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Sunday, October 6, 2024

Basavareddy, Jovic, Ma and Corwin Claim USTA Pro Circuit Titles; Gauff Wins Beijing 1000 Championship; Leach and Frodin Top Seeds at ITF J300 Pan Am Closed

Americans swept the singles titles on the USTA Pro Circuit this week, although three of four tournaments featured all-USA finals, making a sweep quite likely after the semifinals were completed.

Nishesh Basavareddy won his first Challenger title today with an impressive performance in at the Tiburon 75, emphatically ending his Challenger final losing streak at three. After a disappointing performance in the final a week ago in Charleston, a 6-4, 6-3 loss to lucky loser Edas Butvilas of Lithuania, the unseeded 19-year-old from Indiana brought his best level against former Texas All-American Eliot Spizzirri, taking it 6-1, 6-1 in 62 minutes. The Stanford junior is up to 192 in the ATP live rankings with his first Challenger title; he is not playing next week's Challenger 75 in Fairfield California, where he made his first Challenger final last year.

Iva Jovic won her first W75 title today in Rancho Santa Fe California, running her USTA Pro Circuit winning streak to 10 matches and avenging her loss in February's W35 final to Ena Shibahara of Japan. The unseeded 16-year-old, who won the W35 in Berkeley a week ago, defeated No. 3 seed Shibahara 6-3, 6-3 in today's final. The only set Jovic lost all week was the first won she played, against Victoria Hu(Princeton) in her 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 first round victory.  Jovic is now up to 217 in the WTA live rankings.

For more on Jovic's title, see this recap of the final from press aide Steve Pratt.

Lea Ma, the former Georgia All-American, had never been past the quarterfinals of a Pro Circuit tournament, but this week the 23-year-old New Yorker took three steps beyond that, taking the title at the W35 in Redding California. Ma defeated top seed Maria Mateas(Duke) 6-3, 6-2 to record that milestone. Mateas had beaten Texas A&M sophomore Lucciana Perez of Peru in the semifinalis late last night 6-1, 6-0.

The doubles title in Redding was won by Ayana Akli(Maryland, South Carolina) and Eryn Cayetano(USC), with the unseeded pair defeating the unseeded team of Clervie Ngounoue and Himeno Sakatsume of Japan 6-2, 6-2 in last night's final.

At the men's $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Ann Arbor, top seed Felix Corwin(Minnesota) took the title, beating unseeded Alfredo Perez(Florida) 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 in today's final. It's the second Pro Circuit singles titles for the 28-year-old from Wisconsin and his first in four years.

The biggest title for an American was delivered by Coco Gauff, who won her second Masters 1000 title today in Beijing. Gauff, the No. 4 seed, defeated Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-1, to put a disappointing US hard court summer behind her.  For more on Gauff's title, see this article from the WTA website.

Qualifying is complete and the draws are out for the ITF J300 Pan American Regional Championships in Houston, which I'll be covering in person beginning Monday.

The boys qualifiers: Marcel Latak, Noble Renfrow, Arnav Bhandari, Bullion Sharp, Nicolas Pedraza, Andre Alcantara

The girls qualifiers: Bella Payne, Calla McGill, Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann, Joanna Kennedy, Eva Oxford, Sara Shumate

The boys wild cards: Gavin Goode, Juno Pethe, Cal Riggs, Andrew Johnson, Santiago Albarran(MEX) and Gus Grumet. 

The girls wild cards: Maya Chen, Jordyn Hazelitt, Sarah Ye, Hannah Ayrault, Kayla Moore and Ahona Chowdhury.

