Eyeing No. 1, Osuigwe Advances at ITF Junior Masters

World No. 1 Whitney Osuigwe has had a perfect run to date at this week's 2017 ITF Junior Masters, and the 15-year-old from Bradenton, Fla., is on course to clinch the year-end girls' No. 1 ranking if she takes home the title at the tournament.

Osuigwe went 3-0 in round-robin play to advance to the semifinal round at the third annual ITF Junior Masters. The tournament is one of the premier events on the ITF junior calendar and is taking place Oct. 25-29 in Chengdu, China.

Osuigwe advanced to the final rounds of play by defeating US Open girls' semifinalist Maria Lourdes Carle of Argentina, 6-2, 6-4, in her first match; Australian Open and Roland Garros juniors semifinalist Elena Rybakina of Russia, 6-3, 6-4, in her second; and fellow American and world No. 15 junior Sofia Sewing, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, in her third.

She will face Wimbledon girls' doubles champion Kaja Juvan of Slovenia in the semifinal round Saturday, with the winner advancing to Sunday's final.

Osuigwe burst onto the international tennis scene in June, when she captured the girls' singles title at the junior French Open. Since then, she reached the doubles final and singles quarterfinals at junior Wimbledon and, last week, finished runner-up at the ITF Grade A Osaka Mayor's Cup in Osaka, Japan. She also led the U.S. girls' team to the 2017 Junior Fed Cup title in late September, its third in the last six years.

Osuigwe is one of three Americans invited to compete in China, along with Sewing and Trent Bryde.

The tournament features eight boys and eight girls who qualified on the basis of their ITF World Junior Ranking as of Sept. 11. This is the first year the tournament has been held during the regular season and will form part of the race to become 2017 ITF Junior World Champion.