Saturday, May 17, 2025
Friday, May 16, 2025
Thrillers Extend D-I Men's Quarterfinals Deep into Night; Kennedy Wins All-USA Semifinal at ITF J300 in Italy; Chang Makes Semifinals at Orlando W15
The drama was unrelenting in the NCAA Division I men's quarterfinal matches Friday, with No. 1 seed Wake Forest and No. 4 seed Stanford both somehow managing to make their way to a semifinal meeting Saturday after nearly eight hours of tennis. Wake Forest was forced to six third sets before posting a misleading 4-1 victory over No. 8 Columbia, while Stanford's Max Basing saved seven match points in the last match on to give the Cardinal a 4-3 win over No. 12 seed Mississippi State.
Wake Forest and Columbia kicked off the festivities in steamy Waco with a tight doubles point, the norm throughout the men's quarterfinals. After splitting the first two matches at lines 1 and 2, the Demon Deacons' Luca Pow and Luciano Tacch defeated Hugo Hashimoto and Jayden Templeman 7-6(5) to take the early lead.
Wake Forest looked as if a comfortable victory might be available to them when they took four first sets in singles, another theme of the men's quarterfinals. But Columbia fought back, with the score still 1-0 three hours after the match had begun. Very few prognosticators would have envisioned the match at line 1 being the first to finish, but it was Stefan Dostanic of Wake Forest avenging his loss to Michael Zheng earlier this season to give Wake a 2-0 lead. Luca Pow made it 3-0 shortly thereafter, taking a three-set win over Thanaphat Boosarawangse at line 6, but a minute later Columbia got on the board with Nicolas Kotzen beating DK Suresh at line 2 6-7(0), 6-2, 6-3. Columbia's Max Westphal was up 4-1 in his third set with Ioannis Xilas at line 3 and the No. 4 and No. 5 lines were at 1-1 and 3-3 respectively. It was finally Wake freshman Charlie Robertson who gave his team some breathing room, taking a 3-1 lead in his third set over Hugo Hashimoto at line 4, and extending it to 4-1, while Westphal could not convert his match point at line 3. Robertson took the last five games of the match to close it out, sending Wake Forest into the semifinals for the second straight year.
Wake Forest[1] d. Columbia[8] 4-1Doubles:
1. DK Suresh and Ioannis Xilas(WAKE) d. Michael Zheng and Nicolas Kotzen(COL) 6-3
2. Max Westphal and Sachin Palta(COL) d. Stefan Dostanic and Charlie Robertson(WAKE) 6-3
3. Luca Pow and Luciano Tacchi(WAKE) d. Hugo Hashimoto and Jayden Templeman(COL) 7-6(5)
Order of finish: 1,2,3
Singles:
