Efremova Ousts Top Seed Jones at ITF J300 College Park, Qualifier Wallman Upsets Cinalli; 17 Americans, Including Pareja, Reach Second Round of USO Qualifying; Tien and Svajda Earn Top 50 Wins; Stanford's Forood Announces Retirement

©Colette Lewis 2024--
College Park MD--

The seeds played their first matches Tuesday at the ITF J300 at the Junior Tennis Champions Center, with Ksenia Efremova pulling off the biggest upset possible on a day when nine seeds made their exit.

The 15-year-old from France showed no signs of being intimidated by the resume of top seed and ITF World No. 2 Emerson Jones of Australia, who won the College Park title last year and reached the Australian Open and Wimbledon girls finals this year. Efremova, who held off a late push by Jones for a 6-2, 6-4 win, had split her previous two matches against the 16-year-old Jones in the 14s two years ago, so she knew she had the game to compete with Jones.

"This match was more mental, I would say," said the Russian-born Efremova, who has trained for years at the Mouratoglou Academy and has represented France since last fall. "I could see when she came on the court, she did two double faults in the first game, I could see she was a little nervous. For me, I don't care about the ranking, it's juniors now, and afterwards we're going to look backwards, it's a great experience, but for me I try to focus on my own game." 

Jones made many more errors that usual, with part of that due to the excellent defense of Efremova, who had no trouble with the depth and pace of Jones, which typically forces opponents into errors. Down 5-2 in the second set, Jones broke and held, saving a match point with a backhand that forced an error after Efremova had come from 0-40 down in her service game. 

Serving for the match a second time at 5-4, Efremova was the steadier of the two, with Jones not able to capitalize on the second serves she was seeing from Efremova.

"I had a good serve on that match point and she just returned very, very good," said Efremova, who won an ITF W15 in July, her second women's World Tennis Tour title. "Full power, nothing to say, just continue. She played amazing that game, not a single mistake and I was a little bit nervous, back in the court, defending, not playing aggressive. And when I was 5-4 up, it was stress, because you just lost two games, she's full of confidence, she played amazing those two games, so it's tough to come back. But I did it, so I'm happy."

Efremova's opponent in the third round is No. 16 seed Claire An, who beat Anna Maria Fedotova of the Dominican Republic 6-1, 7-6(5).

Five other girls seeds lost their first matches of the tournament: No. 8 seed Monika Stankiewicz of Poland was beaten by Trinetra Vijayakumar 3-6, 6-1, 7-5; No. 11 seed Asylzhan Arystanbekova of Kazakhstan fell to Shiho Tsujioka of Japan 6-4, 6-4 and No. 13 seed Hikari Yamamoto lost to USC freshman Jana Hossam Salah of Egypt 6-3, 6-4.

The other two seeds were eliminated by qualifiers. Fourteen-year-old Kristina Liutova of Russia, who lives in Washington, defeated No. 10 seed Reina Goto of Japan 7-6(1), 6-3 for her fourth singles win in the past three days.

Brooke Wallman, who was not seeded in qualifying, won her fifth match in the past four days, beating No. 9 seed Luna Cinalli of Argentina 6-2, 6-7(3), 7-6(5).

Wallman said that the conditioning work she's done recently has contributed to her success in the past four days.

"The fitness I did before coming here definitely helped a lot," said the 16-year-old from Long Island. "I've been working on my stamina off the court as well as playing a good amount on court. I'm kind of used to it at this point."

Wallman also felt she had an advantage over Cinalli, who was playing her first match of the week.

"I definitely felt those matches helped me, because I was able to learn from them and apply it to this match," Wallman said. "I could tell she was nervous and I was more into the tournament already because I'd played a bunch of matches, and that helped me."

Playing in her first J300, Wallman had not seen Cinalli, currently No. 28 in the ITF junior rankings, but she did have a scouting report.

"My coach has a daughter who plays at this level usually," Wallman said of Christasha McNeil's father Christopher. "He's seen her before at tournaments so he gave me some advice before the match, especially about her one-hander, what she likes, what she doesn't like, some of her tendencies. So I didn't come into the match not knowing anything, I knew a little bit at least, and the rest I just figured out along the way."

