Sanford Wins ITF Grade 2 in Chile; Young into Delray Beach Final; Texas A&M Beats No. 1 Oklahoma, Ohio State Gets 200th Straight Home Win Again

Alexandra Sanford won her second ITF title today at the Grade 2 Copa Milo in Chile. The second-seeded Sanford, who won the Grade 4 ITF title in Wichita Falls last October, defeated No. 9 seed Dominque Schaefer, who lives in the US, but plays for Peru, 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-4.  This is the 16-year-old Ohio resident's third tournament in the South American clay court swing, with her only two losses to Argentina's Julieta Estable, who is currently ranked No. 41 and was not in the draw this week.

The boys title went to Chile's Marcelo Barrios Vera, the No. 2 seed, who beat No. 13 seed Geronimo Espin Busleiman of Argentina 6-1 , 6-2 in the final.

Donald Young, now 25, has been a professional tennis player for more than ten years now, many of them under the pressure of being anointed "the next big thing." He's gone through some discouraging slumps and endured some harsh criticism, but he's continued to compete wherever his ranking has dictated he must.  After reaching the semifinals in Memphis last week, Young has gone a step farther in Delray Beach, defeating Bernard Tomic of Australia 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in today's semifinal.  He will play in his second career ATP final against No. 4 seed Ivo Karlovic on Sunday. For more on Young's win, see the ATP website.  For more on Young's path to this point, see this article by Nick Nemeroff for The Tennis Island.

Yesterday was a crazy day in Division I college tennis, headed by No. 13 Texas A&M's 4-3 victory in College Station over Oklahoma, the top-ranked team in the country after their men's indoor championship. 

No. 10 Texas dropped No. 8 North Carolina in Austin, also by a 4-3 score, and on the women's side, No. 15 Michigan defeated No. 6 Baylor 4-1 in Ann Arbor and No. 11 Southern Cal beat No. 5 Cal 4-3 in Berkeley, the only upset pulled off on the road.

Today, the Stanford men got a big win with the No. 39 Cardinal beating No. 14 Cal 4-3 in Berkeley.  And in Columbus, No. 9 Ohio State beat No. 17 Notre Dame 6-1, their 200th consecutive win at home.  If that sounds familiar, it's because Ohio State originally reported the Buckeyes had won 200 straight at home after their win over South Florida two weeks ago, but Bobby Knight at College Tennis Today did some serious sleuthing and determined Ohio State had actually won only 199 with the win over the Bulls. Although I don't feel he was given enough credit for discovering this, Ohio State's recap of the Notre Dame win does mention the error.

And by all means, if you are a Division I men's college tennis fan, read Bobby's blog.  In addition to making predictions on the big matches of the day and providing links to live scoring and streaming,  he provides recaps if he has live streams to watch (he reported on the deciding match of the Cal-Stanford dual today) and he knows his stuff.