Nava and Khan Claim $15K Titles; Niranjan Wins Singles and Doubles at India Grade 5; Cleveland Challenger Begins Monday; Glasspool Wins First ATP Doubles Title

Zane Khan kept his win streak alive today at the $15,000 ITF World Tennis Tour men's tournament in India, while Emilio Nava earned his first pro title at the $15,000 WTT tournament in Spain. Neither of the unseeded 19-year-old Americans had an easy time defeating their third-seeded opponents in the finals, with Khan needing three hours and 23 minutes to beat 20-year-old Aidan McHugh of Great Britain 6-7(8), 7-6(6), 7-6(4) and Nava getting by Nikolas Sanchez Izquierdo of Spain 7-6(8), 7-5 in two hours and 8 minutes. 

Just a week after his first title, Khan now has his second, and a 10-match winning streak. Two-time junior slam finalist Nava, who won three qualifying matches to get into the main draw, captured his first title in his first appearance in a final, just as Khan had done last week.

The number of ITF junior tournaments this week was small, with only four of the eight originally scheduled to take place this week actually happening, but a junior from the United States did come through with titles at the Grade 5 in India. Seventeen-year-old Nikhil Niranjan, who has never played an ITF Junior Circuit tournament in the United States in his three plus years of competing in them, won his first two ITF junior titles this week. Seeded No. 2 in singles, Niranjan defeated No. 7 seed Maanav Jain of India 7-6(5), 6-0 in the final, a day after partnering with Jain for the doubles title. Top seeds Niranjan and Jain beat the unseeded Belgian team of Sebastien Cauhape and Nyo Van Kyck 6-4, 6-2 in the final. 

The first ATP Challenger in the United States this year is underway in Cleveland, with the first round of qualifying being played today and first round action in the main draw beginning on Monday.  James Duckworth of Australia and Go Soeda of Japan are the top two seeds; Mitchell Krueger[5] and Thai Kwiatkowski[7] are the two seeded Americans at the Challenger 80 tournament.

Wild cards went to Zachary Svajda, University of Kentucky sophomore Liam Draxl of Canada and Roy Smith, the former Baylor star. Will Blumberg was originally announced as a wild card recipient, but Smith ended up with that wild card. The 18-year-old Svajda, the 2019 Kalamazoo champion, has drawn the 2018 Kalamazoo champion Jenson Brooksby in the first round. 

Three collegians won WTA doubles titles yesterday, and another collegian joined them today, this one on the ATP tour. Former Texas Longhorn Lloyd Glasspool, who won the NCAA doubles title in 2015 with Soren Hess-Olesen, partnered with Harri Heliovaara of Finland for the championship at the ATP 250 in Marseille France today. Glasspool, a 27-year-old from Great Britain, and Heliovaara, who were unseeded, defeated the unseeded Netherlands team of Sander Arends and David Pel 7-5, 7-6(4) in the final. It's the first ATP title for both Heliovaara and Glasspool. For more on the successful few months of their partnership, see this article from the ATP website.