Fifteen of 18 Americans Begin Play Sunday at Roland Garros Junior Championships; Svajda, Tiafoe and Keys Reach RG Round of 16; Brantmeier Advances to Wichita W35 Final; SoCal Pro Series Week One Concludes Sunday

2. Xinran Sun(CHN)

3. Victoria Barros(BRA)
4. Jana Kovackova(CZE)
5. Nauhany Leme Da Silva(BRA)
6. Anastasija Cvetkovic(SRB)
7. Sol Ailin Larraya Guidi(ARG)
8. Mariia Makarova(RUS)
9. Charo Esquiva Banulds(ESP)
10. Ida Wobker(GER)
11. Paola Pinera Celorio(ESP)
12. Alisa Oktiabreva(RUS)
13. Mariella Thamm(GER)
14. Felitsata Dorofeeva-Rybas(RUS)
15. Janae Preston(USA)
16. Anna Pushkareva(RUS)

Boys:

1. Luis Guto Miguel(BRA)

2. Yannick Alexandrescou(FRA)

3. Jamie Mackenzie(GER)

4. Jack Kennedy(USA)

5. Ziga Sesko(SLO)

6. Keaton Hance(USA)

7. Thilo Behrmann(AUT)

8. Zangar Nurlanuly(KAZ)

9. Dimitar Kisimov(BUL)

10. Ryo Tabata(JPN)

11. Andrew Johnson(USA)

12. Yannick Alvarez(PUR)

13. Michael Antonius(USA)

14. Dante Pagani(ARG)

15. Kuan-Shou Chen(TPE)

16. Nicolas Baena(PER)

Jack Kennedy is currently 11 in the ITF junior rankings, but his ATP ranking of 426 moves him to the No. 4 spot thanks to the ITF’s formula to compare ATP rankings with ITF junior rankings. (That chart can be found here). Girls No. 12 seed Alisa Oktiabreva is seeded due to her WTA ranking of 309.

A couple of junior slam finalists are in the draw but unseeded, with 2025 US Open runner-up Lea Nilsson of Sweden returning to junior competition for the first time since then, having reached the semifinals of two W35s this month. This year’s Australian Open finalist Ekaterina Tupitsyna of Russia has won two W15s this month on hard courts, but went 2-2 in April’s ITF Cairo events on clay.

The ITF’s media preview is here(Pareja withdrew a week ago, not sure why she’s mentioned). The ITF Junior Circuit’s website preview is here.

Sunday’s first round RG Junior matches featuring Americans:

Jack Secord v Flynn Thomas(SUI)

Michael Antonius[13] v Kirill Filaretov(RUS)

Safir Azam[Q] v Jamie Mackenzie[3](GER)

Agassi Rusher[Q] v Motoharu Abe[JGSE](JPN)

Keaton Hance[6] v Marat Salbiev[Q](RUS)

Gavin Goode v Connor Doig(RSA)

Ryan Cozad v Savva Rybkin(RUS)

Andy Johnson[11] v Raffaele Ciurnelli(ITA)

Tanishk Konduri v Oliver Majdandzic([Q]GER)

Melije Clarke v. Alisa Oktiabreva[12](RUS)

Lani Chang v Felitsata Dorofeeva-Rybas[14](RUS)

Sarah Ye[Q] v Giulia Popa(ROU)

Welles Newman v Paola Pinera Celorio[11](ESP)

Jordyn Hazelitt[Q] v Mariia Markarova[8](RUS)

Thea Frodin v Maia Burcescu(ROU)

After a day off Friday, the singles finals of the ITF J300 Astrid Bowl in Belgium were played today, with both unseeded Americans falling. No. 6 seed Dan Brand of Israel defeated Jordan Lee 6-3, 6-2 and Mariella Thamm of Germany beat Anita Tu 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. Brand and Thamm are in the main draw at Roland Garros, Lee and Tu are not.

Just three Americans have advanced to the second week of Roland Garros: Zachary Svajda, Frances Tiafoe and Madison Keys. Svajda is the big surprise, as he had never been past the second round of a major, but he defeated No. 25 seed Francisco Cerundolo(South Carolina) in five sets today. As if that wasn’t emotional enough, this career-best win came on the birthday of his late father Tom, a fixture of the tennis coaching scene in San Diego, who died of cancer last fall.

Saturday’s third round Roland Garros results of Americans:

Zachary Svajda d. Francisco Cerundolo[25](ARG) 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3

Flavio Cobolli[10](ITA) d. Learner Tien[18] 6-2, 6-2, 6-3

Frances Tiafoe[19] d. Jaime Faria[Q](POR) 4-6, 6-7(2), 7-6(4), 6-1, 6-2

Felix Auger-Aliassime[4](CAN) d. Brandon Nakashima[31] 5-7, 6-1, 7-6(4), 7-6(1)

Naomi Osaka[16](JPN) d. Iva Jovic[18] 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 6-4

Madison Keys[19] d. Victoria Mboko[9](CAN) 6-3, 5-7, 7-5

Anastasia Potapova[28](AUT) d. Coco Gauff[4] 4-6, 7-6(1), 6-4

Diane Parry(FRA) d. Amanda Anisimova[6] 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(3)

No Americans are on the singles schedule for Sunday in Paris.

Rain has continued to be a problem at the W35 in Wichita Kansas but Sunday’s finalists have been determined after a long day of tennis and rain delays. No. 4 seed Sahaja Yamalapalli(Sam Houston) won two matches today, the second a nearly three-hour 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory over Yekaterina Dmitrichenko(Texas Tech). Yamalapalli will face wild card Reese Brantmeier(North Carolina), who trailed No. 2 seed Clervie Ngounoue in their quarterfinal match when Ngounoue retired, but went on to defeat unseeded Dana Guzman(Oklahoma) of Peru 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals.

The ATP Challenger 75 in Little Rock Arkansas has also had rain delays, with three Americans in tonight’s semifinals. No. 3 seed Colton Smith(Arizona) is facing Andre Ilagan(Hawaii) and No. 5 seed Michael Mmoh is playing Canadian qualfier Justin Boulais(Ohio State) for the other spot in Sunday’s final.

The finals are set at the SoCal Pro Series tournaments in Lakewood.

Qualifier Tatum Evans(North Carolina) defeated top seed Mayu Crossley(UCLA) of Japan 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the W15 semifinals and will play another UCLA Bruin for the title: Anne Christine Lutkemeyer. Lutkemeyer, the No. 5 seed, ended the run of 15-year-old qualifier Allison Wang 6-4, 7-5.

Unseeded Washington State teammates Eva Alvarez Sande of Spain and Maxine Murphy won the doubles title, beating top seed Jaedan Brown(Michigan) and Kailey Evans(Texas Tech, San Diego) 6-2, 3-6, 10-6 in today’s final.

Top seed Kaylan Bigun(UCLA) defeated qualifier Lucas Marionneau (Texas) of France 6-3, 6-4 to reach his first Pro Circuit final at the M15 in Lakewood. The 2024 Roland Garros boys champion will face No. 4 seed Amit Vales of Israel, who defeated Spencer Johnson(UCLA) 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-2 in the other semifinal.

The men’s doubles title was won by Texas teammates Marionneau and Sebastian Gorzny, who were partners during the season, playing No. 2 doubles for the Longhorns. The unseeded pair defeated No. 3 seeds Reece Falck(UNC Wilmington) and Matthew Shearer(Nebraska) of New Zealand 7-6(5), 7-6(4). It’s the second Pro Circuit doubles title for Gorzny and the first for Marionneau.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply