Baptiste, Altamirano Win USTA Pro Circuit Titles; 36 American Juniors Begin Play This Week at ITF Grade A in Merida Mexico

Hailey Baptiste and Collin Altamirano both won their third career ITF World Tennis Tour singles titles today in Tucson and Austin.

The 18-year-old Baptiste, seeded No. 6, defeated No. 7 seed Marcela Zacarias of Mexico 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the final of the $25,000 tournament in Arizona. Baptiste is now 3-0 against Zacarias, all of the wins coming this year and all of them going to three sets. Baptiste, who should move to around 229 in the WTA rankings when the points are added, is now in good position to playing qualifying at this year's Australian Open if she chooses to make the trip. She won a round at the US Open women's qualifying this year in her major debut. Due to the rain all week, the doubles draw was played only through the quarterfinals with the semifinals and finals abandoned.

The 23-year-old Altamirano, the former University of Virginia standout and 2013 Kalamazoo 18s champion, has been playing mostly on the Challenger tour this year, and the Texas $15K is his first tournament at that level since May of 2018, where he also won the event. The top seed, Altamirano got by TCU freshman Jacob Fearnley of Great Britain, a qualifier, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Martin Damm fell short in his quest for his first Pro Circuit title, with the 16-year-old wild card beaten by No. 8 seed Tomas Etcheverry of Argentina 7-6(4), 7-5 in the $25,000 tournament in Naples Florida.  Damm had two set points with Etcheverry serving at 3-5 in the first set, but couldn't convert either, and in the next game, serving for the set, Damm saved four break points but not the fifth, hitting his second consecutive double fault to give back the break. Damm fell behind 3-0 and 4-2 in the second set, got it back to 4-4, then 5-5, but couldn't hold at 5-6, with two more double faults sealing his loss. Damm had 14 double faults in the match and made only 49% of his first serves. Despite the loss, Damm had a breakout tournament, and his commitment to moving forward, even on clay, is great to see from a young player in his first pro final.

Seone Mendez of Australia won the women's title at the $25,000 in Naples, beating Panna Udvardy of Hungary 6-3, 6-4 in a final between two unseeded players. No. 4 seeds Maria Jose Portillo Ramirez of Mexico and Gabriela Talaba(Texas Tech) of Romania won the doubles title, defeating unseeded Mendez and Lea Boskovic of Croatia 7-5, 6-2 in the final.

At the $15,000 men's tournament in East Lansing Michigan, No. 2 seed Daniel Altmaier of Germany defeated top seed Michael Geerts(Arizona State) of Belgium 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 for the title.

The ITF Grade A in Merida Mexico begins Monday, with 18 US girls and 18 US boys in the 64-player singles draws.

The US girls: Hibah Shaikh, Charlotte Chavatipon[16], Hina Inoue, Emma Jackson, Alexandra Yepifanova[3], Ava Catanzarite, Lauren Schneider[Q], Tara Malik, Madeleine Jessup[WC], Skyler Grishuk, Isabelle Kouzmanov, Ellie Coleman, Robin Montgomery[4], Savannah Broadus[8], Madison Sieg, Elizabeth Stevens[Q], Ashley Krueger[Q] and Kailey Evans.

The top seed in the girls draw is Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic, who will play Shaikh in the first round Monday.

The US boys: Milledge Cossu[WC], Stefan Leustian, Welsh Hotard[16], Connor Krug[Q], JJ Tracy, Zane Khan[3][WC], Cash Hanzlik, Hunter Heck, Benjamin Kittay, Aidan Mayo, Dali Blanch[11], Jake Krug[Q], Alexander Kiefer, Jackson Ross, Colton Smith[Q], Nedim Suko[Q], Spencer Brachman[Q] and Nate Bonetto[Q].

ITF No. 7 Thiago Tirante of Argentina accepted a wild card and is the top seed. ITF junior No. 1 Holger Rune of Denmark, No. 3 Shintaro Mochizuki of Japan and No. 4 Harold Mayot of France all had entered but withdrew. Mochizuki is still entered in next month's Grade A Orange Bowl, but the withdrawal deadline is not until Tuesday.

When I checked the entries early last week, Zane Khan was still entered, but he is now showing as withdrawn. He must have changed his mind late last week and decided to request a wild card; he has reached the quarterfinals of two $15Ks in Cancun this month.

The tournament website has links to draws, the order of play and live streaming.