TEAM USA IN TROPHY HUNT AT FRENCH OPEN

Team USA will be well represented at the French Open this weekend as a combination of familiar faces and first-time finalists are in the hunt for prestigious silverware.

Americans Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Ryan Harrison and Donald Young are all in contention in doubles play; U.S. juniors Whitney Osuigwe and Claire Liu will square off in the girls' singles final; and U.S. teens Vasil Kirkov and Danny Thomas will compete together in the boys' doubles championship.

Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic, the No. 1 seeds, will contest the final of the women’s doubles on Sunday. They won the title here together in 2015, in addition to the 2015 and 2017 Australian Open crowns and the 2016 US Open.

On Friday, 'Team Bucie,' as they are collectively known to fans, defeated the third-seeded duo of Martina Hingis and Yun-Jan Chan, 6-4, 6-2.  They will play the Aussie pairing of Ashley Barty and Casey Dellacqua in the final.

In the men's doubles competition, the U.S. is guaranteed to have a champion. That was sealed Friday after Ryan Harrison and New Zealander Michael Venus rallied to beat Colombian No. 16 seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

That sets up a finals showdown with Atlanta native Donald Young and Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico, who punched their ticket to the championship match in the first semifinal on Thursday.

Neither Harrison nor Young have contested a major final before, in singles or doubles.

Harrison reached the quarterfinals of the men’s doubles at the French Open and US Open in 2012, and he progressed to the third round of the singles competition in New York last summer.

Young has been to the third round of the men’s doubles three times (the US Open in 2015-16 and the Australian Open in 2017) and reached the fourth round of the US Open in singles play first in 2011 and again in 2015.

Capping a busy Saturday for Americans in Paris, 15-year-old Whitney Osuigwe and 17-year-old Claire Liu will contest an all-American French Open junior girls’ final for the first time since 1980. Then, in the boys’ doubles final, American duo Vasil Kirkov and Danny Thomas will play top seeds Nicola Kuhn and Zsombor Piros.