My Coverage of USTA Midwest Closed; Roehampton J300 Qualifying Underway; Wallman Sweeps Titles at J200 in Mexico; Thirty-Six Americans in Men’s and Women’s Singles at Wimbledon; Quinn Reaches First ATP Final

With school out and  the Level I tournaments coming up soon, the USTA junior circuit is in full swing now, and I took the opportunity to cover the Boys 18s and 16s Midwest Closed Tuesday in Byron Center, less than an hour from my Kalamazoo home.

It was the first time I’ve been to a USTA tournament below a Level 2 in several years, but I enjoyed getting to watch several of the top players in the section compete in the semifinals and finals in ideal weather conditions for tennis. I was also struck by the camaraderie and the sportsmanship, which I assume is partly due to the familiarity with each other after years of competing in the same sectional events.

My Tennis Recruiting Network article on the sweeps by Nihal Narisetty and Joseph Garrean can be found here.

The World Tennis junior grass season has officially begun with the start today of the qualifying at the World Tennis J300 in Roehampton. The top three seeds in the boys qualifying draw have already lost; Marcel Latak[12] and Agassi Rusher are the only two US boys in qualifying, with Latak winning and Rusher falling to No. 7 seed Ntungamili Raguin of Botswana 3-6, 6-1, 10-8.  Jordan Lee was one out of the main draw and he is not in qualifying, so I presume he moved into the main draw.  Vihaan Reddy was listed in qualifying, but he is in the semifinals of a J200, on clay, in Czechia this week, so I don’t know if he got a special exempt, or is not planning to play Roehampton.

Seven US girls were in qualifying as of the freeze date, but Nancy Lee and Maggie Sohns are not in the draw, so they likely moved into the main draw.

Sarah Ye, the No. 2 seed, advanced to the final round of qualifying, as did No. 7 seed Carrie-Anne Hoo and No. 12 seed Emery Combs. No. 8 seed Yael Saffar and No. 9 seed Ireland O’Brien lost their first round qualifying matches today.

At today’s finals of the Giorgi Armani Junior Invitational at the Hurlingham Club in London, Michael Antonius lost to Cruz Hewitt of Australia 2-6, 6-2, 10-7, while Ksenia Efremova of France beat Nana Leme Da Silva of Brazil 6-3, 6-4.

Eighteen-year-old Brooke Wallman swept the titles today at the World Tennis J200 in Puerto Escondido Mexico. The unseeded Texas A&M recruit defeated No. 8 seed Scarlett Fagan, 15, 6-1, 6-4 in the singles final for her second, and biggest, World Tennis junior title. She then partnered with future teammate Kori Montoya for the doubles title, with the No. 4 seeds defeating No. 2 seeds Olivia De Los Reyes and Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann 6-3, 7-5. It’s the seventh World Tennis doubles title for Wallman, with all three this year at the J200 level, while Montoya now has five WT junior doubles titles.

Mason Vaughan won the boys doubles title today, with Samim Filiz of Turkey. The No. 4 seeds defeated top seeds Junseo Jang of Korea and Koki Nara of Japan 6-2, 6-2 in the final. No. 2 seed Nara won the boys singles title, beating No. 5 seed Eito Komada 6-2, 6-3 in the all-Japan final.

The men’s and women’s singles draws were released today at Wimbledon, with 18 Americans in each draw. That’s the most in 30 years; 37 made the Wimbledon main draw in 1996. The list is below; I’ll post the matchups Sunday.

Men:
Tristan Boyer[Q]
Jenson Brooksby
Emilio Nava
Ethan Quinn
Tommy Paul[21]
Brandon Nakashima[28]
Zachary Svajda
Ben Shelton[4]