Damm Beats Another Seed to Reach Naples $25K Semifinals; Kingsley and Woldeab Advance to Semifinals in $15Ks; Cancun Grade 1 Finals Set; Isner's ATP Top 20 Streak Continues

Three American teenagers advanced to semifinals in USTA Pro Circuit events for the first time in their careers today.

With his win today over No. 5 seed Nicolas Alvarez of Peru, 16-year-old wild card Martin Damm has advanced to the semifinals of the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Naples Florida. Damm, who had not earned an ATP point prior to this week, defeated the former Duke All-American, who won last week's $25,000 tournament in Orlando, 6-3, 7-6(4). Damm will face top seed Juan Pablo Ficovich of Argentina, who last week reached the quarterfinals of the Champaign Challenger. No. 8 seed Tomas Etcheverry of Argentina and No. 3 seed Javier Barranco Cosano of Spain meet in the other semifinal.

Like his fellow wild card Damm, University of Texas freshman Siem Woldeab had earned no ATP points prior to this week, but the 18-year-old from Southern California has made his way into the semifinals of the $15,000 tournament on his home courts in Austin. Woldeab defeated No. 4 seed Evan Zhu(UCLA) 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 to advance to a meeting with TCU freshman Jacob Fearnley, a qualifier. Top seed Collin Altamirano(Virginia) and No. 5 seed Ruan Roelofse(Illinois) of South Africa face off in the other semifinal. US Open boys doubles champions Tyler Zink and Eliot Spizzirri have advanced to the doubles final.

At the $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in East Lansing, 18-year-old Ohio State freshman Cannon Kingsley has reached his first semifinal on the Pro Circuit, defeating unseeded Jacob Dunbar(Richmond) 6-3, 5-7, 6-4. Kingsley, who is unseeded, will play top seed Michael Geerts(Arizona State) of Belgium in one of Saturday's semifinals. The local public radio station in Lansing spoke to Geerts prior to the tournament, getting his thoughts on working his way up the professional tennis ladder. No. 2 seed Daniel Altmaier will face No. 4 seed Lucas Gerch(Oklahoma State) in an all-German semifinal.

All Americans were eliminated from the women's $25,000 tournament in Naples, including top seed Danielle Collins, who lost 7-6(2), 6-1 to former Texas Tech star Gabriela Talaba of Romania in today's quarterfinals.

The $25,000 tournament in Tucson is still recovering from days of rain, but Katie Volynets and Hailey Baptiste[6] are through to the quarterfinals.

The finals are set at the ITF Grade 1 in Cancun, with Dayeon Back of Korea facing Maria Bondarenko of Russia for the girls title and Eliakim Coulibaly of Cote D'Ivoire playing Lukas Neumayer of Austria. Back, the No. 8 seed, beat top seed Sada Nahimana of Burundi 7-6(2), 6-0 and No. 2 seed Maria Bondarenko ended the run of qualifier India Houghton 6-4, 6-3.  Coulibaly, the No. 4 seed beat No. 8 seed Sebastian Gima of Romania 7-6(3), 6-3 and Neumayer, the No. 11 seed, defeated No. 3 seed Juan Bautista Torres of Argentina 7-5, 7-6(1).

The ATP announced yesterday that former University of Georgia star John Isner will finish in the Top 20 for the tenth consecutive year, with Nadal, Federer and Djokovic the only other players on the tour who can make that claim. Isner, who will end this year ranked 19th, was out with a foot injury this year, and added a second child to his family, but was able to maintain his status as one of the top players in the game. For more on what Isner thinks of this accomplishment, see this article from the ATP.