The Final ITF World Tennis Tour juniors begins Wednesday with round robin play in Chengdu, which is late tonight in the United States Eastern time zone. The two boys and two girls groups, shown below, will produce the four semi-finalists, with the knockout round starting on Saturday.
The Americans participating in the Junior Finals are Jack Kennedy, Benjamin Willwerth and Kristina Penickova. A new ITF junior streaming platform will offer matches on all three courses, with that page here. Live scores can be found here.
The ITF notes about the Junior Finals can be found here.
Playing order Wednesday:
Next to the ATP Challenger 100 in Sioux Falls, South Dakotawhich I reported on yesterday, there are four other USTA Pro Circuit tournaments this week. With the ITA Regionals also wrapping up this week, the fields are thin as the qualifying draws at the W35 and M25 in Norman Oklahoma are not being filled. The qualification on the W15 in Hilton Head filled, with many junior girls choosing to gain experience and possible victories at the lowest level of the Pro Circuit.
Ciara Harding, now coached by Michael Joyce, qualified for the main draw, as did 18-year-old Karma Yacavino and 16-year-olds Jensen Diianni and Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann.
Wild cards were given to Carson Tanguilig (UNC), 17-year-old Ireland O’Brien and 15-year-olds Janae Preston and Welles Newman. Preston defeated Thea Frodin, currently No. 20 in the ITF junior rankings, 6-2, 6-2, and Newman upset No. 1 seed Rinon Okuwaki of Japan 6-1, 6-4.
Sixteen-year-old Nancy Lee, through the ITF junior reserved entry program, defeated No. 8 seed Amanda Nava Elkin of Mexico 6-2, 6-0.
At the W35 in NormandyAll first round matches will be played on Wednesday, but qualifying has been completed. Kaede Usui, a freshman at Wisconsin, Savannah Broadus, a recent Pepperdine All-American and Kailey Evans (Texas Tech, San Diego) are the Americans who reached the main draw.
Michigan junior Piper Charney received a wild card, as did University of Oklahoma teammates Gloriana Nahum of Benin and Barakat Oyinlomo Quadre of Nigeria. Oklahoma freshman Mika Buchnik gained entry through the ITF Junior Exempt program and will face top seed Elvina Kalieva in the first round. Fifteen-year-old Kristina Liutova gained access to her own rankings and will compete against Dutch qualifier Rose Marie Nijkamp, a sophomore at Oklahoma State.
The women’s equivalent of the Sioux Falls Challenger is the W100 in Tyler, Texaswhere W100 Macon champion Renata Zarazua of Mexico is again the top seed and Caroline Dolehide, also a WTA Top 100 player, is the No. 2 seed.
American qualifiers are Ellie Schoppe (Furman, Florida State), Dalayna Hewitt, Mary Lewis (Arizona, Michigan State) and Abigail Rencheli (NC State).
Only two wild cards were awarded to Texas freshman Christasha McNeil, who plays her first-round match against Rasheeda McAdoo (Georgia Tech) on Wednesday, and 16-year-old Pan Am ITF J300 champion Chukwumelije Clarke, who lost 6-2, 6-2 today to No. 5 seed Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus.
At the M25 in NormandyMichigan State sophomore and 2024 Kalamazoo 18s champion Matt Forbes advanced to the main draw through qualifying, the only American to do so.
2023 Wimbledon boys champion Henry Searle of Great Britain is the top seed, with recent Harvard graduate Daniel Milavsky the second seed.
Wild cards were awarded to sophomores Oscar Lacides and Alejandro Melero at the University of Oklahoma and Hank Trondson and Asahi Harazaki at OU. Kaylan Bigun used the ITF junior exempt program to enter, while Texas’ Sebastian Gorzny entered through the ITF collegiate Accelerator Program.
The final standings of the USTA’s Australian Open Wild Card race have been announced, with the women’s second week in the books and the men’s first week now complete.
Eliot Spizzirri (Texas) leads the men’s standings after qualifying and reaching the quarter-finals of the ATP 250 in Belgium, while Anna Rogers has moved into second place after reaching the Macon W100 final last week.
Women’s Ranking – through week 2 of 5
(Player’s current ranking in brackets)
1. Elizabeth Mandlik (215) – 101
2. Anna Rogers (247) – 66
3. Alexei Blokhina (355) – 52
4. Lea Ma (336) – 38
5. Madison Brengle (444) — 33
Men’s standings – up to and including week 1 of 5
(Player’s current ranking in brackets)
1. Eliot Spizzirri (103) – 63
2. Martin Damm (208) – 44
3. Patrick Kypson (166) – 22
T4. Brandon Holt (109)-12
T4. André Ilagan (350) – 12
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