The boys seeds:

1. Jagger Leach
2. Cooper Woestendick
3. Jack Kennedy
4. Ian Mayew
5. Noah Johnston
6. Kase Schinnerer
7. Dominick Mosejczuk
8. Benjamin Willwerth
9. Matisse Farzam
10. Maximus Dussault
11. Jack Secord
12. Ronit Karki
13. Rafael Botran Neutze(GUA)
14. Lachlan Gaskell
15. Calvin Baierl
16. Jack Satterfield

The girls seeds:
1. Thea Frodin
2. Annika Penickova
3. Nadia Lagaev(CAN)
4. Shannon Lam
5. Maya Iyengar
6. Aspen Schuman
7. Capucine Jauffret
8. Claire An
9. Leena Friedman
10. Monika Ekstrand
11. Alanis Hamilton
12. Ava Rodriguez
13. Anita Tu
14. Kenzie Nguyen
15. Kayla Chung
16. Ishika Ashar

Seeds have first round byes and will play their first matches on Tuesday.

Saturday, October 5, 2024

Jovic Reaches W75 Rancho Santa Fe Final, Continues to Weigh Pro Decision; Basavareddy and Spizzirri Meet Sunday for Tiburon Title; All-US Final at Ann Arbor $15K; Johnson and Montoya Claim Corpus Christi ITF J60 Titles


Sixteen-year-old Iva Jovic faced a difficult decision last month: whether to claim her prize money at the US Open, which was more than $160,000 with her results in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. The lawsuit North Carolina's Reese Brantmeier filed against the NCAA remains unresolved, so, as of now, Jovic would jeopardize her college eligibility if she accepted it.

Yet that limbo has not affected her performance at all, with a title last week at the W35 in Berkeley California and another stellar week at the W75 in Rancho Santa Fe California, where the unseeded Torrance California resident has advanced to the final. 

Jovic defeated No. 5 seed Lanlana Tararudee of Thailand 6-1, 7-5, saving two set points serving at 3-5 and taking the next three games to reach her second W75 final. Now 232 in the WTA live rankings, Jovic is getting close to Australian Open qualifying territory, but still is not convinced she ready to make a decision on her future, according to her conversation with Steve Pratt, the Rancho Santa Fe tournament press aide.

"I’m still not decided [about turning pro]. Just keeping my options open.”

 

Do you have a bar or ranking you might reach to make the decision? 

“Not really. I think I’ll just know when the time is right. There’s no urgency for me.

“I mean we’ve just been working hard to development my game and now things are clicking. We’ve been making good runs all year and so it’s nice to be winning titles and just being consistent all year.”

Kathy Rinaldi, the USTA's head of women's tennis, has been with Jovic the past two weeks and told Pratt that the pro decision is out of her purview.

"That’s a personal decision and between her and her family. She’s obviously having great results but she’s also a very bright girl and into her studies, too, and I’m sure they’ll make the right decision when the time comes.”

Rinaldi praised the progress Jovic has made since returning from injury last fall, which started with her title at the W35 in Redding exactly one year ago.

"She’s just such a hard worker and so aggressive and has just improved in so many aspects. She has such a great growth mindset and she’s improved her serve and her slice and coming forward. Just so tough. She just strikes the ball so well from both sides.”

Jovic will face No. 3 seed Ena Shibahara(UCLA) of Japan in the final, after Shibahara avenged her first round loss last week in Templeton to Katherine Sebov of Canada with a 6-1, 6-3 win today. Jovic and Shibahara played in the final of the W35 in Texas in February, with Shibahara taking it 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

Jovic is planning to play next week's W75 in Edmond Oklahoma, but after that is returning to Orlando to train, with the W50 in Boca Raton and the Orange Bowl possibly her year-ending tournaments.

The doubles title in Rancho Santa Fe went to No. 3 seeds Haley Giavara(Cal) and Rasheeda McAdoo(Georgia Tech), beating top seed Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus and Carmen Corley(Oklahoma) 7-6(0), 5-7, 10-6 in the final. McAdoo, who won the Templeton W75 doubles title last week with Sophie Chang, will break into the WTA Top 200 in the doubles rankings for the first time. (CORRECTION: that match was a semifinal, not a final. No. 2 seeds Maria Kononova(North Texas) and Maria Kozyreva(St. Mary's) of Russia won the title, beating McAddo and Corley 6-2, 7-6(4) in Sunday's final).

