Lilov, Catanzarite Win Titles at UTR $10K Event in Florida; ITA Winter Circuit Week 1 Deadlines Monday; Tirante Falls in Lima Challenger Final

Sixteen-year-old Victor Lilov and 18-year-old Ava Catanzarite warmed up for next month's Orange Bowl by winning titles at the UTR $10,000 Casely Clay Court Championships in Hollywood Florida.

Catanzarite, who is currently in qualifying at the Orange Bowl, was the No. 8 seed at this weekend's women's event. The recent UCLA signee defeated No. 5 seed Tiphanie Fiquet, a junior at Ole Miss, 6-3, 7-5 in the final. Fiquet had beaten No. 2 seed Alexa Noel in the quarterfinals. Top seed Allie Kiick withdrew after her first match, in the second round.

Lilov, also an 8 seed, defeated top seed Daniel Rodrigues, a junior at South Carolina, 4-6, 7-5, 10-3 in the quarterfinals. In the final, Lilov, who is in the main draw at the Orange Bowl, defeated former Columbia standout Dragos Ignat 6-4, 6-4.

Both Catanzarite and Lilov earned at least $1500 for their titles. Bigger payouts were possible, since increased prize money was promised if draws were larger than 32, but I'm not sure how exactly that was handled. 

The ITA's brief Winter Circuit begins this coming weekend and for two weeks after that.

The Week 1 events, December 5-7, are scheduled to be held in Wichita Kansas, Lawrenceville Georgia and Newport Beach California. The deadline for entries for Wichita and Lawrenceville is Monday evening; the Newport Beach deadline is Wednesday afternoon.

Week 2, December 11-14, has eight events, with registration open now in all eight.

Week 3, December 18-21, is currently showing nine events, with registration open in seven of them as of this evening.

At the ATP Challenger 80 in Peru, 2019 ITF World Junior Champion Thiago Tirante of Argentina fell in the final to No. 7 seed Daniel Elahi Galan of Colombia 6-1, 3-6, 6-3. Tirante, a 19-year-old qualifier, held his own throughout the championship match, which was played in front of no fans. Although Tirante, whose bleached locks were a new look this year, was not able to bring his best tennis in the first set of his first Challenger final, he was able to rebound in the second set, getting the only break in the fourth game and holding on to even the match. Trailing 3-1 in the final set, Tirante had two break chances to get back on serve with Galan serving at 4-2, but Galan stayed aggressive, particularly with his forehand, and was able to hold serve there to reassert control.

Tirante, the 2019 Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl champion, will move to around 378 in the ATP rankings after reaching the final. He is scheduled to compete in the Challenger 80 beginning tomorrow in Brazil after receiving a special exemption. 

Former Virginia star and 2013 Kalamazoo 18s champion Collin Altamirano reached the Lima Challenger doubles final with partner Vitaliy Sachko of Ukraine. The unseeded pair lost 6-3, 6-4 in the championship match to the unseeded Spanish team of Inigo Cervantes and Oriol Roca Batalla.