Notes From All Over

Time for a grab bag of items that have shown up in my inbox or twitterfeed in the past couple of weeks.

Tuesday's match between 18-year-olds Alexander Zverev of Germany and Borna Coric of Croatia was even better than anticipated with Coric taking 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(5) victory. Steve Tignor, writing for tennis.com, took note in his account of the match.  Having watched both boys since they were 11 years old, I have a different perspective from someone who is just now taking notice.  I don't disagree with any of Tignor's observations, but do feel compelled to note that Coric's mental stability was not as exemplary in those early years. The moral? Some players never change, and some do.

Chris Oddo also watched the match closely, and wrote this piece for TennisNow.

Also at TennisNow, this interview with Frances Tiafoe, in which he says he is not the "leader" of the current crop of rising American boys. Although confident, he reiterated that point several times in interviews at Kalamazoo.

The USTA released its annual "What's New at the US Open" announcement, and the item that was most interesting to me involved the second Thursday, September 10. The two women's semifinals are on Ashe in the evening, so the day session will be free of charge, with no grounds pass required for entry.  Men's, women's and mixed doubles will be scheduled for the day, and if singles is your thing, the juniors round of 16 and the opening round of the American Collegiate Invitational are also on tap.  Just two years ago, fans could have seen Zverev, Coric,  Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia, Belinda Bencic of Switzerland and Ana Konjuh of Croatia in junior competition that day. It's a great opportunity to see the best college players as well, with both NCAA champions, Jamie Loeb and Ryan Shane, scheduled to play the American Collegiate Invitational. (The list of ACI participants is in this post, with Jared Hiltzik of Illinois and Julia Jones of Ole Miss receiving the two wild cards.)

Denis Kudla and his coach, former Illinois player Billy Heiser, are the subject of this article by Josh Meiseles on the ATP website.

Allie Kiick revealed the distressing news that she has a rare form of melanoma via twitter yesterday. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Stephanie Myles has an update on 15-year-old Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, who did not receive a wild card, even into qualifying, at the recent Rogers Cup in Montreal.  Instead, he's sticking to juniors for the foreseeable future.  As the top seed in the Canadian National 18s championships, he lost to No. 2 seed Denis Shapovalov 6-1, 6-2 in today's final. Bianca Andreescu, the top seed in the girls draw, beat No. 2 seed Vanessa Wong 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 in the final.

The NCAA Team Championships' Most Outstanding Player Astra Sharma of Vanderbilt is the subject of this feature by Stefano Berlincioni at Last Word on Sports.

A new website focusing on professional tennis stars off the court, outsidetheball.com, has produced its second webshow, and is currently featuring an interview with Great Britain's Heather Watson.

Own The Zone, a longtime sponsor of Zootennis.com, has announced a partnership with Mats Wilander and his company WOW for the EcoGrip. Wilander's endorsement of the biodegradable grip can be found in this release, and orders can be placed here.

US Open Men's and Women's Wild Cards Emphasize Youth; US Open National Playoff Singles Draws Posted

The USTA announced the wild cards for the US Open, which begins on Monday, August 31st.  Several of these were known in advance, with the Wild Card Challenge winners and National Junior champions guaranteed a place in the main draw.  Below are the recipients, with ages, and their reason for receiving the wild card noted, if applicable. For those receiving discretionary wild cards their pro ranking is included.

Women's Main Draw:
Sonya Kenin, 16, Girls 18s national champion
Samantha Crawford, 20, USO Wild Card Challenge winner
Jamie Loeb, 20, NCAA singles champion
Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 30, 99
Nicole Gibbs, 22, 117
Louisa Chirico, 19, 119
Sachia Vickery, 20, 137
Oceane Dodin, French reciprocal

Notes on women's main draw wild cards:
Australia returned its women's main draw reciprocal wild card, giving the USTA one more than they usually have.

Last year's girls 18s champion CiCi Bellis applied for a main draw wild card, but did not receive one, so she will need to go through qualifying to get into the main draw this year.  Vicky Duval, returning to competition this month after a year battling Hodgkin's lymphoma, also applied for a main draw wild card and was turned down, receiving a qualifying wild card instead.

Women's Qualifying Draw:
Robin Anderson, 22, 538
Usue Arconada, 16, 477
Tornado Alicia Black, 17, Girls 18s national finalist
Vicky Duval, 19
Raveena Kingsley, 17
Claire Liu, 15, 820
Jessica Pegula, 21, 258
Bernarda Pera, 20, 246

Notes on the women's qualifying wild cards:
Robin Anderson, the ITA Player of the Year, was rewarded for her excellent results this summer. Pegula, who returned this winter after a long injury layoff, and Pera received wild cards over more highly ranked players Lauren Embree and Julia Boserup, who will need more withdrawals to move into qualifying. Sanaz Marand, who has posted some strong results this summer, also did not receive one and is unlikely to get into qualifying, although a doubles wild card may still be forthcoming for her.

Last year's US Open girls champion and WTA 352 Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic was not extended a qualifying wild card, as is often customary at other slams.

There will be one more wild card awarded, to the winner of the US Open National Playoffs this weekend in Connecticut. The draw has been released, with two finalists added to fill out a 16-player draw.  Emma Davis, the New England winner, has apparently withdrawn, with runner-up Carol Finke taking her place.

On a personal note, the girls field at the ITF Grade 1 in College Park that I'm covering next week took a hit with Arconada and Kingsley playing in Flushing Meadows instead.

Men's Main Draw:
Frances Tiafoe, 17, Boys 18s national champion
Bjorn Fratangelo, 22, USO Wild Card Challenge winner
Ryan Shane, 21, NCAA singles champion
Austin Krajicek, 25, 113
Ryan Harrison, 23, 126
Jared Donaldson, 18, 153
Lleyton Hewitt, Australian reciprocal
Pierre-Hughes Herbert, French reciprocal

Notes on the men's main draw wild cards:
First, let me say that it's great that the NCAA American champions, who are not guaranteed wild cards, have been receiving them without a problem since 2009. (In 2008, Amanda McDowell was given only a qualifying wild card). Ryan Shane has been out most of the summer with an injury and hasn't had any impressive results since returning late last month, but, much like fellow Cavalier Danielle Collins in 2014, a wild card was extended. Collins drew Simona Halep, and took the No. 2 seed to three sets, so perhaps Shane can get a better draw and get a chance to show his powerful game too.

Ryan Harrison's wild card was bound to generate discussion, as it's the fourth he's received in the past five years. His ranking takes much of the controversy out of the selection, as it's higher than Donaldson's and no one else is Top 200, but the case for his earning his way into the tournament via qualifying is a compelling one. He did that once, in 2010 and went on to win a match in the main draw. The only other main draw win Harrison has in New York was in 2012, when he received direct entry via his ranking.

Donaldson also received a wild card last year; Krajicek will be making just his second appearance in a slam main draw, with his only previous one at the US Open via the wild card he got for winning Kalamazoo in 2008.

