Kingsley Wins ITF Grade 1 Santa Croce; Woldeab, Dawson Advance in Milan Grade A Qualifying; Opelka Reaches Challenger Final; Futures Titles for Two Former Cavaliers; Little Drama in Women's D-I Team Quarterfinals

Cannon Kingsley, photo copyright 2018 FOTOPARRI via tournament Facebook

Cannon Kingsley won his first ITF Grade 1 title today on the red clay in Santa Croce Italy. The unseeded 17-year-old defeated No. 4 seed Yanki Erel of Turkey 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 to become the first American to win the 40th edition of this event, according to this article.  No. 2 seed Qinwen Zheng of China won the girls title, becoming the first from her country to do so, beating No. 16 seed Stefania Dzik Rogozinska of Poland 5-7, 6-1, 6-2.

Kingsley was scheduled to compete in the qualifying of the Grade A  in Milan, which began today, but he should receive a special exemption into the main draw.

Only two Americans are in the qualifying in Milan, with Siem Woldeab and Najah Dawson both picking up wins today. Woldeab defeated Alessandro Conca of Italy 6-1, 6-4, while Dawson beat Valentina Urelli Rinaldi of Italy 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.  Tommy Hemp was on site watching the girls qualifying today, and he has observations on Varvara Gracheva of Russia, Dawson, Noa Krznaric of Croatia and Helene Pellicano of Malta in this post at Tennis Underworld.

In pro tennis action, Reilly Opelka has reached the final of the €106,000+H ATP Challenger in France. The unseeded 20-year-old had been 0-4 in Challenger semifinals this year until today's 6-3, 7-6(7) win over Ernests Gulbis of Latvia.  Opelka, who beat Stefan Kozlov in the quarterfinals, will face unseeded Gregoire Barrere of France in Sunday's final.  Bradley Klahn, playing with Canadian Peter Polansky, is in the doubles final.

A year ago, Alexander Ritschard and Thai Kwiatkowski were playing 1 and 2 singles for the University of Virginia on the way to their third consecutive NCAA team title.  Today they won Futures titles, with Kwiatkowski collecting his at the $15,000 event in Singapore and Ritschard at the $15,000 event in Sweden.  The second-seeded Kwiatkowski, who had played only one other tournament since January, beat No. 4 seed Soichiro Moritani of Japan 6-2, 6-2 in the final, for his third career Futures title.  Former Harvard standout Nicky Hu won the doubles title with Clement Larriere of France.

Ritschard is on a roll, with his title today his second straight in Futures competition.  After collecting his first career Pro Circuit title last week, also in Sweden, the unseeded 24-year-old won again this week without the loss of a set. Ritschard, who had played under the Swiss flag but is now shown as representing the USA on the ITF Circuit, beat three seeds en route to the final, where he defeated unseeded Federik Press of Germany 6-4, 6-3 for his 10th straight win.

At the $15,000 Futures in Mexico City, Harrison Adams has advanced to his first Futures final. The former Texas A&M star defeated another former Aggie, Junior Ore, 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals today.  The unseeded 23-year-old will play unseeded Gerardo Lopez Villasenor of Mexico in the final. Ore did pick up a doubles win over Adams, in the final, when and Jorge Panta of Peru, the No. 4 seeds, beat No. 3 seeds Adams and Miles Seemann 6-3, 6-7(1), 10-6 for the title.

In Spain, 2015 NCAA singles champion Jamie Loeb won the doubles title at the $25,000+H tournament, giving her seven doubles titles on the Pro Circuit. Loeb and Ana Sofia Sanchez of Mexico beat another unseeded team, Yvonne Cavalle-Reimers of Spain and Chiara Scholl, 6-3, 6-2 in the final.

