Gailis Advances to Final of Cancun $15K; Di Lorenzo, Glatch Play for Titles in Canada and Texas Sunday; LA Tennis Bash Set for December 7 in Manhattan Beach

Rachel Gailis, who turned 15 in August, has advanced to the final of the $15,000 ITF World Tennis Tour tournament this week in Cancun Mexico. Gailis, of Studio City California, had played only three ITF World Tennis Tour Pro Circuit events prior to this one, all this year, and had won one match, at the $15,000 tournament in Williamsburg in May. Gailis, who got into the main draw without needing to qualify, despite having no WTA ranking, beat top seed Sofia Sewing(Miami) 6-3, 0-6, 6-2 in the first round and did not face another seed in advancing to the final. She will play No. 6 seed Adrienn Nagy of Hungary, who will be joining Texas in January for the dual match season, in Sunday's final.

Americans Madison Appel(Indiana) and Elle Christensen won the doubles title in Cancun, beating Jennifer Dourado of Brazil and Anastasia Sysoeva of Russia 6-1, 6-4 in a final between two unseeded teams.

At the $80,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Tyler Texas, they are back on schedule after rain delays midweek, and unseeded wild card Alexa Glatch will look to win her biggest title when she faces unseeded Mandy Minella of Luxembourg in Sunday's final. The 30-year-old from Irvine California defeated qualifier Marcela Zacarias of Mexico 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 in today's semifinals, while Minella took out unseeded Danielle Lao(USC) 6-1, 7-5. If Glatch should win, she would tie Katerina Stewart in the USTA's Australian Open Wild Card Challenge race, with Stewart not playing this week.

Former Clemson doubles stars Beatrice Gumulya and Jessy Rompies of Indonesia won their 11th title as a team in Tyler, but it is by far their biggest title. The unseeded pair, who won the ITA Riviera All-American Championships title in 2014, defeated Zacarias and Connie Hsu(Penn) of Taiwan, also unseeded, in today's final 6-2, 6-3.

At the $60,000 ITF World Tennis Tour tournament in Toronto, it will be No. 1 versus No. 2 for the title Sunday. Top seed Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium will take on former Ohio State All-American Francesca Di Lorenzo. Di Lorenzo reached her first final of the year by downing No. 3 seed Bibiane Schoofs of the Netherlands 7-5, 0-6, 6-2, while Flipkens beat former Northwestern star Samantha Murray of Great Britain 2-6, 6-2, 6-3.

No. 4 seeds Robin Anderson(UCLA) and Jessika Ponchet of France won the doubles title today, beating the Canadian junior wild card team of Melodie Collard and Leylah Fernandez 7-6(7), 6-2 in the final. Collard and Fernandez also reached the doubles final last week at the $60,000 tournament in Saguenay Canada.

Americans were shut out of titles at the $25,000 USTA men's Pro Circuit tournament in Naples Florida, with No. 2 seed Jordi Arconada falling in today's semifinals and Oliver Crawford and Sam Riffice losing the doubles final last night.  Arconada lost to No. 5 seed Genaro Olivieri of Argentina 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-0 in three hours and 4 minutes. Olivieri will face unseeded Cristian Rodriguez of Colombia in Sunday's final. Rodriguez and his partner Jose Bendeck(Idaho) beat Florida teammates Crawford and Riffice 4-6, 6-2, 10-2 for the doubles title.

It will be an all-Canadian final at the ATP Challenger 80 in Charlottesville, after top seed Brayden Schnur(North Carolina) defeated No. 16 seed Dimitry Popko of Kazakhstan 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 and former ATP No. 25 Vasek Pospisil, seeded No. 10,  beat wild card Brandon Nakashima 6-1, 6-1. Live streaming of the singles and doubles finals is available at the ATP Challenger website.

The annual charity fundraiser for the First Break Academy in Carson California is scheduled for December 7, 2019 at the Manhattan Country Club in Manhattan Beach. Plenty of tennis stars past and present, as well as Los Angeles celebrities, participate in the event and this year is no exception, with Steve Johnson, Bradley Klahn, Tracy Austin, Pam Shriver, Lindsay Davenport, Jason Collins, Steve Nash and Boris Kodjoe among those scheduled to appear. For more on the event and tickets, which are sold to support the introduction to tennis and other sports to underprivileged youngsters in the LA area, see this website.