Men's Qualifying Draw:
Marcos Giron, 22, 2014 American Collegiate Invitational champion
Stefan Kozlov, 17, Boys 18s national finalist
Taylor Fritz, 17, 679

Mitchell Krueger, 21, 239

Michael Mmoh, 17, 490

Reilly Opelka, 17, 1112

Tommy Paul, 18, 434

Noah Rubin, 19, 631

Notes on the men's qualifying wild cards: 

As with the women, one more qualifying wild card is up for grabs, with 

the US Open National Playoff winner receiving it.  The draw for that tournament, with again, two finalists receiving entry as well as the 14 sectional winners, is also posted.  The doubles draws, men's, women's and mixed, are not up yet, because those competitions are next week. Those are for main draw wild cards, not qualifying wild cards.  The draws will be here when available.

None of the teenagers who received qualifying wild cards are in any way controversial. Kozlov, Fritz and Tiafoe received qualifying wild cards last year. Mmoh, Paul and Opelka played the Grade 1 in College Park that week. The credentials of this group don't need further mention from me.

Last year there were reciprocal qualifying wild cards for French players, but that did not happen this year.  

Twenty-four-year-old Connor Smith, at 211, is the highest ranked American player not in qualifying and not the recipient of a wild card.

US Open boys champion Omar Jasika of Australia was also not given a qualifying wild card. His current ATP ranking is 259.

My post on the women's US Open wild cards last year is here.

My post on the men's US Open wild cards last year is here.

King Wins Champaign Futures; Anderson Falls Just Short in Landisville; Fratangelo Clinches US Open Main Draw Wild Card; Bencic Claims Toronto Title

Kevin King, photo courtesy iphotonews.com 

Kevin King won his third career Futures title and first of 2015 today in Champaign, taking out unseeded Richard Gabb of Great Britain 6-3, 6-1 in the final. No. 4 seed King, whose previous two titles were back-to-back at $15,000 Futures last spring in Mexico, saved match points in his 6-1, 2-6, 7-6(8) quarterfinal win over Tommy Paul, but won his semifinal match over top seed Ramkumar Ramanathan of India 6-2, 6-2 and had a similarly convincing win today.  When the points from this week are added a week from Monday, the 24-year-old Georgia Tech grad will be back in the Top 300.

At the women's Pro Circuit tournament in Landisville, Pennsylvania, qualifier Robin Anderson fell just short of her first $25,000 title, losing to unseeded Naomi Broady of Great Britain 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(5).  The 25-year-old Broady had 17 aces and just one double fault in the match, while the recent UCLA graduate was 3 and 0 in those categories.

In the doubles final, Ivana Jorovic of Serbia and Jessica Moore of Australia beat Brynn Boren(USC) and Nadja Gilchrist(Georgia) 6-1, 6-3 in a final between two unseeded teams.

At the $100,000 ATP Challenger in Aptos, seventh-seeded Austin Krajicek lost to top seed John Millman of Australia 7-5-, 2-6, 6-3 in the final, meaning that Bjorn Fratangelo will win the USTA's US Open Wild Card Challenge.  Krajicek will, I'm sure, be considered from one of the three wild cards not yet designated by the USTA. 18s champion Sonya Kenin and Wild Card Challenge winner Samantha Crawford are guaranteed main draw wild cards, and NCAA champion Jamie Loeb is expected to receive one (it's not guaranteed however), plus the two reciprocal wild cards traded with Australia and France leave the number remaining at three.  Frances Tiafoe, Bjorn Fratangelo, Ryan Shane (again not guaranteed, but customary) leave three others to be handed out. That announcement should come out early this coming week.

This week's Pro Circuit action is in Canada, at the $100,000 events for men and women in Vancouver. Qualifying is underway, with UCLA's Mackenzie McDonald through to the final round of qualifying.  Main draw wild cards were given to Laura Robson of Great Britain, Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada, Vania King and Samantha Crawford for the women's draw and Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, Dennis Novikov and Alex Sarkissian are the men's main draw wild cards.

The Western and Southern Open, the joint ATP/WTA tournament in Cincinnati, has finished its qualifying, with Americans Denis Kudla, Christina McHale and Lauren Davis earning places in the main draw.  Two former junior slam winners, 2014 Australian Open boys champion Alexander Zverev of Germany and 2013 Australian and US Open girls champion Ana Konjuh of Croatia also qualified.  Zverev will play fellow 18-year-old Borna Coric of Croatia in the first round, with Coric holding a 1-0 edge in ITF junior play. In the 2013 US Open Junior championships, Zverev was the top seed, but lost in the semifinals to Coric, the No. 4 seed, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0. Coric went on to beat Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis, who also qualified in Cincinnati today, in the final 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.

The former junior slam champion who made the biggest splash today however was Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, who beat world No. 1 Serena Williams in the Toronto semifinals Saturday and world No. 3 Simona Halep of Romania today in the final 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 3-0, ret. having beaten Genie Bouchard, Caroline Wozniacki, Sabine Lisicki and Ana Ivanovic earlier in the week.

Bencic, who two years ago, at age 16 won the French and Wimbledon junior titles, will move to No. 12 in the WTA rankings with the title. Her rise has been notable for its consistent but not spectacular trajectory, and although she struggled a bit during the clay season this year, once she got on grass and won her first WTA title in Eastbourne, she has been playing outstanding tennis. Her confidence and competitiveness, on display throughout her junior career, are genuine, as seen in her results this week.

For more on all the "firsts" Bencic earned today, see this article from the WTA website.

Kalamazoo Videos; Anderson Beats Top Seed, Advances to Landisville $25K Final, Krajicek Still in Hunt for US Open Wild Card

As promised, the videos from the Kalamazoo 16s and 18s finals are up and embedded below.

The 18s videos contain some impressive points, and with the notable exception of the Frances Tiafoe forehand winner at 4-4, 30-all that gave him a break point in the fifth set, the key ones are included. (See my coverage of the final here).

The point early in the match (in retrospect), where Tiafoe collapsed on the ground after losing a kitchen-sink point to Stefan Kozlov would have been the highlight had he finished the match off in straight sets. But he didn't, we got more: the point Kozlov won with Tiafoe serving at 4-3 in the third, in which he got two overheads back in play, the first match point Kozlov saved with Tiafoe serving for it a 5-4 in the fifth, the "touch" point that wasn't on break point in that same game, the ace that set up the second match point, and the match point.

ITA Player of the Year Robin Anderson, who finished her senior year at UCLA in May, has reached her second $25,000 final, and the first since 2013, by defeating top seed and WTA 101 An-Sophie Mestach of Belgium 6-2, 6-4 in Landisville, Pa.  The 22-year-old from New Jersey, a qualifier, will reach a new career high regardless of the outcome of Sunday's final against unseeded Naomi Broady of Great Britain. Anderson's win over Mestach is not her best, ranking-wise, as she had previously recorded a top 100 win against Russian Evgeniya Rodina, then No. 83, in the first round of the 2011 WTA New Haven qualifying.

Since finishing school, Anderson has reached a $50,000 quarterfinal, and the semifinal in the $25,000 tournament in El Paso, and now the final in Landisville.  Anderson only other singles title on the Pro Circuit came in 2011, when she won at Landisville, then a $10,000 event. Her four losses (two in qualifying) were all in three sets; she has 13 win this summer so far, in qualifying and main draw.

