Semifinals Set at Daytona Beach Grade 4; Qualifiers Impress at Fayetteville $15K, Charleston $100K; ITA Fall Circuit Week 7 Winners

The semifinalists were determined today in Daytona Beach, where the last of three ITF Junior Circuit Grade 4s in the US is taking place this week.

Qualifier Sarah Hamner got her revenge on wild card Ashlyn Krueger, who had beaten her last week in the Orlando final, with the University of South Carolina recruit earning a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 victory in today's quarterfinals. Hamner will face No. 5 seed Luciana Moyano of Argentina, who beat No. 2 seed Alexis Blokhina 6-3, 6-4. Unseeded Leyden Games, who beat top seed Nevena Carton in the first round, continued her run with a 6-2, 6-2 win over No. 7 seed Eva Elbaz of France. Games's semifinal opponent is No. 4 seed Chelsea Fontenel of Switzerland, who defeated No. 6 seed Katja Wiersholm 6-3, 6-4.

In the boys semifinals, top seed and Orlando champion Adolfo Daniel Vallejo of Paraguay is set to take on No. 3 seed Nishesh Basavareddy after Vallejo took care of qualifier Jackson Armistead 6-4, 6-4 and Basavareddy beat No. 7 seed Sam Scherer 6-0, 4-6, 7-5. In the bottom half, No. 8 seed Colton Smith defeated Lucas Brown 6-4, 6-4 and will face wild card Ethan Quinn, who beat Ryan Colby 6-3, 6-4.

The first round is complete at the $15,000 USTA men's Pro Circuit tournament in Fayetteville Arkansas, with four of the eight qualifiers advancing to the round of 16: two from Georgia and two from Baylor. Georgia's Trent Bryde defeated Arkansas wild card Alexandre Reco of France 6-1, 6-2 while teammate Tyler Zink outlasted fellow qualifier Kiranpal Pannu(Columbus State) of New Zealand 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. Baylor's Matias Soto of Chile defeated Arkansas wild card Nicolas Rousset of France 6-1, 6-0 and Soto's new teammate Charles Broom, who played as an undergraduate at Dartmouth, won a three-hour and 30-minute match with Illinois' Zeke Clark by a score of 6-3, 6-7(3), 7-6(4). 

Seventeen-year-old Martin Damm picked up a win, just his second since the restart, beating No. 6 seed Ricardo Rodriguez-Pace of Venezuela 7-6(4), 7-6(5). Damm used his junior special exempt status for entry into the main draw.

The first round is now complete at the $100,000 USTA women's Pro Circuit tournament in Charleston South Carolina, with young American qualifiers Hailey Baptiste and Claire Liu getting main draw wins, as did wild card Emma Navarro(Virginia).

Navarro defeated No. 7 seed and WTA No. 109 Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-3 today for her first win since the restart. Baptiste took out WTA No. 127 Astra Sharma(Vanderbilt) of Australia 6-2, 7-6(3) and Liu beat 18-year-old Diane Parry of France, the 2019 ITF World Junior Champion, 6-7(1), 7-5, 6-1 in a three-hour marathon.

Macon $80K champion Cici Bellis, who gave a walkover to Marta Kostyuk in the semifinals last week at the Tyler $80K, must not have been serious injured, as she is back this week; she defeated No. 5 seed Aliona Bolsova(Florida Atlantic) of Spain 7-6(0), 6-0 today. Tyler champion Ann Li, seeded No. 8 this week, defeated Whitney Osuigwe 6-3, 6-2.

Week Seven of the ITA Tour: Fall Circuit by UTR is complete, with the champions below. Participation seems down quite dramatically as tennis elsewhere picks up, especially on the women's side, but the ITA has announced a three-week Winter Tour for December as well. For more on that, see this from the ITA website.

ITA Fall Circuit Week Seven Winners:

Hilton Head: Men, Connor Enslin; Women, Kylie McKenzie

Lawrenceville: Men, Thomas Paulsell

Charlotte: Men, Edoardo Bottino/Olle Wallin; Women, Kyndall Ragins

Treasure Island: Men, Ty Rothchild; Women, Frankee Hendricks

San Diego: Men, Isaiah Strode; Women, Jordyn McBride

Commerce: Men, Joseph Stafford

Sunnyvale: Men, Ivan Thamma; Women, Connie Ma

Chagrin Falls: Men, Brandon Wall; Women, Ariel Lewis

Houston: Men, Maksim Bogdanovich; Women, Jovana Vukovic

Chicago: Men, Chris Ephron; Women, Clarissa Hand

Topeka: Men, Paul Haase; Women, Issabella Pensavalle

Cincinnati: Men, Patrick Wheat-Lindsey

Memphis: Walker Stearns