Iva Jovic will make her Billie Jean King Cup debut tomorrow in the qualifying tie with Belgium, but the 18-year-old from Southern California is a veteran of ITF team competitions, having helped the USA win the Junior Billie Jean King Cup titles in 2022 and 2023.
Tomorrow Jovic, up to a WTA career-high of 16, will face Hanne Vandewinkel, currently 94 in the WTA rankings. McCartney Kessler(Florida) will play the second singles match against Elise Mertens, with Caty McNally and Nicole Melichar-Martinez expected to be the doubles team.
Tennis Channel will provide coverage beginning at 10 a.m. EDT.
Kennedy had the tougher second round match, beating Jerrid Gaines Jr. 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, while Hance beat qualifier Adam Lynch(Barry) 6-2, 6-4.
Puerto Rico’s Yannik Alvarez, playing in his first Pro Circuit tournament, defeated No. 2 seed Will Grant(Florida) 2-6, 7-6(2), 6-0 to reach the quarterfinals. He will play the winner of tonight’s second round match between Benjamin Willwerth and No. 5 seed Dragos Cazacu(Tennessee) of Romania.
Seventeen-year-old wild card Carlota Moreno is through to the quarterfinals after beating No. 7 seed Ava Markham(Wisconsin) 7-5, 6-4; the Tennessee recruit will play unseeded Margaux Maquet of Belgium, who beat Georgia recruit Ava Rodriguez 6-1, 6-4. Eighteen-year-old Bella Payne, who has signed with Georgia, defeated Allegra Korpanec Davies of Great Britain, a Florida signee 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 and will face former North Carolina All-American Carson Tanguilig, who beat No. 4 seed Ana Grubor of Canada 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-4.
No. 3 seed Kylie Collins(Texas, LSU, Oklahoma State) and No. 6 seed Ellie Schoppe(Furman, Florida State) are the other two Americans in the quarterfinals and they will play each other on Friday, with the winner facing either top seed Gergana Topalova of Bulgaria or No. 5 seed Daria Egorova.
Three Americans are through to the quarterfinals at the Sarasota Challenger, with 2025 Kalamazoo 18s champion Darwin Blanch earning his spot today with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Duje Ajdukovic of Croatia. He will face No. 3 seed Hugo Dellien of Bolivia Friday.
The bottom quarterfinal will feature two recent former college stars, with No. 8 seed Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) taking on unseeded Stefan Dostanic(USC, Wake Forest), in what I believe is their first meeting. Basavareddy beat Hynek Barton of Czechia 6-1, 7-6(6) Wednesday and Dostanic defeated Alex Rybakov(TCU) 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 Wednesday night.