Challenger, Futures Update; Bencic Picks Up First WTA Win; USD's Uros Petronijevic Wins Napa Shootout

On Saturday, I covered many of the doubles performances of the week on the professional circuit; today I'll review the singles results, as well as those doubles championships that weren't decided until today.

Nedovyesov in the 2008 ITA All-American Championships Final

In the Szczecin, Poland Challenger, which is a 106,500 Euro prize money event, the 2009 ITA player of the year Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Ukraine, the No. 7 seed,  picked up the second challenger title of his career, defeating No. 8 seed Pere Riba of Spain 6-2, 7-5 in the final. The 26-year-old Nedovyesov, who played at Oklahoma State, (if I recall correctly, he earned his Masters degree before starting to play the tour full-time) will be inside the ATP Top 120 with his victory, which is tantalizingly close to the cutoff for the 2014 Australian Open main draw.

At the $75,000 women's Pro Circuit event in Albuquerque, Shelby Rogers picked up her third challenger win of the 2013, with the No. 8 seed defeating unseeded Anna Tatishvili of Georgia 6-2, 6-3 in the final.

CoCo Vandeweghe and Eleni Danilidou of Greece, seeded third, won the doubles title, beating unseeded Melanie Oudin and Taylor Townsend 6-4, 7-6.

Georgia Tech's Kevin King and Juan Spir, who reached the ITA All-American doubles final in 2011, won the title at the Quito Challenger, saving match points in their dramatic 7-5, 6-7(9), 11-9 victory over Carlos Salamanca of Colombia and Christopher Diaz Figueroa of Guatemala.

Former University of Virginia Cavalier Ted Angelinos won his sixth Futures title today in his home country of Greece. Angelinos, the top seed, downed No. 4 seed Francois-Arthur Vibert of France 6-4, 6-4 in the championship match.

At the Costa Mesa Futures, former UCLA Bruin Haythem Abid of Tunisia defeated 17-year-old Ernesto Escobedo 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 to take the singles title, his first Futures singles title since 2009. Abid's win gave UCLA a sweep, with freshman Mackenzie McDonald and junior Marcos Giron taking the doubles title earlier in the day. McDonald and Giron defeated the South African pair of Keith-Patrick Crowley and Matt Fawcett, also unseeded, 6-3, 6-2.

At the $15,000 Futures in Canada, 2012 ITF World Junior Champion Filip Peliwo picked up his first Futures title by virtue of a walkover from fellow Canadian Phillip Bester.  The 19-year-old from Vancouver, who won the Wimbledon and US Open boys titles last year, has been climbing steadily in the ATP rankings the past 12 months. At the end of last year he was 558; when the points from this week's title are added, he will improve on his career-high of 277.

Another two-time junior slam winner, 16-year-old Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, also recorded a first today. The reigning French Open and Wimbledon girls champion picked up her first WTA main draw victory in her third attempt.  Bencic, a wild card, had lost to Venus Williams last fall in Luxembourg and to Tatishvili this summer in Sweden, before beating 2010 US Open girls champion Daria Gavrilova of Russia, a qualifier, 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 today in the WTA Premier event in Tokyo. Bencic will play No. 7 seed Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in the second round.

At the Audi Napa Valley Tennis Classic at Meadowood Resort, University of San Diego sophomore Uros Petronijevic went undefeated over the three-day event, then captured the Solinco Wild Card shootout that decides the overall winner and a Futures wild card. Petronijevic defeated Alabama's Daniil Proskura 10-8 in the final.  Seven of the eight round robin winners went undefeated in their groups, all of them college players.  None of the eight USTA juniors made the shootout, with Taylor Fritz coming closest, going 2-1, but losing out in his round robin group to Stanford's Maciek Romanowicz, who also was 2-1, but had a better sets-won percentage.

Sunday's results are available at the ITA website.  For more on Petronijevic's win, see the USD athletics website.