1. Stefan Dostanic(WAKE) d. Michael Zheng(COL) 2-6, 6-3, 6-4
2. Nicolas Kotzen(COL) d. DK Suresh(WAKE) 6-7(0), 6-2, 6-3
3. Max Westphal(COL) v Ioannis Xilas(WAKE) 3-6, 6-4, 5-2 unf.
4. Charlie Robertson(WAKE) d. Hugo Hashimoto(COL) 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-1
5. Luciano Tacchi(WAKE) v Sachin Palta(COL) 3-6, 6-3, 5-4, unf.
6. Luca Pow(WAKE) d. Thanaphat Boosarawangse(COL) 6-3, 4-6, 6-1
Order of finish: 1,6,2,4
Posted by Colette Lewis at 11:35 PM 0 comments
Labels: College Tennis, International Tournaments, ITF, Pro Circuit, USTA, World Tennis Tour
Thursday, May 15, 2025
Women's D-I Semifinals Feature Top Two Seeds; Men's Quarterfinals Friday; 14-Year-Olds Chang and Shao Reach Quarterfinals at W15, Leach Advances at M15 in Orlando; Gauff Reaches Rome Final, Paul Through to Semis
Mississippi State[12] v Stanford[4] 2pm
Texas[3] v UCLA 8pm
Virginia[7] v TCU[2] 5pm
Posted by Colette Lewis at 10:17 PM 0 comments
Labels: College Tennis, International Tournaments, ITF, Pro Circuit, Pro Events, USTA, World Tennis Tour
Wednesday, May 14, 2025
Women Kick Off Quarterfinal Play at NCAA Division I Team Championships Thursday in Waco Texas; USTA Announces Dates for US Open Collegiate Wild Card Playoffs; Three US Boys Reach Quarterfinals at ITF J300 in Italy
Although I will not be in Waco, most of my next four days will be squarely focused on the NCAA Division I Team Championships, hosted by Baylor University. I'll be watching it all on ESPN+, with the Cracked Racquets crew providing quarterfinal coverage before ESPN takes over for the semifinals and finals. ESPN's involvement appears to have been responsible for the much improved schedule this year, with no matches being played simultaneously. That will make for a lengthy Saturday semifinal day, but it's certainly preferable for fans to be able to concentrate on one match at a time.
Play begins at 11 am Eastern Thursday, with the women's quarterfinals as follows:
ALL TIMES EASTERNGeorgia[1] v Duke[8] 11am
North Carolina[5] v LSU[13] 2pm
Michigan[3] v Oklahoma State 8pm
Tennessee[10] v Texas A&M[2] 5pm
US OPEN WILD CARD PLAYOFFS FEATURING TOP AMERICAN COLLEGIATE PLAYERS TO BE HELD JUNE 16-18 AT THE USTA NATIONAL CAMPUS
USTA Increases Commitment to College Tennis with Expanded
US Open Wild Card Pilot Program
ORLANDO, Fla., May 14, 2025 – The United States Tennis Association (USTA) today announced, in collaboration with the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA), that the US Open Wild Card Playoffs will be held June 16-18 at the USTA National Campus.
The new event is part of an expanded NCAA-linked wild card pilot program that will more than double the average number of American collegiate players that earn US Open wild cards each year, with six guaranteed US Open wild card entries up for grabs.
The winners of a four-player men’s and women’s singles playoff and a four-team men’s and women’s doubles playoff will earn US Open main draw singles and doubles wild cards, respectively, while the men’s and women’s singles finalists will earn US Open qualifying wild cards.
Participation in the playoffs will be determined by a committee made up of USTA staff, college tennis coaches and an ITA representative. Any American player or American doubles team that wins the NCAA singles or doubles championship or reaches the singles or doubles final at the NCAA DI Individual Championships held in the fall will automatically qualify for the playoffs. The remaining slots will be awarded by the committee who will evaluate players on a number of factors including 2024-25 match record, ITA ranking, ATP/WTA ranking, professional results, WTN rating and head-to-head results.
This pilot program coincides with the NCAA DI Individual Championships shifting to the fall through at least the 2025-26 season.
Previously, the USTA awarded a US Open main draw wild card to American NCAA singles or doubles champions, while an American NCAA singles finalist received a qualifying wild card. Over the past 10 years, an average of less than three NCAA-linked US Open wild cards per year were awarded, despite an increasing prevalence of former college tennis players having success on the professional circuit.
American NCAA champions that have previously benefited from the US Open wild card as way to jumpstart their professional careers include Danielle Collins (Virginia – 2014, ‘16); Mackenzie McDonald (UCLA – 2016); Emma Navarro (Virginia – 2021); Ben Shelton(Florida – 2022); and Peyton Stearns (Texas – 2022).
Three American boys have advanced to the quarterfinals of this week's ITF J300 in Santa Croce Italy, the warmup tournament to the J500 in Milan next week.
No. 2 seed Jack Kennedy plays No. 7 seed Jamie Mackenzie of Germany, No. 6 seed Keaton Hance faces unseeded Nikita Bilozertsev of Ukraine and No. 8 seed Jack Satterfield meets unseeded Kuan-Shou Chen of Taiwan for a place in Friday's semifinals.