At the $15,000 Futures in Champaign, Kevin King(Georgia Tech) has reached the singles final for the second straight week on the Midwest Pro Circuit swing. After beating top seed Ramkumar Ramanathan of India 6-2, 6-2 today, the No. 4 seed will take on unseeded Richard Gabb of Great Britain, who beat lucky loser Justin Shane(Virginia) 5-7, 7-5, 4-1, ret.  Shane did get a title however, partnering his younger brother Ryan to beat No. 4 seeds Kevin King and Evan King, last week's Futures doubles champions, 6-1, 7-6(4) in the final.

Cincinnati qualifying did not go well for three of the Kalamazoo 18s semifinalists, with Stefan Kozlov, Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul all losing in the first round, to Yen-Hsun Lu, Nicolas Mahut and Denis Kudla, respectively. Paul was the only one of the three to take a set.  Irina Falconi (over Jennifer Brady), Christina McHale and Nicole Gibbs did pick up first round qualifying wins, as did Steve Johnson. Qualifying is still going on, but update results can be found here.

At the $100,000 Aptos Challenger, No. 7 seed Austin Krajicek defeated No. 4 seed Bjorn Fratangelo 6-3, 7-6(2) to keep his hopes for the US Open main draw wild card alive. If Krajicek defeats top seed John Millman of Australia in Sunday's final, he will win the USTA's Wild Card Challenge. If he loses, Fratangelo will get it based on more points over two tournaments.

My Kalamazoo 16s Recap; Three Kalamazoo Quarterfinalists Reach Futures Final Eight, Finalists Receive Cincinnati Qualifying Wild Cards; NCAA Approves No-Ad for Division I 2016 Championships;

Championship week is in full swing at the Tennis Recruiting Network, and my recap of Patrick Kypson's remarkable 16s title in Kalamazoo is available today. My wrap-up of the memorable 18s tournament will come out Friday afternoon.

Three of the Kalamazoo 18s quarterfinalists have reached the same stage at this week's $15,000 Futures tournament in Champaign, Illinois.  Wild card Reilly Opelka defeated Aleksandar Vukic of Australia, a rising sophomore for the University of Illinois, 6-3, 7-6(6) in today's second round. Tommy Paul, the No. 6 seed, defeated Evan King(Michigan) 6-4, 6-1 and Alex Rybakov, who Paul beat in the Kalamazoo quarterfinals a week ago, upset No. 2 seed and former Virginia star Sanam Singh of India 6-3, 7-5.

Opelka's quarterfinal opponent is lucky loser Justin Shane(Virginia), while Paul faces No. 4 seed Kevin King(Georgia Tech) and Rybakov takes on unseeded Richard Gabb of Great Britain.

No. 4 seeds Evan and Kevin King (no relation) will play brothers Justin and Ryan Shane in the doubles final on Friday.

Vicky Duval won her second match at the Landisville $25,000 Pro Circuit tournament, but then withdrew with an injury from doubles, so her status going forward is uncertain. Qualifiers Robin Anderson, the ITA Player of the Year, and 17-year-old Nicole Frenkel have advanced to the quarterfinals, where they'll play fellow Americans Alexandra Mueller and No. 2 seed Shelby Rogers.

In Aptos, the two Americans into the quarterfinals at the $100,000 Challenger are No. 4 seed Bjorn Fratangelo and No. 7 seed Austin Krajicek, who are the only two players still in the running for the US Open wild card given in the USTA Challenge. Krajicek would have to win the tournament to pass Fratangelo.

The Cincinnati ATP Masters and WTA Premier event has announced its wild cards, with Kalamazoo 18s champion Frances Tiafoe and Kalamazoo 18s finalist Stefan Kozlov receiving qualifying wild cards. Main draw men's wild cards were given to Mardy Fish, Fratangelo, Jared Donaldson and Rajeev Ram.  Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, CoCo Vandeweghe and Allison Riske received the women's wild cards.

In addition to Tiafoe and Kozlov, Ryan Harrison, Vicky Duval, Taylor Townsend, Sachia Vickery, Alexa Glatch, Louisa Chirico and Nicole Gibbs received qualifying wild cards. One more men's qualifying wild card is to be announced.

The full announcement is here.

The NCAA announced today that the format used in the ITA National Team Indoor Tournaments in February will be adopted for the 2016 NCAA Championships in Tulsa. This is a six-game no-ad set for three doubles matches, and best-of-three tiebreak sets with no-ad scoring for six singles match singles. The individual championships will also be played best of three with no-ad scoring, and in lieu of a third set in doubles, a match tiebreaker will be played as is done on the ATP and WTA tours.

As I detailed several times in the past year, I will not be providing any on-site coverage of these events due to my dislike of the no-ad tennis format, but I will continue to follow tournament results from home and write about the college game and players.

The men's and women's Division III NCAA championships are in Kalamazoo in 2016, so I will be providing on-site coverage of that event.

Kalamazoo Draws Posted; Black Top Seed in San Diego, Seeds in 12s and 14s Posted; Ryan Shane Feature

The draws for the Kalamazoo tournament, which starts on Friday, are now available at ustaboys.com.  With such a strong group of seeds there was always going to be some tough, tough quarterfinals, and No. 2 Fritz versus No. 5 Mmoh and No. 1 Tiafoe versus No. 6 Opelka are certainly two of them, provided they all make it that far, of course.

Last year the top eight seeds in the 18s all reached the quarterfinals for the first time since 1976. Could it happen two years in a row after a nearly 40-year gap?

The draws for the other age groups are not yet posted--I'm told the San Diego draws will be out Thursday--but the seeds have all been announced.  Below are the Top 16 seeds in the 12s, 14s, and the girls 16s and 18s.  The 17-32 seeds are available via a link back to the TennisLink site. All 32 of the Kalamazoo 16s and 18s seeds are here.

Girls 18s:

1  Tornado Alicia Black

2  Usue Arconada

3  Sofia Kenin

4  Michaela Gordon

5  Raveena Kingsley

6  Francesca Dilorenzo

7  Ingrid Neel

8  Claire Liu

9  Kayla Day

10  Alexandra Sanford

11  Alexa Graham

12  Ellyse Hamlin

13  Ena Shibahara

14  Rebecca Weissmann

15  Mia Horvit

16  Kelly Chen

17-32

Girls 16s

1  Natasha Subhash

2  Victoria Flores

3  Hannah Lairmore

4  Nicole Mossmer

5  Elysia Bolton

6  Clarissa Hand

7  Taylor Johnson

8  Anna Brylin

9  Carson Branstine

10  Hannah Zhao

11  Victoria Emma

12  Caroline Dunleavy

13  Meg Kowalski

14  Ally Bojczuk

15  Whitney Osuigwe

16  Sydney Jones

17-32

Girls 14s

1  Alexa Noel

2  Katie Volynets

3  Victoria Hu

4  Lea Ma

5  Angelica Blake

6  Reilly Tran

7  Kacie Harvey

8  Chloe Beck

9  Maggie Cubitt

10  Emma Navarro

11  Naomi Cheong

12  Hailey Baptiste

13  Addison Guevara

14  Gabriella Price

15  Cori Gauff

16  Lauren Stein

17-32

Girls 12s

1  Brooke Theis

2  Kenadee Semenik

3  Jenna DeFalco

4  Emma Jackson

5  Rachel Arbitman

6  Bridget Stammel

7  Sydni Ratliff

8  Maria Rizzolo

9  Tyra Richardson

10  Tara Malik

11  Hibah Shaikh

12  Madison Sieg

13  Elise Wagle

14  Ellie Pittman

15  Carrie Beckman

16  Katrina Scott

17-32

Boys 14s

1  William Grant

2  Cannon Kingsley

3  Daniel Sharygin

4  Nathan Han

5  Ronan Jachuck

6  Connor Nisbet

7  Harry Yang

8  Stefan Leustian

9  Evin McDonald

10  Leighton Allen

11  Hunter Heck

12  Andrew Dale

13  Nicholas Garcia

14  Spencer Gray

15  Richard Bell

16  Thomas Yu

17-32

Boys 12s

1  Hugo Hashimoto

2  Karl Lee

3  Saud Alhogbani

4  Phillip Deaton

5  Benjamin Kittay

6  Griffin Daehnke

7  Samuel Landau

8  Eric Perkowski

9  Daniel Dunac

10  Nishesh Basavareddy

11  James Delgado

12  Sam Reichbach

13  Andrew Chang

14  Tonmye Nirundorn

15  Gavin Young

16  Teddy Truwit

17-32

NCAA champion Ryan Shane of Virginia is back competing after an injury layoff following his title in Waco in May.  After going 1-1 in the Lexington Challenger qualifying, Shane will be in action this weekend at the qualifying for the ATP event in Washington DC.  In anticipation of that, Kelyn Soong wrote this feature on Shane for the Washington Post, which contains some interesting background on how Ryan and older brother Justin started playing the sport.

In other University of Virginia news, assistant men's coach Dustin Taylor will be accompanying the USTA Collegiate Team to Italy for two $15,000 Futures events there beginning next week. 

The Aptos Challenger, a $100,000 event that begins in two weeks, could decide the US Open men's Wild Card Challenge. Here's a preview from the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

All Top 10 ITF Boys and Girls Entered in US Open Juniors; Southern Cal Wins USTA Boys 18 Team Championship; Donaldson, Kudla Advance in Atlanta

The acceptances for the US Open Junior Championships were released today, and all players in the ITF top 10, and all but one of the top 15, girls No. 15 Julieta Estable, have entered.

Nine US girls have received direct entry: Usue Arconada, Sonya Kenin, Michaela Gordon, Raveena Kingsley, Francesca Di Lorenzo, Ingrid Neel, Claire Liu, CiCi Bellis and Katerina Stewart.  Kayla Day is the first alternate, with an ITF ranking of 56.  Alexandra Sanford and Tornado Alicia Black, the 2013 US girls finalist, are in qualifying Stewart, a semifinalist in New York last year, received entry based on her WTA ranking, currently 158.  Magdalena Frech of Poland, 378 in the WTA rankings, also received her entry by that method.

Caroline Dolhide, ranked No. 16 and a semifinalist last year after advancing through qualifying, has not entered and is not playing the G18s Nationals in San Diego either. She played earlier this month at Wimbledon and reached the third round there.

Seven US boys have received direct entry: Taylor Fritz, Michael Mmoh, Reilly Opelka, William Blumberg, Tommy Paul, Nathan Ponwith and Ulises Blanch.  Sam Riffice has already assured himself of a wild card into the main draw by winning the 18s Clay Courts.

The cutoff for the boys is 45, extremely high for the US Open, but not unusual for the French.  Five players received entry via their ATP rankings, with South Africa's Lloyd Harris (609), Argentina's Juan Pablo Fichovich(706) and two Spanish 18-year-olds: European Championships finalist Bernabe Zapata Miralles(708) and Pedro Martinez Portero(691).  The fifth is 14-year-old Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime, who became the youngest player ever to reach the quarterfinals of an ATP Challenger last week in Granby. Those results moved his ATP ranking up to 749, which is one spot better than necessary for main draw acceptance.  It will be his first junior slam
appearance.

The USTA Boys 18 Team Championships finals were today in Champaign-Urbana, with the Southern California section defeating the Eastern section 5-2.  Eastern's No. 1 player William Blumberg won all his matches during the tournament, including today's over Austin Rapp, but it wasn't enough to counter the depth of coach Barry Horowitz's team.  The results of today's final are below:

The girls 18 final Wednesday gives Southern Cal an opportunity for a sweep of the USTA Team championships. They will play defending champion Southern for the title. The TennisLink site for the girls competition has all the results.

At the ATP event in Atlanta, Jared Donaldson defeated fellow qualifier Somdev Devvarman 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 to reach the second round, where he will play No. 7 seed Gilles Muller of Luxembourg.  Another US qualifier, Denis Kudla, outlasted wild card Ryan Harrison 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(5) to set up a second round metting with No. 3 seed Jack Sock. Sock and Kudla have played five times, including, of course, in the US Open boys final in 2010, with Sock winning three, but Kudla has won their last two meetings, though those were in 2012.

No. 6 seed Steve Johnson advanced with a 6-1, 6-7(3), 6-2 win over Lukas Lacko of Slovakia. Qualifier Austin Krajicek fell to No. 5 seed Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, and Frances Tiafoe saw his attempt at a first ATP-level win thwarted by Australia's Sam Groth 7-6(3), 6-4.   Mardy Fish and Donald Young both suffered straight-set losses.

Georgia Tech rising sophomore Christopher Eubanks, who received a wild card, plays his first round match against Czech Radek Stepanek on Wednesday.  For more on Eubanks, and his friendship with Donald Young, see this article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Talking with ITF Junior No. 1 Taylor Fritz; Ayeni Sweeps ITF Grade 4 Titles in Dominican Republic; Donaldson Qualifies for BB&T Open in Atlanta

As the No. 1 ranked ITF junior boy, Taylor Fritz was a popular interview subject at Wimbledon this year, and I spoke with him several times during the junior tournament.  Although many of his peers have turned pro this spring and summer, Fritz has not yet made that decision officially. But from this article I put together for The Tennis Recruiting Network based on those interviews, it appears unlikely that he will attend college.

All the major sports management agencies are interested in Fritz, so his choice will be a story this summer (he says by the end of the US Open). But it's not as if it is a lifetime commitment.  Jack Sock, who signed with CAA initially, has moved to IMG, it was announced today.

Olukayode Alafia Ayeni, who turns 16 next month, won his first two ITF titles last week at the Grade 4 Copa Merengue in the Dominican Republic. Ayeni, seeded No. 11, beat the No. 7, No. 4 and No. 1 seeds to reach the final, where he defeated No. 2 seed Salvador Mijares of Venezuela 6-2, 6-1.  Ayeni and Robert Loeb won the doubles title, with the No. 3 seeds taking a 7-6(8), 7-5 decision from No. 4 seeds Valentino Caratini and Camilo Ugo Carabelli of Argentina.

At the $50,000 Sacramento women's Pro Circuit tournament, which finished late last night, 2014 US Open girls finalist Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine, the No. 8 seed, beat top seed An-Sophie Mestach of Belgium 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. It's the third Pro Circuit title for the 18-year-old, but the first at the $50,000 level.

