More Clay Recaps; Scholl, Smith Sweep Pro Circuits; Kosakowski Wins First ATP Match, Bouchard First WTA Match

The Tennis Recruiting Network began its coverage of the USTA National Clay Court Championships today, with recaps by Ali Jones on the Boys 12s in Winston-Salem, NC and by Sonny Dearth on the Girls 16s in Virginia Beach.

A couple of local papers in Florida also provided coverage of two of the events there. There isn't much coverage of the final matches in the Boys 18s and 16s championships in Delray Beach in this Palm Beach Post article, but it does contain the news that Alexios Halebian has turned pro. Halebian had not made it official when I spoke to him at the Easter Bowl, but he had every intention of signing with CAA this summer, although if that has happened, there has been no public announcement of it. I will talk with Halebian about it again next week in Kalamazoo.

Madison Bourguignon's win at Plantation in the Girls 14s received coverage from the Sun-Sentinel's Harvey Fialkov, who does provide some observations about the match between Bourguignon and Katerina Stewart, the Easter Bowl finalist. Tennis Recruiting will be providing coverage of the Boys and Girls 14s on Wednesday.

Here are the results of the singles finals:

18s:
Alexios Halebian(1) def. Brett Clark(10) 7-6(5), 6-4
Gabrielle Andrews(1) def. Denise Starr 3-6, 6-1, 6-2

16s:
Luca Corinteli(4) def. Noah Rubin(3) 6-4, 6-2
Peggy Porter(6) def. Keisha Clousing(18) 6-1, 6-2

14s:
Reilly Opelka(16) def. Cameron Klinger(8) 6-2, 6-3
Madison Bourguignon def. Katerina Stewart(1) 6-3, 6-2

12s:
Connor Hance(15) def. Patrick Kypson(3) 6-2, 6-1
Catherine Bellis(1) def. Kayla Day(3) 6-1, 6-4

Last week on the Pro Circuit, unseeded Chichi Scholl won her first $50,000 title, defeating former USC star Amanda Fink, a qualifier, 6-1, 6-1. With the win, Scholl has broken into the WTA Top 200, at 185, a career high. She also won the doubles with Tammy Hendler of Belgium, the first time the two had played together. Scholl, 19, and Hendler, who will be 19 next month, beat top seeds Lindsay Lee-Waters and Megan Moulton-Levy 7-6(9), 3-6, 10-7.

Recent Tennessee graduate JP Smith won his first singles titles as a professional last week in Tulsa, and also taking the doubles title with another former Volunteer, Ben Rogers. Smith, who had to qualify, didn't drop a set in any of his seven wins, beating former Minnesota standout Chris Wettengel, also unseeded, 6-1, 6-1 in the final. University of Virginia recruit Mitchell Frank reached the semifinals before falling to Smith 6-3, 6-1. Smith and Rogers, unseeded in doubles, beat another unseeded team with Fresno State backgrounds, Rudy Siwy and Nick Papac, 6-2, 6-3. For more on Smith's wins, see the Tennessee athletic website.

In the women's 10K in Evansville, former University of Utah player Elizabeth Ferris, the No. 4 seed, beat unseeded Nicole Melichar 6-2, 6-1 to claim her first professional singles title. According to this article in the Evansville Courier and Press, the soon-to-be-18-year-old Melichar has not yet decided whether to turn pro or attend college. The doubles title in Evansville went to University of Tennessee's Brynn Boren and University of Southern California's recruit Sabrina Santamaria. They beat Ferris and Nadia Echeverria Alam 6-4, 4-6, 11-9 in a battle of unseeded teams.

In the Lexington men's $50,000, Wayne Odesnik won the singles title, and Jordan Kerr and Davis Martin took the doubles.

For complete results, see the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.

With all the pro events this week in the US--two WTA and one ATP-there are just two $10,000 Pro Circuit tournaments on the schedule. The men are in Godfrey, Ill. and the women are in St. Joseph, Mo.

Dan Kosakowski, the 19-year-old from Southern California who just completed his freshman year at UCLA and has since turned pro, won his first ATP match this afternoon at the Farmers Classic in Los Angeles. Kosakowski, who won three qualifying matches, beat fellow qualifier Tim Smyczek 2-6, 6-1, 6-3. Ken Thomas of radiotennis.com, who is webcasting the matches, kept commenting on Kosakowski's poise, which seemed to surprise him, but didn't surprise those of us who have watched Kosakowski as a junior. Earlier this year, Kosakowski had lost to Smyczek in the first round of qualifying at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells 6-3, 6-2. Kosakowski will play Ernests Gulbis of Latvia in the second round.

In one other notable result from a pro event, 17-year-old wild card Eugenie Bouchard of Canada, ranked No. 6 in the ITF Juniors, won her first WTA tour level match, beating Alison Riske of the US today at the CitiOpen in College Park, Maryland 6-3, 6-2.