Colak Wins Grade 1 Title in Colombia; Ray Captures Grade 5 in Cancun; Fratangelo Takes Cleveland Challenger Championship; Damm Advances to $15K Final in Croatia

Sixteen-year-old Ozan Colak claimed his first ITF Grade 1 title in Colombia, defeating fellow American Samir Banerjee in today's final in Barranquilla. It was quite a battle, with the second-seeded Colak coming from behind for a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(3) victory over No. 5 seed Banerjee. Both are scheduled to compete next week in the ITF Grade 1 in San Diego, but as they will both be seeded, they won't play their first round match until Tuesday.  (Rain in San Diego set back the first round of qualifying a couple of hours, and with two rounds of qualifying today, those results will not be posted until much later.)

Unseeded Johanne Christine Svendsen, playing in her first Grade 1 tournament, won the girls title. The 16-year-old from Denmark defeated No. 3 seed Julia Garcia of Mexico 6-2, 4-6, 6-0 in the final. Garcia and Svendsen are both scheduled to compete in San Diego next week, and Svendsen may not be seeded, so she would have a first round match on Monday.

Orange Bowl 16s champion Valeria Ray won her first ITF Junior Circuit title this week in Cancun, coming through qualifying to win her eighth straight match today at the Grade 5 tournament. Ray, 15, defeated No. 5 seed Naomi Xu of Canada 7-6(3), 6-1 in the final, with that first set by far the closest of the 16 she won during the week. Ray is entered in the 16s at the Easter Bowl, which begins March 29th in San Diego. Kurt Miller, another American qualifier, advanced to the boys final, falling to No. 8 seed Louis Carlos Alvarez Valdes 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. 

Bjorn Fratangelo won his first Challenger title since October of 2018, with the 27-year-old American ending the winning streak of Jenson Brooksby(Baylor) with a 7-5, 6-4 win in today's final at the Cleveland 80 event, the first Challenger of 2021 in the US. Brooksby, who like Fratangelo was unseeded this week, had won a Challenger last month in South Africa. 

In the doubles final, No. 2 seeds Alex Lawson(Notre Dame) and Rob Galloway(Wofford) saved two match points in their 7-5, 6-7(5), 11-9 win over No. 3 seeds Evan King(Michigan) and Hunter Reese(Tennessee).

Seventeen-year-old Martin Damm has advanced to his second ITF Men's World Tennis Tour singles final at the $15,000 tournament in Croatia. The unseeded Damm, currently No. 3 in the ITF junior rankings despite have not played a junior event in 14 months, defeated Giovanni Fonio of Italy 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) in today's semifinals. He will now face top seed Corentin Denolly of France for a second shot at his first title. 

At the WTA 250 in Monterrey, Ann Li lost in the semifinals to Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland 6-2, 6-4.  Caroline Dolehide and Asia Muhammad won the doubles title, with the No. 2 seeds defeating Heather Watson of Great Britain and Saisai Zheng of China 6-2, 6-3.

Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah(USC) won their first title since the 2019 US Open, with the top-seeded Colombians winning the men's doubles championship at the ATP 500 in Dubai. Cabal and Farah defeated No. 2 seeds Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic of Croatia 7-6(0), 7-6(4) for their 17th ATP title.