duong and partner Megan Heuser taking the doubles championship today, the first pro title for both. Duong and Heuser, who won the doubles title at the Midwest regional championships last month, defeated top seeds Maria Kononova(North Texas) and Maria Kozyreva(St. Mary's) of Russia 6-0, 7-6(5). 

After group play and today's quarterfinals, the United States Les Petits As Playoffs are down to the final four. Once the finals and the third place matches are complete, we'll know the three players who will receive entry into the main draw; the fourth place finisher will receive entry into qualifying. 

Although the draws have not been updated on the website, the four semifinalists were announced on social media. The girls advancing are twins Kristina and Annika Penickova, Zaire Clarke and Julieta Pareja. The boys are Izyan Ahmad, Jordan Lee, Michael Antonius and Marcel Latak. 

The Billie Jean King Cup is over for the United States team, after they lost their second match in group play to the Czech Republic 2-1. Marketa Vondrousova defeated Danielle Collins(Virginia) 6-3, 6-3 and Katerina Siniakova beat Coco Gauff 7-6(1), 6-1 to clinch the top spot in the group. Taylor Townsend and Madison Keys won the dead rubber in doubles, beating Karolina Pliskova and Karolina Muchova 6-3, 6-3.

Review of Division I Signings Include No. 1 Recruit Qavia Lopez Committing to Florida; Michelsen Advances to Winston-Salem $15K Quarterfinals; Nakashima Reaches Semifinals at ATP Next Gen Finals

High school seniors could sign National Letters of Intent for the fall of 2023 beginning yesterday, and social media has been buzzing with announcements the past two days. 

The biggest signing is Qavia Lopez, No. 1 in the girls class of 2023, who had initially committed to Pepperdine, but signed today with the University of Florida. Below are the announcements that have been made on the athletic department websites; not all are NLI signings for 2023, some are beginning in January, and I will note if a player is a transfer. If a country is not provided, they are from the United States.

WOMEN:

Auburn has signed Ava Esposito Cogan.

Alabama has signed Priya Nelson.

Clemson has signed Leigh Van Zyl of South Africa for January.

Indiana has signed Nicole Teodosescu of Italy, Sarah L'allier of Canada and Li Hsin Lin of Taiwan. Teodosescu is starting in January.

Kansas has signed Heike Janse Van Vuuren of South Africa, who will start in January.

LSU has signed Kinaa Graham.

Michigan has signed Piper Charney and Reese Miller. 

Northwestern has signed Autumn Rabjohns.

Rutgers has signed UC-Davis graduate transfer Yana Gurevich.

South Carolina has signed Anna Kantor of Hungary.

Tennessee has signed Leyla Britez Risso of Paraguay, who will start in January.

Texas Tech has signed Arina Oreshchenkova and Andreea Lila of Romania; both will start in January.

Washington has signed Alexia Jacobs of Canada and Eleni Louka of Cyprus, who will finish her fourth year at Clemson this spring.

MEN:

Brigham Young has signed Caden Hasler, who will complete his Mormon mission prior to joining the team in 2025.

Clemson has signed Marko Mesarovic.

Duke has signed Alex Visser.

Florida has signed Olek Orlikowski and Borys Zgola, both from Poland. They will join Florida in January.

Florida State has signed Justin Lyons and Azariah Rusher.

Georgia Tech has signed Owen DeMuth.

Indiana has signed Liam Drover-Mattinen of Canada.

LSU has signed Brock Anderson.

Mississippi State has signed Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes.

Tennessee has signed James Newton of Australia.

Texas has signed Lucas Brown, who will start in January.

Texas A&M has signed Brayden Michna, Ritesh Patil and Lathan Skrobarcek.

UNLV has signed Creed Skinner.

