Thea Frodin and Keaton Hance both advanced to Saturday's semifinals at the Australian Open Junior Championships, but there was little similarity in the manner they accomplished that acheivement.Frodin, the No. 8 seed, needed just over an hour to defeat No. 13 seed Mariia Makarova 6-3, 6-0, winning the final nine games of the match.The 17-year-old from California had 16 winners and 13 unforced
Seventeen-year-olds Thea Frodin and Keaton Hance begin their final year of ITF Junior Circuit competition with their first junior slam singles quarterfinals after picking up straight-sets victories Thursday at the Australian Open Junior Championships.Frodin, seeded No. 8, defeated unseeded Antonina Sushkova of Ukraine 6-4, 7-5, while Hance, the No. 4 seed, got past unseeded Simone Massellani of
Top seed Alena Kovackova followed her younger sister Jana, the No. 2 seed, out of the Australian Open Junior Championships Wednesday, losing to No. 13 seed Mariia Makarova 7-6(3), 7-5 in the third round. Kovackova was the only seed to exit Wednesday, when only half of the round of 16 matches were played, but three unseeded players booked their places in a junior slam quarterfinal for the first
All three Americans who played their Australian Open quarterfinal matches Tuesday lost, with Iva Jovic, Learner Tien and Coco Gauff seeing their runs ended at the first major of the year. On Wednesday(tonight in the US), at least one American is guaranteed to reach the semifinals in women's singles.Tuesday's quarterfinal results of Americans:Aryna Sabalenka[1](BLR) d. Iva Jovic[29] 6-3, 6-0Elina
photo credit: Richard van Loon, toptennis.photosWhile one of the four junior slams is in progress this week in Melbourne, the biggest individual tournament for the 14-and-under age division is also being played this week at Les Petits As in Tarbes France.The first round of singles is played over Monday and Tuesday, and there has already been a big upset, with boys No. 2 seed Valentijn
Janae Preston was entered in both the Australian Open Junior Championships, where she would have been in qualifying, and the ITF J300 Coffee Bowl in Costa Rica, where she ended up as the No. 4 seed. Deciding to stay a little bit closer to home paid off, with the 15-year-old from Nevada earning her first ITF J300 title with a 6-1, 6-0 win over No. 7 seed Klara Blazkova of the Czech Republic last
Five US women and four US men have reached the second week of the Australian Open with five advancing Saturday.Upsets have been few at this year's tournament, and all of the Americans who have advanced are seeded, although Iva Jovic, Tommy Paul and Learner Tien are not among the Top 16 seeds. Saturday's third round results of Americans:Madison Keys[9] d. Karolina Pliskova(CZE) 6-3, 6-3Jessica
My annual look at some of the big picture questions in college and junior tennis is up today at Tennis Recruiting Network. I consider the NCAA on court and in court, Electronic Line Calling for the juniors, the departure of FILA from the junior scene and several other questions I hope to have answers to in 2026.After a noticeable lack of teenagers at the top of the women's game a couple of years
Of the seven US men who have advanced to the third round of the Australian Open, four of them competed in college, all in the past five years.While Ben Shelton(Florida) and Learner Tien(USC) are seeded and expected to be in round three, Eliot Spizzirri(Texas) and Ethan Quinn(Georgia) have both eliminated seeds and looked good doing it.Spizzirri won his first five-set match Thursday, beating the
Three US women and three US men advanced to the Australian Open third round with wins Wednesday, including 18-year-old Iva Jovic, who will be appearing in the third round of a major for the first time.Jovic defeated Australian wild card Priscilla Hon 6-1, 6-2, winning the final six games of the late night match, to advance to a third meeting with Jasmine Paolini of Italy. Although Jovic's pro
Seven more Americans won their matches Tuesday, the third and last day of first round competition at the Australian Open, bringing the total number of US players in the second round to 23.Two former collegiate stars pulled off upsets, with Eliot Spizzirri(Texas) running his record against Joao Fonseca of Brazil to 2-0 with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 win over the No. 28 seed. Spizzirri had beaten
Eight US women and three US men reached won their first round matches Monday at the Australian Open, with the last nine of the 40 Americans competing in the singles main draws on Tuesday's schedule(Monday night in the United States).Monday's first round Australian Open results of Americans:Coco Gauff[3] d. Kamilla Rakhimova(UZB) 6-2, 6-3Amanda Anisimova[4] d Simona Waltert(SUI) 6-3, 6-2Jessica
