Although there are no USTA Pro Circuit tournaments for the first two weeks of March, Canada is hosting an M15 and a W15 this week, both of which have attracted many Americans. Into the men’s tournament Sherbrooke features two Canadian juniors, but mainly former colleagues have improved; in Trois-Rivers three teenagers have reached the quarter-finals.
Thara Gowda, a 17-year-old from Michigan, is playing in only her second ITF Women’s World Tennis Tour tournament. Gowda, just outside the ITF Junior Circuit Top 100, qualified for her first main draw on the professional circuit, today beating No. 5 seed Jada Robinson to reach the quarter-finals.
Gowda, who is enrolled in both the Tucson And San Diego J300s will play unseeded 18-year-old Nadia Lagaev from Canada on Friday. Lagaev, a recruit from Georgia, is not enrolled in Tucson but entered San Diego.
The third teenager is 17-year-old Anna Tabunshchyk from Canada, who has not played a junior event since 2024. Seventeen-year-old Kaya Moe qualified and won her first-round match, but lost today to top seed Ariana Arseneault (Georgia, Auburn) of Canada.
The semi-finals will be played on the ITF J200 in Las Vegaswith three of the eight participants unplaced, two of which were in the girls’ draw.
Armira Kockinis defeated No. 14 seed Caroline Shao 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 to avenge her loss to Shao at the J200 in Corpus Christi last fall. Kockinis will play No. 5 seed Riyo Yoshida of Japan, who defeated Charlize Celebrini 7-5, 6-3.
Carlota Moreno, a semifinalist at the W15 in Florida two weeks ago, defeated unseeded Yilin Chen 6-4, 6-4 and will play No. 2 seed Hollie Smart of Great Britain. Smart defeated Tanvi Pandey 6-2, 6-2 to advance.
Top seed Ryan Cozad advanced to Friday’s semifinals with a 6-2, 6-3 win over No. 12 seed Kamil Stolarczyk. He will play No. 11 seed Felix Roussel of Canada, who defeated Mason Vaughan 7-6(6), 6-2.
In the bottom half, No. 10 seed Ford McCollum plays unseeded Justin Riley Anson, with McCollum ending Dhakshish Aryan Basavaraju’s winning streak with a 6-3, 6-1 win in the quarterfinals. Aryan Basavaraju had won thirteen matches in a row on the ITF Junior Circuit last month. Anson defeated No. 13 seed Daniel Malacek 7-6(3), 6-3 in today’s quarterfinals.
The doubles finals are scheduled for Friday in Las Vegas, with top seeds Cozad and McCollum taking on the unseeded team of Andrej Markovic and Kahven Singh for the boys title; No. 5 seeds Celebrini and Capucine Jauffret will play No. 8 seeds Moreno and Sophia Budacsek for the girls doubles championship.
March is an extremely busy month for junior events, with the two J300s here in the United States and two J300s and a J500 in South America. It’s hard to keep track of who’s playing where, but now that Tuesday’s withdrawal deadline has passed, there is some clarity. ITF No. 11 Michael Antonius, who was entered in the San Diego J300 and in the J500 Banana Bowl in Brazilhas withdrawn from both. With his two ITF J300 titles already this year, he should be ready for the junior slams this summer.
Julieta Pareja, from nearby Carlsbad, withdrew from San Diego, so she will not defend her 300 points from the ITF J300 in Indian Wells this month.
Janae Preston, who has won three consecutive J300s, was entered in both San Diego and Brazil; she withdrew from San Diego, but still competes in the Banana Bowl.
The seeded players enter the field for the first time Friday at the BNP Paribas openedwhile Wednesday and Thursday’s first round are still ongoing to determine their opponents. Two of the American qualifiers, Kayla Day and Taylor Townsend, advanced today with straight-sets victories. Day, who sailed through qualifying, had no problems again today, beating Great Britain’s Francesca Jones 6-3, 6-1. She will face No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek in the second round. Townsend defeated Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic 6–2, 6–1 to set up a meeting with No. 28 seed Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine.
Other unseeded Americans advancing to the second round are Ashlyn Krueger, Marcos Giron (UCLA), Reilly Opelka, Jenson Brooksby, wild card Zachary Svajda, Aleks Kovacevic (Illinois) and Alex Michelsen.
Wild card Lilli Tagger of Austria, the reigning Roland Garros girls champion, won her first-round match 6-2, 6-4 against Varvara Gracheva of France. She will play No. 32 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece in the second round.
#Gowda #reaches #quarterfinals #W15 #Canada #unseeded #semifinalists #ITF #J200 #Las #Vegas #Antonius #Pareja #withdraw #San #Diego #J300 #Qualifying #Day #Townsend #Advance #BNP #Paribas #Open