While the Lopez, No. 1 girl in the Tennis Recruiting Network Class of 2023 has signed, the No. 1 boy, Alex Michelsen, hasn't been announced yet by Georgia. Michelsen is currently competing in the $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Winston-Salem NC and has advanced to the quarterfinals. The other three junior players in the draw--Learner Tien, Kyle Kang and Aidan Kim--are out, with No. 5 seed Michelsen joined by No. 6 seed Pedro Rodenas, the Duke freshman from Spain, who beat Tien 7-5, 6-4 today. Michelsen beat Mitchell Harper(Virginia Tech) of Australia 7-6(4), 6-2 in the second round today and will face British qualifier James Story, a junior at South Carolina, in the quarterfinals. Story had beaten top seed Garrett Johns of Duke in the first round.

No. 4 seed Brandon Nakashima(Virginia) is through to the semifinals of the Next Gen ATP Finals semifinals, with a perfect 3-0 record in group play. The 21-year-old from San Diego, who also made the semifinals in Milan last year, plays Jack Draper of Great Britain, the No. 3 seed, Friday. Draper finished second in his group.

The other semifinal features No. 7 seed Dominic Stricker of Switzerland and No. 5 seed Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic. Stricker won his group, with Lehecka the runner-up in the group Nakashima won.

Eddie Herr J1 Entry List Includes 18 Americans; ITF World Boys No. 1 Vallejo, Girls No. 2 Costoulas Lead Orange Bowl Acceptances

Usually the Orange Bowl acceptances are out a week before the Eddie Herr J1 entry lists are published, but this year they both came out today, and, as is customary, feature many of the same players.

The Eddie Herr J1, which runs from November 28 through December 4 at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, has just three ITF Top 20 boys: Gerard Campana Lee[7] of Korea, Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez [14] of Mexico and Yaroslav Demin[19] of Russia.

American boys who have received direct entry into the main draw are Nicholas Godsick, Cooper Williams, Aidan Kim, Alexander Frusina, Yannik Rahman, Jonah Braswell, Kaylan Bigun, Meecah Bigun and Jonathan Irwanto. 

The cutoff for boys was 114.

The girls Eddie Herr field currently has six ITF Top 20 players: Nikola Daubnerova[9] of Slovakia, Tereza Valentova[11] of Czech Republic, Luciana Moyano[12] of Argentina, Luca Udvardy[14] of Hungary, Sayaka Ishii[15] of Japan and Alina Korneeva[17] of Russia. 

By far most intriguing name in the girls field is 16-year-old Sara Bejlek of the Czech Republic, who played only one ITF junior event this year, Roland Garros, making the semifinals. Bejlek has won two $60Ks this year, qualified for the US Open women's singles, and with a WTA ranking of 189, would be the top seed in the tournament, although her junior ranking is only 105. She did not enter the Orange Bowl, so I don't actually expect to see Bejlek in the draw, but surprises do happen. Jerry Shang played doubles in the Eddie Herr J1 last year because he was doing his preseason training at IMG and thought it would be a fun way to end his junior career. 

American girls on this initial entry list are Qavia Lopez, Tatum Evans, Kaitlin Quevedo, Mia Slama, Theadora Rabman, Ava Krug, Ahmani Guichard, Iva Jovic and Valeria Ray.

The cutoff for girls was 111.

As a Grade A, the Orange Bowl usually picks up a few more top players than the Eddie Herr, especially with the Eddie Herr sandwiched in between the Merida Grade A and the Orange Bowl. It's rare that a champion defends a title at the Orange Bowl, although it is more common among the boys, and it's not often that an 18-year-old ITF Junior No. 1 plays the event. But that's the case, at least as of today, with 2021 champion Daniel Vallejo of Paraguay among the entries.

Vallejo has gotten to No. 1 without winning a slam, and none of the junior slam champions this year, boys or girls, are playing the year-ending tournaments, so he has a chance to finish as the ITF Junior champion if he can win the Orange Bowl again, although he is not entered in Merida this year and has finalist points from last year dropping off. 

All the same American boys are entered in the Orange Bowl as the Eddie Herr: Godsick, Williams, Kim, Frusina, Rahman, Braswell and Kaylan Bigun. The boys cutoff was 110, so Meecah Bigun and Irwanto are just outside the main draw right now.

The additional Top 20 girls entries for the Orange Bowl, who are not playing the Eddie Herr, are 2022 Australian Open girls finalist Sofia Costoulas of Belgium, No. 2 in the ITF junior rankings, and No. 13 Nina Vargova of Slovakia. 

Clervie Ngounoue is also a notable addition to the Orange Bowl field, with Lopez, Evans, Quevedo, Slama, Rabman, Krug, Guichard and Jovic rounding out the American entires. The cutoff for girls was 96, so Ray, the 2020 16s Orange Bowl champion, is the next in.

Speaking of the Orange Bowl 16s, the acceptance lists for this year's tournament can be found at the USTA Orange Bowl website. 

Some of the top Americans competing in the boys 16s are 16s Clay Court champion Stiles Brockett, Maxwell Exsted and Kalamazoo 16s finalist Calvin Baierl. The girls 16s field includes 2022 16s Clay Court champion Natasha Rajaram, Claire An and 2021 14s Clay Court champion Tianmei Wang. The 16s at the Eddie Herr are played on hard courts, but the 16s Orange Bowl is on Har-Tru at the Veltri Tennis Center in Plantation.

The acceptances for the Eddie Herr 12s, 14s, and 16s came out last month. Those can be found at the tournament's site on PlayTennis.

It's interesting to note the World Tennis Numbers on the two ITF acceptance lists, which are all over the place compared to the ITF junior rankings. Patrick Brady of Great Britain is the second lowest (in a reversal of UTR, the lower the better) WTN in the Orange Bowl field at 4.08, but he's in qualifying, while players with 13s are in the main draw. The system obviously isn't ready to be used for entries or seeding yet, when you can see these wide disparities, but kudos to the ITF for the transparency.

Qualifying Complete at Men's $15K and $25K Pro Circuit Events; First Round Underway at Women's $15K; Blue Chip Commitment Roundup; Shelton Leads Australian Open Wild Card Challenge; USA Begins Quest for Bille Jean King Cup Wednesday

The USTA Pro Circuit is winding down, with the week of November 14th marking the end of of its 2022 schedule. There are four men's events next week: the ATP Challenger 80 in Champaign, a $25,000 tournament in Columbus, a $15,000 tournament in East Lansing and a $15,000 tournament in Boca Raton. The women have only one tournament next week, a $15,000 event in Waco. 

This week's tournaments, all on college campuses, include the ATP Challenger 80 in Knoxville, a men's $25,000 tournament in Austin, a men's $15,000 tournament in Winston-Salem and a women's $15,000 tournament in Champaign.

Despite Champaign hosting the only women's Pro Circuit tournament in the country this week, the qualifying draws did not fill and 17-year-old Olivia Lincer of Poland, who has verbally committed to Central Florida, is the No. 1 seed. Lincer won her first round match today over former Illinois player Louise Kwong of Canada 6-2, 6-3. Second seed Connie Hsu(Penn) of Taiwan lost to qualifier Tiffany William(Middle Tennessee St) 6-1, 6-1 in today's first round action. The other qualifier to advance to the second round is Illinois sophomore Kathryn (Kasia) Treiber, who beat Shatoo Mohamad 6-1, 1-6, 6-4. Two other Illinois players, both wild cards, advanced to the second round: senior Ashley Yeah and junior Katherine Duong.  Sixteen-year-old Maya Joint, fresh off her win last week at the J3 in Canada, received a main draw wild card, losing to No. 8 seed Noel Saidenova of Russia, a UCF sophomore, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

The only American to qualify at Winston-Salem was LSU junior Ron Hohmann, with six other qualifiers either current or former collegians. Duke senior Garrett Johns is the top seed, with South Carolina junior Toby Samuel, last week's champion in Fayetteville, the No. 2 seed. Samuel defeated Cash Hanzlik(Tyler JC) 6-4, 6-1 today in the first round; Johns plays his first round match Wednesday. Wild cards were given to NC State's Braden Shick and Wake Forest's Filippo Moroni, Bozo Barun and Luciano Tacchi.

