Zootennis


Schedule a training visit to the prestigious Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, MD by clicking on the banner above

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Rain Disrupts USTA's USO Collegiate Wild Card Playoffs on Doubles Day; Qualifying Complete at This Week's Four USTA Pro Circuit Tournaments; US Open's New Downsized Mixed Doubles Event Draws Top Players; Another D-I Tennis Program Axed

The USTA's US Open American Collegiate Wild Card Playoffs were to focus on doubles this evening in Lake Nona, but rain rolled in shortly after the start of the first two matches at 5:00 p.m.


DJ Bennett and Ava Hrastar(Auburn) were three games into their match with Sarah Hamner and Kaitlyn Carnicella(South Carolina) with Reese Brantmeier and Alanis Hamilton(UNC) taking on Olivia Center and Kate Fakih(UCLA) in the match to follow.

Columbia's Nicolas Kotzen and Michael Zheng, who is playing in the singles final Wednesday and probably isn't helped by this rain delay, had played two games in their match with Stanford's Nicholas Godsick and Hudson Rivera, with Duke's Cooper Wiliams and Theo Winegar playing SMU's Trevor Svajda and Louis Cloud in the late match, which had not begun.

Check the USTA's tournament website for results and for Wednesday's times. Cracked Racquets will be covering Wednesday's finals, with the main draw US Open wild cards on the line, at the their YouTube channel.




Rain also delayed the completion of qualifying at the USTA Pro Circuit's W35 in Wichita Kansas and the M25 in Tulsa Oklahoma, but those matches did finish this evening.

In Wichita, 17-year-olds Sydney Jara and Ava Rodriguez advanced to the main draw, with Jara, the No. 16 seed in qualifying defeating Maria Kononova(North Texas) of Russia  3-6, 6-0, 10-8 in the final round and the unseeded Rodriguez beating Maria Berlanga Bandera(Tulsa) of Spain 6-1, 7-5.  Rodriguez will face lucky loser Kononova in the first round, with Jara taking on Liv Hovde(Duke).

Texas A&M rising junior Daria Smetannikov, Jenna Dean and Kylie Collins(Texas, LSU, Oklahoma State) are the other Americans to qualify. Ohio State rising junior Teah Chavez of Canada qualified, as did Oklahoma rising senior Julia Garcia of Mexico and Alina Shcherbinina(Baylor, Oklahoma) of Russia.

Ana Sofia Sanchez of Mexico is the top seed in Wichita, with wild cards going to Wichita State's rising senior Kristina Kudryavtseva of Russia, rising UNC junior Thea Rabman and Hibah Shaikh(Virginia).  Katie Rolls, an incoming freshman at Virginia, received a junior exempt spot and will play No. 6 seed Robin Anderson(UCLA) in the first round.  Last week's champion at the W35 in Decatur Illinois, Fiona Crawley(UNC), is unseeded this week, facing Dalayna Hewitt in the first round.  

In Tulsa, American qualifiers are Marko Mesarovic(Clemson), Boris Kozlov(LSU, Tennessee), Nathan Chavez, Bjorn Swenson(Michigan), Jonah Braswell(Florida, Texas), along with lucky loser Dylan Long. 

Wild cards were awarded to Ian Bracks(Oklahoma State), Billy Suarez(Tulane), Pranav Kumar(Texas A&M, SMU) and Liam Krall(SMU). TCU rising sophomore Cooper Woestendick received a junior exempt spot in the main draw, losing tonight to top seed Aidan Mayo 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. Patrick Maloney(Michigan) is the No. 2 seed.

This week marks the exact middle of the SoCal Pro Series, with three tournaments completed and three more to come after this week's $15,000 men's and women's events in Rancho Santa Fe. 

Americans qualifying into the women's main draw are 14-year-old Anya Arora, Jo-Yee Chan(San Diego State), 17-year-old Avery Nguyen, Midori Castillo Meza(Arizona) and Caroline Driscoll(Denver, Stanford).

Haley Giavara(Cal) and Eryn Cayetano(USC) are the top two seeds.

Wild cards were given to Lani Chang, 16s Easter Bowl champion Armira Kockinis, Isabella Foshee(Eastern Washington). Thea Frodin and Olivia Carneiro of Brazil received ITF Junior Reserved places in the main draw. Frodin defeated No. 6 seed Sabastiana Leon of Mexico 6-3, 6-4 in the first round today, while Kockinis lost to No. 8 seed Anita Sahdiieva(Baylor, LSU) of Ukraine 3-6, 6-4, 6-0.  Carneiro lost to No. 4 seed and ITF J300 Indian Wells finalist Alexis Nguyen 6-0, 6-2.