Wallman trailed 4-1 in the third set tiebreaker, got back even, but Cinalli had the match on her racquet serving at 5-4, after a good return gave her a 5-4 lead with two serves. But she hit a forehand wide, then double faulted to give Wallman a match point. Wallman missed her first serve, but Cinalli netted the return to end the match.

In addition to holding up physically, Wallman was also able to keep her composure in those pressure-packed moments at the end of the match.

"I do a lot of mental training, I have a person I do that with," Wallman. "She's given me a lot of good advice, strategies to use on the court: visualization in between games, running out to each side on changeovers, taking deep breaths, resetting a sloppy point. Remembering you got here, just as much as she did, so just go win it."

Wallman will face Alanis Hamilton in the third round, after Hamilton defeated lucky loser Rioko Umekuni of Japan 6-1, 6-0.

The boys draw went much more to form, with top seed and Australian Open champion Rei Sakamoto of Japan advancing when qualifier Calvin Baierl suffered a hip injury late in the first set and retired after losing it 6-3. No. 2 seed Hayden Jones avoided the fate of his younger sister, defeating wild card Keaton Hance 6-2, 6-4.

The three boys seeds to lose were No. 12 Oliver Bonding of Great Britain, who went out to Tianhui Zhang of China 2-6, 6-4, 6-4; No. 13 seed Maxwell Exsted, who lost to Ludwig Hede of Swedent 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 and No. 15 seed Ian Mayew, who fell to Nicolas Arseneault of Canada 7-6(4), 6-1.

The draws, Wednesday's order of play and a link to live scoring is available at the JTCC ITF tournament page.

The first round of the US Open qualifying is complete, with 17 of the 40 Americans competing over the past two days advancing to the second round.

In addition to the eight players who won matches on Monday-- Mary Stoiana, Valerie Glozman, Varvara Lepchenko, Hanna Chang, Alycia Parks, Usue Arconada, Eliot Spizzirri and Ethan Quinn--nine more picked up wins today: Nishesh Basavareddy, Mitchell Krueger, JJ Wolf, Patrick Kypson, Maxime Cressy, Ann Li, Hailey Baptiste, Elli Mandlik and Julieta Pareja. Basavareddy and Pareja are the only wild cards advancing today, with 19-year-old Basavareddy beating Ugo Blanchet of France 7-5, 6-7(2), 6-4 and 15-year old Pareja defeating Kayla Day 7-6(5), 6-4.

Kalamazoo finalist Jack Kennedy lost to No. 5 seed Maximilian Marterer of Germany 6-3, 6-4 and Roland Garros boys champion Kaylan Bigun fell to No. 13 seed Valentin Vacherot of Monaco 7-6(4), 6-4.

Wednesday's order of play for the second round of qualifying is here.

Qualifier Learner Tien and lucky loser Zachary Svajda both advanced to the round of 16 at the ATP 250 in Winston-Salem Tuesday with their first ATP Top 50 victories.

Svajda took out No. 3 seed and ATP No. 29 Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina 6-4, 6-4. Tien defeated No. 9 seed and ATP No. 49 Fabian Marozsan of Hungary 6-2, 6-7(1), 7-6(2). Svajda's opponent Wednesday is No. 15 seed Pavel Kotov of Russia; Tien will face Thiago Seyboth Wild of Brazil.

Lele Forood, who has led the Stanford women's program for 24 years, announced her retirement today. Forood's numbers are hard to comprehend, with her 560-63 record and 10 NCAA championships setting the standard of excellence this century in women's college tennis. Longtime associate head coach Frankie Brennan will serve as interim head coach, according to today's press release.

Seeds Begin Play Tuesday at ITF J300 College Park After Long Opening Day; Wild Cards Advance in US Open Qualifying; Tien, Svajda Reach Second Round at ATP Winston-Salem; Pegula and TIafoe Fall in Cincinnati Finals

©Colette Lewis 2024--
College Park MD--

The first day of main draw at the ITF J300 at the Junior Tennis Champions Center extended for more than twelve hours, with long matches and an early evening rain storm requiring the first round of girls singles and the first round of boys doubles be finished indoors.

