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Monday, September 14, 2015

USTA Pro Circuit Events this Week in Redding and Claremont; Menguene and Dadaciu Sweep ITF Events

Although I'm back in Kalamazoo now, I'm far from finished with the US Open Junior Championships.  I'll have a recap of the tournament for Tennis Recruiting later in the week, and my annual slideshow of all the Americans who competed in the main draw of junior singles. I also am planning to prepare a "They Said It" post, with interesting quotes from juniors that didn't make it into my daily match stories.

More to come from the US Open later in the week
I will also have more on the American Collegiate Invitational. I spoke to all 16 competitors and will provide an update similar to the one I did last year later this month.

The New York Times covers the Open from all angles and I've seen at least three articles on US juniors: David Waldstein wrote about Francesca Di Lorenzo and Michael Mmoh, and Ben Rothenburg talked to Brandon Holt, Riley Smith and Taylor Fritz about growing up as sons of accomplished tennis playing parents.

Stephanie Myles at Yahoo Canada has more on the US Open boys doubles title for Canadians Felix Auger Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov.

After a break for the US Open, the USTA Pro Circuit is back. There's a $10,000 men's Futures in Claremont, California, a $25,000 women's tournament in Redding, California, and a new $50,000 Challenger in Cary, North Carolina. The Challenger in Cary, as well as the Columbus Challenger next week, also new, are not part of the USTA Pro Circuit.

Tommy Paul was in the main draw of the Cary Challenger, but his run to the boys final, where he experienced some shoulder issues, has led to his withdrawal.  Former Georgia star Wil Spencer and North Carolina junior Ronnie Schneider have qualified for the main draw and North Carolina junior Brayden Schnur received a wild card. Stefan Kozlov lost to No. 2 seed Austin Krajicek 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 in a first round evening match in Cary.

There are also quite a few Americans in Canada for the $15,000 Futures in Toronto. Alex Rybakov has advanced to the second round with Adam El Mihdawy's first set retirement.

Bobby Knight at College Tennis Today has the details on the three Futures titles by former collegians last week, by Adrien Puget(UCLA), Remi Boutillier (Fresno State) and Matija Pecotic (Princeton).

In ITF Junior Circuit results, two American girls swept the titles in Honduras and Togo.

Fourteen-year-old Floridian Sabina Dadaciu, seeded No. 4, took the singles title at the Grade 5 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, beating top seed Rut Galindo of Guatemala 6-3, 6-2 in the final. Dadaciu teamed with Kacie Harvey, also 14, to take the doubles title. The No. 4 seeds defeated No. 2 seeds Mishelle Cordero Lopez and Maria Rivera Corado of Guatemala  6-1, 6-1 in the final.

Unseeded Adam Neff and Tyler Zink won the boys doubles title, beating No. 3 seeds Jacob Beasley and Fletcher Scott 7-6(3), 6-3, in an all-American final.

At the Togo Grade 4, Malkia Menguene swept both titles for the second week in a row.  After winning both singles and doubles at the Benin Grade 4, beating doubles partner and top seed Alana Smith of the US in the singles final, the 15-year-old from Washington DC picked up two more titles, beating No. 15 seed Alice Robbe of France 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 in the singles final, while again winning the doubles with Smith.

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