Brooksby and Fratangelo Advance to Tallahassee Challenger Final; Shick Wins J3 in Costa Rica, Bigun Earns First Title in Cancun; ACC Finals Feature Both UNC Teams
The last player to defeat Jenson Brooksby, who has now won nine straight matches at the Challenger level, is Bjorn Fratangelo, who beat the 20-year-old Californian in the final of the Cleveland Challenger back in March. Brooksby earned an opportunity to avenge that loss today at the ATP Challenger 80 in Tallahassee, when he defeated Facundo Mena of Argentina in a rain-delayed semifinal 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. Fratangelo, who, like Brooksby is unseeded, downed No. 2 seed Denis Kudla 7-6(2), 6-2, to prevent a repeat of last week's Orlando Challenger final.
A free live stream of the final is available here, after the noon doubles final, featuring the wild card team of Donald Young and Sekou Bangoura(Florida) against the top-seeded Brazilian team of Orlando Luz and Rafael Matos.
North Carolina State redshirt freshman Braden Shick reached the final of the ITF J3 in Costa Rica last week and this week at another J3 in Costa Rica he collected the title, his second singles title on the ITF Junior Circuit. The fourth-seeded Shick, 17, defeated top seed Adolfo Daniel Vallejo of Paraguay 6-1, 6-4 in the final, after winning his previous four matches in straight sets as well.
Unseeded Mia Kupres of Canada won the girls singles title, beating Victoria Mboko, also of Canada, 6-3, 7-6(2) in the final.
At this week's J4 in Cancun, Meecah Bigun won his first ITF Junior Circuit singles title, with the unseeded 14-year-old defeating top seed Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez of Mexico 6-3, 6-4 in the final. Unseeded Marcela Lopez reached the girls singles final, falling to No. 4 seed Cadence Brace of Canada 7-5, 2-6, 7-6(5).
The finals of the ACC tournament are set after a long day indoors at the site of the men's and women's conference championships in Rome Georgia. Top seed and ITA No. 1 North Carolina reached the women's final with a 4-1 win over No. 4 seed Virginia. The No. 1 and No. 2 women in the ITA rankings faced off at line 1, but Sara Daavettila and Emma Navarro did not finish their match, with Navarro leading 5-4 in the third set. The Tar Heels will face No. 6 seed Georgia Tech, who beat No. 7 seed Miami 4-3. Mahak Jain clinched for the trip to the final for Tech with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 win at line 5.
Top seed Virginia shut out No. 4 seed North Carolina State in the men's semifinal, but in the second semifinal, the battle between No. 3 seed North Carolina and No. 2 seed Wake Forest couldn't have been closer. With the Tar Heels trailing 3-2, UNC's Josh Peck and Rinky Hijkata both saved dual match points in their respective wins, with Hijakta defeating Henri Squire 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(6) at line 1 to keep the Tar Heels alive, and Peck then coming through with the fourth point at line 4, beating Rrezart Cungu 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(8). For a recap of the match, see the North Carolina website.
For more on all this weekend's conference tournaments, see CollegeTennisToday.
3 comments:
Colette, can you address the ACC’s near shameful coverage of it’s arguably best sport(s). Women’s and Men’s tennis. While it’s a shame Tennis has more restrictions than other spring outdoor sports, it’s understandable to prevent fans from attending. However, if you prevent fans from attending, how do you not provide a streaming option or even proper LiveStats. Anyone who has followed this event knows the scores are not even updated on a regular basis.
Even the ACC championship website has taken a huge step backward. Previously, there was one link for both Championships. You could easily click among scores, draws. Try doing that now.
If I’m women’s tennis, I’m beyond frustrated. Instead of TV coverage of the final on the ACC network which is available throughout the ACC geographic footprint, the ACC is televising a spring game replay and All ACC, a highlight show from
recent ACC sports. Talk about devaluing women’s tennis. Why put the final on pay TV? That’s what ACC extra is.
I’m not sure another ACC sport has as many high ranked teams as women’s tennis.
Men’s is somewhat similar. A regular season softball game and regular season lacrosse receive billing on the ACC network this afternoon during the Men’s final. Is there no way for the ACC to find a time window to show these finals on the ACC network?
And during the era of Covid and no fans, how is it possible to hold a major tennis event with no streaming options?
Very disappointing. And very telling to what the ACC thinks about tennis and how little it cares for the typical tennis fan. Though clearly there aren’t many of us.
@UVA find it odd that Tennis Channel promoted Navarro and keeps talking up college tennis. They’ve been doing that the last year or so, maybe someone should tell the Colleges?
NCAA is gonna be shocked when these tennis players will be able to accept sponsorship deals and they gain more visibility than all sports besides football and basketball.
I’m not a crazy tennis fan, but give that the game is a pathway can’t see why the NCAA is lacking in the push to show more. I will say watching some matches outside top 3 on a squad can be painful.
For the ACC, a replay of UNC football trumps UNC’s women’s tennis. The ACC network is currently televising a REPLAY of the UNC spring game while relegating the undefeated, #1 UNC women’s tennis team to pay TV, on a lower level of its programming, ACC Extra. How is that acceptable?
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