The Junior US Open quarterfinals are locked, with the top two seeds in each draw advancing to the final eight. Boys’ No. 1 seed Juncheng Shang and girls’ No. 1 seed Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva have now advanced to at least this round in every junior Grand Slam played in 2021.
Top American girl and No. 7 seed Robin Montgomery needed three sets but also advanced over No. 9 seed Natalia Szabanin of Hungary, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4. Montgomery has now made the quarters of three junior slams, including the Australian Open (in 2020) and the French Open (in 2021). She next faces Jimenez Kasintseva, who ousted her in Melbourne in 2020.
Reigning Wimbledon boys’ champion and No. 2 seed Samir Banerjee dropped the first set of his match against No. 15 seed Maks Kasnikowski, but came back to win it in three, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2. The American actually served for the first set, then dropped serve twice in a row to lose it. In the final two sets he was just too strong for the Pole, chasing down balls all over the court. He created 21 break point opportunities throughout the course of the match, converting five of those chances. (By contrast, Kasnikowski had just three opportunities.) Banerjee now faces the big-serving Swiss player Jerome Kym. Kym comes into the clash with some big-match bonafides: As a 15-year-old in 2019, he defeated pro players Evgeny Donskoy and Andrey Rublev in a Davis Cup doubles tie (with partner Henri Laaksonen). He’s one of two Swiss players into the quarters. Compatriot Sebastianna Scilipoti is still alive in the girls’ draw.
Both No. 6 seeds seemed to have the most straightforward matches. After her American opponent Katja Wiersholm won the first three games, Belarusian Kristina Dmitruk reeled off 12 of the next 14 to advance, 6-4, 6-1. And American Victor Lilov—the finalist in boys’ singles at Wimbledon—raced through his third round contest, defeating Estonian Mark Lajal, 6-2, 6-2.
American and No. 12 seed Elvina Kalieva scored a minor upset early in the day, defeating No. 5 seed Linda Fruhvirtova, 7-6, 6-4, in an extremely close, back-and-forth match that was just four minutes shorter than Montgomery’s three-set contest. In the second set—which lasted over an hour alone—Kalieva won a six-deuce game to go up a break, then dropped her own serve after a four-deuce game. They then played another six-deuce game on Fruhvirtova’s serve, which Fruhvirtova won. Two games later, though, she’d double fault on match point, after five deuce points. Kalieva now joins Montgomery as the only American juniors to make the girls’ singles quarterfinals at Grand Slams in 2021.
Impressively, five of the eight quarterfinalists on the boys’ side also reached the same round at Wimbledon in July. Banerjee, Sascha Gueymard Wayenburg, Lilov, Kym and Shang are joined by No. 3 seed Daniel Rincon, Pierre Yves Bailly, and Petr Nesterov. Of the girls, only Jimenez Kasintseva and Dmitruk return to the final eight. They are joined by No. 2 seed Alexandra Eala, Kalieva, Petra Marcinko, Montgomery, Scilipoti and Solana Sierra (who defeated reigning Wimbledon girls’ champion Ane Mintegi Del Olmo earlier in the tournament).
Junior singles quarterfinals
Girls’ singles
V. Jimenez Kasintseva [1] vs. R. Montgomery [7]
S. Sierra vs. E. Kalieva [12]
K. Dmitruk [6] vs. P. Marcinko
S. Scilipoti vs. A Eala [2]
Boys’ singles
J. Shang [1] vs. P. Bailly
P. Nesterov vs. S. Gueymard Wayenburg [11]
V. Lilov [6] vs. D. Rincon [3]
J. Kym [6] vs. S. Banerjee [2]
