Kozlov Reaches Sacramento Challenger Final; Riffice, Sanford Win Wichita Falls ITF Titles; UCLA's Anderson,Van Nguyen in Women's ITA All-American Final; Two Qualifiers Reach Semis in Men's All-American

Stefan Kozlov defeated No. 2 seed Tim Smyczek 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(1) today to reach the final of the $100,000 Sacramento Challenger. The 16-year-old from Florida, who had not reached a Futures final in his career, recorded his first ATP Top 100 win and will play top seed Sam Querrey in Sunday's championship match. 

 

The above tweet contains a big "if" of course, with Querrey, who won last week's $50,000 Napa Challenger, ranked No. 47 this week.

The Wichita Falls Grade 4 ITF concluded today, with 15-year-olds Sam Riffice and Alexandra Sanford taking their first ITF singles titles.  Sanford defeated Morgan Coppoc, also unseeded, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

No. 9 seed Riffice took out Waco champion Ryan Storrie of Great Britain 7-5, 6-7(9), 6-3.  Sanford, Coppoc and Riffice are all expected to be in Tulsa for the ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed.

The qualifying for the ITF B1 Pan American Closed began today, at two sites, with the girls at the Case Tennis Center at the University of Tulsa and the boys at Cascia Hall Prep School a short distance away.  Fourteen of the 15 matches in the girls first round were completed in straight sets, but the match between No. 4 seed Hada Chang and Clare Haley took three hours and ten minutes to complete.  Chang had two match points during a long game when she was serving at 5-3 in the third set, but Haley saved them and went on to take the 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(5) win despite two double faults in the tiebreaker.  All 16 final round qualifying matches will take place at the Case Tennis Center on Sunday, with the girls beginning at 11 a.m., followed by the boys.

At the completion of tomorrow's ITA Riviera All-American Championships, UCLA will have its first women's champion when 2013 finalist Robin Anderson meets teammate Chanelle Van Nguyen.  Anderson, the No. 2 seed, defeated No. 3 seed Hayley Carter of North Carolina 6-3, 7-6(3), while No. 6 seed Van Nguyen beat freshman qualifier Brooke Austin of Florida 6-2, 7-5.

Unseeded Taylor Davidson and Carol Zhao of Stanford will play No. 7 seeds Beatrice Gumulya and Jessy Rompies of Clemson for the doubles title. Davidson and Zhao defeated No. 6 seeds Giuliana Olmos and Zoe Scandalis of Southern Cal 7-6(5), 6-3 in today's semifinals.  Gumulya and Rompies downed No. 5 seeds Pleun Burgmans and Emily Flickinger of Auburn 6-4, 6-3.

A qualifier is assured of reaching the final of the Men's ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, with Thai Kwiatkowski of Virginia and Sebastian Stiefelmayer of Louisville winning their sixth and seventh matches of the tournament to advance to a semifinal meeting on Saturday.  Kwiatkowski defeated Georgia's Austin Smith (9-16) in the third round, then knocked off top seed Julian Lenz of Baylor 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinals.  Stiefelmayer beat Sam Iftikhar of New Mexico 6-1, 7-6(1) in the third round and yet another qualifier, Dominik Koepfer of Tulane, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.  Kwiatkowski has already beaten Stiefelmayer once this fall, taking a 6-1, 6-3 victory in the final of a tournament at Virginia two weeks ago.

Southern Cal's Yannick Hanfmann, the No. 2 seed, will play Wake Forest's Romain Bogaerts in the other semifinal. Bogaerts beat Leandro Toledo of Minnesota 6-0, 6-2 in the third round and Georgia's Nathan Pasha (9-16) 7-6(6), 6-2 in the quarterfinals.  Hanfmann has been cruising through the draw, and today he continued his dominance, beating Denis Nguyen of Harvard (9-16) 6-0, 6-3 and qualifier Nicolas Alvarez of Duke 6-1, 6-1 in the quarterfinals.