Four qualifiers, two boys and two girls, won their opening round matches Monday; after playing two qualifying matches on Sunday, they showcased their stamina by winning their fourth match in three days.

Calvin Baierl, who was the No. 3 seed in qualifying, went the distance Monday against Dominick Mosejczuk before pulling out a 1-6, 6-2, 7-6(3) win to advance to a second round meeting with top seed Rei Sakamoto of Japan. Baierl was on court in doubles until after 8 p.m. Monday night, indoors, but he again got a victory with Keaton Hance to put his win total over the past three days at five.

Zachary Cohen, the No. 11 seed in qualifying, defeated wild card Erik Schinnerer 7-6(4), 6-2, but he and partner Simon Caldwell lost their first round doubles match Monday evening.

The two qualifiers in the girls draw advancing to Tuesday's second round are Kristina Liutova of Russia, who beat wild card Maggie Sohns 6-4, 6-4, and Brooke Wallman, who finished her 6-4, 6-3 win over wild card Shristi Selvan indoors. The girls did not play first round doubles; those are scheduled for Tuesday.

In addition to Baierl's victory, there was another match decided in a third set tiebreaker, with Niels McDonald of Germany disappointing the JTCC crowd by earning a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(6) win over Stiles Brockett on stadium court in the final boys first round match.

Seeded players begin play on Tuesday, having received first round byes. No. 6 seed Mayu Crossley of Japan, who was onsite, withdrew.

Girls seeds:

1. Emerson Jones(AUS)

2. Teodora Kostovic(SRB)

3. Rositsa Dencheva(BUL)

4. Antonia Vergara Rivera(CHI)

5. Sonja Zhiyenbayeva(KAZ)

6. Mayu Crossley(withdrew)

7. Yelyzaveta Kotliar(UKR)

8. Monika Stankiewicz(POL)

9. Luna Cinalli(ARG)

10. Reina Goto(JPN)

11. Asylzhan Arystanbekova(KAZ)

12. Thea Frodin(USA)

13. Hikari Yamamoto(JPN)

14. Nellie Taraba Wallberg(SWE)

15. Shannon Lam(USA)

16. Claire An(USA)

Boys seeds:

1. Rei Sakamoto(JPN)

2. Hayden Jones(AUS)

3. Amir Omarkhanov(KAZ)

4. Jagger Leach(USA)

5. Rafael Jodar(ESP)

6. Cooper Woestendick(USA)

7. Miguel Tobon(COL)

8. Marko Maksimovic(SRB)

9. Max Schoenhaus(GER)

10. Alexander Razeghi(USA)

11. Thomas Faurel(FRA)

12. Oliver Bonding(GBR)

13. Maxwell Exsted(USA)

14. Charlie Robertson(GBR)

15. Ian Mayew(USA)

16. Daniil Sarksian(RUS)

Live scoring, which will not be point-by-point, will begin with Tuesday's matches.

A link to that, the draws and the order of play can be found at the JTCC tournament website.

Rain in New York also made for a late night on the opening day of the US Open qualifying, but several wild cards advanced to the second round, including Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M), Ethan Quinn(Georgia), Eliot Spizzirri(Texas) and Valerie Glozman.  San Diego 18s finalist Glozman, who is starting her freshman year at Stanford, won a match in women's qualifying for the third straight year, and it was her best one by ranking in any of the few pro tournaments she's played. The 17-year-old from Washington defeated WTA No. 120 Zhuoxuan Bai of China 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-2.

Hannah Chang and Alycia Parks also advanced to the second round of qualifying.

The women's qualifying draw is here.

Tuesday will feature the remaining 22 Americans in qualifying. The men: Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford), Kaylan Bigun, Jack Kennedy, Brandon Holt(USC), Bruno Kuzuhara, Aidan Mayo, Michael Zheng(Columbia), all of whom are wild cards, plus Nicolas Moreno De Alboran(UC-Santa Barbara), Mitchell Krueger, JJ Wolf(Ohio State), Maxime Cressy(UCLA), Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M) and Emilio Nava.

The men's qualifying draw is here.

Tuesday's schedule is here.

