Hibi, Sock, Shabaz Win Pro Circuit Events; Kozlov Loses in Three Sets in ATP Tour Debut

Seventeen-year-old Mayo Hibi followed up her title at the $25,000 Las Cruces New Mexico Pro Circuit event last month with her biggest title yet, claiming the $50,000 challenger last week in Sacramento.

Unseeded, the California resident and Japanese citizen, beat five Americans to capture the winner's trophy: Vicky Duval(8), Jessica Lawrence, Alexandra Stevenson, Allie Will, and in the final, Madison Brengle(5).  Hibi, who won the ITF Carson Grade 1 and Easter Bowl Grade B1 in April, trailed Brengle 5-1 in the first set before winning the last 12 games of the match.  With the victory, her WTA ranking rose to 247, meaning she is close to getting into the US Open women's qualifying. 

Lauren Embree and Robin Anderson, two members of the USTA Collegiate team, reached the doubles final, losing to Naomi Broady of Great Britain and Storm Sanders of Australia 6-3, 6-4. Neither team was seeded.

At the $10,000 men's Futures event in Pittsburgh, former University of Virginia All-American Michael Shabaz beat current Duke junior Jason Tahir for the second time in two weeks, both times in three sets, with this victory resulting in Shabaz's third Futures title.  Shabaz, the No. 3 seed, beat the unseeded Tahir 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.  For more on the singles final, see this article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  UCLA's Marcos Giron and Ohio State's Connor Smith won the doubles title, with the No. 4 seeds defeating Tahir and Chris Mengel 6-3, 6-3 in the final.

As many of you have already mentioned in the comments, Jack Sock won the $50,000 Challenger in Winnetka Saturday, moving into the ATP Top 100 and assuring himself a place in the main draw of the US Open.  Sock, seeded No. 3, defeated 2010 NCAA champion Bradley Klahn, the No. 8 seed, 6-4, 6-2 in the final.

Michael Venus of New Zealand and Yuki Bhambri of India won the doubles title, beating Sock and Somdev Devvarman 2-6, 6-2, 10-8.

But the big news from the tournament was in the semifinals, when top seed Alex Bogomolov of Russia, playing Klahn, retired from the match due to a bad line call with the score 4-6, 6-4, 3-1. Although Klahn wasn't involved in a similar incident during the semifinals of the 2011 NCAAs at Stanford, when Michael Shabaz retired over a dispute to give Steve Johnson the win, he certainly would have been reminded of that equally stunning ending.  The video of the final minutes of the match can be seen here.

There are no men's Pro Circuit events this week, but the women are at the $50,000 Yakima Challenger, with Sharon Fichman of Canada the top seed.

Fifteen-year-old Stefan Kozlov, who on Thursday was losing a three-set quarterfinal in the Wimbledon boys tournament, received a wild card into the main draw of the ATP Hall of Fame Championships this week, and made his ATP debut today against Poland's Michal Przysiezny, ranked 113.  Kozlov held his own before falling 6-3, 6-7(9), 6-4.  Stephan Fogleman, of the Tennis East Coast blog, was in Newport Rhode to report on Kozlov's debut, and provided this account of the match. Thanks to Steve for the photo above as well.