Americans qualifying for the men's main draw are Theo Dean(Yale, Cal), Spencer Johnson(UCLA),  Dominique Rolland(Arizona, UC-Santa Barbara), Kyle Overmyer and Karl Lee(UCLA, USC). Evan Burnett(Texas) received entry as a lucky loser. Roshah Santhosh is the junior reserved entry for the men.

Wild cards were awarded to Ethan Schiffman(Cal, Northwestern), Noah Zamora(UC-Irvine), William Kleege and Dylan Martin. Andre Ilagan(Hawaii) is the top seed, with Australian Moerani Bouzige the No. 2 seed.

The USTA announced the first entries for the new US Open mixed doubles event, which will feature only 16 teams and will played in a Fast 4 format during qualifying week. Nine of the top 10 women and nine of the top 10 men have entered; whether or not they will all play in the tournament, now two months away, remains to be seen, and only the eight teams with the best combined singles rankings will receive entry anyway, with the other eight spots in the draw filled by wild cards.

For the star-studded list of teams entered, see this article from the US Open website.

Another Division I tennis program was cut today, with Louisiana-Monroe announcing the end of their women's tennis program. They do not have a men's team. Looking at their website, that leaves them at 14 sports, two less than the 16 required by the NCAA for Division I schools, but often track and field, listed for both men and women, are considered separate sports for the indoor and outdoor seasons.

Monday, June 16, 2025

Stoiana and Glozman, Dostanic and Zheng Advance to Wednesday's Collegiate US Open Wild Card Playoff Finals; Traynor Sweeps Titles at ITF J100 in Guatemala, Grosman Claims Second Straight J60 Title in Mexico

The finals of the USTA's Collegiate US Open Wild Card Playoff are set for Wednesday, with all four winners of today's semifinals already assured of a trip to New York. The matches on Wednesday will decide who will be going as a qualifying wild card and who will join the top players in the world in the main draw.


None of the four matches today were dramatic with all finishing in straight sets in under two hours, even with the regular scoring that was used, not the no-ad collegians usually play. Top seed Mary Stoiana, the recent Texas A&M graduate, defeated DJ Bennett, a rising senior at Auburn 6-3, 6-3, after they had split their two SEC matches this spring.


Stoiana will face 18-year-old Valerie Glozman, a rising sophomore at Stanford, who defeated Amelia Honer, a recent UC-Santa Barbara graduate 6-1, 6-2. Honer was the No. 2 seed, due to her WTA ranking, but Glozman's unique style, with two-hands on both sides, is difficult to counter when she's on, and she was on tonight.

This year will be Glozman's fourth in women's qualifying, a remarkable number for an 18-year-old. She earned two of the qualifying wild cards as the runner-up in at the 18s Nationals in San Diego in 2022 and 2024; in 2023 she lost in the San Diego semifinals, but was given a qualifying wild card that year too. She has won a match in all three qualifying appearances; The 22-year-old Stoiana, who received US Open qualifying wild cards in both 2023 and 2024, won her first qualifying match last year.

If she should lose Wednesday, Glozman will have another chance to win a US Open main draw wild card, as she is still eligible to play San Diego this August.

In the men's semifinals, Columbia's rising senior Michael Zheng defeated Aidan Kim, a rising junior at Ohio State, 7-5, 6-2, a result which avoids the worst-case scenario of this new Playoff, with the NCAA champion, who previously always got a main draw US Open wild card if American, being shut out of any wild card in New York. At the least, Zheng, who won the title in Baylor last November, will get a qualifying wild card, which he had received in 2023, and also in 2024, when he reached the NCAA singles final in Stillwater. 

Zheng, who was the No. 2 seed, will face top seed Stefan Dostanic, who completed his final year of eligibility at Wake Forest in May, leading the Demon Deacons to the NCAA Team title. Dostanic defeated 2024 fall runner-up Ozan Baris of Michigan State 6-4, 6-4 tonight to set up a fourth meeting between he and Zheng in 2025.  Zheng won their first match in a dual match early in the season, but Dostanic has won the last two: in Baylor at the NCAA team quarterfinals, and two weeks ago in the first round of the ATP Challenger in Tyler Texas. Dostanic is the only one of the four to have not played in US Open qualifying; the only match he's played at the US Open came in 2018, when he received a wild card into the US Open Junior Championships and lost to Lorenzo Musetti of Italy in the first round.

