March Aces; Chang Sweeps Titles at ITF J200 in Paraguay; Few Surprises in Sarasota Challenger Qualifying; Urhobo, Dali Blanch Lead After Week One of USTA's Roland Garros Wild Card Race

The March edition of my monthly Tennis Recruiting Network column featuring the top performances juniors, collegians and former collegians is available today, with 18 players featured. I’ve had to drastically reduce my coverage of titles at M15s and W15s because of the sheer number of those events won by junior and collegians, but I make exceptions here and there, including in March.

There was only one singles title for an American on the ITF Junior Circuit last week, with 15-year-old Lani Chang winning the biggest title of her junior career at the J200 in Paraguay. No. 3 seed Chang, the daughter of Michael Chang and Amber Liu(Stanford), didn’t drop a set all week, beating No. 8 seed Scarlett Fagan 6-2, 6-3 in the semifinals and unseeded Maria Eduarda Carbone dos Santos of Brazil 6-1, 6-4 in the final. Carbone dos Santos had defeated No. 7 seed Londyn McCord in the first round and top seed Sofia Meabe of Argentina in the quarterfinals.

Chang and Ana Avramovic, seeded No. 2, claimed the doubles title with a 3-6, 6-4, 10-6 decision over No. 4 seeds Fagan and McCord.

Izyan Ahmad won the boys doubles title with Felipe Mamede of Brazil; the No. 4 seeds defeated top seeds Alvaro Ariel Frutos Alonso of Paraguay and Felipe Vazquez of Uruguay 6-0, 6-3 in the final.

At the J60 in the Dominican Republic, 15-year-old Adriana Khomyakova won the girls doubles title with Valentina Garcia Rojas of Colombia. The top seeds defeated No. 2 seeds Julianny De La Cruz Champagne of the Dominican Republic and Sasha Miroshnichenko 6-3, 7-6(6) in the final. Audrey Dussault reached the singles final, losing to De La Cruz Champagne 4-6, 6-0, 7-6(1).

The other American title was in boys doubles at the J30 in Gaudeloupe, with 15-year-old Ved Vanga winning his first title on the ITF Junior Circuit. Vanga and partner Emryk Crete of Canada, the No. 2 seeds, beat top seeds Ilia and Timofey Dobrovolsky of Canada 5-7, 7-6(5), 10-7 in the final.

Qualifying concluded today at the ATP Sarasota Challenger 75, which this year is being held at the IMG Academy in Bradenton. Five of the top 6 seeds in qualifying advanced to the main draw, including No. 1 Liam Draxl(Kentucky) of Canada, who must have entered late, as he would have been a top 4 seed in the main draw. Unseeded in the main draw, he will play No. 8 seed Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) for the second time in two weeks, with Basavareddy beating Draxl, a qualifier, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in the first round of the ATP 250 in Houston.

The other qualifiers are Garrett Johns[2](Duke), Killian Feldbausch[3] of Switzerland, Strong Kirchheimer[9](Northwestern), Reda Bennani[5] of Morocco and Bruno Kuzuhara[6].

Yibing Wu of China is the top seed, with Martin Damm the No. 2 seed. Kei Nishikori of Japan received a wild card, as did Cannon Kingsley(Ohio State) and JJ Wolf(Ohio State).

Five first round matches were on today’s schedule, with Damm, who trains at IMG, playing the night match against Alex Rybakov(TCU). Wolf lost to No. 6 seed Daniil Glinka of Estonia 6-3, 7-6(4) today; Tyler Zink(Georgia, Oklahoma State) beat No. 4 seed Colton Smith(Arizona), Stefan Dostanic(USC, Wake Forest) defeated Saba Purtseladze of Georgia 6-2, 6-3 and Hynek Barton of the Czech Republic defeated Mitchell Krueger 6-4, 6-4.

The USTA’s Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge began last week, with Dali Blanch and Akasha Urhobo leading the race after the first of five weeks players have to put up their three best results on any clay tournament at the 25-level and above. Urhobo, 19, qualified and won her first WTA main draw match at the Credit One Charleston Open to earn 57 points. Varvara Lepchenko, on the other end of the age spectrum at 39, reached the quarterfinals of the W250 in Colombia to earn 54 points.

Blanch, 23, reached his first ATP Challenger semifinal above the 50 level last week at the 100 in Spain as a qualifier, earning 29 points, putting him four points ahead of Basavareddy and Mackenzie McDonald, who both advanced to the second round of the ATP 250 in Houston.

Women’s Standings
(Player’s current ranking in parentheses)

1. Akasha Urhobo (233) — 57
2. Varvara Lepchenko (148) — 54
T3. Alycia Parks (93) — 32
T3. Ashlyn Krueger (108) — 32

Men’s Standings
(Player’s current ranking in parentheses)

1. Dali Blanch (349) — 29
T2. Nishesh Basavareddy (181) — 25
T2. Mackenzie McDonald (126) — 25

March Aces; Chang Sweeps Titles at ITF J200 in Paraguay; Few Surprises in Sarasota Challenger Qualifying; Urhobo, Dali Blanch Lead After Week One of USTA’s Roland Garros Wild Card Race

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