Another player who will need to make a decision about college is Nishesh Basavareddy, the Stanford junior who is taking the fall off to compete in Challengers. The 19-year-old from Indiana, who reached the final in Charleston last week, has advanced to another one this week on the opposite coast, defeating Jack Pinnington Jones(TCU) of Great Britain 6-2, 6-3 in the semifinals of the Challenger 75 in Tiburon California. Basavareddy, who despite playing in his fourth Challenger final tomorrow is unseeded, faces unseeded Eliot Spizzirri(Texas), who will be playing in his first Challenger final after defeating No. 2 seed Learner Tien(USC) 7-6(6), 6-7(3) 6-2 today.  The final is a rematch of the 2022 ITA National Fall Championships final, which Basavareddy won 6-1, 6-4.

Spizzirri and Patrick Kypson played in the evening's doubles final, with the unseeded pair falling to No. 2 seeds Tristan Schoolkate and Luke Saville of Australia 6-4, 6-2.

The final is set for the $15,000 USTA men's Pro Circuit tournament in Ann Arbor, with top seed Felix Corwin(Minnesota) facing unseeded Alfredo Perez(Florida) in an all-USA championship match. Corwin defeated Michigan senior Gavin Young 6-2, 6-4, while Perez beat No. 4 seed Aristolelis Thanos(Michigan State) of Greece 6-3, 3-6, 7-5. 

Top seeds Tristan McCormick(Notre Dame, Georgia) and Great Britain's Adam Jones won the doubles title, beating unseeded Martin Borisiouk(NC State) of Belarus and Ryan Dickerson(Duke, Baylor) 3-6, 6-2, 10-1.

It's been difficult to follow the W35 in Redding California, with its late evening matches, but one of the participants in Sunday's final has been decided. Unseeded Lea Ma defeated wild card Ayana Akli(Maryland, South Carolina) 6-4, 7-5, with the 23-year-old former Geogia All-American advancing to her first Pro Circuit final. She will face the winner of tonight's match between top seed Maria Mateas(Duke) and Texas A&M sophomore Lucciana Perez of Peru in Sunday's final.

The ITF J60 in Corpus Christi Texas concluded today, with 15-year-old Andrew Johnson and 16-year-old Kori Montoya winning their first ITF Junior Circuit singles titles.  Montoya, the top seed, defeated unseeded 15-year-old Anjani Vickneswaran 6-1, 6-4 in the final. Johnson, the No. 9 seed, earned his title after winning the first set 6-2 over No. 13 seed Adrian Treacy, who then retired. 

In the boys doubles final, top seeds Anirudh Dhanwada and Mexico's Oswaldo Reyes Tirado defeated unseeded Mason Vaughan and Malhar Patel 7-5, 4-6, 10-7.  Unseeded Emerey Gross and Sara Shumate won the girls doubles title, beating No. 4 seeds Lyla Middleton and Jordyn Hazelitt 7-5, 6-3 in the final.

Friday, October 4, 2024

September Aces; Sebov Remembers Lansdorp after Upset of Joint, Jovic Reaches Rancho Santa Fe W75 Semifinals; Collegians Shine in Tiburon; Qualifying Begins Saturday for ITF J300 Pan Am

My regular review of the top performances of the previous month is up today at the Tennis Recruiting Network featuring the two US Open junior champions, the two ITF J500 Osaka champions and 14 others in between. With so many former collegians now excelling on the Pro Circuit, it's impossible to feature every one who wins a title, so I narrowed it down this month to those who have recently graduated. That meant no Alexander Ritschard, the former Virginia standout, who won another Challenger last week and made his ATP Top 100 debut, but I did feature the 30-year-old in my Throwback Thursday tweet yesterday. Two 17-year-old boys won their first ITF men's World Tennis Tour titles, while other juniors continued to find success on the Pro Circuit.

