Orange Bowl acceptances include defending boys champion Santamarta Roig, but few top girls; Lee earns first ATP point, Johnson beats Antonius in Orlando M15; McNeil defeats Sonobe at W50 in Austin; Blanch avenges Knoxville’s latest loss in Champaign

Three Top 10 boys and two Top 10 girls have applied, with Spain’s Andres Santamarta Roig, the defending champion in both events, topping the acceptance lists. Santamarta, currently number 3 in the ITF rankings, clearly has a lot of points to defend, points he may need to stay in the ITF Top 10 at the end of the year. A top 10 finish means a maximum of eight Challenger 50 and 75 wildcards into the main draw.

The other two Top 10 guys are recent ITF Junior Finals runner-up Yannick Alexandrescou of Romania[6] and Jack Kennedy[8].

In addition to Kennedy, the Americans in the main event of the Orange Bowl are: Ronit Karki, Keaton Hance, Noah Johnston, Michael Antonius, Jack Satterfield, Jack Secord, Andrew Johnson, Max Dussault, Max Exsted, Gavin Goode, Dominick Mosejczuk and Ryan Cozad. Johnston (Georgia), Satterfield (Vanderbilt), Dussault (TCU) and Mosejczuk (Wake Forest) are all competing in their first semester of college this fall, so it remains to be seen if they will actually play what would be the final ITF junior tournament of their careers.

The boys’ main draw cutoff was 83; There are ten American boys left in qualifying, with a cutoff of 206.

The two Top 10 girls who competed at the Orange Bowl are Ksenia Efremova[8] of France and No. 10 Alena Kovackova of the Czech Republic.

The American girls admitted to the main draw of the Orange Bowl are Thea Frodin, Annika Penickova, Capucine Jauffret, Melije Clarke, Welles Newman, Nancy Lee, Carrie-Ann Hoo, Ishika Ashar, Maggie Sohns and Ava Rodriguez.

The cutoff for the girls’ main event was 107; There are 17 American girls left in qualifying, with a cutoff of 234.

The Bradenton field is similar, but Kennedy, Karki, Satterfield and Exsted did not enter. American girls in the Orange Bowl but not Bradenton are Frodin, Annika Penickova and Sohns.

The boys’ main draw cutoff in Bradenton was 95, the girls’ main draw cutoff was 111.

That is one of the three matches for the juniors in the second round. Longtime friends and U.S. Open boys doubles champions Jack Kennedy and Keaton Hance will play after Hance defeated Ole Miss sophomore Benjamin Martin, a qualifier, 7-6(3), 6-2. Kennedy won their most recent junior meeting in the semi-finals of the ITF J300 in Indian Wells 6-4, 3-6, 6-1. The third match will be between qualifier Noah Johnston (Georgia) and Max Exsted. Johnston advanced as Brazil’s Pedro Rodrigues (UCF) retired with a 4-6, 6-1, 3-1 lead. Exsted today defeated Jonathan Mridha from Sweden 6-0, 7-5.

Seventeen-year-old Gavin Goode, who defeated top seed Toby Kodat yesterday, will face Morocco’s Mehdi Benchakroun (UCF) in the second round on Thursday, and 18-year-old Reda Bennani of Morocco, the No. 5 seed, will play qualifier Andreja Petrovic (North Dakota, Florida State, Duke) of Norway. For the second straight week in Orlando, Nikolas Stoot has qualified and advanced, with the 17-year-old Floridian defeating University of Florida junior Kevin Edengren of Sweden 6-3, 6-0. He will play against No. 8 seed Stijn Paardekooper (St. Bonaventure, Utah State) of the Netherlands.

In today’s battle for the Junior Davis Cup champion’s teammates, Andrew Johnson defeated fellow wildcard Michael Antonius 6-3, 6-4, swinging the head-to-head battle back in his favor after falling 6-4, 6-3 to Antonius in the ITF J300 Pan Am final last month. Johnson will next face No. 2 seed Felix Corwin (Minnesota).