Persistent Rain Delays Orange Bowl Start; US Team Wins Master'U Title Again; Nguyen Downs Shane in Tallahassee Futures Final

Usually I'm rushing from Bradenton to Plantation so that I can catch all the 18s main draw first round matches Monday, but heavy rain three of the past four days has caused havoc with the usual schedule.

When I went to the Frank Veltri Tennis Center this evening, many of the courts were still unplayable and some second round 18s singles qualifying matches had not finished.  The 16s, which usually start on Sunday, had a very few matches completed today, and the decision to play the 16s singles finals on Sunday, rather than on Saturday in the preferred schedule, has already been made.

"The amount of rain we've had over the last several days is very unusual for this time of year in South Florida, and I can't remember ever seeing anything like it in my 23 years at this tournament," said tournament director Lew Brewer.

"While the weather has forced us to delay the start of every singles main draw, as well as schedule the boys' and girls' 16s singles finals for Sunday, we are committed to finishing play on time and ultimately providing every player with a positive experience."

Draws and the order of play can be found at the tournament website.

There will be live scoring for the tournament, which can be found here.

The 18s draws were released Sunday night, with many of the same players who competed in last week's Eddie Herr also on hand in Plantation.

Yucatan champion Mate Valuksz of Hungary, who withdrew from the Eddie Herr, is the No. 2 seed, behind Norway's Casper Ruud. Alex Rybakov, who has been playing Futures events since the US Open Junior Championships, will play his last junior event near his Coral Springs home.  He is the No. 8 seed. Canadian Denis Shapovalov, who also has been playing Futures events in the US in the past few weeks, is playing the Orange Bowl, and is seeded No. 16.

Eddie Herr champion Felix Auger-Aliassime is seeded No. 7 this week. He is the subject of this feature by the USTA's Pat Mitsch.

Katie Swan of Great Britain did not play the Yucatan Cup or the Eddie Herr, but is in the draw at the Orange Bowl, as the No. 3 seed behind top seed and defending champion Sonya Kenin and No. 2 seed Dalma Galfi of Hungary.

Usue Arconada, who withdrew from the Eddie Herr, is the No. 4 seed, and two Russians who did not play Eddie Herr, Evgeniya Levashova and Anastasia Potapova, are seeded 7 and 13 this week.

Caroline Dolehide, who has been out with an injury since Wimbledon, returns to competition this week as the No. 15 seed. 

Yesterday in Rennes, France, the collegians representing the USA in the BNP Paribas Master' U competition won their sixth title in seven years, defeating France 4-1.  The US team, consisting of Danielle Collins of Virginia, Maegan Manasse of Cal, Brooke Austin of Florida, Mackenzie McDonald of UCLA, Tom Fawcett of Stanford and Austin Smith of Georgia, had their tightest match in the semifinals against Germany, coming from 3-2 down with victories in the men's doubles and the mixed doubles to take it 4-3.  Greg Patton of Boise State, who along with Cal's Amanda Augustus, has coached the team in the international competition, provided his blog for usta.com.  Bobby Knight at College Tennis Today also has information on the the results from the three-day competiton.

Knight also highlights the five former collegians who won Futures titles this week: Lloyd Glasspool(Texas), Connor Smith(Ohio State), Marcelo Arevalo(Tulsa), Peter Kobelt(Ohio State) and Daniel Nguyen(Southern Cal).  

Nguyen won the $15,000 Tallahassee Futures, the last Futures tournament of the year in the United States, beating Virginia senior Ryan Shane 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the final.  Nguyen was the No. 2 seed; the unseeded Shane had beaten Champaign Challenger champion Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland, the No. 1 seed, in the second round 7-6(5), 6-4.

Eric Quigley and Nick Meister won the doubles title, beating Daniel Garza and Tigre Hank of Mexico 6-3, 7-5 in the final.