One of those juniors is 16-year-old Iva Jovic, who won the Berkeley W35 last week and now is into the semifinals of the W75 in Rancho Santa Fe. The unseeded Jovic defeated No. 7 seed Gabriela Knutson(Syracuse) of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-2 in just over an hour. She will face 20-year-old Lanlana Tararudee of Thailand, the fifth seed, who beat No. 2 seed Rebecca Marino of Canada 6-4, 6-2.  Top seed Maya Joint of Australia also was eliminated, losing to unseeded Katherine Sebov of Canada 6-4, 6-4. Sebov will play No. 3 seed Ena Shibahara(UCLA) of Japan for the second week in a row, with the Canadian defeating Shibahara 6-0, 7-6(4) in the first round of the W75 in Templeton. Shibahara advanced to the semifinals with a 7-6(6), 6-3 win over former WTA No. 26 Lauren Davis.

Sebov spoke with press aide Steve Pratt about the coaching relationship she had with Robert Lansdorp, who died last month.

With the recent passing of legendary tennis coach Robert Lansdorp, Canadian Katherine Sebov lost a trusted advisor and mentor, but more importantly she lost a great friend.

Unseeded this week at the sixth annual Rancho Santa Fe Open taking place at the Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club, the 25-year-old Sebov upset No. 1-seed and 18-year-old University of Texas freshman Maya Joint, 6-4, 6-4, in Friday’s quarterfinals.

 

After the match Sebov reflected on the mid-September passing of the iconic Lansdorp, who coached Grand Slam champions and former world No. 1s such as Tracy Austin, Pete Sampras, Lindsay Davenport and Maria Sharapova. 

 

“I spent a lot of hours with Robert,” said Sebov, who is of Ukranian descent and was born in Toronto. “He came to Toronto to a conference and invited us to train at his place for a month at a time.”

 

Sebov, who was also taught the game by her mother Oksana Petrovska, said she worked with Lansdorp until she was 18 years old. “I have a lot of credit to give him for where my game is today and the strokes that I have today are all him and for that I am very grateful,” said Sebov, who will take on former UCLA star and two-time Pac-12 Player of the Year Ena Shibahara in the semifinals on Saturday.

 

“It wasn’t just the strokes, but the mental part of the game too,” Sebov continued. “I’m going to really miss him and found out that he recently passed away so it hasn’t been easy hearing this news. 

 

“I just hope he’s somewhere up there watching me play and that he’s proud of me.”

 

Sebov said she saw Lansdorp last year and talked to him on the phone two months ago. “I always called him and checked in on him,” she said. “We were quite close.”

 

In beating Joint, Sebov said: “I think she’s a really good player. She’s what I like to call a ‘feel’ player and tough to play because she’s very adaptable and very smart. So she knows how to beat her opponent. She was tricky and I had to play really good tennis to beat her.”


At the ATP Challenger 75 in Tiburon, Elliott Spizzirri(Texas), Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) and Jack Pinnington Jones(TCU) of Great Britain have advanced to the semifinals. 

Spizzirri defeated No. 3 seed JJ Wolf(Ohio State) 6-3, 1-6, 7-5; Jack Pinnington Jones beat wild card Colton Smith(Arizona) 7-6(5), 6-4 and Basavareddy defeated Karue Sell(UCLA) of Brazil 7-5, 6-0. Basavarredy will face Pinnington Jones in Saturday's semifinals, while Spizzirri plays the winner of the night match between No. 2 seed Learner Tien(USC) and No. 8 seed Denis Kudla.

The qualifying begins Saturday for next week's ITF J300 Pan American Closed, with Mason Taube the top seed in the boys qualifying and Thara Gowda the top seed in the girls qualifying. The top six seeds receive byes, so they need to win only two matches to reach the main draw; the other competitors in qualifying need to win three. As is always the case for this tournament, the majority of those in qualifying (and main draw) are American.

Thursday, October 3, 2024

Jovic, Bigun Among Top Juniors Declining Invitations to ITF World Junior Tennis Finals in China; Spizzirri, Basavareddy and Tien Reach Tiburon Challenger Quarterfinals; Joint, Jovic Advance at W75 in Rancho Santa Fe

Today, the International Tennis Federation announced the participants in this month's World Junior Tennis Tour Finals, which begin October 14 in Chengdu China. 