Ashley Weinhold and Caitlin Whoriskey(Tennessee) won the doubles title, beating another unseeded pair, Nao Hibino of Japan and Rosie Johanson of Canada, 6-4, 3-6, 14-12 in the final. It's Whoriskey's ninth pro doubles title, but her first at a $50,000 tournament and her first with Weinhold as a partner.

The third and final tournament in the USTA's Women's US Open Wild Card Challenge is this week in Lexington.  As you can see from the standings chart, it's still anyone's wild card, although Brooke Austin lost in the first round of Lexington qualifying to Jamie Loeb, so she can't accumulate any more points. Loeb is one of five Americans in Tuesday's final round of qualifying.

The men's Lexington Challenger is just the second of their three tournaments, and next week at Aptos is a $100,000 event, so there is a very long way to go in that race. Noah Rubin qualified for Lexington with three wins, including a win over No. 2 seed Frederik Nielsen of Denmark and today's victory over Dimitar Kutrovsky(7) of Bulgaria. Alex Kuznetsov also qualified, putting a total of eight Americans in the main draw.

Rain has stopped play at the BB&T Atlanta Open today, but Jared Donaldson, Austin Krajicek and Denis Kudla won their final qualifying matches to join nine Americans already in the main draw. Donaldson, who was unseeded in the qualifying, beat Gastao Elias of Portugal in the first round, No. 5 seed JP Smith of Australia in the second round and No. 2 seed Guido Pella of Argentina in today's final round of qualifying. Kudla, the No. 1 seed, won both his qualifying matches in straight sets, as did No. 3 seed Krajicek.

The lower level Pro Circuit events this week are a $15,000 Futures for the men in Edwardsville, Illinois, and a $10,000 tournament for women in Austin, Texas.

Mmoh vs Hiltzik, Daniell vs Herring in Pro Circuit Finals; Bryde and Paul Win Qualifying Matches at BB&T Atlanta Open; USTA Boys 18 Team Event Underway

Michael Mmoh has reached his second career Futures final at the $15,000 Pro Circuit event and will face Jared Hiltzik in Sunday's final in Godfrey, Illinois.  Mmoh, the No. 6 seed, beat No. 7 seed Evan King 6-4, 6-3 in Saturday's semifinals, while No. 8 seed Hiltzik, a rising senior at Illinois, defeated Clay Thompson 6-2, 6-3 to reach the first Pro Circuit final of his career.

At the $10,000 women's event in Evansville, Andie Daniell reached her first Pro Circuit final, with the 17-year-old incoming Alabama freshman winning a grueling 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-3 decision from No. 7 seed Alexa Graham in Saturday's semifinals.  Daniell will play qualifier Lauren Herring, the Georgia All-American who is in her second $10,000 final since graduating in May.  Herring defeated Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the other semifinal Saturday.

Herring and teammate Kennedy Shaffer lost in the doubles final Saturday, with the unseeded pair falling to top seeds Nicha Lertpitaksinchai and Peangtarn Plipuech of Thailand 6-2, 6-3.

Wild card Brooke Austin defeated Robin Anderson in Friday night's quarterfinal at the $50,000 Sacramento tournament, but lost to No. 8 seed Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine 7-5, 6-1 in the semifinals.  Kalinina will play top seed An Sophie Mestach of Belgium in Sunday's final. By advancing to the semifinals, Austin now ties Sanaz Marand for the top spot in the USTA US Open Wild Card Challenge with one more tournament this coming week in Lexington, left to decide it.

At the Binghamton Challenger, top seed Kyle Edmund of Great Britain will take on No. 2 seed Bjorn Fratangelo in the final after Edmund defeated qualifier Sekou Bangoura 6-3, 7-6(4) and Fratangelo downed Brydan Klein of Great Britain 6-4, 6-2.

In the first round of qualifying for the BB&T Atlanta Open, 15-year-old Trent Bryde and Tommy Paul picked up victories.  Bryde defeated Catalin-Ionut Gard 7-6(4), 6-2 to advance to a second round match against top qualifying seed Denis Kudla.  Paul defeated fellow wild card Walker Duncan 6-3, 7-6(9) and will play No. 8 seed Sugita of Japan in the second round.  The fourth wild card, Reilly Opelka, lost to unseeded Shuichi Sekiguchi of Japan 6-4, 6-4.  Jared Donaldson also reached the second round of qualifying with a win today.

The Atlanta main draw has been posted, with wild card Frances Tiafoe drawing Sam Groth of Australia and wild card Christopher Eubanks, a rising sophomore at Georgia Tech, playing Czech veteran Radek Stepanek.

The USTA's Boys 18s Team Championships got underway today at the University of Illinois.  The draw is here, and the rosters for each section are here. Live streaming is available at a cost of $19.99 for the event.

USA's World Junior Tennis Teams Named; Mmoh Reaches Godfrey Futures Semifinals; Daniell, Graham Advance in Evansville

The teams that will represent the USA in the ITF's World Junior Tennis 14-and-under team competition have been announced, with no changes in the teams that represented the USA in North American qualifying in Boca Raton several months ago.

Caty McNally, Hurricane Tyra Black and Amanda Anisimova will travel to Prostejov, Czech Republic for the girls competition among 16 nations, which begins August 3rd and ends August 8th.  Adam Neff, Brandon Nakashima and Govind Nanda will be one of 16 boys teams in Prostejov.  Both teams went undefeated in North American qualifying, and I anticipate the girls will be among the top seeds when the draw is made. Kathy Rinaldi will coach the girls team and Eric Nunez the boys team.

At the $15,000 Godfrey Futures, Michael Mmoh has reached the semifinals, the fourth time in his career that the 17-year-old has gotten that far (he has one Futures title). Mmoh, the No. 6 seed, beat Ben McLachlan of New Zealand 6-3, 6-1 today, and will play No. 7 seed Evan King, who took out wild card Nick Chappell by the same score.  The top half of the draw will be a rematch of the 2013 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate men's final, with Clay Thompson facing No. 8 seed Jared Hiltzik. Thompson, who beat Hiltzik 6-4, 7-5 in New York, defeated qualifier Kyle Koch 7-6(2), 7-6(4), while Hiltzik came back to beat qualifier Gonzales Austin 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.  King and Thompson have both won Futures titles this year. Hiltzik is hoping to reach his first Futures final with a win Saturday.

Jordi Arconada of Argentina and Dominic Cotrone, the No. 4 seeds, won the doubles title in Godfrey, beating unseeded Fred Saba and John Lamble 6-4, 6-4 in the final.

At the women's $10,000 Pro Circuit event in Evansville, 17-year-old Alexa Graham and 18-year-old Andie Daniell have advanced to the semifinals, where they will play each other. Graham, the No. 7 seed, defeated qualifier Frances Altick 6-1, 6-1 and Daniell ousted No. 4 seed Francesca Segarelli of the Dominican Republic 6-3, 7-6(4).  Daniell, who will be starting at Alabama this fall, is through to her first Pro Circuit semifinal in singles. Graham has reached two finals at $10,000 events this year.

The other semifinal will feature qualifier Lauren Herring, the recent Georgia graduate, against Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway.