At the ATP 250 in Winston-Salem, qualifier Learner Tien earned his first ATP main draw victory, beating Australian Tristan Schoolkate, also a qualifier, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. His fellow two-time Kalamazoo 18s champion Zachary Svajda, a lucky loser, beat Laslo Djere of Serbia 6-4, 6-1. Svajda plays No. 3 seed Francisco Cerundolo(South Carolina) of Argentina; Tien faces No. 9 seed Fabio Marozsan of Hungary, both on Tuesday.

At the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati, Americans Jessica Pegula and Frances Tiafoe finished as runners-up. Pegula lost to Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 6-3, 7-5; Jannik Sinner of Italy beat Tiafoe 7-6(4), 6-2.

JTCC's Pedraza Saves Two Match Points to Qualify for ITF J300 College Park; Forty Americans to Compete in US Open Qualifying; Tien Qualifies for ATP Winston-Salem

©Colette Lewis 2024--
College Park MD--

Sunday's final rounds of qualifying began at 9 a.m. and ended at 8 p.m., with six boys and six girls winning two matches to make the main draw of the ITF J300 in College Park. They'll have little time to savor those wins or recover from them, with their first round matches scheduled for Monday.

The only unseeded boys qualifier was one of JTCC's own, 15-year-old Nicolas Pedraza, who saved two match points in his 6-7(5), 6-3, 15-13 win over No. 6 seed Lachlan Gaskell.

Pedraza led 5-1, 7-2 and 8-4 in the match tiebreaker, but lost four consecutive points before earning his first match point at 9-8, on Gaskell's serve. Pedraza missed a return, earned a second match pont at 10-9, but missed a forehand, and Gaskell earned his first match point, when Pedraza didn't make a play on a forehand pass from Gaskell that dropped well in. Gaskell made a unforced error on the backhand to squander that match point, but made a exquisite backhand volley winner to earn his second. 

Pedraza saved that with a good drop shot, with Gaskell getting to it, but sending his reply long. Pedraza hit a good first serve to earn his third match point, but Pedraza's slice floated long and it was even again, at 13. Pedraza earned his fourth match point with a sizzling forehand winner and converted when his deep first serve put Gaskell on the defensive and Pedraza hit another good forehand, forcing an error from Gaskell.

"I was definitely really nervous when it came to those match points that he had and I had," said Pedraza, who had beaten Carter Jauffret 6-1, 6-1 in his second round qualifying match in the morning. "I just stayed composed, he came up with some errors and I'm very grateful that I came out on top."

Pedraza recognized that his level dropped once he took the big leads in the tiebreaker.

"I was cruising, hitting really good shots, coming to the net, perfect tennis you could say," Pedraza said. "As soon as it started getting close I started going for too much. I kind of slowed it down at 9-8, and I think from there, it was just who wanted it more, who could stay focused."

Although Pedraza's drop shot attempts in the tiebreaker often didn't pan out, save that last crucial one, he was determined to employ them when he saw an opportunity.

"For me, that's a shot I use all the time, so it wasn't really that at that moment I was feeling the pressure," Pedraza said. "He didn't really like coming to the net and I sensed that, so I thought if he didn't want to be at the net I could pass him, lob him."

As a large contingent of fellow JTCC players were gathered around court 18 to encourage him, Pedraza was surrounded by familiar faces.

"Because I train here, everybody's so great, everybody came out to support," said Pedraza, who started at JTCC as a toddler and is competing in the tournament for the first time this year. "Everybody was there supporting me and I just felt at home. It's always been a dream of mine to play here and it's a great, great experience to play in front of my home."

Pedraza admitted that he didn't expect to qualify.

"I'm super surprised, I wasn't expecting that much," Pedraza said. "Kalamazoo didn't go too well and I just wanted to hope for the best and compete. But I'm always ready, physically and mentally, I live close, I have everything I need from my coaches and my parents. I've been here my entire life, I know the place inside and out, every person here and I had a great, great time on court today."

Top seed Cesar Cruz of El Salvador spent over six and a half hours on court, but managed to get through. He will find out if that effort depleted him physically on Monday, when he plays Ludvig Hede of Sweden, not before 10 a.m.