Unlike the ATP and WTA year-end finals, participation in this event has never been a given for those who qualify and this year the field is missing the top three boys in the ITF rankings and two of the top three girls. 

The only junior slam champions in the field are the most recent: Rafael Jodar of Spain and Mika Stojsavljevic of Great Britain.

Two Americans are among the eight competing in the girls tournament, with Tyra Grant and Kristina Penickova accepting invitations. Roland Garros boys champion Kaylan Bigun, who has been playing Challengers since the US Open Junior Championships, passed, as did Iva Jovic.  

See the screenshots below for those who have accepted and  declined invitations. The alternates are Antonia Vergara Rivera of Chile and Jangjun Kim of Korea.





















The quarterfinal matchups at the ATP Challenger 75 in Tiburon California are nearly decided, with recent Texas graduate Eliot Spizzirri and  Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) and No. 2 seed Learner Tien(USC) joining fellow Americans Denis Kudla and Colton Smith in the quarterfinals.  Spizzirri defeated No. 6 seed Abdullah Shelbayh(Florida) of Jordan 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4, saving a match point with Shelbayh serving for the match at 6-4, 5-4. Basavareddy, who has now reached his sixth Challenger quarterfinal since finishing his sophomore year at Stanford in May, defeated No. 7 seed Brandon Holt(USC) 6-2, 6-4. Tien has reached his eighth Challenger quarterfinal with a 6-2, 7-6(6) win over qualifier Micah Braswell(Texas). Braswell had two set points, leading 6-4 in the tiebreaker, but Tien came up with some big shots to take the last four points of the match.

Spizzirri will play the winner of the late match between No. 4 seed JJ Wolf(Ohio State) and qualifier Nicolas Mejia of Colombia. Basavareddy faces Karue Sell(UCLA) of Brazil and Tien plays Kudla. 

Live streaming, with commentary by Mike Cation, is available at the ATP Challenger TV webpage.

Top seed Maya Joint of Australia is through to the quarterfinals of the W75 in Rancho Santa Fe, after defeating fellow teenager Akasha Urhobo 6-4, 6-4. The University of Texas freshman will play unseeded Katherine Sebov of Canada on Friday.

Iva Jovic, who won last week's W35 in Berkeley as the No. 2 seed, is unseeded here, but she has advanced to the quarterfinals, beating former USC All-American Madison Sieg 6-2, 6-3. Jovic's opponent in the quarterfinals is No. 7 seed Gabriela Knutson(Syracuse) of the Czech Republic.

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

NCAA Announces Division I Championship Sites for 2026 through 2028; Smith Reaches First Challenger Quarterfinal in Tiburon; UTR Pro Tennis Tour Results

The NCAA had previously awarded its National Championships sites in four-year segments, but under the new leadership of Charlie Baker that parameter was changed, with bids and selections being done in two-year blocks. That means the National Championship selections announced today for all divisions, are for 2027 and 2028.

The prime takeaway for Division I tennis fans is that the University of Georgia is back in the mix, after not hosting the NCAAs since 2017. The Dan Magill Tennis Center, announced today as the site of the 2027 team championships, hosted the men's NCAA championships from 1977 to 1989, and another 15 times from 1991 through 2017, with joint men's and women's NCAA Championships taking place in Athens in 2007, 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2017. I made my first trip to the NCAAs in Athens in 2007, and with the Georgia men taking the team title and John Isner reaching the singles final, I probably got the peak Georgia tennis experience. 

It is one of those places, like Wimbledon, Kalamazoo and Ojai, that personifies the history of specific levels of the sport and weaves those past narratives into the present. It's no secret that the lack of a six-court indoor facility was one of the big reasons that Georgia was shut out in the bidding from 2018-2025, but now that that has been rectified, Georgia will now host two years in a row. Previously selected for the 2026 team championships, Georgia will also host the 2026 individual championships.

