US Junior Fed Cup and Junior Davis Cup Teams Reach Semifinals; Brady Defeats Oudin in Las Vegas $50K; Fritz, Valdes, Halbauer, Neel in $10K Quarterfinals

The top-seeded US girls and second-seeded US boys had no difficulty advancing to Friday's Junior Fed Cup and Junior Davis Cup semifinals, with both teams posting 3-0 victories. The girls breezed past No. 6 seed Belarus, with Tornado Alicia Black defeating Aryna Sabalenka 6-1, 6-2 at No. 2 singles and CiCi Bellis downing Ulyana Grib by the same score at No. 1 singles. Black and Sonya Kenin then completed the sweep with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Sabalenka and Grib in the doubles match, finishing atop round robin Group A.  Bellis, by the way, has withdrawn from the upcoming ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed.

The US team's opponent in the semifinals will be No. 4 seed Russia, who swept through Paraguay to finish undefeated in Group B. Unseeded Slovakia will play No. 2 seed Hungary in the other Junior Fed Cup semifinal.

The boys had a more difficult time with No. 8 seed Germany, but managed to win all three hard-fought matches.  William Blumberg defeated Valentin Guenther 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 at No. 2 singles to give the US a 1-0 lead and Michael Mmoh clinched the match with a 6-2, 7-6(1) win at No. 1 singles over Louis Wessels.  Blumberg and Gianni Ross then downed Guenther and Tim Ruehl 3-6, 6-2, 6-3  in the doubles competition.

The US will play No. 3 seed Japan in the Junior Davis Cup semifinals after Japan took the doubles point from No. 5 seed Argentina to record a 2-1 victory.

No. 4 seed Korea will play top seed France in the other JDC semifinal.

Today's results can be found at the ITF tournament page.

Jennifer Brady's excellent September continued today, with the UCLA sophomore, who is taking the fall off to compete in professional events as an amateur, moving into the quarterfinals of the $50,000 Las Vegas Pro Circuit event.  Wild card Brady, who won the $25,000 tournament in Redding, California two weeks ago, defeated No. 6 seed and WTA No. 124 Melanie Oudin 7-6(6), 7-6(3)  and is now 7-0 in Pro Circuit events this month.  She will play No. 3 seed Anna Tatishvili, who downed Irina Falconi (Georgia Tech) for the second time in five days. Qualifier Ema Burgic of Baylor saw her run end in the second round, but No. 8 seed Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal needed a third set tiebreaker to do it. Larcher de Brito won the match 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5).

At the Amelia Island $10,000 women's tournament, Ingrid Neel defeated fellow 16-year-old qualifier Nicole Frenkel 7-6(4), 6-2 to advance to the quarterfinals.  Other young Americans to reach the final eight are No. 5 seed Ellie Halbauer and USC recruit Rianna Valdes. US Open girls champion Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic defeated No. 2 seed Maria-Fernanda Alves of Brazil 6-2, 6-4 and will play Valdes next.  Valdes won their previous meeting at the $10K in Orlando this past spring, with Bouzkova trailing 6-0, 3-1 when she retired.

The only junior remaining in the $10,000 Irvine Futures is wild card Taylor Fritz, who reached his second career Futures quarterfinal with a 6-3, 7-6(3) victory over No. 3 seed Jeff Dadamo(Texas A&M).  Stefan Kozlov lost to Kyle McMorrow(Washington) 6-1, 6-4.  Illinois senior Farris Gosea, who won the $15,000 Futures in Canada last week, kept his winning streak going with a 7-5, 6-0 win over Sebastian Rivera of Ecuador. Gosea will play NCAA finalist Alex Sarkissian(Pepperdine), the No. 7 seed, in Friday's quarterfinals.