The Binghamton Challenger will feature two Americans, with qualifier Sekou Bangoura meeting top seed Kyle Edmund of Great Britain in one semifinal and No. 2 seed Bjorn Fratangelo facing No. 6 seed Brydan Klein, also of Great Britain, in the other.

The qualifying draw of the BB&T Open in Atlanta is out, with Tommy Paul, Reilly Opelka, Walker Duncan and Trent Bryde receiving wild cards.  Paul and Duncan, who were to be teammates at Georgia before Paul turned pro this summer, meet in the first round.

DeVine, Smith Win Wild Card Tournaments, Entry into Nationals; Paul Advances at Binghamton. Joins Bryde in ATP Event in Atlanta; Kentucky's Gomez Beats Baghdatis; Are Spain and Switzerland Heading for Men's Tennis Decline?

The inaugural USTA Wild Card tournaments for entry into the 18s Nationals were completed today in Arlington, Texas, with Jake DeVine and Maria Smith earning their places in Kalamazoo and San Diego.

DeVine, the No. 2 seed, defeated unseeded Erik Kerrigan 6-2, 6-4 in the final. DeVine, who reached the final of the Kalamazoo 16s in 2013, losing to Tommy Paul, won all five of his matches in straight sets. 

Smith, also a No. 2 seed, needed only three victories to earn her wild card, with a bye and a walkover in her first two rounds.  The 18-year-old from Texas beat top seed Olivia Hauger 1-6, 6-4, 7-5 in the final.

The complete list of Kalamazoo wild cards:
18s

John Jorgeson

Eduardo Nava

Dennis Uspensky

Vasil Kirkov

Mwendwa Mbithi

Logan Smith

Frances Tiafoe

Jake DeVine

16s

Sean Hill 

Alexandre Rotsaert 

Matthew Rodriguez

The complete list of San Diego wild cards:
18s                                                      
Helen Altick
Summer Dvorak
Dasha Ivanova
Kaitlyn McCarthy
Maria Smith

16s       
Alexandra Angyalosy             
Emma Decoste
Abigail Desiatnikov              
Elvena Gevargiz
Britt Pursell
Stephanie Taylor

Today in Binghamton, Tommy Paul joined Frances Tiafoe in the second round of the $50,000 Challenger, defeating Gonzalo Escobar of Ecuador 6-3, 7-5.  Paul has received a qualifying wild card into next week's BB&T Atlanta Open, the first ATP event in the US Open Series.  Fifteen-year-old Trent Bryde won a wild card challenge playoff today in Atlanta, earning a qualifying wild card with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Kyle Montrel of Xavier University of Louisiana.  Tiafoe was awarded a main draw wild card into the tournament last month.

At the women's $50,000 Sacramento Challenger, wild cards Brooke Austin, Jamie Loeb and Robin Anderson won their first round matches, as did Kristie Ahn and No. 5 seed Jennifer Brady. UCLA teammates Brady and Anderson will play in the second round Thursday.

After Alex Sarkissian picked up his first ATP win last night in Bogota, former Kentucky star and qualifier Alejandro Gomez of Colombia came up with an even bigger victory there tonight, beating No. 5 seed Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-3, 0-6, 7-6(3). Gomez, who completed his senior year in 2014, is ranked 698, while the former Australian Open finalist is No. 45 in the ATP rankings. For more on Gomez's win, see this article from the University of Kentucky website.

ESPN.com's Kamakshi Tandon looks at the men's talent pipeline in Switzerland and Spain and asks if those two countries are prepared for the seemingly inevitable decline they face as their superstars move closer to retirement.

Tiafoe, Rubin Win Opening Round Matches at Binghamton Challenger; Auger Aliassime, 14, Reaches Second Round at Granby $100K; Sarkissian Posts First ATP Victory

It was a busy day in the Americas, with noteworthy wins from Canada to Colombia.

Frances Tiafoe, who has struggled a bit since his Challenger run this spring, picked up his first main draw win since May in the opening round of the $50,000 Challenger in Binghamton, New York. He defeated Gregoire Barrere of France 6-4, 7-6(1) today to set up a second round match against No. 2 seed Bjorn Fratangelo, who he beat back in April during the run that secured the USTA's French Open wild card.

Wild card Noah Rubin picked up his second Challenger level win, defeating Omar Jasika of Australia 6-3, 6-3 in a battle between two recent junior slam champions.  Rubin will play top seed Kyle Edmund of Great Britain in the second round Thursday. Edmund beat Ernesto Escobedo 7-5, 6-7(4), 6-1.

Wimbledon champion Reilly Opelka lost his Challenger debut to qualifier Sekou Bangoura 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 after leading 4-2 in the final set.  Bangoura held and broke to pull even in the third set, and then a huge wind gust tore the wind screen from the fence, which basically made the court unplayable. After the storm passed, the players returned to the court and Bangoura held (from deuce), then broke Opelka for the win.

No. 5 seed Jared Donaldson had just completed his 6-3, 6-2 win over Takuto Niki of Japan when play was suspended. Due to the delay, Tommy Paul's match with Gonzalo Escobar of Ecuador was postponed until Wednesday.

At the $15,000 Futures in Godfrey, Illinois, the top two seeds are out. Clay Thompson advanced over top seed Deiton Baughman 3-6, 7-5, 3-0 retired, and Fred Saba, the former Duke star, beat No. 2 seed Kaichi Uchida of Japan 6-4, 6-1.  Nick Chappell, the recent TCU standout, defeated No. 4 seed Harry Bourchier of Australia 7-5, 6-3.

The top two seeds in the women's $10,000 tournament in Evansville, Indiana--Bianca Botto of Peru and Naomi Totka of Hungary--will begin play on Wednesday. A host of US college and junior players are in the draw, with wild card Sara Daavettila collecting her first professional level main draw victory. No. 7 seed Alexa Graham, Daavettila's future teammate at North Carolina, defeated Francesca Di Lorenzo 1-6, 7-6(4), 6-4.

Qualifying for the women's $50,000 Sacramento Challenger was completed today, with Michaela Gordon moving into the main draw with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Jacqueline Cako. Nicole Frenkel defeated Kelly Chen in the final round of qualifying, but both reached the main draw, with Chen taking a lucky loser spot.  Gordon will play wild card Brooke Austin and Chen will meet wild card Jamie Loeb, with Frenkel drawing No. 6 seed Mayo Hibi of Japan.  In first round action today, No. 3 seed CiCi Bellis, No. 8 seed Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine and No. 2 seed Eri Hozumi of Japan advanced to the second round with straight-set wins.

In Granby, Canada, at the $100,000 men's Challenger, Felix Auger-Aliassime recorded his first Challenger victory, beating fellow qualifier Andrew Whittington of Australia 6-3, 6-2.  Auger-Aliassime, who turns 15 next month, made a big splash in March when he qualified for the Drummondville Challenger, but an injury forced him to withdraw before he could play his first round match.  In Granby qualifying, he beat fellow Canadian teen Jack Lin and Jean-Yves Aubone to advance to the main draw.  Auger-Aliassime's ITF junior ranking is not high enough to get him into the junior slams, and, although he has had good results this summer in ITF events on European clay, he has yet to win an ITF tournament above a Grade 3. He will play No. 8 seed Darian King of Barbados in the second round, after King defeated qualifier Raymond Sarmiento 6-2, 6-3.

