San Diego ITF Grade 1 Wild Cards; Krug, Banerjee and Colak Reach Colombia Grade 1 Semis; Lincer into Final Four at Grade 2 in Dominican Republic; Brooksby Advances at Cleveland Challenger; NAIA Rankings Released

The wild cards for next week's ITF Grade 1 in San Diego are listed below; I believe all of them are residents of the Southern California section, which now owns the sanction to the event (NOTE: I believe I misread the email I got from USTA SoCal, these are indeed the SoCal players in the draws, but not all are wild cards). I've added the appropriate wild card designation now). With no 16s division this year and reduced draw sizes, the qualifying wild cards are more important than usual.

Boys Main Draw
Aidan Mayo
Kyle Kang (WC)
Alex Michelsen (WC)
Rohan Murali (WC)

Boys Qualifying
Jiaxi Ma
Andy Hernandez
Eric Kats
Quang Duong
Masato Perera
Hudson Rivera
Learner Tien
Bryce Nakashima(WC)
Noah Zamora(WC)
Martin Mazev(WC)
Dylan Charlap(WC)

Girls Main Draw
Rebecca Lynn
Kimmi Hance
Anne Christine Lutkemeyer(WC)
Isabella Chhiv(WC)
Emma Sun(WC)

Girls Qualifying
Maya Pitts (now main draw)
Gabriella Soliman
Madeleine Jessup
Leyden Games
Tsehay Driscoll
Phoebe Peus
Katie Codd(WC)
Emily Deming(WC)
Amanda Perez(WC)

The semifinals are set at the Grade 1 this week in Colombia and at the Grade 2 in the Dominican Republic, with four American juniors still in the running for the singles titles. 

In Santo Domingo, 16-year-old Olivia Lincer, who reached the semifinals at last week's Grade 2 in the Dominican Republic, continued her run of impressive results, beating No. 5 seed Tilwith Di Girolami of Belgium 6-4, 2-6, 6-0 in today's quarterfinals. The 16-year-old Lincer, who received a wild card into the main draw this week, will face unseeded Marina Stakusic of Canada, another repeat semifinalist from last week. No. 8 seed Kayla Cross of Canada and No. 4 seed Laia Petretic of France will meet in the other semifinal Friday. 

In Barranquilla, unseeded 15-year-old Ava Krug advanced to her first Grade 1 semifinal, defeating No. 6 seed Chelsea Fontenel of Switzerland 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in today's quarterfinals. Krug will face No. 3 seed Julia Garcia of Mexico, who beat No. 5 seed Valencia Xu 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, for a place in the final. Top seed Madison Sieg lost to unseeded Johanne Christine Svendsen of Denmark 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 today.

In the boys draw, No. 5 seed Samir Banerjee and No. 2 seed Ozan Colak are through to their first Grade 1 semifinals after both posted straight-sets victories today. Banerjee defeated qualifier Joseph Phillips 6-0, 6-4, while Colak beat No. 7 seed Ezequiel Monferrer of Argentina 7-6(1), 6-0. Banerjee, 17, will take on Orange Bowl 16s finalist Ignacio Buse of Peru in the top half, with Colak facing another Peruvian, No. 8 seed Gonzalo Bueno. 

Friday's semifinals at the ATP Challenger 80 in Cleveland will feature at least two former collegians, with Ecuador's Emilio Gomez(USC) and Jenson Brooksby(Baylor) both posting wins today. Brooksby defeated Michael Redlicki(Duke/Arkansas) 7-6(5), 6-4 in today's quarterfinal between unseeded Americans; Brooksby is 4-0 in tiebreakers this week. He will face No. 3 seed Gomez, who defeated Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech) 6-3, 6-3. Bjorn Fratangelo downed qualifier Alexis Galarneau(NC State) of Canada 6-3, 5-0 ret. and will play the winner of tonight's match between Aleks Kovacevic(Illinois) and Japan's Yosuke Watanuki. 

The ITA released rankings for the NAIA today, but unlike the Division I and Division II rankings, these are not for teams, but for singles and doubles.  Luke Simkiss of Keiser University is No. 1 in men's singles; Georgia Gwinnett's Maria Genovese, known as Maria Shishkina during her junior career, is No. 1 in women's singles.  The national and regional rankings for men are here; rankings for women are here.