Petrone, Duval win Daytona ITF Titles; Kudla & Ore, Ahn & Gibbs Win Pro Circuit Doubles Titles; Plus French Qualifying Draw and More
The third and final ITF Grade 4 junior event in Florida is in the books, and as was the case in the Plantation tournament the week before, U.S. juniors claimed both singles titles. Top seed Alexander Petrone of New York won the boys title over No. 16 seed Andrew Korinek of Texas 2-6, 6-2, 6-0. No. 2 seed Vicky Duval, who now lives in Georgia, won the girls title by virtue of her 6-0, 6-1 victory over unseeded Floridian Jennifer Brady, who also lost in the Plantation final, to Brooke Bolender. Gordon Watson and Connor Clements of the U.S. won the boys doubles title over Yuanfeng Li of China and Max Peara of Great Britain, who were also unseeded. It was an all-U.S. final in the girls doubles, with unseeded Samantha Crawford and Amanda Lin defeating No. 2 seeds Elizabeth Begley and Stephanie Nauta. For the complete draws, see the ITF junior website.
There are no more ITF junior events in the U.S. until the Grass Courts in June, with most of the junior action shifting to the European clay circuit. The Grade A Italian Open has begun in Milan, with Nick Chappell and Mitchell Krueger winning their first round matches. Dennis Novikov lost in the first round to New Zealand's Sebastian Lavie in a third-set tiebreaker; Dane Webb has yet to play. In girls first round action, Monica Puig, the top seed, won a tough first-rounder; No. 8 seed Beatrice Capra and No. 10 seed Lauren Davis had a much easier time of it in their first round wins. Caitlyn Williams lost her first round match; qualifer Jessica Pegula and Ester Goldfeld have not yet played. For the ITF preview click here. For draws, click here.
Sloane Stephens, who won the Italian Open girls title last year, was in Italy last week, but not for a junior event. Stephens, who was unseeded, using her junior exemption for a place in the main draw, reached the final of a $25,000 ITF Women's Circuit event, falling to top seed and WTA No. 156 Romina Oprandi of Italy 6-3, 6-3. For the complete draw, click here.
Ajla Tomljanovic reached the final of the $50,000 ITF Women's Circuit tournament in Prague. Top seed Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic, with a WTA ranking of 78, defeated the unseeded 17-year-old from Croatia 6-1, 7-6(4) in the final. For complete draw, click here.
Two U.S. teams won Pro Circuit doubles titles over the weekend, with Denis Kudla getting his second straight, this time with longtime training partner Junior Ore. Kudla and Ore defeated Clayton Almeida of Brazil and Blake Strode of the U.S., also unseeded, 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 for the Harbour Island Futures title. No. 4 seed Augustin Gensse of France won the singles title, defeating former Ole Miss star Erling Tveit, who was unseeded, 6-3, 6-2.
Future Stanford student-athletes Kristie Ahn and Nicole Gibbs captured the doubles title at the $50,000 Pro Circuit tournament in Raleigh. The unseeded pair beat No. 3 seed Alexandra Mueller and Ahsha Rolle 6-3, 6-2 in the final. Unseeded Roddick-Lavalle Academy player Johanna Konta won the singles title with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 victory over No. 5 seed Lindsay Lee-Waters.
For draws of those two events, as well as the Sarasota Challenger, where Kei Nishikori won the singles and Brian Battistone and Ryler DeHeart took the doubles, see the Pro Circuit results page at usta.com.
The men's French Open qualifying draw is out, and there are seven Americans vying for a main draw spot: Jesse Witten, Lester Cook, Michael Yani, Ryan Harrison, Ryler DeHeart, Kevin Kim and Alex Bogomolov, Jr. Last year's French Open boys champion Daniel Berta of Sweden received a qualifying wild card for this year's men's tournament. For the draws, see the Roland Garros website. The women's qualifying draws will be posted on Tuesday.
And finally, the Tennis Recruiting Network is reporting that blue chips Ellen Tsay and Monica Turewicz have made early verbal commitments, with Tsay selecting Stanford and Turewicz choosing Duke.
1 comments:
Wow, Stanford women are about to be STACKED!
Lets go boys, GET DIRTY ON THE CLAY!
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