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Sunday, October 9, 2016

Tiafoe Claims Stockton Challenger; Di Lorenzo Wins Women's All-American Championships; Di Feo and Chrysochos Meet for Men's All-American Title; ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed Starts Monday

It was one of "those" travel days for me, so I don't have any insight to offer for any of the big matches played today: the Stockton Challenger final, the Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships final and the semifinals of the St. Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American Championships. 

At the $100,000 tournament in Stockton, Frances Tiafoe earned his second Challenger title, both at the $100,000 level, beating Noah Rubin 6-4, 6-2 in today's final.  Tiafoe, the No. 3 seed this week, was 0-3 against the unseeded Rubin in the juniors. With the title, the 18-year-old Tiafoe is expected to hit the Top 100, right on the number, for the first time in his career.

In the Stockton doubles final, No. 2 seeds Sam Groth of Australia and Brian Baker defeated No. 4 seeds Matt Reid and JP Smith of Australia 6-2, 4-6, 10-2.

Farther south in the state of California, Ohio State Francesca Di Lorenzo defeated Ena Shibahara of UCLA 6-4, 6-3 to take the first collegiate major of the 2016-17 school year.  The third-seeded sophomore from Ohio now has now won two majors, after taking the National Indoors last November.  Shibahara, a freshman from California playing in her 11th match in nine days with pre-qualifying and qualifying, fell short of a title, but her debut was certainly an impressive one. She earned a place in the National Indoors next month, as did Vanderbilt's Astra Sharma and North Carolina's Hayley Carter, who reached the semifinals, and Sinead Lohan of Miami, who won the consolation tournament for those losing in the first round.

The doubles title in Pacific Palisades went to the unseeded team of Carter and Jessie Aney of North Carolina, who beat Pepperdine's Luisa Stefani and Apichaya Runglerdkriangkra, the No. 5 seeds, 6-1, 2-6, 11-9 in the final.

For a complete recap, with quotes and photos, see this article from the ITA.



The semifinals of the men's All-American in Tulsa are complete with the final between No. 6 seed Petros Chrysochos of Wake Forest and unseeded Hugo Di Feo of Ohio State.  Di Feo finally ended the run of Texas freshman Christian Sigsgaard 7-6(4), 6-0, who had won 11 matches in eight days in pre-qualifying, qualifying and main draw. Chrysochos, a sophomore, advanced to his first major final with a 7-5, 6-1 win over unseeded Alfredo Perez of Florida.

All four will receive a place in the Indoor Championships next month in New York, along with quarterfinalists, Mikael Torpegaard of Ohio State, Christopher Eubanks of Georgia Tech, Tom Fawcett of Stanford and Florian Lakat of Cal. Also receiving a wild card into the National Indoors will be the winner of tomorrow's consolation final between Brandon Holt of USC and Ronnie Schneider of North Carolina.

The doubles final will feature North Florida's Jack Findel-Hawkins and Lasse Muscheites, who qualified for the main draw, against No. 2 seeds Filip Bergevi and Lakat of Cal.  Findel-Hawkins and Muscheites defeated Gergely Madarasz and Ricardo Medinilla of Purdue 6-2, 6-4, while Bergevi and Lakat fought through No. 3 seeds Skander Mansouri and Christian Seraphim of Wake Forest 6-3, 6-7(4),10-8.

At the $25,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Redding, California, No. 2 seed Francoise Abanda of Canada beat top seed Sachia Vickery 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 to claim the singles title. No. 2 seeds Sabrina Santamaria(USC) and Bosnia's Ema Burgic Bucko(Baylor) took the doubles title, beating Julia Elbaba(Virginia) and Bernarda Pera 6-3, 7-6(4) in the final.

Emina Bektas won her second career ITF Women's Circuit $10,000 title, with the former University of Michigan star, seeded No. 5, beating top seed Victoria Rodriguez of Mexico 6-3, 6-1 in just over an hour. Bektas had claimed the doubles title, with Jessica Wacnik the day before.

In Australia, former University of Virginia All-American Jarmere Jenkins claimed his second straight $25,000 Futures title. Unseeded, Jenkins defeated No. 2 seed Blake Mott of Australia 7-6(2), 7-6(5) in the final. Former Georgia standout Nathan Pasha won the doubles title with Australian Darren Polkinghorne.

The qualifying for the ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed finished today, with the main draw beginning at 8 a.m. Monday at the Case Tennis Center at the University of Tulsa.  The girls qualifiers: Marcella Cruz, Janice Shin, Kolie Allen, Anette Goulak, Peyton Stearns, Anna Zhang, Jessica Aragon and Sydney Jones.  The boys qualifiers: Brian Berdusco, Boris Kozlov, Sean Sculley, Alejandro Rodriguez, Jayman Jhattu, Austen Huang, Paul Barretto and Steven Sun. All 16 are from the US.

The top 8 boys seeds:
1. Liam Caruana(ITA)
2. Trent Bryde
3. Alan Rubio Fierros(MEX)
4. Brian Cernoch
5. Kyrylo Tsygura
6. Nicolas Mejia(COL)
7. Juan Hernandez Serrano(MEX)
8. Edson Ortiz Tovar(MEX)

The top 8 girls seeds:
1. Kayla Day
2. Natasha Subhash
3. Morgan Coppoc
4. Maria Portillo Ramirez
5. Ellie Douglas
6. Carson Branstine
7. Sofia Sewing
8. Hurricane Tyra Black

I'll be on-site tomorrow covering the event.

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