Coleman Commits to Duke; Damm and Kodat Win Doubles Title at Naples $25K; Blanch, Sieg and Kalieva Reach Brazil Grade A Semifinals; Six of Eight Top Seeds Advance at D-I Men's Team Indoor

When I was at the Dow Tennis Classic last week in Midland, I had an opportunity to talk with hometown wild card Ellie Coleman about her recent commitment to Duke for the fall of 2021. For more on why the 16-year-old blue chip chose the Blue Devils, see this article at the Tennis Recruiting Network.

Because they have been playing different tournaments the past several months, with Martin Damm mostly competing in ITF Junior Circuit events and Toby Kodat mostly competing on the ITF's World Tennis Tour, the longtime friends and partners have not played together often. But today, the wild card team won the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Naples Florida, beating the unseeded Colombia team of Nicolas Barrientos and Cristian Rodriguez 4-6, 6-4, 10-7 in the final. I believe it's the first Pro title for the Kalamazoo 18s doubles champions, who became the youngest pair to win a doubles match at the US Open last September, but with the ITF website currently not showing past results, I can't double check that.

Qualifier Evan Zhu, the former UCLA star, is into the singles semifinals. Zhu, the only American remaining, will play fellow qualifier Alejandro Gomez(Kentucky) of Colombia Saturday. The 21-year-old Zhu, who reached the ATP Top 500 last fall, had not won a main draw match in his four previous tournaments this year.

No. 4 seed Dali Blanch, No. 6 seed Madison Sieg and No. 8 seed Elvina Kalieva have advanced to the singles semifinals at the ITF Grade A Banana Bowl in Brazil.  Blanch, playing in his first Grade A quarterfinal, defeated 15-year-old Jerry Shang of China 6-4, 6-3 in today's quarterfinals and will play top seed Natan Rodrigues of Brazil for a place in the final.  Blanch and his partner Lorenzo Claverie of Venezuela have also advanced to the doubles final.

The 16-year-old Kalieva, who has yet to drop a set this week, defeated No. 3 seed Julia Garcia of Mexico 6-3, 6-4 and will face unseeded 15-year-old Sabina Zeynalova of Ukraine. It's the first Grade A semifinal for Kalieva.  Sieg, also 16, defeated No. 14 seed Tina Smith of Australia 6-4, 6-2 to reach her second Grade A semifinal, having also made the semis in Merida Mexico last November. Sieg's opponent in this week's semifinal is unseeded 17-year-old Leyre Romero Gormaz of Spain.

Plenty of close matches today in Madison Wisconsin on the opening day of the ITA Division I Men's Team Indoor Championships, but six of the top 8 seeds advanced to the quarterfinals. Stanford, USC and Texas all dropped the doubles point, but won four singles matches to advance.

In the 4-3 decisions, Stanford freshman Neel Rajesh got the fourth point for the Cardinal at line 5 and Michigan freshman Ondrej Styler clinched the last match on for the Wolverines at line 2. Click on the winning team's name below to go to their coverage.

Men's Division I Team Indoor Championships
Round of 16
February 14, 2020

Texas[3] d. UCLA[14] 4-2
Michigan[11] d. Texas A&M[6] 4-3
Stanford[7] d. NC State[10] 4-3
USC[2] d. TCU[15] 4-2
Florida[5] d. Columbia[12] 4-0
North Carolina[4] d. South Carolina[13] 4-2
Wake Forest[9] d. Baylor[8] 4-1
Ohio State[1] d. Wisconsin[16] 4-0

Quarterfinals:
Texas[3] v. Michigan[11] 9 a.m.
USC[2] v. Stanford[7] noon
North Carolina[4] v. Florida[5] 3:30 p.m.
Ohio State[1] v. Wake Forest[9] 6:30 p.m.