Wolf and Korda Meet in Champaign Challenger Final; Vandeweghe and Giron Reach Houston Finals; Sebastian Gorzny Returns to Tennis after Mysterious Illness

It's an all-American final at the ATP Challenger 80 in Champaign after No. 9 seed JJ Wolf and No. 14 seed Sebastian Korda cruised to semifinal victories today at the Atkins Tennis Center on the campus of the University of Illinois.  The 20-year-old Wolf, who left Ohio State this spring after his junior year, defeated unseeded Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia 6-4, 6-2 to reach his third Challenger final, but his first away from his home courts in Columbus. Regardless of the outcome of Sunday's final, Wolf will move to a career-high of around 215 in the ATP rankings, assuring himself of a spot in the Australian Open qualifying in January.

Korda, 19, defeated wild card Alex Brown, a junior at Illinois, 6-2, 6-2 in 49 minutes to reach his second Challenger final, both this year. He is now around the cutoff for the Australian Open qualifying (he won the boys title there in 2018) and if he wins tomorrow, will be safely in. Despite today's loss, it was a great tournament for Brown, and according to this article from the Illinois website, he is the first active Illini player to ever reach a semifinal at that tournament.

At the Oracle Challenger Series in Houston, Coco Vandeweghe and Marcos Giron will play for the titles Sunday, and a wild card into the Australian Open in January. Vandeweghe, who reached the semifinals in Melbourne in 2017, is just getting back up to speed after a long injury layoff and she may have been planning to use a protected ranking for Australia, but she can earn the USTA's Australian Open Wild Card Challenge with a win over No. 3 seed Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium Sunday, passing current leader Katerina Stewart. Wild card Vandeweghe defeated No. 7 seed Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland 3-6, 6-4, 7-5; Flipkens ended the run of Irina Falconi(Georgia Tech) 6-3, 7-5.

Marcos Giron will pass current Australian Open wild card leader Michael Mmoh with a win in the final Sunday, but the title would also move Giron up to around 100 or 101, so that might well be enough to get him in the main draw without a wild card. The former UCLA All-American and 2014 NCAA singles champion, seeded No. 4, defeated No. 8 seed Mitchell Krueger 7-6(4), 6-2 tonight to reach the final against No. 3 seed Ivo Karlovic of Croatia. Karlovic defeated Christopher O'Connell 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4.

Wild card Maria Mateas lost in today's semifinal at the $25,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Orlando, going out to unseeded Irina Fetecau of Romania 6-2, 6-0. Fetecau will face top seed Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands, who beat former Miami star and No. 8 seed Stephanie Wagner of Germany 6-3, 6-0.

Wagner did collect a title this week however, partnering with Kate Fahey(Michigan) to claim the doubles championship. The unseeded pair defeated No. 3 seeds Carolina Alves of Brazil and Renata Zarazua of Mexico 4-6, 6-2, 10-7 in the final.

In the men's $25,000 tournament in Orlando, former Duke star Nicolas Alvarez of Peru has reached the final, after the No. 3 seed defeated top seed Javier Barranco Cosano of Spain 7-5, 6-4. Alvarez will face No. 2 seed and double partner Pedro Sakamoto of Brazil in the final.

Alvarez and Sakamoto earned the doubles title today, with the top seeds beating unseeded Charlie Emhardt(Valparaiso) and Alfredo Perez(Florida) 7-6(3), 4-6, 10-8.

Hurricane Tyra Black reached her first Pro Circuit final at a $25,000 tournament in Thailand with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-0 win over top seed Valentina Ivakhnenko of Russia, her second WTA Top 300 win this week. Black faces No. 2 seed Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove of the Netherlands in Sunday's final.

Last August, while competing at the Kalamazoo Nationals, Sebastian Gorzny mysteriously fell ill and was in a coma for days and in a local hospital here for over a week. Steve Pratt has an update for the Southern California section's website on Gorzny's recovery, with the happy news that the 15-year-old has recently begun playing competitively again.