The last entry in my review of last month’s Orange Bowl is my Tennis Recruiting Network photo gallery of the 16s tournament. It features all the players from the United States (plus a couple who train here but compete for other countries) who won a round in the singles event. I focus on the 16s for this tournament in order to feature some new faces; many of those playing the 18s appeared in the US Open Juniors or Pan American Closed ITF J300 galleries.
Keegan Smith won his second career M25 title today at the USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Winston-Salem North Carolina, but it wasn’t easy.
The 27-year-old former UCLA All-American, seeded No. 5, needed three hours and 18 minutes to get past recent University of Tennessee standout Shunsuke Mitsui of Japan 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 6-3 in today’s final. Smith should move to around 350 when the 25 points are added.
A second M25 begins Monday in Winston-Salem, with most of the same players, including Smith and Mitsui, entered.
Qualifying for the Australian Open begins Monday(this evening in the United States), with 12 US men and 12 US women aiming to win three matches to reach the main draw.
Below are the first round matchups featuring Americans; there are no first round matches between players from the United States, which is quite unusual.
The men’s qualifying draw is here; the women’s qualifying draw is here.
Michael Zheng v Cruz Hewitt[WC](AUS)
*Brandon Holt[5] v Lukas Neumayer(AUT)
*Colton Smith[32] v Luka Pavlovic(FRA)
Mackenzie McDonald[6] v Dmitry Popko(KAZ)
Michael Mmoh v Vitaliy Sachko(UKR)
Nicolas Moreno de Alboran v Vilius Gaubas[17](LTU)
*Nishesh Basavareddy v Alexis Galarneau(CAN)
Zachary Svajda[29] v Hady Habib(LBN)
Mitchell Krueger v Yibing Wu(CHN)
*Tristan Boyer v Alex Barrena(ARG)
*Murphy Cassone v Yu Hsiou Hsu(TPE)
*Martin Damm v Gauthier Onclin(BEL)
*Mary Stoiana v Nuria Brancaccio(ITA)
*Sloane Stephens v Barbora Palicova(CZE)
Elvina Kalieva v Sijia Wei(CHN)
Varvara Lepchenko[32] v Ye-Xin Ma(CHN)
Louisa Chirico v Yue Yuan[25](CHN)
*Sachia Vickery v Despina Papamichail(GRE)
*Bernard Pera v Viktoriya Tomova[18](BUL)
*Madison Brengle v Maja Chwalinska(POL)
*Taylor Townsend[11] v Nao Hibino(JPN)
Claire Liu v Tara Wuerth(CRO)
Carol Lee v Hanne Vandewinkel[15](BEL)
Whitney Osuigwe v Anastasija Sevastova(LAT)
2025 Australian Open boys champion Henry Bernet of Switzerland, who received a qualifying wild card, has drawn Pablo Llamas Ruiz of Spain.
ITF Junior No. 8 Ksenia Efremova of France, who received a reciprocal wild card into qualifying, plays No. 8 seed Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus Monday.
Brandon Nakashima lost in the final of the ATP 250 in Brisbane to top seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia 6-2, 7-6(1).