Three juniors used their ITF Top 100 rankings for entry: Fayetteville finalist Learner Tien, Aidan Kim and Arizona State freshman Constantinos Koshis of Cyprus. Kyle Kang and Alex Michelsen[5] are also in the draw, via their ATP rankings. Duke freshman Pedro Rodenas of Spain also received direct entry and is seeded No. 6; he defeated Shick 7-6(4), 6-1.

American qualifiers in Austin include Pranav Kumar(Texas A&M/SMU), Noah Schachter(Texas A&M), Eric Hadigian(Gonzaga/Pepperdine) and Ryan Dickerson(Duke/Baylor). Eighteen-year-olds Sebastian Gorzny(TCU) and Marko Mesarovic, a Clemson recruit, also reached the main draw via qualifying. 

Bernard Tomic of Australia is the top seed, with Jack Pinnington Jones of Great Britain seeded No. 2. Wild cards went to Texas Tech's Tyler Stewart, Texas's Micah Braswell and Siem Woldeab and Georgia's Phillip Henning. First round play begins Wednesday.

Signing day is tomorrow, with 2023 recruits able to make their verbal commitments official. Tennis Recruiting Network has posted the latest on the blue chips, with the boys list here and the girls list here. Madeleine Jessup was just announced today as a Princeton recruit; Girls 18s champion Eleana Yu made her choice--Stanford--just a few days ago.

The USTA released the update standings for its men's Australian Open Wild Card Challenge, with Charlottesville champion Ben Shelton(Florida) taking the lead from Las Vegas champion Tennys Sandgren(Tennessee), with two weeks of competition remaining. Although there are Challengers in Canada this week and next that count toward the competition, it's most likely the Knoxville and Champaign Challengers will decide the winner. Shelton, the No. 4 seed in Knoxville, didn't look sharp in his first round match today, but he got past Keegan Smith(UCLA) 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.  2019 Knoxville champion Michael Mmoh is the top seed, with Stefan Kozlov the No. 2 seed. Christopher Eubanks and Sandgren are also in the field in Knoxville, and like Mmoh and Kozlov, also won their first round matches.

The top 5 in the Men's Challenge standings (rankings in parentheses) after Week 2 of 4 are as follows:

1. Ben Shelton (No. 128) -- 87
2. Tennys Sandgren (No. 288) -- 84
3. Stefan Kozlov (No. 159) -- 57
4. Chris Eubanks (No. 120) -- 50
5. Two players tied at 30

The United States begins play in the Billie Jean King Cup Wednesday in Glasgow Scotland against Poland. Their group, one of four, also includes the Czech Republic. The four group winners will advance to the semifinals Saturday. Jessica Pegula was initially named to the team, but withdrew with illness, so the US team now consists of Coco Gauff, Madison Keys, Danielle Collins, Caty McNally and Taylor Townsend. World No. 1 Iga Swiatek is not playing for the Polish team. 

For more on the US team as they prepare for this week's competition, see this article from the USTA.

Three Singles, Seven Doubles Titles for Americans Last Week on ITF Junior Circuit; United States Les Petits As Playoffs Underway in Boca Raton

With the primary focus on the ITF Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup competition last week in Turkey, I didn't have time to follow the other ITF Junior Circuit tournaments as closely as I usually do, but it was a good week for Americans outside the team competition in Antalya too.

US girls won the singles and doubles titles at the J4 in Boca Raton, with unseeded 15-year-old Akasha Urhobo capturing her first ITF Junior Circuit singles title with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory over 17-year-old qualifier Stephanie Yakoff. No. 3 seeds Taly Licht and Claire Shao won the all-USA doubles final, beating unseeded Leena Friedman and Saray Yli-Piipari 6-0, 5-7, 10-6. It's the first ITF Junior Circuit title for the 17-year-old Licht and the second for the 15-year-old Shao. Tygen Goldammer reached the boys singles final, with the No. 2 seed losing to No. 5 seed Daniel Phillips of Bermuda 6-2, 6-2.