Tuesday's four matches will be the doubles semifinals, with Bennett and Ava Hrastar(Auburn) versus Sarah Hamner and Kaitlyn Carnicella(South Carolina) and Reese Brantmeier and Alanis Hamilton(UNC) verse Olivia Center and Kate Fakih(UCLA) making up the women's field.

The men's field will feature Zheng and Nicolas Kotzen(Columbia) versus Nicholas Godsick and Hudson Rivera(Stanford) and Cooper Wiliams and Theo Winegar(Duke) versus Trevor Svajda and Louis Cloud(SMU).

Cracked Racquets is providing coverage of all matches at their YouTube channel, beginning at 5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday.

The ITF Junior Circuit results from last week were highlighted by a sweep of the J100 titles in Guatemala for Olivia Traynor and a second straight J60 title for Sean Grosman in Mexico.

Traynor, a 17-year-old from New York, won her third J100 title of year, all since May, and is up to 152 in ITF junior rankings. The No. 2 seed defeated 14-year-old Janae Preston, the No. 4 seed, 6-4, 6-3 in the final, reversing the result of the final two weeks ago at another J100 in Guatemala, which Preston won, leading Traynor 6-2, 3-2 when Traynor was defaulted.

In doubles, top seeds Traynor and Shaya Jovanovic defeated unseeded the unseeded Preston and Emery June Martin 6-2, 6-3 in the final for their first title as a team. It's also two J100 doubles titles in a row for Traynor.

Grosman, a 16-year-old from New York, won back-to-back singles titles at J60s in Mexico, adding last week's title in Veracruz to the one he claimed in Tabasco two weeks ago. The No. 3 seed beat No. 8 seed Nicolas Rivera Paz of Mexico 7-6(4), 6-3 in the final. Grosman has not lost a set in his 10-match winning streak this month in Mexico.

Kalista Papadopoulos, who reached the final in singles, won the girls doubles title with Bethania Bonaguro La Roche of Venezuela. The No. 4 seeds defeated No. 2 seeds Ga Hyun Song Kwon and Natalia Varela Herrera of Mexico 7-6(2), 6-0 in the final. 

Kamil Stolarczyk won the boys doubles title, with Luis Flores Avila of Mexico. The top seeds defeated the unseeded Mexican pair of Paolo Garcia Cavallari and Ignacio Ruiz Marquinez 5-7, 6-4, 11-9 in the final.

At the new J60 last week in Cincinnati, Americans swept all four titles.

Qualifier Carlota Moreno, a 16-year-old from Tennessee, won her first ITF Junior Circuit title without dropping a set all week. The 2025 Easter Bowl 16s bronze ball winner defeated four seeds in her five matches including top seed Reiley Rhodes in the semifinals 6-3, 6-3 and No. 2 seed Sophia Budacsek 6-4, 6-1 in the final. 

Seventeen-year-old top seed Mason Taube won his third title, with the Georgia Tech recruit beating No. 5 seed, 15-year-old Matias Reyniak 6-3, 6-2 in the boys final. Taube didn't have to play his second round or quarterfinal match due to a retirement and a walkover.

No. 3 seed Graeme Angus and Omar Rhazali won the doubles title, beating top seeds Owen Guistwite and France's Romain Azais 6-3, 6-3 in the final. 

Top seeds Rhodes and Olivia De Los Reyes won the girls doubles title, beating unseeded Lily Bazemore and Prisha Lingam 6-3, 3-6, 10-8 in the championship match.

At the J30 in Ottawa Canada, 15-year-old Tristan Stratton of New York won his second ITF J30 title, both coming this year. The 2025 Easter Bowl 16s finalist and top seed defeated No. 5 seed  and doubles partner Kayden Colombo 6-3, 6-4 in the all-USA final. 

For the third straight week at J60s in Pretoria South Africa, Koronayashe Rugara lost to Allegra van der Walt of South Africa, the last two losses in the singles finals. But in those two weeks, the 17-year-old defeated Allegra and sister Angelique in the doubles finals, both times with Morgan Jordaan of South Africa as her partner. Last week's encounter ended with a 6-2, 5-7, 10-7 win for Rugara and Jordaan.

At the J30 in Congo, 15-year-old David Beckles won the doubles title with Hugo Agnes of France. Agnes and Beckles defeated Eric Engunga Escartin of Congo and USA's Gabriel Karam 6-2, 6-2 in the final. 