Posted by Colette Lewis at 8:42 PM 2 comments
Labels: College Tennis, International Tournaments, ITF, Pro Events, The Tennis Recruiting Network, USTA
Tuesday, May 13, 2025
Teens Take Advantage of Four USTA Pro Circuit Tournaments This Week; Stearns Makes History in Reaching Rome Semifinals; Roland Garros Wild Cards Announced
It's a busy week for the USTA Pro Circuit, with three tournaments in Florida and one in Delaware.
The W35 in Bethany Beach Delaware had a surprisingly depleted qualifying draw, with only 23 players, leading to nine byes. Only five final round qualifying matches were actually played, with a walkover and two defaults, which is strange.
Americans qualifying--Arkansas State incoming freshman Meghna Arun Kumar, Sumvruta Iyengar(Texas-Dallas) and 40-year-old Eva Frissora(Harvard)--are joined in the main draw by lucky loser by Kallista Liu(Maryland).
Wild cards were awarded to Texas incoming freshman Elizabeth Ionescu, 17-year-old Calla McGill and Maddy Zampardo, a rising junior at NC State. McGill and Zampardo both lost their matches today, with half of the first round played Tuesday and the other half Wednesday. Despina Papamichail of Greece is the No. 1 seed, with Anna Rogers(NC State) the No. 2 seed.
Former South Carolina All-American Ayana Akli, a finalist Sunday at the W35 in Boca Raton, is competing for a fifth straight week. Today she advanced to the second round with a 6-3, 3-0 retired decision over No. 7 seed Kayla Day. Seventeen-year-old Alexis Nguyen defeated No. 5 seed Madison Sieg(USC) 4-6, 6-1, 6-1.
At the M25 in Pensacola, six American men advanced to the main draw by winning their final qualifying matches today: Pablo Paternostro(Florida Gulf Coast); Dakotah Bobo(LSU, Southern Miss); Lazar Markovic; Columbia incoming freshman Abhishek Thorat; Liam Krall(SMU) and Tygen Goldammer(BYU).
Wild cards were given to Carson Baker, a sophomore at Boise State; Justin Lyons, a sophomore at Florida State who is from Pensacola; Kian Vakili(Penn) and Clemson rising junior Marko Mesarovic. Mesarovic lost to No. 4 seed Alex Rybakov(TCU) 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 in first round play today. Vakili defeated No. 7 seed Quinn Vandecasteele(Oregon) 6-3, 4-6, 7-5. Baker and Lyons play their first round matches Wednesday.
Andres Andrade(Florida) of Ecuador is the top seed, with Garrett Johns(Duke) the No. 2 seed.
The USTA National Campus in Lake Nona is hosting $15,000 tournaments for both genders this week, and both had full qualifying draws.
Americans qualifying for the men's main draw today: Matthew Segura; Ryan Dickerson(Duke, Baylor) and 14-year-old Teodor Davidov, who received a wild card into qualifying and beat UCF's No. 2 singles player Mehdi Benchakroun of Morocco 4-6, 6-0, 10-7 today.
Wild cards were given to Sunday's Plantation ITF J200 champion Gavin Goode; recent NC State graduate Braden Schick; 17-year-old Lachlan Gaskell and 16-year-old Agassi Rusher. Goode and Gaskell both lost their first round matches today, Schick plays tomorrow, but Rusher earned his first ATP point with a 1-6, 6-4, 7-6(6) win over No. 2 seed Will Grant(Florida). Rusher retired leading 6-4, 4-5, in his semifinal match with Goode last week at the J200 in Plantation, but was able to withstand nearly three hours of competition today.
Rusher wasn't the only teen to take out a seed today, with Jagger Leach, using the ITF junior reserved program for entry, beating No. 3 seed Leo Vithoontien(Carleton) 7-5, 6-0. Ronit Karki received the other junior reserved entry; he faces qualifier Reece Falck of New Zealand in the first round.