Sixteen-year-old Maya Joint won her fourth ITF Junior Circuit singles title, but the first above the J5 level, at the J3 in Ontario Canada. Joint, the top seed, defeated Canadian Scarlett Nicholson 6-2, 6-0 in the final. In the boys doubles final, No. 4 seeds Cooper Woestendick and Ian Mayew defeated No. 3 seeds Bernardo Munk Mesa of Spain and Paris Pouatcha 6-2, 7-6(7). It's the first ITF Junior Circuit title for the 15-year-old Mayew; the 15-year-old Woestendick has three doubles titles, with three different partners, and a singles title on the ITF Junior Circuit.

Woestendick lost 6-1, 7-5 in the singles final to 14-year-old Thijs Boogaard of the Netherlands, who has now won four consecutive ITF Junior Circuit singles titles in Canada. Boogaard, who was featured in my October Aces column, is up to 280 in the ITF Junior rankings now after being unranked in April of this year.

The third US singles title last week came at the J4 in Barbados, with 14-year-old Katerina Shabashevic earning her second singles title on the ITF Junior Circuit with a 6-4, 6-0 win over No. 5 seed Sophia Webster in the all-USA final. Shabashevic, the No. 2 seed, also reached the doubles final, but she and partner Rebecca Fiedler, the top seeds, lost to unseeded Sophia and twin sister Savannah Webster 4-6, 7-5, 10-3. The Websters are the daughters of UCLA women's head coach Stella Sampras Webster.

Jagger Leach, the son of Jon Leach and Lindsay Davenport, reached the finals of both singles and doubles in Barbados, but fell in both. Leach lost to Egor Kirakosov of Russia 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 in the singles final. In the doubles final later that day, Leach and Kirakosov gave a walkover to the unseeded American pair of Easton Horricks and Esunge Ndumbe. It's the first ITF Junior Circuit title for the 17-year-old Horricks and the second for the 18-year-old Ndumbe.

At the J2 in Chile, top seeds Mia Slama and Puerto Rico's Natalia Perez won the doubles title, beating No. 2 seeds Ashton Bowers and Canada's Naomi Xu 1-6, 6-4, 10-7 in the final. Slama, seeded No. 2, reached the singles final, where she lost to top seed Lucciana Perez Alarcon of Peru 6-2, 6-2. 

At the J5 in Bahrain, 16-year-old David Prasievi won his first title on the ITF Junior Circuit, partnering with Seth Sadikov of Georgia. The unseeded pair defeated brothers Mashari and Rashed Nawaf of Qatar, also unseeded, 6-2, 6-7(6), 10-8 in the final. 

Fifteen-year-olds Maximus Dussault and Maxwell Exsted won their second straight doubles title, again at a J5 in Spain, with the top seeds defeating No. 3 seeds Rodrigo Fernandes and Joao Dinas Silva of Portugal 6-4, 7-6(4) in the final. 

The Les Petits As Playoffs for the United States representatives to the prestigious 14-and-under tournament in Tarbes France began today in Boca Raton Florida, with round robin play for the 16 boys and 16 girls. There are four round robin groups, with the top two in each group advancing to the knockout phase of quarterfinals, semifinals and finals. The top three finishers qualify for Les Petits As, with the fourth place finisher getting into qualifying. The tournament is set to take place January 19-29 next year. Below is a tweet featuring the competitors this week in Boca Raton. Results, standings and the order of play can be found here.

Who's ready for the #USAPlayoffsLacoste? 🇺🇸🙋‍♂️

Check out the 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟮 𝗚𝗶𝗿𝗹𝘀 & 𝗕𝗼𝘆𝘀 𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 ⬇️
Who will qualify for #LesPetitsAs 2023? 🧐

The #RoadToTarbes begins November 7th in Boca Raton! 🎾 pic.twitter.com/FdsCYd0Gqr

— Les Petits As - USA Playoffs Lacoste (@LesPetitsAs) November 2, 2022