Both Ohio State Teams, Michigan Women, Illinois Men Reach Big Ten Tournament Finals; Liu Advances to Charlottesville $60K Final; Norrie Seeks First ATP Title in Estoril

Ohio State will have two opportunities to win a conference tournament on Sunday, with both the men's and women's programs winning their semifinal matches today. 

At the men's tournament in Lincoln Nebraska, the Buckeyes defeated Northwestern 4-0, winning the doubles point and getting victories from JJ Tracy at line 6, John McNally at line 1 and Kyle Seelig at line 5. Ohio State will meet Illinois in the final, after they defeated Michigan 4-2. Illinois lost the doubles point, but posted wins in singles by Aleks Kovacevic at line 1, Alex Brown at line 3, Siphosothando Montsi at line 2 and Noe Khlif at line 6. Ohio State won the regular season meeting with Illinois in Champaign 4-1.

At the women's tournament in Madison Wisconsin, Ohio State took down Iowa 4-2, winning the doubles point and getting victories from Lucia Marzal at line 5, Luna Dormet at line 6, and Isabelle Boulais at line 2.  One of Iowa's points came at No. 1, where freshman Alexa Noel is now 23-0 on the season. The Buckeyes will take on Michigan, who defeated Northwestern 4-1. The Wolverines captured the doubles point and got wins from Kari Miller at line 1, Andrea Cerdan at line 3 and Alyvia Jones at line 5. Michigan is into the conference tournament final for the 16th consecutive time. Ohio State and Michigan split two 4-3 decisions this year, each winning on the road. 

Claire Liu at Lexington $100K, Feb. 2020, photo ©Scott Gerber 

Claire Liu advanced to the final of the $60,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit event in Charlottesville Virginia, beating Sachia Vickery 6-3, 6-3. The 2017 Wimbledon girls singles champion will face No. 6 seed Xinyu Wang of China, a Wimbledon girls doubles champion in 2018, after Wang advanced when qualifier Katie Boulter retired after losing the first set 6-3.  This is Liu's second pro final above the $25K level; she reached the Lexington $100K final back in February of 2020. The 20-year-old Californian has lost her last four finals, including back-to-back finals in $25Ks earlier this year. 

Top seeds Anna Danilina(Florida) of Kazakhstan and Arina Rodionova of Australia won the doubles title, beating unseeded Erin Routliffe(Alabama) of New Zealand and Aldila Sutjiadi(Kentucky) of Indonesia 6-1, 6-3 in the today's final.

At the ATP 250 in Estoril Portugal, former TCU star Cameron Norrie of Great Britain has advanced to the second ATP final of his career. The 25-year-old left-hander, who defeated No. 2 seed Cristian Garin of Chile 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 in Friday's quarterfinals, backed up that win today against No. 6 seed Marin Cilic of Croatia, beating the 2014 US Open champion 7-6(5), 7-5. He will play No. 7 seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain in Ramos-Vinolas's 10th ATP final and Norrie's second. Norrie, currently No. 50 in the ATP rankings, has 18 wins on the ATP tour already this year.  For more on Norrie's great week and great season so far, see this article from the ATP website.