Top seed Dan Martin(Dartmouth, Miami) of Canada is one of only three seeds remaining after completion of just half of the first round.
Six of the eight qualifiers in the Orlando W15 are Americans: 15-year-old Anita Tu; 17-year-old Sydney Jara, who ended the winning streak of ITF J100 Coral Gables and J200 Plantation champion Bella Payne; 14-year-old Caroline Shao; Duke incoming freshman Claire An; 19-year-old Shradha Grover and Samantha Alicea(Arizona State, Nebraska).
UCLA incoming freshman Maya Crossley of Japan is the No. 1 seed, with the second seed Francesca Pace of Italy.
Wild cards were given to four 14-year-olds; Scarlett Fagan, Emery Combs, Lani Chang and Olivia De Los Reyes. Chang plays Grover Wednesday, while the other three lost, although Combs came very close to an upset, falling to No. 7 seed Carolina Bohrer Martins of Brazil 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(5).
Selected for the ITF junior reserved spots were 17-year-old Maya Iyengar, who beat Fagan 6-3, 7-6(4) today; Capucine Jauffret, who plays W35 Boca Raton champion and No. 3 seed Monika Ekstrand Wednesday, and Ava Rodriguez, who won her first Pro Circuit match today over Meisha Kendall-Woseley(Toledo) 6-0, 6-2.
Three years ago, Peyton Stearns was beginning a fortnight that would see her lead the Texas Longhorns to the NCAA team title and then capture the NCAA singles title.
Today the 23-year-old from Ohio set a WTA record, winning her third consecutive match in a third-set tiebreaker, beating No. 16 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(4) to advance to the semifinals of the Masters 1000 in Rome. Stearns had beaten Madison Keys and Naomi Osaka of Japan in tiebreakers in the previous two matches.
Roland Garros' wild card announcement was released today, with Iva Jovic and Emilio Nava officially into the main draw later this month after winning the reciprocal wild card the USTA and FFT exchange annually.
No teenagers received main draw wild cards, but four qualifying wild cards went to French junior girls: Ksenia Efremova (Age 16/WTA No. 629), Eleejah Inisan (Age 16/No. 976), Cindy Langlais(Age 15/no WTA ranking) and Daphnée Mpetshi Perricard (Age 16 /No.1158). Two French teens were given men's qualifying wild cards, 16-year-old Orange Bowl finalist Moises Kouame and 19-year-old Mae Malige.
Posted by Colette Lewis at 10:32 PM 0 comments
Labels: International Tournaments, ITF, Pro Circuit, Pro Events, USTA, World Tennis Tour
Monday, May 12, 2025
Payne Sweeps, Goode Takes Boys Singles Title at ITF J200 in Plantation; Traynor Doubles Up at J100 in Costa Rica; Jacoby Named to Lead Ole Miss Men; Radford, Eastern Illinois Drop Tennis Programs
2024 Easter Bowl 16s champions Gavin Goode and Bella Payne once again shared the spotlight at the same event, winning their biggest ITF Junior Circuit titles last week at the J200 in Plantation Florida.
The unseeded Payne, who won the J100 title two weeks ago in Coral Gables, extended her winning streak to 12 matches, all of them in straight sets, with a 6-2, 6-2 victory in the final over top seed Aspen Schuman. The 17-year-old from Florida, who won the Easter Bowl 18s singles title at the end of March, also claimed the doubles title, partnering with Sara Shumate. The No. 7 seeds defeated No. 3 seeds Isabelle DeLuccia and Sabrina Lin 6-0, 1-6, 10-4 in the final. Payne, 20-3 on the year and now at 178 in the ITF junior rankings, has yet to play a third set in 2025.
No. 3 seed Goode, a 17-year-old from North Carolina, won his third ITF Junior Circuit title, all since last October, beating No. 8 seed Sasha Colleu of France 6-0, 6-1 in the final. Colleu had won the title in the first of the three green clay junior events in Florida, the J100 in Delray Beach, last month. With the title, Goode moves to a career-high of 60 in the ITF junior rankings.