Although this year's move of the individual championships to the fall was supposed to be a two-year pilot program, it appears from this announcement that it is being extended for at least two more years, through the fall of 2027.

Georgia's announcement is here.

The USTA National Campus is the other site tapped for the NCAA National Championships, with the University of Central Florida the host school. Already announced as the site for the 2025 NCAA individual championships in the fall, the National Campus will host the 2027 individual championships and the 2028 team championships for Division I.  

The USTA's announcement is here.

The 2027 Division II championships were awarded to Surprise Arizona. Claremont California will host Division III team and individual championships in 2027 and Rome George will host Division III team and individual championships in 2028. The 2028 Division II host will be announced, in conjunction with the Division II National Championships Festival, at a later date.

Arizona senior Colton Smith reached his first ATP Challenger quarterfinal today at the Tiburon 75, with the wild card beating Remy Bertola of Switzerland 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Smith will face TCU junior Jack Pinnington Jones, who reached his third career Challenger quarterfinal today with a 6-4, 6-4 win over No. 4 seed Tristan Schoolkate of Australia.

It's been more than three months since my last update on UTR Pro Tennis Tour results in the United States, and there will probably be just one more, at the end of the year.

WOMEN:

July 1 Manchester CT
Amy Zhu d. Ariana Pursoo 6-3, 6-3

July 15 Long Beach CA
Emma Charney d. Anne Christine Lukemeyer 6-3, 6-3

August 4 Boca Raton FL
Katherine Hui d. Zoe Hammond 6-1, 6-0

August 19 Boise ID
Elise Wagle d. Neena Feldman 6-7(5), 7-6(3), 6-2

September 1 Knoxville TN
Iryna Shymanovich d. Catherine Aulia 2-6, 6-1, 6-3

September 8 Lawrence KS
Iryna Shymanovich d. Camille Kiss 6-1, 6-2

MEN:
July 8 Manchester CT
Adit Sinha d. Nathan Mao 7-6(5), 6-4

July 29 Boca Raton FL
Jack McCarthy d. Felipe Pinzon 6-7(5), 7-6(4), 6-4

August 11 Waco TX
Tadeas Paroulek d. Togan Tokac 6-1, 7-5

August 19 Boise ID
Sekou Bangoura d. Sean Hill 6-4, 6-1

August 26 South Bend IN
Chad Kissell d. Mitchell Sheldon 6-4, 6-3

September 1 Knoxville TN
Shunsuke Mitsui d. Zeke Clark 7-6(1), 6-2

September 15 Tallahassee FL
Viktor Markov d. Erik Schiessl 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(3)

September 16 Newport Beach CA
Maciej Rajski d. Andy Nguyen 6-4, 6-1

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

USTA Director of Coaching Ola Malmqvist Retires; USTA Board Nominations for 2025-26; Three of Four USTA Pro Circuit Tournaments This Week in California

Former New York Times sports reporter Christopher Clarey, a leading tennis journalist, posted a tweet today announcing the retirement of USTA's Director of Coaching Ola Malmqvist. Malmqvist, who won an NCAA doubles title while at the University of Georgia in 1983 and coached Division I tennis at UNLV before joining the USTA, was named the USTA head of women's tennis in 2008. In 2018, Kathy Rinaldi took over for Malmqvist as head of women's tennis, while Malmqvist was named Director of Coaching, a position that Jose Higueras had held previously.

According to Clarey's tweet, all the recent controversy regarding the budget cuts at Player Development was a factor.

"He is departing in large part because he disagreed with budget cuts and reductions made to the USTA player development program, both at the pro and grassroots levels."

I have been encouraged by some recent USTA responses to this spring's Jose Higueras email that sparked the Player Development discussion, but this is not a good sign. I hope Malmqvist can continue to stay involved in the sport; perhaps, now that he will no longer be employed by the USTA, he will have more freedom to speak out on what can be done to keep American tennis on an upward trajectory.

