Orange Bowl Gallery; Smith Claims Second M25 Title in Winston-Salem; Qualifying for the Australian Open begins with twelve American men and twelve American women competing in the main draw

The last post in my review of last month’s Orange Bowl is from me Tennis Recruiting Network photo gallery from the 16s tournament. It includes all players from the United States (plus a couple who train here but compete for other countries) who have won a singles round. I’m focusing on the 16s for this tournament to showcase some new faces; many of those who played the 18s appeared in the US Open juniors or Pan-American closed ITF J300 galleries.

Keegan Smith won his second career M25 title today at the USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Winston-Salem North Carolina, but it wasn’t easy.

The 27-year-old former UCLA All-American, seeded No. 5, needed three hours and 18 minutes to get past recent University of Tennessee standout Shunsuke Mitsui of Japan (7-6(5), 6-7(4), 6-3) in today’s final. Smith should go to around 350 when the 25 points are added.

One second M25 starts Monday in Winston-Salemwith most of the same players, including Smith and Mitsui, participating.

Qualifying for the Australian Open starts on Monday (tonight in the United States), with twelve American men and twelve American women looking to win three matches to reach the main draw.

Below are the first round matchups with Americans; there are no first round matches between players from the United States, which is quite unusual.

The men’s qualifying draw is here; is the women’s qualifying draw here.

Michael Zheng vs. Cruz Hewitt[WC](OUT)
*Brandon Holt[5] against Lukas Neumayer (AUT)
*Colton Smith[32] in Luka Pavlovic (FRA)
Mackenzie McDonald[6] against Dmitry Popko (KAZ)
Michael Mmoh v Vitaliy Sachko (UKR)
Nicolas Moreno de Alboran against Vilius Gaubas[17](LTU)
*Nishesh Basavareddy against Alexis Galarneau (CAN)
Zachary Svajda[29] v Hady Habib (LBN)
Mitchell Krueger v Yibing Wu(CHN)
*Tristan Boyer vs. Alex Barrena (ARG)
*Murphy Cassone Hsi Hesou Heso(TPE)
*Martin Damm v Gauthier Onclin (BEL)

*on Monday’s schedule

*Maria Stoiana against Nuria Brancaccio (ITA)

*Sloane Stephens in Barbora Palicova (CZE)

Elvina Kalieva against Sijia Wei (CHN)

Varvara Lepchenko[32] v Ye-Xin Ma(CHN)

Louisa Chirico against Yue Yuan[25](CHN)

*Sachia Vickery against Despina Papamichail (GRE)

*Bernard Pera against Viktoria Tomova[18](BUL)

*Madison Brengle against Maja Chwalinska (POL)

*Taylor Townsend[11] against Nao Hibino (JPN)

Claire Liu Exam time (CROs)

Carol Lee v Hanne Vandewinkel[15](BEL)

Whitney Osuigwe against Anastasia Sevastova (LAT)

2025 Australian Open boys champion Henry Bernet of Switzerland, who received a qualifying wildcard, has drawn Pablo Llamas Ruiz of Spain.

ITF Junior No. 8 Ksenia Efremova of France, who received a mutual wildcard into qualifying, will play No. 8 seed Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus on Monday.

Brandon Nakashima lost in the finals of the ATP250 in Brisbane to top ranked Daniil Medvedev of Russia 6-2, 7-6(1).