Janae Preston competed in both the Australian Open Junior Championships, where she would have competed in qualifying, and the ITF J300 coffee bowl in Costa Ricawhere she finished as the number 4 seed. The decision to stay a little closer to home paid off, with the 15-year-old from Nevada claiming her first ITF J300 title last night with a 6-1, 6-0 win over No. 7 seed Klara Blazkova of the Czech Republic.
Preston, who won six sets 6-1 over the course of the week, won two ITF J100 titles in the first six months of last year, but it was last fall when she really started to show a higher level, reaching the quarter-finals of the ITF J300 in Houston and advancing to two semi-finals at W15 tournaments. She will move into the ITF Junior Top 100 for the first time, and with all the new J200s, in addition to the J300s in March, she will now have plenty of chances to secure a place in the junior slams this summer.
The first round of the Australian Open Junior Championships produced a major upset, with Romania’s Matei Todoran beating top seed Yannick Alexandrescou of France 7-6(5), 6-2. Although Alexandrescou now represents France, he played under the Romanian flag during his ITF junior career until late last year, so the two clearly know each other well. Todoran avenged his 6-1 and 6-1 July 2025 loss to Alexandrescou in the semi-finals of a J300 in Poland on clay.
Two other boy seeds were lost in the opening round: No. 14 seed Tito Chavez of Spain and No. 16 seed Yannik Alvarez of Puerto Rico.
The only seed from the Top 8 girls to lose in the first round was No. 7 Anastasjia Cvetkovic of Serbia; 9-16 seeds that fell were No. 9 Sol Ailin Larraya Guidi of Argentina, No. 15 Tahlia Kokkinis of Australia and No. 16 See Sofie Hettlerova of the Czech Republic.
The only American girl to win her first-round match was No. 8 seed Thea Frodin.
Sunday first round Australian Open junior results Americans:
Renee Alame (AUS) d. Ciara Harding[Q] 6-3, 6-3
Yushan Shao[11](CHN) d. Capucine Jauffret 6-1, 6-4
Rada Zolotareva (RUS) d. Nancy Lee 6-4, 6-1
Thea Frodin[8] D. Maja Pawelska (POL) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
Carel Ngounoue D. Eat Kanserer[Q](tur) 6-1, 6-4
I hate Reddy D Arnav Paparkar (IND) 6-3, 6-4
Oliver Majdandzic[Q](DU) d. Roshan Santhosh 6-1, 6-2
Emilio Comacho (ECU) d. Ryan Cozad 7-5, 4-6, 6-1
Jack Secord[13] D. Har Abir Sehon[WC](AUS) 6-2, 6-4
Gavin Goode[15] D. Daniel Jade (FRA) 6-3, 1-6, 6-3
Only half of the singles matches in the second round are scheduled for Monday, with just two Americans in action, although the remainder of the first round will be played in doubles, with No. 12 for both the boys and girls.
Jack Secord[13] in Leon Sloboda (SVK)
Carel Ngounoue against Flynn Thomas[12](SUI)
The young Southern Californians stole the show at the Australian Open on Sunday, as 18-year-old Iva Jovic breezed past Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva 6-0, 6-1 and 20-year-old Learner Tien dominated Russia’s Daniil Medvedev for a quick 6-4, 6-0, 6-3 win. Both play their first major quarterfinals on Tuesday, with Jovic taking on top seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus and Tien against No. 3 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany.
Jovic is the youngest American woman to reach the quarterfinals of the Australian Open since Venus Williams in 1998; Tien is the youngest American man to reach a Slam quarterfinal since Andy Roddick in 2002.
Coco Gauff also reached the quarterfinals, beating Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.
Tommy Paul lost to Carlos Alcarez of Spain 7-6(6), 6-4, 7-5.
Jessica Pegula[6] v Madison Keys[9]
Amanda Anisimova[4] vs. Xinyu Wang(CHN)
Taylor Fritz[9] against Lorenzo Musetti[5](ITA)
Ben Shelton[8] v Casper Ruud[12](NOR)
Urhobo had lost the five other USTA Pro Circuit finals she had played, including two in the past three months.
Below is the current status, currently featuring Stanford – Oklahoma women and Pepperdine – LSU men. I’ll update this when the results are final; the other TBDs will be played on Monday or Tuesday, so we won’t know the full fields until these are finished.
GENTLEMEN:
Clemson[4] D.Harvard[2] 4-1
Virginia[1] D. Michigan[2] 4-0
*Mississippi State[1] D. Maroon[2] 4-2
Texas A&M[3] D. Hertog[4] 4-2
* Wake up forest[1] D.Vanderbilt[2] 4-0
Florida[2] D. Colombia[1]* 4-2
*Stanford[1] D. Rice[2] 4-0
*Texas[1] D. South Florida[2] 4-0
* State of Ohio[1] D.Purdue[2] 4-0
UC Santa Barbara[2] D.UCLA[1]* 4-1
State of Arizona[4] D. Princeton[2] 4-3
Central Florida[2] D. Okla[4] 4-3
To be determined
TCU[1]* against Georgia[2]
Peperdine[3] against LSU[4]
*Kickoff host
Host who loses in round 1:
San Diego
NC State
South Carolina
Arizona
Cal
Automatic bids for co-hosts: Baylor, SMU
WOMEN:
*North Carolina[1] D. UNC-Charlotte[2] 4-0
*Virginia[1] D. Southern California[2] 4-0
*Tennessee[1] D Clemson[4] 4-3
*Duke[1] D. South Carolina[3] 4-0
State of Oklahoma[2] D. Texas technology[1]* 4-0
*Georgia[1] without playing a match on to Team Indoor
*LSU[1] D.UCLA[2] 4-1
*Maroon[1] D. State of Florida[3] 4-0
Vanderbilt[2] D. Michigan[1]* 4-2
To be determined
*Texas[1] v Cal[2]
*Texas A&M[1] against Arizona State[2]/TCU[3]
*Oklahoma[1] at Stanford[2]
*NC State[1] in Florida[3]/ Ole ma’am[2]
* State of Ohio[1] against Iowa[4]
*Kickoff host
Automatic bids for co-hosts: Northwestern, Illinois
#Preston #wins #ITF #J300 #Costa #Rica #title #Top #seed #Alexandrescou #upset #Australian #Open #junior #championships #Jovic #Tien #Gauff #reach #quarterfinals #Urhobo #claims #W35 #Weston #title #Kickoff #weekend #update