The USTA has announced its slate of officers and board members for 2025-26. Brian Vahaly will be the president and chairman, with Christopher Lewis the first vice president.  CiCi Bellis has been nominated as a Director at Large in the Elite Athlete category. The full list of nominees can be found in this Tennis Industry United article.

California is hosting the three biggest tournaments on the USTA Pro Circuit this week, with the Tiburon ATP Challenger 75 and Redding W35 in Northern California and the W75 in Rancho Santa Fe in Southern California.

In Tiburon, the first round will be completed tonight; six Americans have already advanced to the second round, including two recent University of Texas graduates: qualifier Micah Braswell and Eliot Spizzirri. No. 2 seed Learner Tien(USC) and Charleston finalist Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) won today; Denis Kudla, the No. 8 seed, and wild card Colton Smith won their opening matches Monday, with Smith beating No. 5 seed Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M) 6-3, 6-2. 

Smith, a senior at Arizona, played a consolation semifinal match at the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa Oklahoma Sunday and was right back on the court Monday in Tiburon, so I'm sure he enjoyed his day off today. Smith has made the second round of all three of the Challengers he's played: Lincoln in August, Las Vegas in September, and now here in Tiburon.

At the W35 in Redding, none of the eight players who qualified today are from the United States. Main draw cards were given to junior Alexis Nguyen, Berta Passola(Cal), Ayana Akli(Maryland, South Carolina) and Eryn Cayetano(Souther Cal). Maria Mateas(Duke) is the top seed.

Usue Arconada, the Templeton W75 finalist, received a special exemption into the main draw.  Texas A&M senior Mary Stoiana, who, like Colton Smith, played a consolation semifinal match in the ITA All-American Championships Sunday, but unlike Smith, she was not scheduled to play a match until Wednesday.

In contrast to Redding, seven of the eight qualifiers at the W75 in Rancho Santa Fe are Americans: Rasheeda McAdoo(Georgia Tech), Gabriella Price, Haley Giavara(Cal), Solymar Colling(San Diego), Lauren Davis, Carolyn Campana(Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, and Kailey Evans(San Diego). Evans, who played her All-American consolation quarterfinal on Saturday, had Sunday to travel before beginning qualifying on Monday.

The top seed at the W75 Rancho Santa Fe is University of Texas freshman Maya Joint of Australia, with Rebecca Marino of Canada the No. 2 seed. Wild card were awarded to Georgia's 2024 NCAA finalist Anastasiya Lopata of Ukraine, 15-year-old Annika Penickova, Ashley Kratzer and 15-year-old Julieta Pareja. Kratzer defeated Carson Branstine(Texas A&M) of Canada 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 today, while Pareja, who reached the final round of women's qualifying at the US Open, earned a third WTA Top 200 win today. Pareja, from nearby Carlsbad California, defeated No. 6 seed Elli Mandlik 2-6, 6-4, 6-1.

Akasha Urhobo and Berkeley W35 champion Iva Jovic are both in the main draw on their own rankings, and are unseeded.

The fourth USTA Pro Circuit event is here in Michigan, a new $15,000 men's tournament in Ann Arbor.

Five Americans advanced to the main draw with wins today: Josh Portnoy, Michigan State senior; Alex Cairo Michigan sophomore; 
William Mroz, Illinois junior; Matthew Thomson(Wake Forest) and 
Ryan Dickerson(Duke, Baylor).

The top seed in Ann Arbor is Felix Corwin(Minnesota). All four wild cards were given to current Michigan players: Bjorn Swenson, William Cooksey, Patorn Hanchaikul and Benjamin Kittay. Gavin Young of Michigan played his first round match today, beating No. 3 seed Tristan McCormick(Notre Dame, Georgia) 6-3, 7-5.

Cooper Woestendick, Jagger Leach and Adhithya Ganesan(Florida) all received entries via the ITF's Junior Reserved program. Woestendick and Leach lost today in the first round; Ganesan plays Wednesday.