The other boys qualifiers are Zachary Cohen, Calvin Baierl, Yubel Ubri and Mikael Arsenenault of Canada.

The girls qualifying are Raphaelle Leroux of Canada, Adla Lopez, Kristina Liutova of Russia, Eva Oxford, Brooke Wallman and Jinshu Xia of China.

US Open qualifying begins Monday with 18 of the 40 Americans in the men's and women's draw scheduled to play their first round matches.

Women playing Monday are wild cards Clervie Ngounoue, Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M), Kristina Penickova, Valerie Glozman(Stanford), Akasha Urhobo and Maria Mateas, Louisa Chirico, Emina Bektas(Michigan), Hannah Chang, Alycia Parks, Varvara Lepchenko, Usue Arconada and Sachia Vickery.

Men playing Monday are wild cards Ethan Quinn and Eliot Spizzirri and Martin Damm, Tristan Boyer and Denis Kudla.

Monday's schedule is here. All matches are available on ESPN+.

Eighteen-year-old Learner Tien(USC) qualified for his first ATP main draw today in Winston-Salem, defeating wild card DK Suresh(Wake Forest) of India 6-3, 6-4. He will play fellow qualifier Tristan Schoolkate of Australia in the first round Monday. 

Zink and Miller Claim First Professional Singles Titles at Huntsville $15Ks; ITF J300 College Park Wild Cards; Tiafoe and Pegula Advance to Cincinnati Masters Semifinals

Tyler Zink earned his first professional singles title and Kari Miller collected her first professional title today at the USTA Pro Circuit $15,000 tournaments in Huntsville Alabama. 

Zink, a recent Oklahoma State graduate, was the No. 8 seed this week, continuing the form he had shown in reaching the final at last week's $25K in Mississippi. The 23-year-old from Florida defeated No. 7 seed Leo Vithoontien(Carleton) of Japan, the 2021 NCAA Division III champion, 6-4, 6-1 in the men's final. 

Vithoontien also fell in the doubles final this afternoon, with partner Collin Altamirano(Virginia). The unseeded pair fell to No. 3 seeds Jamie Vance and Finn Reynolds(Mississippi) 6-4, 6-4.

While Zink has 13 pro titles in doubles, Miller, a recent Michigan graduate, won her first pro title in singles as a qualifier in Huntsville. 

The 22-year-old from Ann Arbor defeated Great Britain's Kristina Paskauskas, a sophomore at NC State, 6-2, 6-2 in the women's final. Miller defeated three seeds to get to the final against the unseeded Paskauskas.

Miller lost in the doubles final with incoming Michigan freshman Emily Sartz-Lunde of Norway. The unseeded pair were beaten by unseeded Carly Briggs(Tennessee, Florida) and Tenika McGiffin(Tennessee) of Australia 6-3 ,7-6(3) in this afternoon's final.

The first round of qualifying for the ITF J300 in College Park was completed today, but rain in the early evening kept the second round qualifying matches from finishing. So two rounds will be played Sunday; the qualifiers are then required to play again on Monday. The weather forecast is not good for Sunday, with an 80 percent chance of rain, but there are indoor courts on site at the Junior Tennis Champions Center, so that may turn out to be a huge help.

The main draw wild cards, which number just six in a 48-player draw, are:

Boys:

Jack Satterfield
Keaton Hance

Nathan Blokhin

Xingyu Chen

Eric Schinnerer

Arin Pallegar

Girls:

Ishika Ashar

Welles Newman

Maggie Sohns

Reiley Rhodes

Carolina Castro

Shristi Selvan

At the Masters 1000 Cincinnati Open, Frances Tiafoe and Jessica Pegula have advanced to Sunday's semifinals, with the tournament  having a Monday finishing date this year due to the Olympics.

Pegula, seeded No. 6, defeated Leylah Fernandez of Canada 7-5, 6-7(1), 7-6(3) to advance against Paula Badosa of Spain.  Iga Swiatek of Poland and Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus will contest the other semifinal.