Sunday, June 15, 2025

Svajda and Crawley Claim USTA Pro Circuit Singles Championships; 17-Year-Olds Jovic and Blanch Earn Biggest Titles; Fritz and Diallo Kick Off Grass Season with ATP 250 Titles

A year ago, Fiona Crawley won the SoCal Pro Series $15K title in San Diego, her first tournament after completing her All-American career at the University of North Carolina. Then came a rough patch, with six consecutive first round losses at W35s and W75s and her ranking fell from 348 to 775 this spring. But the 23-year-old from Texas is back in the winner's circle now, after claiming the title today at the W35 in Decatur Illinois. The seventh-seeded Crawley defeated No. 8 seed Dasha Plekhanova of Canada 7-6(5), 6-4 for her fourth career singles title on the USTA Pro Circuit.


Another Tar Heel captured a title in Decatur, with rising UNC sophomore Susanna Maltby partnering with rising NC State junior Maddy Zampardo to take the doubles championship. Maltby and Zampardo, who won the Easter Bowl 18s doubles title in 2023, claimed their first Pro Circuit title with a 5-7, 7-5, 10-7 win over No. 3 seeds Jaeda Daniel(Auburn, NC State) and Salma Ewing(USC, Texas A&M) in last night's final.

Like Crawley, Trevor Svajda had not won a title in more than a year, with his other career title coming at an M25 in Calabasas last March. Svajda, a rising junior at SMU, has made two Challenger quarterfinals this year, but putting together five consecutive wins in his hometown of San Diego during the SoCal Pro Series has to be the highlight of his 2025. The 19-year-old, a finalist in the Kalamazoo 18s in 2023, defeated University of San Diego rising senior Stian Klaassen of the Netherlands 6-2, 6-3 in today's final.

For more on Svajda's win and an emotional Father's Day for he and father Tom, see this article from Damian Secore for SoCal Pro Series.

No. 7 seed Mao Mushika, a 19-year-old from Japan who is a rising junior at Cal, won the San Diego women's singles title, beating No. 6 seed Alyssa Ahn, an incoming Stanford freshman, 7-5, 6-3 for her second ITF women's World Tennis Tour title.

At the M25 in Wichita Kansas, No. 8 seed Hiroki Moriya of Japan won the singles title, beating No. 2 seed Andres Andrade(Florida) of Ecuador 7-6(6), 6-3 in today's final. In the doubles final, Ozan Baris(Michigan State) won his fourth USTA Pro Circuit doubles title, with New Zealand's Matthew Shearer(Tyler CC, William Carey). The unseeded pair defeated top seeds Matt Hulme(Coastal Georgia, Omaha) and Kody Pearson(Tulsa) of Australia 7-6(4), 7-6(4) in the final. Baris will be competing in the USTA's Collegiate US Open Wild Card playoff Monday in Orlando, in singles, after reaching the NCAA singles final last fall.


In Europe, two unseeded 17-year-olds collected the biggest titles of their careers, with Iva Jovic winning the WTA 125 in Ilkley England and Darwin Blanch triumphing at an M25 in Spain.

Jovic beat No. 8 seed and defending champion Rebecca Marino of Canada 6-1, 6-3 despite the 34-year-old making 84% of her first serves. Marino won only 52% of those points however, and Jovic won eight of nine on Marino's second serve, indicating her returning was a key factor today. Her previous biggest title came at a W100 this spring; she is now up to 89 in the WTA live rankings and in contention for a Wimbledon main draw wild card. Jovic reached the singles semifinals and won the doubles title at the Wimbledon Junior Championships last year.

Darwin Blanch, who has not played a junior event since last August in Kalamazoo, earned his second career title without dropping a set on the hard courts in Martos. Seeded No. 5, Blanch defeated top seed Clement Chidekh(Washington) of France 7-6(4), 6-3 in the today's final. Blanch's first title, in February of this year, came at an M15, also on hard courts in Spain. He is still eligible to play Kalamazoo this year.

Taylor Fritz won his first title of the year at the ATP 250 in Stuttgart, beating top seed Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-3, 7-6(0).  The second-seeded Fritz, who has now beaten Zverev in their last five meetings, has won nine ATP titles, with four of them coming on grass. He will return to his career-high of No. 4 in the ATP rankings Monday, and will be joined by Tommy Paul[8] and Ben Shelton(Florida)[10]. It's the first time since 2006 that three American men have been in the Top 10. Then it was Andy Roddick[4], James Blake(Harvard)[7] and Andre Agassi[10].

