Mayo, Branstine, Jachuk and Mandlik Take Grade 4 Titles; ISC Carson Qualifying Underway; Vanderbilt, Florida Women Take Down Top 10 SEC Opponents

Keenan Mayo and Carson Branstine won the singles titles today at the ITF Grade 4 in Newport Beach, with both the boys and girls finals tough three-set affairs.  The 15-year-old Mayo, seeded No. 6, defeated No. 4 seed Govind Nanda 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-2 to win his second Grade ITF singles title of the month.  His first, at the Grade 3 in Costa Rica, also came at the expense of Nanda.   No. 3 seed Carson Branstine, also 15, defeated No. 5 seed Ann Li 3-6, 6-1, 7-6(1) to win her second ITF Grade 4 singles title, but her first since 2014.

At the ITF Grade 4 in Barbados, No. 5 seed Ronan Jachuk won his second ITF singles title, with the 14-year-old beating unseeded Michel-Alexandre Fortin of Canada 6-1, 6-2 in the final. No. 2 seed Elli Mandlik breezed through the girls draw until the final. In the championship match, the 14-year-old daughter of four-time major champion Hana Mandlikova beat top seed Stefania Rogozinska Dzik of Poland 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to claim her second ITF singles title.  Mandlik also took the doubles title, teaming with her opponent in the singles final. The top seeds defeated No. 3 seeds Estella Jaeger of Germany and Claire Koke of Canada 6-2, 6-4 in the final.

The qualifying began today for the ITF Grade 1 International Spring Championships in Carson, California.  Edson Ortiz Tovar of Mexico and Kate Paulus are the top seeds in the 18s qualifying.  I will be providing onsite coverage of the tournament for the 12th straight year, beginning with the main draw on Monday.  Results and the order of play can be found at the tournament website.

Two important SEC matches between Top 10 teams were played today. No. 7 Florida women defeated No. 8 seed South Carolina 4-1 in Columbia. The Gators dropped the doubles point, but got singles wins from Kourtney Keegan, Brooke Austin, Belinda Woolcock and Josie Kuhlman to stay undefeated in conference play at 7-0.

In Nashville, No. 5 Vanderbilt defeated No. 3 Georgia 4-3, with the Commodores taking the doubles point, then getting wins from Fernanda Contreras, Frances Altick and Courtney Colton to take a 4-1 lead.  Georgia took the matches at the 1 and 2 positions after the match was clinched.  For more on the match, see the Vanderbilt website.

There were two big upsets in Division I men's tennis yesterday, with No. 7 Texas A&M falling to No. 49 Vanderbilt in Nashville and No. 8 Southern California losing to No. 39 Washington in Seattle with both scores 4-3. Bobby Knight has all the details on both matches at College Tennis Today.   The surprises didn't end yesterday, with No. 36 SMU defeating No. 5 Oklahoma State 4-0 today in Stillwater.

At the Miami Open, qualifier Tim Smyczek defeated No. 13 seed John Isner 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(5) to advance to the third round. No. 22 seed Jack Sock also reached the third round when Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine retired down 6-2, 3-2.  Sam Querrey(29) and Denis Kudla also lost, leaving Sock, Smyczek and Steve Johnson(31) as the only American men in the last 32.  Among the US women, top seed Serena Willliams, wild card Nicole Gibbs, CoCo Vandeweghe and Madison Keys(22) still remain in the draw.  Johnson, Vandeweghe, Keys and Gibbs are on Sunday's schedule.