The unseeded Tiafoe advanced to his second ATP Masters 1000 semifinal when No. 5 seed Hurbert Hurkacz of Poland retired after losing the first set 6-3. Tiafoe will play the winner of tonight's quarterfinal match between No. 15 seed Holger Rune of Denmark and Jack Draper of Great Britain. No. 3 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany, who beat No. 12 seed Ben Shelton 3-6, 7-6(3), 7-5, faces No. 1 Jannik Sinner of Italy in the other semifinal.

My Kalamazoo 18s Recap and Video Highlights; Jovic's Sweep in San Diego; USTA Creates Player Development Advisory Council; College Park ITF J300 Qualifying Begins Saturday

My annual article on the USTA Boys 18s National Championships for the Tennis Recruiting Network was posted this morning, with comments from champion Matt Forbes, Michigan State head coach Harry Jadun and finalist Jack Kennedy. With TRN's article this afternoon on Iva Jovic's sweep of the girls 18s titles, that wraps up Championship Week on the site (there is an error in the results, with Julieta Pareja defeating Kristina Penickova in the feed-in consolation final, which was initially reported as a victory for Penickova, but a correction was made on the USTA draws after the tournament's daily recap went out).  See this page for links to all eight articles on the USTA National Championships last week.

My video of the 18s final is below; as with the B16s video I posted yesterday, it's lengthy, with the match spanning more than three hours and featuring quite a few entertaining points, particularly in its last half.

I have been hearing that USTA CEO Lew Sherr is beginning to implement a more a hands-on approach regarding player development since the Jose Higueras email and the subsequent response to it from many of those who have regular interactions with Player Development. In the US Open virtual press conference on Wednesday, Sherr mentioned the number of US juniors in the ITF top 50, which is the most of any country, and that's not a reference I can recall a USTA CEO ever making.

One result of Sherr's interest is an announcement today by the USTA that it is forming a Player Development Advisory Council to assemble "experts from across the U.S. tennis ecosystem to provide in-depth input on how the USTA can best enhance and optimize its support for high-performance American players at all levels of the game". 

The initial members of the Advisory Council:

• Chris Boyer:  Chief Marketing Officer of Good Solutions Group, Inc.; USTA Southern California Board Vice President; Committee Chair of the SoCal Pro Series (part of the USTA Pro Circuit); pro player parent
• Bob Bryan: Former world No. 1 professional doubles player; U.S. Davis Cup Team Captain
• Jim Courier: Former world No. 1 professional singles player; former U.S. Davis Cup Team Captain; International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee
• Lindsay Davenport: Former world No. 1 professional singles and doubles player; U.S. Billie Jean King Cup Team Captain; International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee; junior player parent
• Chris Eubanks: Current professional player and former D-1 collegiate player at Georgia Tech
• Mary Joe Fernandez: Former world No. 4 professional singles and doubles player; former U.S. Billie Jean King Cup Team Captain; 2012 Olympic Team USA Women’s Tennis Coach; collegiate player parent
• Madison Keys: Current professional player
• Dana Mathewson: Current professional wheelchair player
• Ben Navarro: Entrepreneur and philanthropist; pro player parent; founder of Beemok Capital, which owns the combined ATP and WTA Cincinnati Open and the WTA’s Credit One Charleston Open
• Kurt Palmer: Chief Investment Officer of Beemok Capital; former collegiate tennis player
• Jessica Pegula: Current professional player
• Walter Porter: Principal, Deloitte Consulting; former college tennis player at Hampton University
• Michael Russell: Professional coach (Taylor Fritz); former professional player
• Bryan Shelton: Former head coach of Georgia Tech women’s tennis team and University of Florida men’s tennis team; former professional singles and doubles player; pro player parent and coach

I know several of those listed above discussed their concerns over the PD budget cuts with the USTA board, and it's heartening to see their concerns addressed by creating a more formal way for them to give input.

Lindsay Davenport, Bryan Shelton, Ben Navarro and Mary Joe Fernandez have all had or have children who interacted with Player Development on a regular basis in the past four years, and I'm sure all will provide valuable feedback to Sherr and the USTA board.  