The rain finally relented long enough to allow women's NCAA Division I quarterfinals to be played outdoors Saturday.  Duke and Texas Tech, the first match of the day, was played indoors at Wake Forest, but the other three quarterfinals were all started outdoors.  No. 3 seed Duke dropped the doubles point, but dominated in singles, posting a 4-1 win.  The Blue Devils will face No. 15 seed Stanford on Monday, after the Cardinal rolled over No. 7 seed Georgia 4-0.  Top seed Vanderbilt needed less than two hours to breeze past unseeded Florida State 4-0 and they will play the winner of tonight's match between No. 12 seed UCLA and No. 4 seed Georgia Tech. That match, although started outside, is currently in a rain delay about halfway through the singles matches, with UCLA leading 1-0.  [UPDATE: the match between UCLA and Georgia Tech did produce the previously missing drama in the quarterfinals, coming down to the last match on at line 4, between Abi Altick of UCLA and Ida Jarlskog of Georgia Tech.  The Bruins led 1-0 when a nearly two-hour rain delay eventually moved play indoors, and shortly thereafter, they took a 3-1 lead, with wins by Jada Hart at line 2 and Alaina Smith at line 6, while Georgia Tech earned its first point with a win by Johnnise Renaud at line 3.  The Yellow Jackets fought back to tie it at 3-3, with Paige Hourigan coming back to beat Ena Shibahara at line 1 and Nami Otsuka closing out Ayan Broomfield in two long sets. Jarlskog got an early break in the third set and held on for a 7-6(6), 0-6, 6-3 win, although she had to come from 0-40 down serving for the match at 5-3, after Altick had saved three match points in the previous game. The match ended at 12:09 a.m. Sunday morning].

The men's quarterfinal match times have been adjusted due to a forecast of rain later in the day Sunday. Originally scheduled for noon, the first two matches will be played at 10 a.m., with the last two matches, originally scheduled for 4 p.m., now at 2 p.m.

UCLA[2] vs Southern California[10] 10 a.m.
Ohio State[3] vs Mississippi State[6] 10 a.m.
Wake Forest[1] vs Illinois[8] 2 p.m.
Texas A&M[5] vs Florida[13] 2 p.m.

Live streaming and live scoring is available at the Wake Forest tournament page.  Bobby Knight has the men's quarterfinal previews and predictions at College Tennis Today.

Below are the results from the first three of today's women's quarterfinals. I will update with the UCLA-Georgia Tech score when it becomes available. Click on the score to read the winning school's recount of the match.
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#3 [3] DUKE (27-3) def. #15 [11] TEXAS TECH (23-7), 4-1
Wake Forest Indoor Tennis Center
Head Coaches: Jamie Ashworth (DUKE) and Todd Petty (Texas Tech)

Doubles
1. #28 Sarah Dvorak/Sabrina Federici (TEXAS TECH) def. #9 Kaitlyn McCarthy/Ellyse Hamlin (DUKE) 6-3
2. Felicity Maltby/Gabriela Talaba (TEXAS TECH) def. #6 Kelly Chen/Samantha Harris (DUKE) 7-5
3. Meible Chi/Hannah Zhao (DUKE) def. Alex Valenstein/Lana Rush (TEXAS TECH) 6-4

Singles
1. #6 Samantha Harris (DUKE) vs. #21 Gabriela Talaba (TEXAS TECH) 6-4, 3-6, 3-0, unf.
2. #55 Meible Chi (DUKE) def. #58 Felicity Maltby (TEXAS TECH) 2-6, 6-2, 6-4
3. #116 Kaitlyn McCarthy (DUKE) def. Alex Valenstein (TEXAS TECH) 6-2, 6-2
4. #28 Kelly Chen (DUKE) def. #106 Sabrina Federici (TEXAS TECH) 6-3, 6-0
5. #84 Ellyse Hamlin (DUKE) vs. Sarah Dvorak (TEXAS TECH) 6-5, 3-6, 1-1, unf.
6. Hannah Zhao (DUKE) def. #120 Katelyn Jackson (TEXAS TECH) 6-2, 6-4

Order of Finish:
Doubles: (1,3,2) Singles (6,3,4,2)

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#15 [15] STANFORD (22-3) def. #7 [7] GEORGIA (18-7), 4-0
Wake Forest Tennis Complex
Head Coaches: Jeff Wallace (GEORGIA) and Lele Forood (STANFORD)

Doubles
1. #10 Eleni Christofi/Morgan Coppoc (GEORGIA) vs. #3 Emily Arbuthnott/Michaela Gordon (STANFORD) 5-3, unf.
2. #84 Caroline Lampl/Kimberly Yee (STANFORD) def. #26 Mariana Gould/Katarina Jokic (GEORGIA) 6-3
3. Melissa Lord/Janice Shin (STANFORD) def. Kennedy Shaffer/Annette Goulak (GEORGIA) 6-4

