USTA Cancels Two Orlando Challengers; ITA Announces Scholar-Athletes, All-Academic Teams; More ITA Summer Circuit Results

Just over three weeks ago, the USTA announced two new ATP 125 Challengers at its Lake Nona National Campus, in part to try to compensate for the lack of qualifying for the US Open. Today, the USTA canceled those two events, with this statement:

USTA STATEMENT ON ORLANDO EVENT CANCELLATIONS

Due to the situation surrounding COVID-19, the USTA has made the decision to cancel the Orlando Open presented by Nemours 1, scheduled to be held August 22 - 29, and the Orlando Open presented by Nemours 2, scheduled to be held August 29 - September 6, both at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla. The decision to cancel these two ATP Challenger 150 events was made with input from the USTA Medical Advisory Group, to ensure the health and safety of all those involved with these tournaments. Although detailed health and safety protocols had been planned, without the creation of a controlled environment that includes a comprehensive and contained lodging, transportation, food and beverage, and medical testing program in place, as will be the case for the Western & Southern Open and US Open, proper risk mitigation would not be possible – and in the case of these events, this type of environment would logistically and financially be difficult to create. As the health and safety for all those involved is the greatest concern of the USTA, these factors, coupled with the current rates of COVID-19 in Florida, were key in driving the decision making process.

Today's news that major league baseball, which is not going the bubble route like the NBA and NHL, is experiencing an outbreak does not provide much optimism for events like these Challengers. As the statement says, it's not financial feasible to create such a bubble for every tennis event, although there is some evidence the Major League Soccer and World Team Tennis versions of this type of isolation has been successful. What this means for upcoming WTA event in Kentucky, which doesn't have a bubble, and the Western & Southern Open and US Open, which does, isn't clear, but uncertainty has been the status quo for months now when it comes to tennis events.

As of now, as I mentioned Saturday, the smaller Cary and Columbus ATP Challengers in September are still a go.

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced its Scholar-Athletes and All-Academic teams today for Division I. An explanation of the criteria and links to the lists are here for the women and here for the men.

Results from four more ITF Summer Circuit events from Week 6 follow. I posted on the Wichita Kansas and Ojai California events yesterday, and I'll have updates on the remaining three in tomorrow's post.

At the tournament hosted by Palm Beach Atlantic, two juniors captured the Gold Draw titles. Top seed Madison Sieg, a blue chip rising junior, defeated No. 2 seed Sydney Ratliff, a blue chip who recently committed to Ohio State for 2021, 6-3, 6-4 to take the women's championship.

Four-star recruit Adam Duan, a rising senior, beat the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds for the men's Gold Draw title. In the quarterfinals Duan took out top seed Logan Zapp 6-2, 2-0 ret. and in the final he beat No. 2 seed Victor Lilov 6-1, 6-1.

The Middle Tennessee State tournament in Murfreesboro also produced two junior champions. No. 5 seed Baylor Sai, a blue chip rising senior who has committed to Harvard, defeated No. 2 seed Tomas Rodriguez, a rising junior at Tennessee-Chattanooga, 7-5, 4-6, 10-6 in the top flight final. Sai also took out top seed Andrew Rogers, a senior at Tennessee, 3-6, 7-6(3) 11-9 in the quarterfinals.

Top seed Ann Guerry won the women's top flight, with the five-star rising junior defeating No. 3 seed Monique Woog, a rising sophomore at Memphis, 6-0, 6-3 in the final.

In Livermore California, University of Illinois rising freshman Katherine Duong, seeded No. 2, won the women's top flight, beating five-star rising senior Leyden Games, a USC recruit, 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 in the final. Games, the No. 3 seed, defeated top seed Vivian Ovrootsky in the semifinals.

University of Portland rising junior Issa Yoshida, who was unseeded, won the men's top flight, beating No. 3 seed Andrei Volgin, a rising sophomore at UC-Davis, 6-3, 6-2 in the final. Yoshida defeated No. 2 seed Luke Casper 6-0, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

Four collegians reached the finals at the Cleveland tournament, with Xavier rising sophomore Anna Roggenburk, the No. 1 seed, winning the women's top flight with a 6-0, 6-2 decision over unseeded Madeleine Lynch, a rising sophomore at Wake Forest.

No. 2 seed Alex Bancila, a sophomore at the University of Illinois, took the men's top flight title, beating No. 3 seed Brett Winters, a rising senior at Xavier 6-4, 4-6, 1-0. Winters, the No. 3 seed, had taken out top seed James Hopper, a rising sophomore at Case Western, in the semifinals.