Former University of Kentucky All-American Gabriel Diallo of Canada won his first ATP title today at the ATP 250 in 's-Hertogenbosch, beating Zizou Bergs of Belgium 7-5, 7-6(8). The 23-year-old Diallo, who had saved two match points in his second round win over Jordan Thompson of Australia, won all four tiebreakers he played this week.  With the title, the first for a Canadian man on grass this century, Diallo will move into the ATP Top 50 for the first time.

Saturday, June 14, 2025

Jovic Reaches Ilkley WTA 125 Final; Crawley Advances to W35 Decatur Championship Match; Svajda and Ahn into San Diego $15K Finals; Top Seeds Win Grass Court 14s Tournament, Wimbledon Berths

Seventeen-year-old Iva Jovic is through to her first WTA 125 final, with the Southern Californian having her most straightforward win yet in defeating No. 2 seed and ATP Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland 6-0, 6-2 in the semifinals on the grass courts of Ilkley. Jovic, who had needed three sets to advance in her first three victories, didn't face a break point in the match.  Now at 97 in the WTA live rankings, Jovic will move up another ten spots if she can defeat No. 8 seed Rebecca Marino of Canada, the defending champion, in Ilkley. Marino, who at 34, is twice as old as Jovic, defeated 19-year-old qualifier Celine Naef of Switzerland 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in the other semifinal today.


Qualifier Zachary Svajda lost in the semifinals of the ATP Challenger 125 in Ilkley, with No. 7 seed Tristan Schoolkate of Australia earning a 6-4, 7-6(6) victory today. TCU's Jack Pinnington Jones, a wild card, defeated Shintaro Mochizuki of Japan 7-6(5), 6-4 to make his first Challenger final. He also is making his case for a main draw wild card into Wimbledon with his results this week.


No. 7 seed Fiona Crawley, who completed her All-American career at the University of North Carolina in May of 2024, is through to her first final since last June, after defeating UCLA incoming freshman Mayu Crossley of Japan, the No. 6 seed seed 2-6, 6-1, 7-5 in today's semifinals at the USTA Pro Circuit W35 in Decatur Illinois. Crawley's opponent in the final will be No. 8 seed Dasha Plekhanova of Canada, who beat unseeded Katie Swan of Great Britain 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 today.

The singles final at the USTA Pro Circuit M25 in Wichita Kansas will feature No. 8 seed Hiroki Moriya of Japan and No. 2 seed Andres Andrade(Florida) of Ecuador. Moriya beat top seed Nicolas Mejia of Colombia 1-6, 6-0, 7-5, while Andrade also came through in three sets, beating unseeded Justin Boulais(Ohio State) of Canada 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

While his older brother Zach lost in Ilkley today, closer to home 19-year-old Trevor Svajda reached his second Pro Circuit final at the SoCal Pro Series $15,000 tournament in San Diego. The rising junior at SMU ended an impressive winning streak, with University of San Diego rising senior Oliver Tarvet of Great Britain retiring after winning the first set from Svajda 6-3, but down 0-3 in the second set. Tarvet had not lost a match on the USD courts since March 17, 2023, when Princeton’s Thomas Bosancic beat him during his freshman season with the Toreros.

Svajda will face another rising senior at San Diego in the final, after qualifier Stian Klaassen defeated teammate and fellow qualifier Savriyan Danilov of Russia 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 in the other semifinal. 

After their singles semifinal, Klaassen and Danilov teamed up to take the doubles titles, beating last week's champions and No. 2 seeds Keshav Chopra(Georgia Tech) and Philip Jordan(South Carolina, UC-Santa Barbara) 6-4, 6-7(7), 15-13 in Saturday evening's final.

Eighteen-year-old Alyssa Ahn, a rising freshman at Stanford, has reached her first Pro Circuit final, with the No. 6 seed from San Diego beating No. 4 seed Stefania Rogozinska Dzik of Poland 7-5, 7-6(4) in the women's $15,000 tournament in San Diego. Ahn will play No. 7 seed Mao Mushika(Cal) of Japan, who beat Tianmei Wang 6-2, 7-6(5) to advance to her first final this year, after falling in the semifinals of the SoCal Pro Series the first two weeks.

The unseeded Australian team of Lily Fairclough, a USC rising junior,  and Lily Taylor, a rising Arizona State sophomore, won the doubles title, beating unseeded Kristina Nordikyan(USC) and Anita Sahdiieva(Baylor, LSU) 2-6, 6-2, 10-4. Fairclough and Taylor had lost in the final to Haley Giavara(Cal) and Sahdiieva in the first week of the SoCal Pro Series in May; Fairclough then partnered with Sahdieeva to beat Mushika and Nodikyan for the title last week, before reuniting with Taylor for their first title as a team this week.