Chris Boyer, who is the father of ATP No. 210 Tristan Boyer, has developed the very successful SoCal Pro Series, which should be serving as a template for all the USTA sections as a way to keep costs and travel to a minimum, while providing myriad opportunities to earn valuable ATP and WTA points.

I would love to see a Division I collegiate coach and a top junior development coach added to the council, but this a promising start that I hope results in more communication between the USTA board and Player Development and its constituencies.

The USTA's press release can be viewed here.

Qualifying for the ITF J300 in College Park begins on Saturday, and I'll be onsite covering the tournament for the tenth year Sunday.

Raphaelle Leroux of Canada, ranked 177, and Gabriella Mikaul, ranked 179, are the top two girls seeds in qualifying, with six byes.

Cesar Cruz of El Salvador, ranked 123, is the top boys qualifying seed, with Ronit Karki, ranked 125 seeded No. 2.  There were no byes in boys qualifying, with all 48 slots filled. There are two rounds of qualifying scheduled for Saturday; six qualifiers advance to the main draw

Links to the qualifying draws and order of play can be found at the Junior Tennis Champions Center ITF tournament page. I'm not sure if it will be available for qualifying, but there is a live scoring app: https://score-widget.matchscorerlive.com/public/completed/7twSDXi0QUqrGiSW1o4T0Q

My Kalamazoo 16s Recap and Expanded Finals Video; Zink and Kim, Miller and Briggs Reach Huntsville $15K Semifinals

The Tennis Recruiting Network's Championship Week is winding down, with articles on 12s, 14s, and 16s USTA Nationals now available. (For a link to all six articles, see this TRN page). My article on Gus Grumet's rare three-set victory in a Kalamazoo 16s final(just three since 2010 and the first to be decided in a third-set tiebreaker since 2006) was published today.

Below is what I think is the longest highlight video I've ever put up on YouTube and in trying to determine why, I've come up with a couple of reasons. 1) it was a very long match, with many long rallies, particularly in the final set. 2) it was the only final I had to record.  It's rare when I am able to focus on just one championship match, without others competing for my attention. The Indian Wells ITF J300 finals have also allowed me that luxury, but even at Wimbledon, with the junior finals returning to back-to-back matches on Court One this year, there were doubles finals (both featuring Americans) going on at the same time.

My TRN coverage of the 18s and the 18s highlights on my YouTube channel will be posted Friday. 

At the joint $15,000 tournaments in Huntsville Alabama, two Americans have reached the final in both the women's and men's draws.

No. 8 seed Tyler Zink(Georgia, Oklahoma State), who reached the final last week at the $25K in Mississippi will play qualifier Aidan Kim(Florida, Ohio State) for a spot in the final. Zink defeated No. 4 seed Collin Altamirano 6-2, 6-3 in today's quarterfinals, while Kim won his fifth match this week with a 6-0, 6-3 decision over fellow qualifier Ryan Colby(USC, Georgia). 

The top half semifinal will feature Carleton College's 2021 NCAA Division III singles champion Leo Vithoontien of Japan, the No 7 seed, who beat top seed Colin Sinclair(Cornell) of the Northern Mariana Islands 7-6(3), 4-6, 7-5 in three hours and 22 minutes. Virthoontien will play unseeded Aleksa Ciric(Georgia Gwinett), who needed even longer to beat Tomas Luis(Belmont) of Portugal. Ciric prevailed 7-6(6), 0-6, 6-4 in three hours and 24 minutes. 

In the women's semifinals, recent Michigan graduate Kari Miller, who beat a WTA Top 200 player two weeks ago at the W75 in Lexington, had to qualify for Huntsville, but she is now through to the semifinal after beating No. 5 seed Gabriella Broadfoot(NC State) of South Africa 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 in three hours and 11 minutes. Miller will play No. 8 seed Mercedes Aristegui(TCU) of Spain in the semifinals, with Aristegui beating Christasha McNeil 6-1, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. 

Wild card Carly Briggs, a recent Florida graduate, defeated qualifier McKenna Schaefbauer(South Carolina) 6-4, 6-0 today and will play rising NC State sophomore Kristina Paskauskas in the semifinals. Paskauska defeated Michigan freshman Emily Sartz-Lunde of Norway 7-6(2), 6-4.