Italy's Nardi, Russia's Timofeeva Win Les Petits As Titles; Spears Claims Australian Open Mixed Doubles Championship; Qualifying Underway at $100K Dow Tennis Classic; Men's ITA Indoor Field Set

Nardi and Timofeeva in Tarbes
photo courtesy Richard van Loon

The Les Petits As singles titles were decided Sunday in Tarbes France, with Italian Luca Nardi and Russian Maria Timofeeva putting their names on the prestigious tournament's list of champions.

Nardi, the No. 4 seed, defeated No. 3 seed Hamad Medjedovic of Serbia 6-2, 7-5 in the boys final. He is just the second Italian to claim the title in the tournament's 35 years of existence, joining Samuele Ramazzotti, who won in 2013.

No. 2 seed Timofeeva defeated unseeded wild card Dasha Lopatetskaya of Ukraine 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, spoiling a perfect weekend for Ukrainian teenagers after Kostyuk won the Australian Open girls title and Anhelina Kalinina won the USTA Pro Circuit title in Wesley Chapel Florida (more on that below). Timofeeva is the ninth Russian girl to win the Les Petits As singles championship.

Roger Federer may have claimed his 18th slam title Sunday, but fellow 35-year-old Abigail Spears is happy to have earned her first.  The former UCLA star, playing with Colombian Juan Sebastian Cabal, won the mixed doubles championship at the Australian Open, with the unseeded pair taking out No. 2 seeds Sania Mirza of India and Ivan Dodig of Croatia 6-2, 6-4.  For more on the mixed doubles final, see the article at ausopen.com.

I am currently in Midland, Michigan, a three-hour drive from Kalamazoo, for $100,000 Dow Tennis Classic, a USTA women's Pro Circuit event.  The first round of qualifying was completed today, with Amanda Anisimova, Hanna Chang, Chanelle Van Nguyen, Sophie Chang, Alexandra Sanford, Michaela Gordon, Alexandra Mueller, Julia Elbaba, Nicole Frenkel and Alyvia Jones the Americans advancing to round two.  Chang and Anisimova, Sanford and Gordon and Mueller and Elbaba are the all-US matches Monday.

The tournament announced the main draw wild cards last week, with Varvara Lepchenko, Caroline Dolehide, Usue Arconada and Raveena Kingsley the recipients.

Ken Thomas is doing radio streaming of Monday's qualifying at radiotennis.com. He will then move over to the USTA's live stream beginning on Tuesday, for main draw matches.

The final of the $15,000 Futures tournament in Weston Florida was not played Sunday due to rain, with the match between former Tulane star Dominik Koepfer of Germany and Hugo Dellien of Bolivia rescheduled for Monday.

The final of the $25,000 tournament in Wesley Chapel Florida was played, with 19-year-old qualifier Kalinina winning her second $25K title in Florida this month.  Kalinina defeated unseeded Elizaveta Ianchuk, also of Ukraine, 6-4, 6-4 in the championship match.

At the $75,000 ATP Challenger in Maui, Hyeon Chung of Korea, the No. 2 seed, beat No. 4 seed Taro Daniel of Japan 7-6(3), 6-1 in the singles final.  Jackson Withrow and Austin Krajicek, both former Texas A&M Aggies, defeated Bradley Klahn and Tennys Sandgren 6-4, 6-3 in the doubles final. Neither team was seeded. It's Withrow's first Challenger doubles title to go with his two Futures doubles titles.

This week the men are at a $15,000 Futures in Palm Coast Florida and the $125,000 ATP Challenger in Dallas.

It was a big weekend in college tennis, with all 15 participants in the upcoming men's ITA National Team Indoor Championships decided, with the 16th team being host Virginia.  There were a couple of surprises, with unranked Utah State going into Fort Worth and taking out 12th-ranked TCU 4-3, and No. 21 Baylor going to No. 15 Texas A&M as the fourth seed and taking that regional with wins over the Aggies and SMU.  Complete men's results can be found here.

Two of the women's regionals at Cal and Miami are not yet complete but only one regional so far has not gone as anticipated, with unranked Ole Miss going to Virginia and beating both the Cavaliers and the No. 19 LSU Tigers to advance to the women's Team Indoor Championships at Yale.  The results of the women's matches this weekend are here.

Bobby Knight will also have much more on this weekend's matches at College Tennis Today.