Kozlov Defeats Becker at Newport ATP; Black, Thomas, Nanda and Pierre-Louis Claim ITF Singles Titles; Crowell Hired at Oklahoma

Stefan Kozlov reached the quarterfinals at an ATP grass court event in the Netherlands last month, and today he added to his success on that surface, with the 18-year-old wild card defeating Benjamin Becker 6-1, 6-2 in the first round at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport, Rhode Island.  Kozlov, who is at a career-high 169 in the ATP rankings this week, will play No. 8 seed Donald Young in the second round Wednesday.  Top seed Steve Johnson, who received a first round bye, will play Yuichi Sugita of Japan Wednesday. Brian Baker, Dennis Novikov and Rajeev Ram are on Wednesday's schedule also.

Jonathan Kelley of the On The Rise caught up with Kozlov last week in Winnetka, at the ATP Challenger there, for this interview.

Last week's ITF Junior Circuit events, which I was unable to follow during the week due to my Wimbledon Junior coverage, saw four singles titles go to Americans, as US players swept all four titles at the Grade 4 in the Bahamas and the Grade 3 in Vancouver.

Hurricane Tyra Black picked up her fourth ITF singles title, with the 15-year-old top seed beating No. 3 seed Amanda Meyer 6-4, 6-4 in the final of the Junkaroo Bowl in Nassau.  Black didn't lose more than three games in any of her matches until the final.  Meyer did get a title, however, taking the doubles with Jenna Dean. The No. 4 seeds beat unseeded River Hart and Alexandra Tutecky of Canada 1-6, 6-4, 10-5 in the final.

Sixteen-year-old Danny Thomas won his first ITF singles title in the Bahamas, defeating qualifier William Peters 6-0, 6-2 in the final. Thomas, the top seed, did not lose a set in his five victories.  The unseeded team of Jacob Beasley and Nicholas Watson won the doubles title, beating No. 4 seeds Zummy Bauer and Trey Hilderbrand 4-6, 7-5, 10-8 in the final.

At the Grade 3 in Canada, Kariann Pierre-Louis claimed her fourth ITF junior singles title, with the top seed defeating unseeded Hailey Baptiste 6-7(1), 6-2, 7-6(8) in the final.  Fifteen-year-old Govind Nanda won his second career ITF junior singles title in Vancouver, with the No. 4 seed defeating No. 3 seed Andrew Fenty 7-5, 6-2.

No. 2 seeds Andres Andrade of Ecuador and Caleb Chakravarthi
won the boys doubles title, beating No. 4 seeds Timothy Sah and Brian Shi 7-6(6), 6-3 in the final.  No. 3 seeds Nidhi Surapaneni of India and Maya Tahan of Israel won the girls doubles, defeating Baptiste and Safiya Carrington 6-2, 7-5 in the final.

Two weeks ago 16-year-old Anna Brylin won her first ITF singles title at the Grade 5 in Cuba.  Brylin, who was unseeded, defeated Lauren Stein, also unseeded, 6-1, 6-2 in the final. At the Grade 5 in Canada, Ethan Prost won the doubles title, with Aaron Diemer of Canada.  The girls doubles title went to the unseeded US pair of Hind Abdelouahid and Ivana Corley.

The final open men's head coaching position in a  Power 5 conference was filled yesterday, with Florida State associate coach Nick Crowell being hired to replace John Roddick at Oklahoma. Crowell, who played at Texas and was an All-American in doubles, had been at Florida State for 13 years.  Matt Hill's replacement at South Florida was announced today, with the Bulls' assistant coach Ashley Fisher taking over the top spot.  Hill left South Florida for Arizona State.

Earlier this month, Wisconsin announced Kelcey McKenna, formerly at New Mexico, as its new women's head coach, and today it was announced that Megan Falcon, the former LSU star, would be hired as McKenna's assistant.

Central Florida filled its women's head coaching vacancy by naming former Ohio State star and Brown men's coach Bryan Koniecko to the position.

A review of Bobby Knight's Coaching Carousel page at College Tennis Today shows the the Iowa women's program as the only Power 5 conference position for either gender still unfilled.