Day Defeats Crawford, Collins Ousts Brady to Reach Macon $50K Quarterfinals; Seeds Posted for Indoor Intercollegiate Championships

The top two seeds at this week's $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Macon, Georgia went out today, with 17-year-old US Open girls champion Kayla Day defeating top seed Samantha Crawford 6-3, 6-2 and NCAA champion Danielle Collins taking out No. 2 seed Jennifer Brady 7-5, 7-6(2).

With the free live streaming provided at usta.com, I was able to watch most of those two matches, as well as Jamie Loeb's 7-5, 6-2 win over Danielle Lao.

Crawford is both powerful and erratic, and she was misfiring enough today to give Day many opportunities. To Day's credit, she took them, and she didn't trail for a minute of the 71-minute match. Facing only two break points in the second set, Day came up with big serves both times to save them.  Day, who has now reached the quarterfinals of a $50,000-level tournament twice this year, will play unseeded Sesil Karatantcheva of Bulgaria Friday.

Although the score is not always an indication of the quality of a match, the Brady - Collins match was played at a very high level by both players, with neither shying away from the lines.  The tone was set in the first game, a 20-point affair that took 13 minutes, with Collins eventually breaking Brady, then holding for a 2-0 lead.  Brady came back to take the next three games, then broke Collins for a 5-3 lead, but she was unable to close out the set, not reaching set point.  Collins broke for a 6-5 lead and after failing to convert three set points, she did take the fourth to secure the first set.

Collins got the first break of the second set to go up 3-2, but Brady broke right back and that was it for break of serve.  Collins held with no difficulty at 4-5 and 5-6, and the first point of the tiebreaker proved to be significant.  Collins played both offense and defense, and after a long rally, Brady sent a backhand wide. When Collins held her two serves and Brady double faulted for a 4-0 Collins lead, most of the suspense was gone, and when Collins hit a blistering return winner to go up 5-0, the last few points in the two-hour and 20-minute match were a formality.  Collins, who won three matches in qualifying, including a 7-6 in the third win over Catherine Harrison, is now 3-0 in tiebreakers in this tournament.

Collins will play Ohio State sophomore Francesca Di Lorenzo in the quarterfinals, after Di Lorenzo defeated Chanel Simmonds of South Africa 6-4, 6-2 to advance to her first quarterfinal at the $50,000 level.

Loeb will also play an American in the quarterfinals, facing No. 4 seed Grace Min, who defeated Basak Eraydin of Turkey 6-2, 6-4.

Last night at the $50,000+H ITF Women's Circuit event in Mexico, Usue Arconada advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Renata Zarazua of Mexico.  She will play Varvara Flink of Russia on Friday. Seventeen-year-old Katie Swan of Great Britain and 2015 Wimbledon girls champion Sofya Zhuk of Russia, 16, also have reached the quarterfinals.

The fields are complete for next week's USTA/ITA Indoor Intercollegiate Championships and the seeds have been posted.

Women's singles seeds:
1. Francesca Di Lorenzo, Ohio State
2. Ena Shibahara, UCLA
3. Luisa Stefani, Pepperdine
4. Hayley Carter, North Carolina
5. Astra Sharma, Vanderbilt
6. Sara Daavettila, North Carolina
7. Sinead Lohan, Miami
8. Jessie Aney, North Carolina

Women's doubles seeds:
1. Jessie Aney and Hayley Carter, North Carolina
2. Apichaya Runglerdkriangkrai and Luisa Stefani, Pepperdine
3. Maegan Manasse and Denise Starr, Cal
4. Mayar Ahmed and Christine Maddox, Pepperdine

