My Article on JJ Tracy Choosing Ohio State; Four Unseeded Semifinalists at Oracle ITA Fall Nationals; Three US Teens Reach Malibu $25K Semifinals

JJ Tracy is heading to Ohio State next fall, and last month at the ITF Pan American Closed Grade B1, I had an opportunity to talk with him about his decision to join the Buckeyes for this Tennis Recruiting Network article. This is the last article in TRN's Countdown to Signing Week, which begins Monday. Wednesday is the first day a high school senior can sign a National Letter of Intent.

At the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships, both the round of 16 and the quarterfinals in singles competition were played today in Newport Beach California. Three of the four men's semifinalists are unseeded, with the one seeded player No. 1 Yuya Ito of Texas. Ito plays Texas A&M's Valentin Vacherot while Damon Kesaris of St. Mary's takes on Richard Ciamarra of Notre Dame.

Only one unseeded player remains in the women's semifinals: South Carolina's Megan Davies, who will play No. 6 seed Anna Turati of Texas. The other semifinals features No. 8 seed Sara Daavettila of North Carolina against NCAA champion Estela Perez-Somarriba of Miami, the No. 5 seed.  After two easy wins for the No. 1, 2, and 3 seeds from UCLA in the first two days, none of the three Bruins were able to advance past the quarterfinals.  Below are all the singles results from the round of 16 and quarterfinals.  Live scoring can be found here.

Men’s Round of 16 results:
Yuya Ito[1], Texas d. Adrian Boitan, Baylor 7-6(6), 6-3
Jack Lin[8], Columbia d. Daniel Rodrigues[10], South Carolina 2-6, 6-3, 6-1
Daniel Cukierman[4], USC d. Cannon Kingsley[14], Ohio State 4-6, 6-1, 6-4
Valentin Vacherot, Texas A&M d. Sven Lah, Baylor 3-6, 6-4 1-0 ret.
Damon Kesaris, St. Mary’s d. Giovanni Oradini, Mississippi State 7-5, 6-2
Christian Sigsgaard[11], Texas d. John McNally[3], Ohio State 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
Hady Habib[6], Texas A&M d. Joseph Guillin[13], UC-Santa Barbara 7-6(2), 6-0
Richard Ciamarra, Notre Dame d. Philip Henning, Georgia 6-3, 6-1

Men’s Quarterfinal results:
Yuya Ito[1], Texas d. Jack Lin[8], Columbia 6-3, 6-3
Valentin Vacherot, Texas A&M d. Daniel Cukierman[4], USC 6-4, 3-6, 6-4
Richard Ciamarra, Notre Dame d. Hady Habib[6], Texas A&M 7-6(5), 6-3
Damon Kesaris, St. Marys, d. Christian Sigsgaard[11], Texas w/o

Women’s Round of 16 results:

Kelly Chen[11], Duke d. Elysia Bolton[1], UCLA 6-4, 6-4

Anna Turati[6], Texas d. Georgia Drummy[10], Vanderbilt 6-2, 4-6, 6-4

Haley Giavara, Cal d. Alexa Graham[4], North Carolina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4

Megan Davies, South Carolina d. Shiori Fukuda[7], Ohio State 6-4, 6-2

Sara Daavettila[8], North Carolina d. Lexi Ryngler, Texas 6-4, 6-3

Mia Horvit[15], South Carolina d. Jada Hart[3], UCLA 3-6, 6-0, 6-4

Estela Perez-Somarriba[5], Miami d. Bunyawi Thamchaiwat[16], Oklahoma State 3-6, 6-4, 6-0

Abigail Forbes[2], UCLA d. Cameron Morra[12], North Carolina 6-3, 6-1

Women’s Quarterfinal results:

Anna Turati[6], Texas d. Kelly Chen[11] 7-6(5), 6-7(7), 6-4

Megan Davies, South Carolina d. Haley Giavara, Cal 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-4

Sara Daavettila[8], North Carolina d. Mia Horvit[15], South Carolina 6-4, 4-6, 6-2

Estela Perez-Somarriba[5], Miami d. Abigail Forbes[2], UCLA 6-2, 6-3

Three of the four semifinalists at the $25,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Malibu are unseeded teenagers: Katie Volynets, Katrina Scott and Claire Liu.

Volynets, 17, defeated wild card Ashley Lahey(Pepperdine) 2-6, 6-2, 6-3; qualifier Scott, 15, beat unseeded Kimberley Zimmerman of Belgium 7-6(1), 7-5 and Liu, 19, downed wild card Jessica Failla(Pepperdine) 6-3, 6-2. Scott and Volynets will meet in the top half semifinal, with Liu taking on Bianca Turati, the University of Texas senior from Italy, in the bottom half semifinal. Turati defeated No. 2 seed Jovana Jaksic of Serbia 6-3, 6-0 in today's quarterfinals. 

Three Americans are also in the men's semifinals at their $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Malibu. Felix Corwin(Minnesota) will face Alexander Sarkissian(Pepperdine) in the top half semifinal, with No. 4 seed Collin Altamirano(Virginia) playing No. 2 seed Daniel Altmaier of Germany in the bottom half semifinal. 

No Americans reached the semifinals of the $60,000 Women's USTA Pro Circuit event in Las Vegas, with Alexa Glatch losing to Mayo Hibi of Japan today, No. 8 seed Caroline Dolehide falling to No. 3 seed Katarina Zavatska of Ukraine and No. 5 seed Varvara Lepchenko losing to Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine. Kalinina will face Katherine Sebov of Canada in the top half semifinal between unseeded players.

The semifinals are set at the ATP Challenger 80 in Knoxville, with top seed Tommy Paul facing No. 8 seed Christopher O'Connell of Australia and Michael Mmoh playing Liam Broady of Great Britain. Mmoh defeated Aleks Kovacevic 6-4, 6-3 today, but the University of Illinois senior won three matches this week to reach his first Challenger quarterfinal and earned his best win on the Pro Circuit with a 3-6, 7-6(7), 6-4 second round decision over No. 3 seed Bradley Klahn, 105 in the ATP rankings.