Young Canadians Katherine Sebov and Charlotte Robillard-Millette are playing the women's $50,000 tournament in Granby, with Sebov qualifying for the main draw and Robillard-Millette getting a first round win.  Qualifier Ellie Halbauer advanced to the second round with a 6-3, 6-1 win over wild card Erin Routliffe of Canada, a two-time NCAA doubles champion at Alabama.

At the ATP 250 in Bogota, Colombia, 2014 NCAA finalist Alex Sarkissian won his first ATP-level match tonight, defeating ATP No. 97 John Millman of Australia 6-3, 6-3.  The former Pepperdine star will play No. 7 seed Malek Jaziri of Tunisia in the second round.

The Tennis Recruiting Network has begun its Clay Courts Championship Week coverage with recaps of the 12s tournaments. The article on Saud Alhogbani's title is here, and Elvina Kalieva's championship is here.

The USTA's New Balance High School Championships began on Monday in Boston, and the draws can be found here.

Ram Wins Second ATP Title in Newport; Rublev Delivers in Davis Cup; Binghamton and Sacramento Challengers, European Championships on Tap

Rajeev Ram won the second ATP title of his career today, defeating No. 2 seed Ivo Karlovic of Croatia 7-6(5), 5-7, 7-6(2) in the final of the Hall of Fame Championships in Newport, Rhode Island.  Ram, who played on the 2003 NCAA championship team at Illinois, won his first ATP title in 2009, also in Newport.  Ram defeated top seed John Isner in the opening round, saving a match point, and saved two match points in his win over No. 5 seed Adrian Mannarino of France in the quarterfinals. Ram, currently ranked 161, will move inside the ATP Top 90, assuring himself a spot in the main draw of the US Open.  For more on the final, see the ATP website.

The final day of Davis Cup play provided plenty of drama, with Australia coming back from 2-0 down against Kazakhstan to reach the semifinals against Great Britain, with veterans Sam Groth and Lleyton Hewitt getting the two single wins Sunday.  Argentina beat Serbia 4-1 and will meet Belgium in the other semifinal, after Belgium shut out Canada.

Russia claimed the second comeback from 2-0 down of the weekend, defeating Spain in Zone Group I Playoffs to earn a place in the September World Group Playoffs.  2014 ITF World Junior Champion Andrey Rublev had lost in straight sets to Tommy Robredo to open the tie, but in the fifth rubber, the 17-year-old beat ATP No. 32 Pablo Andujar 6-4, 7-6(4), 6-3 to seal the win.   For all results, see the Davis Cup website.

The $50,000 Stockton Challenger, the first of three tournaments designated for the USTA's US Open wild card challenge, featured two international players in the final, with No. 5 seed Nao Hibino of Japan defeating top seed An Sophie Mestach of Belgium 6-1, 7-6(6).  Sanaz Marand reached the semifinals in singles to take the lead in the Wild Card Challenge, with two more tournaments, in Sacramento and Lexington, remaining.  No. 4 seeds Marand and Jamie Loeb, both stars at North Carolina, won the doubles championship, beating former USC standouts Danielle Lao and Kaitlyn Christian 6-3, 6-4 in the final.

The men's wild card challenge begins tomorrow at the $50,000 tournament in Binghamton, New York.  Reilly Opelka, Tommy Paul and Noah Rubin received wild cards into the main draw, as did Great Britain's Kyle Edmund, who is the top seed. Frances Tiafoe received entry based on his ranking. Opelka plays a qualifier, Paul faces former Texas Tech star Gonzalo Escobar of Ecuador, Rubin meets 2014 US Open boys champion Omar Jasika of Australia and Tiafoe's first round opponent is Gregoire Barrere of France.  Bjorn Fratangelo(2), Jared Donaldson(5), Daniel Nguyen(7), Dennis Novikov, Mitchell Krueger, Dennis Nevolo and Ryan Sweeting are the other US men in the draw, as well as Marco Giron and Sekou Bangoura, who qualified today. Austin Smith(Georgia) and Ernesto Escobedo will decide the third American qualifier tomorrow, and Nick Meister can join them with a win over Great Britain's Luke Bambridge in their final round qualifying match.

The first round of qualifying for the women's tournament in Sacramento is underway, with the main draw yet to be released.

After a couple of weeks on grass, the ITF Junior Circuit in Europe returned to clay. At the Grade 1 in Austria, No. 7 seed Ugo Humbert took the boys title in an all-French contest, beating unseeded Evan Furness 6-4, 6-3.  No. 14 seed Georgia Craciun of Romania took the girls title, beating unseeded qualifier Anastasia Zarytska 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(5) in the final. Nada Dimovska of the US qualified and reached the third round, beating the No. 7 seed in the second round.

The European championships begin in three different locations on the continent next week. The ITF Grade B1 is in Switzerland, with Corentin Dennolly of France and Mikael Ymer of Sweden the top two boys seeds, and Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic and Dalma Galfi of Hungary No. 1 and No. 2 in the girls draw.

The 16s division is in Moscow, with Patrik Rikl of the Czech Republic the top boys seed and Olesya Pervushina of Russia the No. 1 girls seed.

At the 14s division, held in the Czech Republic, Timofey Skatov of Russia is the No. 1 boys seed and Taisya Pachkaleva of Russia is No. 1 in the girls draw.

Links to the draws and order of play for all three age divisions is available at this Tennis Europe website page.

My Wimbledon Recap; USTA Clay Court Finals Set; Nedovyesov Tops Kyrgios in Davis Cup; Zhao Wins Pan Am Gold

My recap of the Wimbledon Junior Championships is available today at the Tennis Recruiting Network. Although Sunday was a bit bleak, in general the weather was outstanding, the best I've experienced in my four trips.  And it's always a plus for me when US juniors do well which they certainly did this year: six quarterfinalists and a singles champion and doubles finalist in Reilly Opelka.

Because Wimbledon was a week later this year, I was unable to cover the Girls 18s Clay Courts in Memphis after being there the previous seven years. All finals in the four age divisions are scheduled for Saturday. The results of today's semifinals, with full draws available by clicking the link contained in the age division heading.

Boys 18s:
Sam Riffice(1) def. Nathan Perrone(17) 6-2, 1-6, 6-2

Alexandre Rotsaert(17) def. (9) Vasil Kirkov(9)
7-6, 6-1


Girls 18s:

Ellyse Hamlin(6) def. Mia Horvit(5)

6-2, 7-6(3)

Kaitlyn McCarthy(17) def. Meible Chi

(8) 6-4, 7-5

Boys 16s:

Aleks Huryn(17) def. Kyrylo Tsygura(6) 6-3, 6-4

Danny Thomas(17) d. Robert Maciag 6-3, 6-3

Girls 16s:
Samantha Martinelli(2) def. Nicole Mossmer(4) 4-6, 6-3, 6-1
Natasha Subhash(1) def. Hannah Lairmore(3) 6-3, 6-4

Boys 14s:
Jenson Brooksby(4) def. JanMagnus Johnson 6-1, 6-7(7), 6-3
William Grant(7) def. (17) Stefan Leustian(17) 6-1, 6-2

Girls 14s:
Hailey Baptiste(17) def. Victoria Hu(8) 5-7, 6-4, 6-1
Alexa Noel(1) def.  Alana Wolfberg(4) 6-2, 6-1

Boys 12s:

Saud Alhogbani(12) def. Alexander Bernard(8) 6-4, 6-3

Karl Lee(4) def. Hugo Hashimoto(1) 7-6(4), 6-3

Girls 12s:

Elvina Kalieva(9) def. Ellie Pittman(17) 5-7, 6-3, 6-1

Charlotte Owensby(1) def. Rachel Arbitman(17) 6-2, 6-3

Davis Cup is underway, and Bobby Knight has all the results involving current and former collegians from World Group to Group III competition at College Tennis Today.  The biggest win for a college player was that of former Oklahoma State star Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan. Nedovyesov defeated Nick Kyrgios 7-6(5), 6-7(2), 7-6(5), 6-4 to give Kazakhstan a 2-0 lead over the Australians in a World Group quarterfinal in Darwin.