Top seeds Rafael Pagonis of Greece and Sakino Miyazawa of Japan claimed the titles today at the Tennis Europe Category 1 Lexus Junior International Raynes Park, a grass court event that serves as qualifying for the Wimbledon 14U tournament during the second week of the Championships in July. Pagonis, who is on a 23-match winning streak in major Tennis Europe 14s tournaments, defeated No. 2 seed Moritz Frietag of Austria 7-5, 4-6, 6-3. The 13-year-old Miyazawa, the 2024 Junior Orange Bowl champion, who is already 304 in the ITF Junior rankings, defeated wild card April Sackflame of Great Britain 6-0, 6-3 in the final. Both the champions and runners-up receive invitations to the Wimbledon 14U tournament.

Friday, June 13, 2025

ITA Division I National Awards Announced; Incoming Stanford Freshmen Reach Semifinals at San Diego W15; Kotzen and Moreno Out of USTA USO Wild Card Playoff; Jovic, Svajda Advance at Ilkley 125s

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association released the names of the 2025 Division I National Award winners today, with Dasha Vidmanova of Georgia and Timo Legout of Texas claiming National Player of the Year honors. This award always goes to the player who is No. 1 in the final ITA rankings, so those award winners have been known for several weeks now. The Coach of the Year is usually the coach of the NCAA champion, as is the case this year, but that was not the case last year, when Alison Ojeda of NCAA semifinalist Tennessee was given the nod over Mark Weaver of Texas A&M. For details on each winner, click on the header to go to the ITA article.

WOMEN:

Coach of the Year: Drake Bernstein, Georgia

Assistant Coach of the Year: Ty Schaub, Michigan

Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship: Nibi Ghosh, Notre Dame

Cissy Leary Sportsmanship: Elaine Chervinsky, Viriginia

Rookie of the Year: Cadence Brace, LSU

Most Improved: Kallista Liu, Maryland

Senior Player of the Year: Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia

Player to Watch: Piper Charney, Michigan

National Player of the Year: Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia

Earlier this week, Vidmanova was named the winner of the Honda Award for Tennis, which is an annual award sponsored by Collegiate Women's Sports. The Honda Cup, the overall award given to one athlete from among the winners of each sport, will be announced June 30 in a live telecast on CBS Sports Network.


Coach of the Year:  Tony Bresky, Wake Forest

Assistant Coach of the Year:  Cris James, NC State

Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship: Colton Smith, Arizona

Rafael Osuna Sportsmanship: Michael Zheng, Columbia

Rookie of the Year: Rafael Jodar, Virginia

Most Improved: Corey Craig, Florida State

Senior Player of the Year: Colton Smith, Arizona

Player to Watch: Kenta Miyoshi, Illinois

National Player of the Year: Timo Legout, Texas

At the SoCal Pro Series in San Diego, two Stanford incoming freshmen and two Loyola Marymount alumni have reached the women's W15 semifinals, and three University of San Diego players have advanced to the men's $15K semifinals.

No. 6 seed Alyssa Ahn, who made the semifinals in San Diego last year, defeating unseeded Selina Atay 6-4, 6-1 to defend those 2024 points. She will face No. 4 seed Stefania Rogozinska Dzik(Loyola Marymount) of Poland in an attempt to reach her first Pro Circuit final. Nineteen-year-old Mao Mushika(Cal) of Japan, the No. 7 seed, has reached the semifinals of all three SoCal Pro Series so far, beating Veronika Miroshnichenko(Loyola Marymount) of Russia 6-2, 0-6, 7-6(5) in today's quarterfinals. She will play the other 18-year-old rising freshman at Stanford, Tianmei Wang, who won her first Pro Circuit quarterfinal match today, beating Mao's twin sister Mio, the No. 3 seed, 6-2, 6-1.

Last week's champion Oliver Tarvet of Great Britain, a rising senior at the University of San Diego, is through to the semifinals after qualifier Toby Samuel(South Carolina) retired trailing 7-5, 4-4.  He will face San Diego resident Trevor Svajda, after the SMU rising junior defeated Andrew Fenty(Michigan) 6-3, 6-4. The other semifinal will feature two USD stars, who qualified this week: graduate Savriyan Danilov of Russia and rising senior Stian Klaassen of the Netherlands. Danilov beat No. 3 seed Alafia Ayeni(Cornell, Kentucky) 6-4, 6-4 and Klaassen defeated No. 8 seed Quinn Vandecasteele(Oregon) 2-6, 7-6(8), 6-3, saving two match points in the second set tiebreaker.