Columbia senior Michael Zheng had never faced an ATP Top 100 player, had never competed in an ATP-level main draw match and had, obviously, never played a five-set match.The two-time NCAA singles champion crossed all three of those items off his bucket list Sunday in Melbourne, defeating ATP No. 51 Sebastian Korda 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(0), 6-3 in the first round of the Australian Open.Zheng, who
Quinn Vandecasteele ended the ITF World Tennis Tour winning streak of Keegan Smith(UCLA) today at the M25 in Winston-Salem, knocking out last week's M25 Winston-Salem champion to earn a spot in his fourth Pro Circuit final.The unseeded 22-year-old former University of Oregon standout defeated No. 4 seed Smith, who had won an M15 in New Zealand last month, 7-6(5), 6-4. Vandecasteele, who had lost
As I mentioned earlier this month, I had an opportunity to speak with the USTA's Dan Holman and Tracy Davies about the newly regionalized ITF Junior Circuit here in the United States and the five new J200s, in Las Vegas, Sumter, Nashville, Cincinnati and Delray Beach, that are part of that restructuring.I wrote this article for the Tennis Recruiting Network about the philosophy behind this
Qualifying for the Australian Open concluded Thursday in Melbourne, with four US men and one US woman advancing to the main draw.Columbia's two-time NCAA champion Michael Zheng had to save a match point after taking a 7-1 lead in the third set tiebreaker against Lukas Klein of Slovakia, but the 21-year-old from New Jersey will make his ATP and slam main draw debut after a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(10)
Twenty-four Americans were in the Australian Open qualifying draws when the week began, and nearly half have made the final round, which begins in a few hours Thursday(tonight in the USA) in Melbourne.Six of the nine US men and five of the seven US women in action Wednesday in the second round advanced, with Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) having the most dramatic win. Basavareddy, whose ATP
The first women's USTA Pro Circuit tournament of the year is a W35 at the Inspiration Academy in Bradenton Florida, with qualifying concluding today and four first round matches played.USTA Winter Nationals 18s champion Kenzie Nguyen didn't miss a beat after her title in Lake Nona earlier this month, receiving a wild card into this event and beating Victoria Hu(Princeton) 6-3, 7-6(5). Although Hu
Last week's ITF J60 in Costa Rica, the first of three events in that country that will conclude with the J300 Coffee Bowl, produced three titles for Americans, including a sweep for Orange Bowl 16s finalist Daniel Malacek. The tournament used the ITF's new format, with results in round eight round robin groups determining the quarterfinalists. American boys won six of those groups, and
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
Recent University of Tennessee graduate Shunsuke Mitsui of Japan advanced to his first M25 final with a 6-1, 6-3 win over 17-year-old wild card Jack Kennedy, who was seeking his first Pro Circuit final after losses in three M15 semifinals last year. The 23-year-old Mitsui, who has two M15 titles, will face No. 5 seed Keegan Smith, a former UCLA All-American, who defeated wild card Luca Pow, a
Wild card Jack Kennedy has advanced to his fourth USTA Pro Circuit semifinal and his first at the M25 level, with a 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-2 win over Stefan Dostanic(USC, Wake Forest), the 2025 NCAA Team Championships' Most Outstanding Player, in Winston-Salem.Kennedy will face unseeded Shunsuke Mitsui of Japan, a former University of Tennessee All-American, who beat No. 7 seed and 2025 ITA All-American
Vihaan Reddy withdrew from the ITF J300 in Traralgon Australia on Monday, although he couldn't have known then that he would be getting plenty of matches prior to the Australian Open Junior Championships later this month, where he is still entered.Today the 16-year-old from Northern California reached his second ITF J300 semifinal in the past two months, with the sixth-seeded Reddy beating No. 3
The first coaches poll of the 2026 dual match season is less significant than ever after the ITA changed its ranking procedure for 2026. These rankings used to be a starting point for the computer rankings later in the season, but they no longer serve that purpose, with a new system in place that puts all teams on the same level when results are calculated.Yet for college tennis fans, there is
The first tournament of the year on the USTA Pro Circuit is an M25 in Winston-Salem North Carolina, with qualifying concluding today and four first round matches played. Seventeen-year-old Jack Kennedy, the ITF junior No. 3, will be playing primarily on the ITF men's and ATP Challenger tour in his last year of junior eligibility, as he prepares to begin his collegiate career in the fall at