Singles
1. #12 Katarina Jokic (GEORGIA) vs. #15 Michaela Gordon (STANFORD) 4-6, 4-3, unf.
2. #40 Melissa Lord (STANFORD) def. #75 Kennedy Shaffer (GEORGIA) 6-1, 6-2
3. #93 Caroline Lampl (STANFORD) def. #90 Marta Gonzalez (GEORGIA) 6-4, 6-2
4. #43 Emily Arbuthnott (STANFORD) d. Mariana Gould (GEORGIA) 6-4, 6-2
5. Eleni Christofi (GEORGIA) vs. #96 Janie Shin (STANFORD) 6-2, 1-6, unf.
6. #103 Morgan Coppoc (GEORGIA) vs. #102 Emma Higuchi (STANFORD) 7-6(5), 3-1, unf.

Order of Finish:
Doubles: (2,3) Singles (2,3,4)
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#2 [1] VANDERBILT (26-3) vs. #21 FLORIDA STATE (20-13), 4-0
Wake Forest Tennis Complex
Head Coaches: Geoff Macdonald (VANDERBILT) and Jennifer Hyde (FLORIDA STATE)

Doubles
1. #11 Astra Sharma/Fernanda Contreras (VANDERBILT) def. #56 Carla Touly/Ariana Rahmanparast (FLORIDA STATE) 6-2
2. #69 Emma Kurtz/Emily Smith (VANDERBILT) def. Julia Mikulski/Andrea Garcia (FLORIDA STATE) 6-1
3. Christina Rosca/Amanda Meyer (VANDERBILT) vs. Gabriella Castaneda/Petra Hule (FLORIDA STATE) 4-2, unf.

Singles
1. #11 Astra Sharma (VANDERBILT) def. #19 Carla Touly (FLORIDA STATE) 6-3, 6-1
2. #10 Fernanda Contreras (VANDERBILT) def. #122 Petra Hule (FLORIDA STATE) 6-1, 6-1
3. #44 Christina Rosca (VANDERBILT) vs. Nandini Das (FLORIDA STATE) 6-1, 5-2
4. Amanda Meyer (VANDERBILT) vs. Gabriella Castaneda (FLORIDA STATE) 7-6(5), 2-3
5. Emma Kurtz (VANDERBILT) vs. Ariana Rahmanparast(FLORIDA STATE) 6-0, 5-5, unf.
6. Summer Dvorak (VANDERBILT) vs. Andrea Garcia (FLORIDA STATE) 6-4, 6-0

Order of Finish:
Doubles: (1,3,2) Singles (2,1,6)
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#4 [4] GEORGIA TECH (25-5) def. #14 [12] UCLA (23-6), 4-3

Wake Forest Tennis Complex and Indoor Tennis Center
Head Coaches: Rodney Harmon (GEORGIA TECH) and Stella Sampras Webster (UCLA)

Doubles       
1. #1 Paige Hourigan/Kenya Jones (GEORGIA TECH) def. #7 Terri Flemming/Jada Hart (UCLA) 6-4
2. #64 Gabby Andrews/Ayan Broomfield (UCLA) def. #48 Ida Jarlskog/Victoria Flores (GEORGIA TECH) 6-2
3. Alaina Miller/Ena Shibahara (UCLA)  def. Nadia Gizdova/Nami Otsuka (GEORGIA TECH) 6-4

Singles
1. #14 Paige Hourigan (GEORGIA TECH) def. #9 Ena Shibahara (UCLA) 3-6, 6-3, 6-3
2. #33 Jada Hart (UCLA) def. #60 Kenya Jones (GEORGIA TECH) 6-1, 6-3
3. Johnnise Renaud (GEORGIA TECH) def. Terri Flemming (UCLA) 6-1, 6-3
4. #125 Ida Jarlskog (GEORGIA TECH) def. #67 Abi Altick (UCLA) 7-6(6), 0-6, 6-3
5. Nami Otsuka (GEORGIA TECH) def. Ayan Broomfield (UCLA) 7-5, 7-6(2)
6. #121 Alaina Miller (UCLA) def. Victoria Flores (GEORGIA TECH) 6-3, 6-4

Order of Finish:
Doubles: (3,1,2) Singles (3,2,6,1,5,4)