September Aces; Women's Qualifying Complete, ITA All-American Championships Begin Thursday; Hilton Head $10K Cancelled; Bolton Commits to UCLA

My monthly recap of the top performances of the previous month is up today at the Tennis Recruiting Network, with 16 junior, college and former college players featured.

Qualifying for the women's Riveria/ITA All-American Championships concluded today in Pacific Palisades, California, with eight players advancing to the main draw.  One of last month's
aces, UCLA freshman Ena Shibahara, has won six matches over the past five days, coming through pre-qualifying over the weekend, and through qualifying today. The 2016 US Open girls doubles champion has not lost a set in her six matches, with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Michigan's Kate Fahey(9) putting her in the main draw.  The only other freshman to advance was Sara Daavettila of North Carolina, who as the top-ranked newcomer/freshman started her tournament in qualifying, not pre-qualifying.

The other six qualifiers are:
Viktoriya Lushkova, Oklahoma State,
Anna Danilina, Florida
Ingrid Gamarra Martins, South Carolina
Mayar Sherif Ahmed, Pepperdine
Nuria Oremo Ruiz, Colorado
Lily Miyazaki, Oklahoma

The draw for the Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American Championships has been posted, with Ohio State's Mikael Torpegaard the top seed in singles and Oklahoma State's Julian Cash and Arjun Kadhe the top seed in doubles.

Men's singles:
1. Mikael Torpegaard, Ohio State
2. Thai Kwiatkowski, Virginia
3. Christopher Eubanks, Georgia Tech
4. Tom Fawcett, Stanford
5. Skander Mansouri, Wake Forest
6. Petros Chrysochos, Wake Forest
7. Arthur Rinderknech, Texas A&M
8. Ronnie Schneider, North Carolina
9. Gustav Hansson, Ole Miss
9. Andre Goransson, Cal
9. William Bushamuka, Kentucky
9. Nicolas Alvarez, Duke
9. Wayne Montgomery, Georgia
9. Michael Redlicki, Arkansas
9. Konrad Zieba, Northwestern
9. Florian Lakat, Cal

Men's doubles:
1. Julian Cash-Arjun Kadhe, Oklahoma State
2. Filip Bergevi-Florian Lakat, Cal
3. Skander Mansouri-Christian Seraphim, Wake Forest
4. Herkko Pollanen-Mikael Torpegaard, Ohio State
5. Shawn Hadavi-Richard Pham, Columbia
5. Jack Schipanski-Luis Valero, Tennessee
5. Tommy Bennett-David Warren, Rice
5. Zvonimir Babic-Filip Kraljevic, Ole Miss

Bobby Knight of College Tennis Today has more on how players received main draw entry, and also a list of top college men who are missing from the field.  Play begins Thursday morning with singles at 10 a.m. Eastern time, followed by the first round of doubles in the afternoon.

Hurricane Matthew's path up the coast of the southeastern United States resulted in the cancellation of the $10,000 USTA women's Pro Circuit event on Hilton Head Island this week.  Only three main draw matches were played on Monday with the decision to cancel coming today, so without a full round completed, those results will not count. Last year the Charleston $10K was abandoned before the semifinal round could be completed due to persistent heavy rains, so that experience probably played a role in the decision, as well as the much more dangerous possibilities a hurricane presents.

At the $100,000 Stockton Challenger, Mackenzie McDonald, Frances Tiafoe(3) and Denis Kudla(5) advanced to the quarterfinals.  McDonald took out No. 2 seed Tim Smyczek 6-4, 6-4, while Tiafoe beat qualifier Dennis Nevolo 7-6(6), 6-3 and Kudla eliminated Brian Baker 5-7, 6-4, 7-5.  The top half of the draw will play their second round matches on Thursday.  The day's biggest upset came in the doubles, when former University of the Pacific star Sem Verbeek of the Netherlands and current Pacific player Jose Chamba Gomez of Ecuador, who were a wild card entry without a doubles ranking, beat top seeds Andres Molteni of Argentina and Hans Podlipnik-Castillo of Chile 7-6(4), 2-6, 10-5 in the first round.

At the women's $25,000 tournament in Redding, California, the final that didn't happen last week in Stillwater, Oklahoma due to Caroline Dolehide's retirement after one game, was a first round match this week, with Danielle Collins winning her ninth straight match with a 6-2, 7-6(4) victory over Dolehide.  Qualifier Kylie McKenzie beat No. 4 seed Laura Robson of Great Britain 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(2), while Hanna Chang, Ellie Halbauer, Ronit Yurovsky and top seed Sachia Vickery also posted first round wins today.

Elysia Bolton, a 16-year-old blue chip ranked sixth in the Class of 2018, has made a verbal commitment to UCLA. Bolton, who also took unofficial visits to North Carolina, Vanderbilt, Michigan, Georgia and Southern Cal, will be playing the ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed next week in Tulsa, where I hope to have an opportunity to talk with her about her decision for the Tennis Recruiting Network.

Another junior blue chip, Jared Pratt, is just beginning to start the process of selecting a college, according to this article in Charleston's The Post and Courier. Pratt finished sixth in singles and runner-up in doubles in the Kalamazoo 16s this year, while finishing third at the 16s Clay Courts in July.