Jenkins, Maden Win Futures Titles; Former Collegians Take Doubles Titles in ATP, Challenger Tournaments; Black Makes WTA Debut in Acapulco

A year ago at this time, Virginia's Jarmere Jenkins and Clemson's Yannik Maden were both preparing for the conference season and the upcoming NCAA tournament.  Over the weekend, both won their second Futures titles since finishing school, with Jenkins taking the $15,000 Futures in Australia, and Maden the $10,000 Futures in Boynton Beach, Florida.

Jenkins was the top seed in Australia, but his run to the final was anything but easy, as he needed to come back from a set down in three of his five wins.  In the final, Jenkins took out No. 4 seed Luke Saville of Australia, the 2011 Wimbledon boys champion, 6-2, 6-3, to take his second ITF Men's circuit title, and first since he won the Rochester Futures on clay back in June of 2013.

Maden, who was an All-American in doubles for Clemson with his younger brother Dominique in 2013, won nine matches in Boynton Beach, four in qualifying and five in the main draw.  Maden, a 24-year-old from Germany, didn't face a single seed in the main draw. In the final, he defeated 2012 NCAA finalist Eric Quigley of Kentucky 7-6(5), 6-1 to take his second title. He won a $10,000 Futures in Germany, also on clay, back in September.

Singh with current Virginia senior Alex Domijan

Jenkins was hardly the only former Cavalier to have success, with two-time NCAA champion Somdev Devvarman taking the title at the $100,000 New Delhi Challenger, and Sanam Singh capturing his second straight doubles title at the Challenger level.

The second-seeded Devvarman, now 29, moved to No. 78 in the ATP rankings with his 6-3, 6-1 win in the final over fellow ITA Player of the Year Aleksandr Nedovyesov (Oklahoma State) of Kazakhstan, who was the top seed. Singh won the doubles title in New Delhi with former Alabama star Saketh Myneni after winning the title at the $50,000 Challenger in Kolkata with Myneni the week before. Both from India, Singh and Myneni were unseeded wild cards in the two tournaments.

Robert Farah, the 2008 NCAA doubles champion at USC, won his first ATP title Sunday, in his fourth appearance in a final. Farah and fellow Colombian Juan Sebastian Cabal, who were unseeded, beat the No. 3 and No. 1 seeds en route to the final at the ATP 500 in Rio, where they downed No. 2 seeds Marcelo Melo of Brazil and David Marrero of Spain 6-4, 6-2.  They are now ranked No. 5 in the ATP doubles team rankings.

Another NCAA doubles champion, the Bryan brothers(Stanford), picked up another ATP title, their 94th, at the ATP 250 in Delray Beach. Kevin Anderson, the NCAA doubles champion at Illinois in 2006, played only singles, reaching the final at Delray Beach before falling, in over three hours, to Croatia's Marin Cilic. Anderson had beaten qualifier Steve Johnson(USC) in the semifinals, while Cilic had taken out John Isner(Georgia) in their semifinal.

The doubles title in Boynton Beach went to unseeded teens Deiton Baughman and Collin Altamirano. Baughman and Altamirano, who received a wild card, beat top seeds Daniel Garza of Mexico and Darian King of Barbados 6-4, 6-4 in the final.

At the women's $25,000 Pro Circuit event in Surprise, Arizona, No. 4 seed Jovana Jaksic of Serbia defeated unseeded Tamira Paszek of Austria 4-6, 7-6(13), 7-5, saving 14 match points, to win the singles title.   Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi of Japan, the top seeds, won the doubles title with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over unseeded Sanaz Marand and Ashley Weinhold, who were frequent doubles partners back in their junior days in Texas.

There are no Pro Circuit events for women in the United States this week. The men are back in Sunrise, Florida, for the third $10,000 Futures of the year there.  Qualifying was completed today, with Sameer Kumar and Francis Tiafoe among those winning four qualifying matches to reach the main draw.  Michael Mmoh, Dennis Uspensky, Altamirano and Baughman received wild cards into the main draw.

US Open girls finalist Tornado Alicia Black, 15, received a wild card into the main draw of the WTA tournament in Acapulco this week and will play her first WTA main draw match against Serbia's Bojana Jovanovski, the No. 6 seed, later tonight. For more on Black, see this article from SI.com.