Mandlik Sweeps Titles at ITF Grade 3 in Costa Rica, Shi Wins Boys Singles; Newport Beach Grade 4 Qualifying Underway; Big Weekend in College Tennis

Elli Mandlik won her fourth ITF singles title today at the Grade 3 in Costa Rica.  The third-seeded 15-year-old from Florida, who is the daughter of four-time slam champion Hana Mandlikova, defeated top seed Amanda Meyer 2-6, 7-6(3), 6-2 in the final.  Mandlik also captured the doubles title, with Alana Smith.  The top seeds defeated Tiffany Lagarde of Canada and Kianah Motosono of Peru 6-3, 2-6, 10-7 in the final.

Americans also came away with both boys titles.  Seventeen-year-old Brian Shi, who recently has verbally committed to Harvard, won his second ITF singles title, with the No. 2 seed beating unseeded Drew Baird 6-3, 7-6(5) in the final.  All four semifinalists were from the US, with Shi defeating Ryan Goetz and Baird beating Christian Alshon to advance to the final.

The boys doubles champions are top seeds Axel Nefve and William Woodall, who beat Harrison Brown of Australia and Vikash Singh of India, the No. 2 seeds, 6-2, 3-6, 10-3 in the final.

The California ITF hard court swing begins Monday with the Grade 4 event in Newport Beach, with qualifying underway today.There are only two seeded boys in the 64-qualifying draw, seven girls are seeded in their 64-player draw. Only players with ITF rankings can be seeded.

There's been a lot of exciting action in Division I college tennis already this weekend.  The Florida State men beat Florida for the first time in 10 years, earning a 4-2 victory at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona in front of a College MatchDay crowd of over 1700 fans.  The Stanford men downed No. 8 Texas 4-1, TCU beat No. 6 Cal 4-3 and No. 2 Wake Forest defeated No. 5 North Carolina 4-3.  TCU completed its sweep of the Bay Area teams, beating Stanford tonight 4-3, after trailing 3-0.  Cal lost to Texas 4-3, going 0-2 this weekend.

The women's four-team shootout in Southern California this weekend was between Pac-12 rivals, with Stanford going 2-0, with wins over USC [4-0] and UCLA [4-3]. UCLA defeated Cal 4-3 tonight, after Cal had beaten USC 4-3 on Friday.

Bobby Knight has more on all the action this weekend at College Tennis Today.