Nine US Juniors Advance to Australian Open Second Round; Mayot, Osorio Win Coffee Bowl Titles; Cataldi and Brachman Claim Grade 5 Championships; Les Petits As Begins Monday

Five American juniors picked up wins Sunday at the Australian Open Junior Championships, giving the US nine players in the second round, which begins Monday (Sunday night in the US).  Dalayna Hewitt overpowered No. 4 seed Maria Carle of Argentina 7-6(5), 6-4 for the biggest upset among them, but the most dramatic win was Peyton Stearns 6-1, 6-7(6), 7-6(7) win over Gergana Topalova of Bulgaria. Stearns trailed 6-2 in the final tiebreaker before winning five straight points.  Topalova saved that match point, but not the next one, and Stearns will face top seed Xinyu Wang of China on Tuesday.  Sebastian Korda is the subject of this feature from AP, which mentions that father Petr Korda, who won the Australian Open men's title in 1998 and often travels to international junior tournaments, is not with him in Australia.  The ITF junior website has an update on Orange Bowl and Traralgon Grade 1 champion Hugo Gaston of France, who has now won 16 ITF Junior Circuit matches in a row.

American results Sunday (Saturday night in US):

Jaycer Lyeons def. Yeongseok Jeong(KOR) 3-6, 5-5, ret.
Peyton Stearns def. Gergana Topalova(BUL) 6-1, 6-7(6), 7-6(7)
Yanki Erel(TUR) def. Andrew Fenty[13] 7-6(2), 2-6, 6-3
Sebastian Korda[7] def. Clement Tabur(FRA) 7-5, 6-3
Dalayna Hewitt def. Maria Carle[4](ARG) 7-6(5), 6-4
Alexander Crnokrak(AUS) def. Sangeet Sridhar 6-3, 6-1
Viktoria Morvayova(SVK) def. Hurricane Tyra Black 6-4, 6-2
Elysia Bolton[12] def. Ivana Popovic(AUS) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4

American juniors in action Monday (Sunday night in US):

Alexa Noel[7] v Mariam Dalakishvili(GEO)
Nicole Mossmer v Lulu Sun[10](SUI)
Drew Baird v Jesper De Jong(NED)
Tristan Boyer v Marko Miladinovic[2](SRB)

Americans in men's and women's singles action Monday (Sunday night)

Madison Keys[17] v Caroline Garcia[8](FRA)

Tennys Sandgren v Dominic Thiem[5](AUT)

After a huge number of singles entries--54--at the ITF Grade 1 Coffee Bowl, the US contingent had to settle for two doubles titles last night in Costa Rica. 

Top seed Maria Osorio Serrano of Colombia defeated No. 7 seed Lea Ma 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 and unseeded 15-year-old Harold Mayot of France beat No. 7 seed Keenan Mayo 7-5, 6-2.  Mayo had won the doubles title prior to the singles final.  He and Tomas Kopczynski, the No. 4 seeds, beat top seeds Govind Nanda and Tyler Zink 6-4, 6-4.  Unseeded Kylie Collins and Shelly Yaloz won the girls doubles title, beating unseeded Natsumi Kawaguchi of Japan and Shavit Kimchi of Israel 6-1, 6-3.

At the ITF Grade 5 in Anguilla, 15-year-old Spencer Brachman won his second singles title, with the No. 4 seed beating unseeded Casper Christensen of Norway 6-1, 6-2 in the final.  Brachman won his first ITF singles title back in November at the Grade 5 in Antigua.  Fourteen-year-old Taylor Cataldi, playing in her first ITF tournament, swept the girls titles. She beat Rachel Caplan 6-1, 6-2 in the all-US final and partnered with Genevieve Quenville of Canada for the doubles title. The unseeded Cataldi and Quenville defeated No. 2 seeds Payton Saca and Australia's Luciana Kunkel  1-6, 6-4, 10-7 in the final.  Top seeds Quinn McLeod and Puerto Rico's Rafael Grovas won the boys doubles title, beating No. 3 seeds Timothy Phung and Japan's Toi Kobayashi 6-1, 6-4.

The finals of the two USTA Pro Circuit events in Florida this week did not produce any American champions.  At the $15,000 Futures in Sunrise,  Julien Cagnina of Belgium, the No. 2 seed, beat Naoki Nakagawa of Japan 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-3 to win the singles titles.  Cagnina and Maxime Chazal of France won the doubles title, beating Junior Ore(Texas A&M) and Juan Benitez Chavarriaga(Baylor) 1-6, 7-5, 10-4. 

At the $25,000 women's tournament in Orlando, Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine won her second straight event, with the top seed beating unseeded Julia Grabher of Austria 6-2, 3-6, 7-5. Hanyuo Gao of CHina and Ching-Wen Hsu of Taiwan won the doubles title, beating Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway and Ilona Kremen of Belarus 6-3, 3-6, 12-10 in the final. 

The Les Petits As tournament begins Monday in Tarbes France, with Bolton champions Katja Wiersholm and Victor Lilov the top seeded Americans, both at No. 5.  Lilov is still being shown as from Bulgaria, but that is not correct.  Katrina Scott and Evan Wen, finalists in Bolton, are both seeded No. 8.  Robin Montgomery, Vivian Ovrootsky, John Kim and Jonah Braswell are not seeded.  The top boys seed is Mikhail Gorokhov of Russia; the No. 1 seed in the girls draw is Diana Shnaider, also from Russia.  Printable draws can be found at the Tennis Europe tournament page.  Monday's schedule features three US girls: Wiersholm, Scott and Ovrootsky.