Svajda will need to make a quick trip to Florida after he's finished in San Diego, with he and SMU teammate Louis Cloud last minute replacements in the doubles draw at the USTA's US Open Collegiate Wild Card Playoffs.  Svajda and Cloud are taking the place of Tennessee's Alex Kotzen and Alejandro Moreno, who withdrew today due to injury, and will play Cooper Williams and Theo Winegar of Duke in the semifinals Tuesday night.

Svajda's older brother Zachary, a two-time Kalamazoo 18s champion, is also through to the semifinals this week, at the ATP Challenger 125 in Ilkley, England. The 22-year-old qualifier will face No. 7 seed Tristan Schoolkate of Australia in the semifinals after his 7-6(8), 4-6, 7-5 win over Leandro Riedi of Switzerland today. 

TCU's Jack Pinnington Jones of Great Britain, a wild card, has also advanced to the semifinals, where he'll face 2019 Wimbledon boys champion Shintaro Mochizuki if Japan.

Seventeen-year-old Iva Jovic, playing in just her third WTA 125 tournament and her first on grass, has needed three sets in all three of her matches this week, but is through to the Ilkley 125 semifinals after beating Talia Gibson of Australian 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 today. She will face her first seed this week Saturday, No. 2 seed Viktorija Golubic, 32, of Switzerland. No. 8 seed Rebecca Marino of Canada, who won this event last year when it was a W100, will face 19-year-old Celine Naef of Switzerland in the other semifinal. Jovic is currently 105 in the WTA live rankings after her win today.

Thursday, June 12, 2025

Draws Released for USTA's Collegiate US Open Wild Card Playoffs; ITA Men's Kickoff Weekend Draft Features 13 Passes; USA Team for Upcoming World University Games; USTA Pro Circuit Update; Cameroon Davis Cup Player and Coach Joseph Oyebog Passes Away at Age 57

The USTA's inaugural US Open Collegiate Wild Card Playoff begins in Lake Nona Monday evening, with the draws now posted here. The schedule for Monday and Tuesday is below, with the court assignments on the left.

Michigan's Gavin Young and Benjamin Kittay were unable to accept their invitation due to injury, with Nicolas Godsick and Hudson Rivera of Stanford taking their place.

MONDAY
5pm matches
Team USA 1 - (1) Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) vs. DJ Bennett(Auburn)
Team USA 2 - (2) Michael Zheng(Columbia) vs. Aidan Kim(Ohio State)

Followed by matches
Team USA 1 - (1) Stefan Dostanic(Wake Forest) vs. Ozan Baris(Michigan State)
Team USA 2 - (2) Amelia Honer(UC-Santa Barbara) vs. Valerie Glozman(Stanford)

TUESDAY
5pm matches
Team USA 1 - (1) Nicolas Kotzen/Zheng(Columbia) vs. Nicholas Godsick/Hudson Rivera(Stanford)
Team USA 2- (1) Bennett/Ava Hrastar(Auburn) vs. Kaitlyn Carnicella/Sarah Hamner(South Carolina)

Followed by matches
Team USA 1 - (2) Olivia Center/Kate Fakih(UCLA) vs. Reese Brantmeier/Alanis Hamilton(UNC)
Team USA 2 - (2) Cooper Williams/Theo Winegar(Duke) vs. Alex Kotzen/Alejandro Moreno(Tennessee)

The finals in both singles and doubles are Wednesday.

As with yesterday's women's ITA Division I Kickoff Weekend draft for next February's National Team Indoor Championships, today's men's draft featured many more passes than normal, with 13 teams electing not to participate in the regional qualifying in January. Although only three teams in the 20s drafting position passed compared to five in the women's 20s, that is still a high number opting out.

The ranking of the last women's team in was Penn at 79 (the Penn  men's team, ranked 50, passed); the ranking of the last men's team in the draft was 76, with Virginia Tech filling out the regional at Wake Forest, the No. 1 seed.

The Raleigh regional filled up in record time, with three of the first four teams in the drafting position choosing to travel to No. 7 NC State: Tennessee[15], Texas A&M[17] and Duke[18]. No. 16 Central Florida elected to go to No. 12 Cal.

