US Team Wins Master’U BNP Paribas Event in Dramatic Comeback over France; Barty Wins Australian Open Wild Card Tournament; Nevolo in USTA Spotlight

The United States captured the Master’U BNP Paribas competition in France this past weekend taking a 4-3 win over 2010 champion France in dramatic fashion. Georgia's Wil Spencer fought back from a 4-1 deficit in the final set of his singles match to win it in a tiebreaker, after both Florida's Lauren Embree and Duke's Beatrice Capra had lost their singles matches. Virginia's Jarmere Jenkins lost his singles match, meaning the US had to sweep all three doubles matches, but they proceeded to do just that, with Capra and Embree winning the women's doubles, Jenkins and Daniel Nguyen of USC winning the men's doubles and Nguyen and Arizona State's Jacqueline Cako clinching the victory in mixed doubles.

France and the United States have met in the final the past three years, with the US winning in 2009 and 2011.

For more, see the coach and player blogs on usta.com. The results for the entire weekend of play can be found at the tournament's website.

In other college news, USTA/ITA Indoor finalist Dennis Nevolo of Illinois was in the College Spotlight last week, discussing his typical day, the toughest crowd to play against and why he chose Illinois.



Also over the weekend, Tennis Australia completed its wild card tournaments for spots in the men's and women's main draw. Marinko Matosevic won the men's event, which featured 24 players in a knockout format, for the second consecutive year, but the big news was 15-year-old Ashleigh Barty's triumph on the women's side. The women played a round robin, a format they chose by vote, and Barty, who received a wild card into the tournament, won all of her matches in straight sets. Her most impressive win was probably her first, when she beat top seed Casey Dellacqua 6-3, 6-3. Dellacqua had been on fire in ITF Women's Circuit events in Australia, winning six tournaments and 30 matches in a row this fall.

For more on Barty's win in the final over second seed Olivia Rogowska, see the Tennis Australia website.