Also playing Davis Cup this week is 16-year-old Hady Habib, who is representing Lebanon in its relegation playoff with Sri Lanka. Habib, currently 91 in the ITF world junior rankings, is a regular on the ITF circuit here in the United States.

Other international tennis competitions concluded today, with gold medals decided at the Pacific Games and the Pan American Games.  Papua New Guinea's Abigail Tere-Apisah, the former Georgia State All-American and 2014 NCAA semifinalist, collected four gold medals, winning singles, doubles, mixed and team events.

At the Pan American Games in Toronto, the women's doubles gold went to the Canadian team of Carol Zhao(Stanford) and Gaby Dabrowski. They defeated the Mexican team of Victoria Rodriguez and Marcela Zacarias 6-1, 4-6, 10-5.  Mariana Duque-Marino of Colombia won the singles gold medal, beating Rodriguez 6-4, 6-4.  Monica Puig of Puerto Rico took the bronze with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over Lauren Davis.

Fields Announced for American Collegiate Invitational at US Open

The USTA has announced 14 of the 16 participants in the American Collegiate Invitational at the US Open September 10-12, 2015. Last year's inaugural tournaments featured eight American men and eight American women in a single-elimination tournament that takes place over the Thursday, Friday and Saturday of the second week of the US Open, and this year's tournament will continue to follow that schedule. UNC's Jamie Loeb defeated Virginia's Julia Elbaba in the 2014 women's final, and both will be returning this year.  UCLA's Marcos Giron won the men's final, beating Ohio State's Peter Kobelt in the men's final. Neither of them are eligible to return. Mackenzie McDonald of UCLA is the only one of the men who competed in the tournament last year.   Jennifer Brady of UCLA, who would be eligible this year and did play last year, is not participating.  The criteria for selection, which Brady would have reached via her WTA ranking, is the top two American collegians in WTA/ATP rankings, joined by the top five in the final ITA rankings.Two wild cards, one women's and one men's, have yet to be named. The women's field: *Robin Anderson (Sr., UCLA; Matawan, N.J.) Brooke Austin (Fr., Florida; Indianapolis) Julia Elbaba (Jr., Virginia; Oyster Bay, N.Y.) *Lauren Herring (Sr., Georgia; Greenville, N.C.) Josie Kuhlman (Fr., Florida; Ponte Vedra, Fla.) Jamie Loeb (Soph., North Carolina; Ossining, N.Y.) Maegan Manasse (Soph., Cal; Redondo Beach, Calif.) The men's field: *Gonzales Austin (Sr., Vanderbilt; Miami) *Mitchell Frank (Sr., Virginia; Annandale, Va.) Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Soph., Virginia; Charlotte, N.C.) *Winston Lin (Sr., Columbia; Williamsville, N.Y.) Mackenzie McDonald (Soph., UCLA; Piedmont, Calif.) Quentin Monaghan (Jr., Notre Dame; Chatham, N.J.) Ryan Shane (Jr., Virginia; Falls Church, Va.) *Indicates player is a graduating senior and/or has turned pro/exhausted collegiate eligibility.  The American Collegiate Invitational champions will receive main draw wild card entries into the 2016 US Open if either is ranked No. 120 or better by the US Open entry deadline next summer. This ranking target is much tougher than last year's, which required the women's champion to be in the WTA Top 150 and the men's champion in the ATP Top 250. The winners will receive qualifying wild cards if they do not meet that ranking target. The champions will also get wild cards into two USTA Pro Circuit events, while each runner-up will get one. My coverage of last year's tournament is here. I have been told the tournament will feature regular scoring, not the no-ad format currently in use by the ITA.

June Aces; Mmoh Wins Roehampton; Wimbledon Junior Championships Begin Saturday

©Colette Lewis 2015--
Wimbledon--

There was a lot going on today, but in my attempt to minimize my jet lag and try to get over some sort of bug I picked up on the plane(s), I'll make this brief.

My monthly collection of outstanding performances, June version, is available now at the Tennis Recruiting Network.

Michael Mmoh won the ITF Grade 1 in Roehampton today. The No. 3 seed defeated No. 5 seed Viktor Durasovic of Norway 7-6(4), 6-3. No. 3 seed Dalma Galfi of Hungary took the girls title, beating top seed and world No. 1 Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic 7-6(3), 6-2.

Tommy Paul and William Blumberg lost in the boys doubles final to Australians Jake Delaney and Marc Polmas 6-7(3), 6-1, 10-7.  The outstanding play of top girls doubles seeds Miriam Kolodziejova and Vondrousova continued with their 6-3, 6-3 win over Australians Destanee Aiava and Olivia Tjandramulia.

Alejandro Tabilo of Canada and Tornado Alicia Black

Emil Reinberg qualified for the Wimbledon boys junior championships today, defeating Alexandar Lazarov of Bulgaria 2-6, 6-4, 8-6. Reinberg will join 17 other Americans in the boys and girls singles draws, but as with all qualifiers, he will have the day off on Saturday and will begin play on Monday, as do all the Roehampton finalists. Top seed Taylor Fritz plays a qualifier, so he too will begin play on Monday.

US boys seeded, in addition to Fritz, are Michael Mmoh(4), Tommy Paul(7) and William Blumberg(9).  Two US girls are seeded: Usue Arconada(6) and Sonya Kenin(9).

The US juniors in action on Saturday in bold:

Wild card Anastasia Potapova (RUS) vs Francesca Di Lorenzo

Luisa Stefani (BRA) [13] vs Claire Liu

Wild card Lauryn John-Baptiste (GBR) vs Ingrid Neel

Usue Arconada [6] vs Monika Kilnarova (CZE)

Yusuke Takahashi (JPN) vs Nathan Ponwith

Rebeka Masarova (SUI) vs Michaela Gordon

Kayla Day vs Tessah Andrianjafitrimo (FRA)

Katherine Sebov (CAN) vs wild card Tornado Alicia Black

Caroline Dolehide vs Julieta Lara Estable (ARG) [14]

There will be live scoring at the Wimbledon website.  The complete draws are here.  The complete qualifying results are here.

Congratulations to unseeded Americans Denis Kudla and CoCo Vandeweghe for making the second week at Wimbledon with wins today.