The boys doubles champion are the fourth-seeded Colombian pair of Juan Miguel Bolivar Idarraga and Pablo Robledo Hoyos, who defeated No. 3 seeds Simon Caldwell and Mason Taube 6-7(4), 6-2, 12-10 in the final.
At the J100 in Costa Rica, Olivia Traynor, like Bella Payne, swept the titles, and has also crafted a winning streak of straight-sets matches. Although the 17-year-old New Yorker had a bye last week and needed only five victories to take the title at the J100 in Costa Rica two weeks ago, she has a nine-match streak. As she had done two weeks ago, Traynor defeated Brooke Wallman in the final, this time by a 6-1, 6-1 score.
In doubles, Traynor and Lucia Gallegos of Costa Rica partnered for the title. The No. 4 seeds defeated No. 3 seeds Kaya Baker and Mexico's Abril Cardenas Olivares 6-2, 6-4, in the final.
Sklar Phillips, who won the first J100 in Costa Rica two weeks ago, fell just short in the second, losing 6-2, 6-4 in the final to Benjamin Azar of Canada, whom he had beaten in the previous final.
It was another sweep for an American at the J60 in Cote D'Ivoire, with top seed Koronayashe Rugara winning her second ITF Junior Circuit singles title and sixth doubles title last week. Rugara, a 17-year-old from Florida, beat unseeded Lara Faraj of Morocco 6-1, 1-0 retired in the final. For the doubles championship, top seeds Rugara and Saina Jayesh Vaidya of Singapore defeated Faraj and Virginia Comi of Italy, the No. 2 seeds, 6-2, 3-6, 10-6.
At the J30 in the US Virgin Islands, 15-year-old Texan Sebastian Godoy won his first ITF Junior Circuit singles title. The No. 2 seeds defeated unseeded Legan Thomas in the all-US final 6-2, 6-2. Sixteen-year-old Fox Rogers won his first ITF Junior Circuit title in doubles, with Brazilian partner Nicolas Brandao. The No. 4 seeds defeated No. 2 seeds Jake Weiss and France's Come Le Roch 6-3, 6-2 in the final.
London Evans, who reached the singles final, won the girls doubles title, with Catherine Cardona-Carballosa. The top seeds defeated No. 2 seeds Alexandra Ishemgulova of Russia and Camille Michel of Canada 6-2, 6-1 in the final.
There were two other doubles championships for top-seeded Americans last week, with Kori Montoya and Great Britain's Ruby Cooling taking the J200 in Austria and Sarah Stoyanov and Turkey's Lila Bodur winning the J60 in Nicaragua.
Montoya and Cooling defeated No. 2 seeds Mariia Drobysheva of Ukraine and Anna Kmiecik of Poland 6-4, 6-3 in the final; Stoyanov and Bodur beat No. 2 seeds Avery Alexander of Canada and Ana Camila Celis Avila of Mexico 6-1, 3-6, 10-6 for the title.
Three weeks ago, Ole Miss announced the departure of men's head coach Toby Hansson; today his replacement was introduced, with Jake Jacoby taking over the program. Jacoby, who competed for Iowa from 2014-2018, had served as Mississippi State's men associate head coach since 2019.
In less positive college tennis news, two Division I schools announced the cutting of their tennis programs: Eastern Illinois and Radford.
From the Eastern Illinois announcement:
Unfortunately, this [House] settlement is expected to drastically reduce NCAA distributions to member schools, including EIU. For that reason, the University has been reviewing operating costs across all sports and recognizes that maintaining the current portfolio of teams and spending levels is a critical financial concern that requires attention.
Given these realities, I, in consultation with Athletic Director Tom Michael, have made the difficult decision that the University will cease competition in men's and women's tennis, effective immediately.
From the Radford announcement:
Posted by Colette Lewis at 9:35 PM 0 comments
Labels: College Tennis, International Tournaments, ITF