Five regions filled up completely before anyone elected to go to No. 1 Wake Forest, No. 4 Stanford or No. 6 Ohio State.  Cal and No. 13 South Carolina appear to be the most competitive, with all teams in those two regions ranked between 12 and 26.

The least competitive region is probably Ohio State, who has No. 53 Purdue, No. 56 Old Dominion and No. 63 North Alabama coming to Columbus. UCLA, even though ranked 14th and the last regional host, was avoided by mid-range teams, although they do have No. 38 UC-Santa Barbara as their No. 2 seed. 

As I mentioned in yesterday's post on the women's draft, the reasons for so many teams passing may be related to more conference matches, smaller travel budgets, or perhaps just uncertainty when it comes to the impact of the approval of the House settlement, which takes effect July 1. I hope this isn't the first sign of the haves and have nots further polarizing in Division I college tennis, but I fear it might be just that.

The United States tennis team for the World University Games in July were announced this week, with UCLA's Kate Fakih and Olivia Center, Stanford's Nicolas Godsick, Harvard's Natalie Block and SMU's Trevor Sjavda and Jerry Barton traveling to Germany for the biennial competition. SMU men's head coach Grant Chen will lead Team USA.  For more from Chen and several of the players, see this article from uclabruins.com.

Along with Week 3 of the SoCal Pro Series, there are two tournaments in the Midweest this week on the USTA Pro Circuit, with the men at the M25 in Wichita Kansas and the women competing in a W35 in Decatur Illinois.

The top two seeds and the only WTA Top 300 players in the draw lost in the first round, with Jenna Dean defeating top seed and WTA 274 YeXin Ma of China 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-3 and Ava Markham(Wisconsin) beat No. 2 seed and ATP 281 En Shuo Liang of Taiwan 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(4).  Markham is through to the quarterfinals, where she'll face No. 7 seed Fiona Crawley(UNC), but Dean lost to Jaeda Daniel(Auburn, NC State) today. Daniel, the only other American to advance to the quarterfinals, will face Great Britain's Katie Swan next.  Mayu Crossley of Japan, the No. 6 seed, defeated future UCLA teammate Kate Fakih 6-2, 6-1 and will play No. 3 seed Cadence Brace(LSU) of Canada in Friday's quarterfinals. 

Rain in Wichita has delayed the completion of today's final second round match, with Nicolas Kotzen(Columbia) facing No. 6 seed and former ATP No. 19 Hyeon Chung of Korea.  No. 3 seed Aidan Mayo is through to Friday's quarterfinals, and Aidan Kim(Florida, Ohio State) also advanced with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Ozan Baris(Michigan State), but Kim gave a walkover to Justin Boulais(Ohio State) of Canada, so Boulais is through to the semfinals. As you can see in the beginning of this post, both Kim and Baris are competing in the US Open Collegiate Wild Card Playoff beginning Monday in Orlando. Kotzen is playing doubles Tuesday.

Top seeds Nicolas Mejia of Colombia and Andres Andrade(Florida) of Ecuador are through to the quarterfinals.

At the SoCal Pro Series $15Ks for men and women in San Diego, last week's champion Oliver Tarvet, a rising senior and All-American from the University of San Diego, was not seeded this week. But in his second round match today against top seed Alfredo Perez(Florida), the 21-year-old from Great Britain came out on top 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-3. According to this article on first round action from Damian Secore for USTA SoCal, Tarvet hasn't lost a match on the USD courts since his freshman year. 

Americans through to the quarterfinals are unseeded Trevor Svajda(SMU), who beat  No. 7 seed Kyle Kang(Stanford) 6-2, 3-6, 6-0, unseeded Andrew Fenty(Michigan), No. 3 seed  Alafia Ayeni(Cornell, Kentucky) and No. 8 seed Quinn Vandecasteele(Oregon). Fenty and Svajda will face each other next.

Two 18-year-old rising Stanford freshmen are through to the quarterfinals in San Diego, with unseeded Tianmei Wang of LA defeating No. 8 seed Maya Iyengar 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 and No. 6 seed Alyssa Ahn of San Diego beating last week's champion Lily Taylor(Arizona State) of Australia 6-4, 1-6, 6-3. 

I missed the sad news last month that Joseph Oyebog, a pillar of African tennis in his home country of Cameroon and father to top juniors Lucy and Joseph Jr., has passed away at age 57. The ITF obituary details his efforts to raise the profile of the sport in Cameroon and in Africa and the legacy he has established there.