Women's participants:
Karla Popovic, Cal, Northwest Regional champion
Ashley Lahey, Pepperdine, Southwest Regional champion
Claudia Herrero, Nevada, Mountain Regional champion
Blair Shankle, Baylor, Texas Regional champion
Lily Miyazaki, Oklahoma, Central Regional champion
Kate Fahey, Michigan, Midwest Regional champion
Valeria Salazar, Syracuse, Northeast Regional champion
Aldila Sutjiadi, Kentucky, Ohio Valley Regional champion
Marie Faure, William & Mary, Atlantic Regional champion
Sara Daavettila, North Carolina, Carolina Regional champion
Allie Michaud, Auburn, Southern Regional champion
Eleni Christofi, Georgia, Southeast Regional champion
Francesca Di Lorenzo, Ohio State, All-American champion
Ena Shibahara, UCLA, Oracle Masters champion
Sinead Lohan, Miami, All-American consolation winner
Hayley Carter, North Carolina, All-American semifinalist
Astra Sharma, Vanderbilt, All-American semifinalist
Camile Gbaguidi, SCAD, Oracle Cup champion
Rima Asatrian, Columbia, host wild card
Maegan Manasse, Cal, USTA wild card
Viktoriya Lushkova, Oklahoma State, ITA wild card
Jessie Aney, North Carolina, at-large
Josie Kuhlman, Florida, at-large
Sydney Campbell, Vanderbilt, at-large
Andie Dikosavljevic, Auburn, at-large
Alex Najarian, Michigan, at-large
Jessica Livianu, St. John's, at-large
Ingrid Gamarra Martins, South Carolina, at-large
Belinda Woolcock, Florida, at-large
Mayar Sherif Ahmed, Pepperdine, at-large
Meible Chi, Duke, at-large
Luisa Stefani, Pepperdine, Oracle Masters finalist

Men's singles seeds:
1. Mikael Torpegaard, Ohio State
2. Thai Kwiatkowski, Virginia
3. Petros Chrysochos, Wake Forest
4. Nuno Borges, Mississippi State
5. Alfredo Perez, Florida
6. Yuya Ito, Texas
7. Michael Redlicki, Arkansas
8. Arthur Rinderknech, Texas A&M

Men's doubles seeds:
1. Filip Bergevi and Florian Lakat, Cal
2. Skander Mansouri and Christian Seraphim, Wake Forest
3. Tommy Bennett and David Warren, Rice
4. Julian Cash and Arjun Kadhe, Oklahoma State

Men's entries:
Andre Goransson, Cal, Northwest Regional champion
Gage Brymer, UCLA, Southwest Regional champion
Jakob Amilon, UNLV, Mountain Regional champion
Arthur Rinderknech, Texas A&M, Texas Regional champion
Jose Salazar, Arkansas, Central Regional champion
Strong Kirchheimer, Northwestern, Midwest Regional champion
Chris Vrabel, Cornell, Northeast Regional champion
Ryan Peniston, Memphis, Ohio Valley Regional champion
JC Aragone, Virginia, Atlantic Regional champion
Skander Mansouri, Wake Forest, Carolina Regional champion
Nuno Borges, Mississippi State, Southern Regional champion
Guy Iradukunda, Florida State, Southeastern Regional champion
Petros Chrysochos, Wake Forest, All-American champion
Hugo Di Feo, Ohio State, All-American finalist
Alfredo Perez, Florida, All-American semifinalist
Christian Sigsgaard, Texas, All-American semifinalist
Brandon Holt, USC, All-American consolation winner
Mikael Torpegaard, Ohio State, All-American quarterfinalist
Chris Eubanks, Georgia Tech, All-American quarterfinalist
Florian Lakat, Cal, All-American quarterfinalist
Tom Fawcett, Stanford, All-American quarterfinalist
Thai Kwiatkowski, Virginia, USTA wild card
Jolan Cailleau, Texas Tech, ITA wild card
Oliver Frank, Azusa Pacific, Oracle Cup champion
Ryotaro Matsumura, Kentucky, Oracle Masters champion
Shawn Hadavi, Columbia, host wild card
Michael Redlicki, Arkansas, at-large
Nicolas Alvarez, Duke, at-large
Yuya Ito, Texas, at-large
Ronnie Schneider, North Carolina, at-large
Wayne Montgomery, Georgia, at-large
Gustav Hansson, Mississippi, at-large

See this ITA webpage for the full list of doubles participants, and also check out Bobby Knight's College Tennis Today for more on how the at-large selections were made.