The final recap of my March trip out West is available today at the Tennis Recruiting Network. Congratulations to Easter Bowl 16s and 18s champion Rishvanth Krishna, Anay Kulkarnia, Ellery Mandell and Shristi Selvan for winning the singles titles in the sweltering conditions last week at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. If you weren’t able to follow my daily coverage, this is an ideal way to get up to speed on the players who will be contenders for this summer’s titles on the USTA Junior Circuit.
While I was in California, I heard the names of some of the juniors who were going to be competing in the North and Central American qualifying this month in Canada for the ITF World Junior Tennis (14-and-under) and ITF Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup(16-and-under) this summer and fall.
Although this is subject to change, with last-minute injuries always a possibility, I now have a complete list of those selected for the event, scheduled for April 15-17 in Montreal.
World Junior Tennis:
Isha Manchala
Anna Kapanadze
Nadia Poznick
Boys, Captain Jon Glover
Nathan Lee
Max D Smith
Rex Kulman
Junior Davis Cup, Captain Sylvain Guichard
Izyan Ahmad
Teodor Davidov
Gadin Arun
Junior Billie Jean King Cup, Captain Thierry Champion
Janae Preston
Jordyn Hazelitt
Welles Newman
These are the players selected for the qualifying, but changes for the finals are to be expected, as those competitions are four or more months out.
Texas A&M, playing without their usual No. 3 Ilinca Amariei, won the lost the doubles point, and trailed 2-0 after Merna Refaat beat Violetta Martinez 6-1, 6-1 at line 4. After a win by Mia Kupres at line 2, Texas A&M went down 3-1 when Angella Okutoyi beat Lexington Reed at line 3 6-4, 6-1, but wins by Daria Smetannikov at 4 and Lucciana Perez at 1 tied it up. The only match to go three sets was at No. 6, with two players who haven’t been in the lineup regularly. It was Aggie freshman Anna Perelman who got the win, coming back to beat Alice Battesti 4-6, 62, 6-4 to clinch the win for Texas A&M.
Texas A&M, now 11-1 at alone at the top of the SEC conference, will host No. 16 Florida Saturday.
2024 USTA National 18s champion Iva Jovic is through to the semifinals of the WTA 500 tournament in Charleston South Carolina, with the 18-year-old from Southern California, seeded No. 4, defeating No. 8 seed Anna Kalinskaya of Russia 6-3, 6-4 in this afternoon’s quarterfinals. She will face top seed and defending champion Jessica Pegula, who pulled off another comeback in the quarterfinals, her third this week, beating Diana Schnaider(NC State) of Russia 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.