Although there are no USTA Pro Circuit tournaments these first two weeks in March, Canada is hosting an M15 and a W15 this week, both of which have drawn many Americans. The men’s tournament in Sherbrooke features two Canadian juniors, but mostly former collegians have advanced; in Trois-Rivieres three teens have reached the quarterfinals.
Thara Gowda, a 17-year-old from Michigan, is playing in just her second ITF women’s World Tennis Tour tournament. Gowda, just outside the ITF Junior Circuit Top 100, qualified for her first pro circuit main draw and today defeated No. 5 seed Jada Robinson to reach the quarterfinals.
Gowda, who is entered in both the Tucson and San Diego J300s, will play unseeded 18-year-old Nadia Lagaev of Canada Friday. Lagaev, a Georgia recruit, is not entered in Tucson, but has entered San Diego.
The third teen is 17-year-old Anna Tabunshchyk of Canada, who hasn’t played a junior event since 2024. Seventeen-year-old Kaya Moe qualified and won her first round match, but lost to top seed Ariana Arseneault(Georgia, Auburn) of Canada today.
The semifinals are set at the ITF J200 in Las Vegas, with three of the eight competitors unseeded, two of them in the girls draw.
Armira Kockinis defeated No. 14 seed Caroline Shao 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, avenging her loss to Shao at the J200 in Corpus Christi last fall. Kockinis will play No. 5 seed Riyo Yoshida of Japan, who beat Charlize Celebrini 7-5, 6-3.
Carlota Moreno, a semifinalist two weeks ago at the W15 in Florida defeated unseeded Yilin Chen 6-4, 6-4 and will play No. 2 seed Hollie Smart of Great Britain. Smart defeated Tanvi Pandey 6-2, 6-2 to advance.
Top seed Ryan Cozad is through to Friday’s semifinals with a 6-2, 6-3 win over No. 12 seed Kamil Stolarczyk. He will play No. 11 seed Felix Roussel of Canada, who beat Mason Vaughan 7-6(6), 6-2.
In the bottom half, No. 10 seed Ford McCollum will play unseeded Justin Riley Anson, with McCollum ending the winning streak of Dhakshish Aryan Basavaraju with a 6-3, 6-1 quarterfinal victory. Aryan Basavaraju had won 13 straight matches on the ITF Junior Circuit in the past month. Anson defeated No. 13 seed Daniel Malacek 7-6(3), 6-3 in today’s quarterfinal.
The doubles finals are set for Friday in Las Vegas, with top seeds Cozad and McCollum facing the unseeded team of Andrej Markovic and Kahven Singh for the boys title; No. 5 seeds Celebrini and Capucine Jauffret will play No. 8 seeds Moreno an Sophia Budacsek for the girls doubles championship.
March is an extremely busy month for junior events, with the two J300s here in the United States and two J300s and a J500 in South America. It’s difficult to keep track of who is playing where, but with Tuesday’s withdrawal deadline now past, there is some clarity. ITF No. 11 Michael Antonius, who was entered in San Diego J300 and in the J500 Banana Bowl in Brazil, has withdrawn from both. With his two ITF J300 titles already this year, he should be set for the junior slams this summer.
Julieta Pareja, who is from nearby Carlsbad, withdrew from San Diego, so she will not be defending her 300 points from the ITF J300 in Indian Wells this month.
Janae Preston, who has won three consecutive J300s, was entered in both San Diego and Brazil; she withdrew from San Diego, but is still entered in the Banana Bowl.
The seeded players take the court for the first time Friday at the BNP Paribas Open, with Wednesday’s and Thursday’s first round still underway to determine their opponents. Two of the American qualifiers, Kayla Day and Taylor Townsend, advanced with straight-sets wins today. Day, who breezed through qualifying, had no trouble again today, beating Francesca Jones of Great Britain 6-3, 6-1. She will face No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek in the second round. Townsend defeated Marie Bouzkova of Czechia 6-2, 6-1 to set up a meeting with No. 28 seed Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine.
Other unseeded Americans advancing to the second round are Ashlyn Krueger, Marcos Giron(UCLA), Reilly Opelka, Jenson Brooksby, wild card Zachary Svajda, Aleks Kovacevic(Illinois) and Alex Michelsen.
Wild card Lilli Tagger of Austria, the reigning girls Roland Garros champion, won her first round match 6-2, 6-4 over Varvara Gracheva of France. She will play No. 32 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece in the second round.