Tropical Storm Michael Washes Out Another Day of Play at Pan American Closed; Diaz Acosta and Gaston to Meet for Olympic Gold; Wolf Reaches First Challenger Quarterfinal

©Colette Lewis 2018--
 Charlotte NC--

For the second consecutive day, no tennis was played at the ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed, this time due to Tropical Storm Michael. With the Charlotte area under a tropical storm warning, the decision was made early Thursday morning to cancel play for the day. The rain and wind continued for most of the day, but the skies cleared around 5 p.m. and are expected to remain clear for the next several days. With only two days remaining to complete the tournament, the doubles competition was cancelled, with only one of the 31 matches in those two draws played to completion before rain washed out play Tuesday afternoon.  The format for singles for the remainder of the tournament will be two sets with a match tiebreaker in lieu of a third set, which was the format for the girls second round, but not the boys, who finished their second round under standard best-of-three scoring.

Because I had no live tennis to watch today, I focused instead on the live stream of the ITF Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires Argentina. The girls quarterfinal match between No. 6 seed Maria Osorio Serrano of Colombia and unseeded Yuki Naito of Japan was first up, and after a tight first set, Osorio Serrano took control, posting a 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-1 victory.

Osorio Serrano will face No. 7 seed Clara Burel in the semifinals, after Burel surprised No. 3 seed Iga Swiatek of Poland 6-4, 6-2. Swiatek had beaten Burel in the round of 16 in both the French Open and Wimbledon this year, in straight sets, so the scoreline, if not the result, was certainly unexpected. Burel and Osorio Serrano met in the semifinals of the US Open last month, with Burel winning 7-6 in the third, so that could be a good one.  The other girls semifinal will feature No. 4 seed Kaja Juvan of Slovenia versus No. 5 seed Xinyu Wang of China. Juvan defeated Wang en route to last year's title at the ITF Junior Masters.

The boys semifinal match streamed today saw Facundo Diaz Acosta of Argentina, the No. 8 seed, defeat Adrian Andreev of Bulgaria, the No. 6 seed 6-4, 6-1. Diaz Acosta will face No. 3 seed Hugo Gaston of France for the gold medal on Saturday, with Gaston defeating No. 7 seed Gilbert Soares Klier Junior of Brazil by the same score.

No boys or girls doubles were played today, but eight second round mixed doubles matches moved that draw into the quarterfinals.

The live stream is available here.

The USTA Pro Circuit events this week are both men's tournaments, with a $25,000 Futures in Houston and a $100,000 ATP Challenger in Fairfield California.

In Houston, five of the eight quarterfinalists are Americans, including the top two seeds: Ronnie Schneider(UNC) and Jared Hiltzik(Illinois).  Schneider will play UCLA junior Evan Zhu; Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M) will play Ryan Peniston(Memphis) of Great Britain; Jordi Arconada(Texas A&M) will face No. 5 seed Maxime Tchoutakian(Baylor) of France and Hiltzik will face No. 7 seed Peter Bothwell of Ireland. No. 4 seeds Maxime Cressy and Nick Meister(UCLA) play No. 2 seeds John Paul Fruttero(Cal) and Portugal's Bernardo Saraiva(San Francisco) in the doubles final.

In Fairfield, two Americans have advanced to the quarterfinals: Bjorn Fratangelo and Ohio State junior JJ Wolf.  Wolf, who received a wild card, won the ITA All-American Championships singles title on Monday, then flew to California for his first round match on Wednesday. He beat qualifier Evan King, then came back today to take out No. 3 seed Noah Rubin 6-3, 6-2. It's Wolf's first Challenger quarterfinal, although he already has a ATP Top 100 win earlier this summer, over Jozef Kovalik of Slovakia in the qualifying of the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati. Wolf will face No. 5 seed Adrian Menendez Maceiras of Spain, while Fratangelo plays either top seed Jordan Thompson of Australia or Maxime Janvier of France, who play later tonight.