Brooksby, Shi, Poling Earn Futures Wins; Maymi to Lead Nebraska's Men's Program; Chong Named D-III Honda Athlete of the Year; LTA Reveals New Performance Pathway

First round matches are complete at the two $25,000 Futures being played this week in the United States, with juniors Jenson Brooksby, Brian Shi and Karl Poling among those advancing to the second round.

TCU recruit Brooksby, the 2018 Easter Bowl ITF champion, defeated No. 2 seed and former USC star Emilio Gomez of Ecuador 6-1, 6-2 in Buffalo New York. The 17-year-old from Northern California, a qualifier, has reached a Futures quarterfinal, but this is his first main draw Futures win this year.  Wild card Karl Poling, a Princeton recruit, earned his first ATP point with his 6-3, 6-4 win over qualifier Charles Broom of Great Britain, a rising junior at Dartmouth. Ohio State rising sophomore John McNally, a wild card, also picked up a win today, beating Isaiah Strode 6-2, 6-4. Top seed Matias Descotte of Argentina lost his first round match today to Lucas Gomez of Mexico 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.

At the Wake Forest Futures, qualifier Brian Shi, a Harvard recruit, added to his ATP point total with a 6-2, 7-6(2) win over wild card Skander Mansouri of Tunisia. Shi, who reached the quarterfinals of a Futures in Mexico last month, will face unseeded Felipe Mantilla of Colombia, who defeated No. 2 seed JC Aragone 6-3, 6-7(2), 7-6(2). Wake Forest's NCAA champion Petros Chrysochos of Cyprus advanced to the second round with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Alexios Halebian.

The University of Nebraska announced its new men's head coach, with Sean Maymi, associate head coach at Michigan, taking over in Lincoln. Maymi, who worked under Bruce Berque at Michigan and returned to Ann Arbor under Adam Steinberg in 2015, takes over for Kerry McDermott, whose contract was not renewed after 37 seasons with the Cornhuskers.

Four-time NCAA singles champion Eudice Chong of Wesleyan has been named the Honda Athlete of the Year for Division III.  The Honda awards, which are given every year to the top performers in women's collegiate sports, have special awards for Division II and Division III athletes, and Chong was selected for the top honor among the 11 women winners in other sports.  For more on Chong's award, see the this release from the Collegiate Women Sports Awards website.

Great Britain's Lawn Tennis Association has announced a new development initiative, with two national academies and 11 regional development centers.  Last year LTA chief executive Michael Downey returned to the same post at Tennis Canada that he held before taking over at the LTA, where he lasted just three years.  The new LTA CEO, Scott Lloyd, is now emphasizing a more centralized approach, which I would say is the exact opposite of the direction the USTA decided to take in recent years.  For more on the new LTA system and its training centers, see this Daily Mail article.