Quinzi, Ymer, Donaldson and Rubin Enter US Open Juniors; Round of 16 Set at European Championships; Cal's Men's Tennis on Mythbusters

The acceptance lists for the US Open Junior Championships are out. fIn the boys draw, not only are the top three boys in the ITF junior rankings entered, but several of the best young players who haven't been competing regularly on the ITF junior circuit, but rather in the lower levels of the professional tour.

Elias Ymer of Sweden, whose current ATP ranking of 286 will have him seeded third in the US Open Juniors should he keep that top 350 ATP ranking, has entered, as has Italy's Gianluigi Quinzi (ATP ranking 312, also assuring a top 4 seed in USO Juniors), and Jared Donaldson of the US (ATP ranking 333, which, in the ITF's current seeding protocol, will put him in the top 4 too). Wimbledon boys champion Noah Rubin, with his ATP ranking of 537, also received direct entry to the main draw. There is no guarantee all four will play, of course, with withdrawals permitted up to August 19th.

In addition to the four players above, world No. 1 Andrey Rublev of Russia, the French boys champion, No. 2 Stefan Kozlov, a finalist at the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year, and No. 3 Orlando Luz of Brazil are also entered.

In fact, only six of the top 48 boys in the ITF rankings are missing, the most notable of whom are No. 7 Alexander Zverev, the Australian Open boys champion, who has risen to 161 in the ATP rankings after making the semifinals at Hamburg last week, and No. 4 Jaume Munar of Spain.

In addition to Kozlov, six other US boys have been accepted into the main draw: Francis Tiafoe, Michael Mmoh, Taylor Fritz, Alex Rybakov, Logan Smith and Henrik Wiersholm.

Three girls received entry into the main draw via their Top 350 WTA rankings: Anhelina Kalinina(269) of Ukraine, Francoise Abanda(220) of Canada and Ipek Soylu(342) of Turkey.

Four of the ITF Top 10 did not enter, including No. 1 Ivana Jorovic of Serbia and French Open girls champion Darya Kasatkina (No. 3) of Russia. Both are committed to play in the Youth Olympic Games in China from August 17-24, which could be a factor, although Kasatkina said she was done with junior tournaments after the French.  Rublev is also slated to play in the Youth Olympics, as are Luz and Rybakov, among others (full YOG acceptance list is here), so the travel/time zone changes are not discouraging everyone.

CiCi Bellis(2) and Tornado Alicia Black(4) are the top two players on the girls entry list. Other American girls in the main draw are: Sofia Kenin(another YOG participant), Usue Arconada, Dasha Ivanova and Michaela Gordon.  Several other US girls are just out of the main draw, including Katrine Steffensen, Kaitlyn McCarthy, Jessica Ho and Raveena Kingsley.

As I have for the past ten years, I will be covering the US Open junior tournament onsite again beginning with the final round of qualifying on August 30th.

The complete acceptance lists can be found here.

The European Championships, which at the 18-and-under level are an ITF Grade B1, are into the round of 16 after today's action.  The boys top four seeds--Jaume Munar(ESP), Quentin Halys(FRA), Johan Sebastien Tatlot(FRA) and Roman Safiullin(RUS) are still vying for the title, as are three of the top 4 girls: Wimbledon champion and No. 1 seed Jelena Ostapenko(LAT), No. 3 seed Jil Belen Teichmann(SUI) and No. 4 seed Iryna Shymanovich(BLR).  Wimbledon finalist and No. 2 seed Kristina Schmiedlova of Slovakia lost in the second round to Julia Terziyska of Bulgaria 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.  It's not the 18-year-old Terziyska's first big upset; back in December she ousted Eddie Herr champion Ostapenko in the third round of the Orange Bowl.  Results from the 14s and 16s tournaments can be found at the Tennis Europe site.

If you are a fan of Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel (and who isn't?), tune in Thursday night to see Cal men's tennis assistant Tyler Browne play tennis on the wing of an airplane.  Head coach Peter Wright also appears on the show. The segment is scheduled for 9 p.m. Thursday night.