Gauff Sweeps Titles at WTA 250; Loeb Advances to Final at Pelham $25K; Doubles Success for Former Collegians; Women's Draws Released for Sunday's Start to Individual Tournament

Coco Gauff
 photo credit Chris Smith/Volvo Car Open

With the anticipation that this will be another late night with the finals of the NCAA Team Championships, this will be a rare two-post day, with this one focusing on the pro results I've missed this week.

Seventeen-year-old Coco Gauff, seeded No. 3, won her second career WTA singles title in Parma Italy, beating No. 6 seed Qiang Wang of China 6-1, 6-3 in today's final. Gauff then partnered with Caty McNally to take the pair's third WTA doubles title (McNally won a fourth with Hailey Baptiste last month in Charleston), with the No. 4 seeds defeating No. 2 seeds Darija Jurak of Croatia and Andreja Klepac of Slovenia 6-3, 6-2 in the championship match. Gauff and McNally didn't lose a set during the week, with their toughest match a 7-5, 7-6(4) win over top seed Alexa Guarachi(Alabama) of Chile and Desirae Krawczyk(Arizona State). With the title Gauff will move up to 25 in the WTA rankings and is assured of being seeded at the upcoming French Open.  

At the women's $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Pelham Alabama, 2015 NCAA champion Jamie Loeb advanced to her first Pro Circuit final since 2019, with the former North Carolina Tar Heel posting a 6-3, 6-2 win over unseeded Sofia Shapatava of Georgia. Loeb, the No. 2 seed, will face unseeded Panna Udvardy of Hungary, who beat top seed Jia-Jing Lu of China in the second round. Udvardy won the $25,000 tournament in Naples Florida earlier this month. Unseeded Fernanda Contreras(Vanderbilt) and Marcela Zacarias of Mexico won the doubles title today, beating No. 4 seeds Erina Hayashi and Kanako Morisaki of Japan 6-0, 6-3 in the final. They didn't lose more than four games in any set all week.

At the men's $25,000 Pro Circuit tournament in Pensacola, Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M), the last American in the draw, lost 7-6(3), 6-0 in today's semifinals to fellow qualifier Nicolas Kicker of Argentina, who is back playing after a 2018 suspension for match-fixing. Kicker, who reached 78 in the ATP rankings in 2017, will face 20-year-old Adrian Andreev of Bulgaria, the No. 8 seed, in Sunday's final. Andreev beat unseeded Aidan McHugh of Great Britain 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals.

Top seeds JC Aragone(Virginia) and Nicolas Barrientos of Colombia won the doubles title, beating No. 3 seeds Junior Ore(Texas A&M) and Alejandro Gomez(Kentucky) 6-2, 4-6, 10-6 in this afternoon's final.

At the ATP Challenger 125 in Portugal, Hunter Reese(Tennessee) and Sem Verbeek(Pacific) of the the Netherlands won the doubles title, with the unseeded pair defeating unseeded Sadio Doumbia(Georgia) and Fabien Reboul of France 4-6, 6-4, 10-7 in the final. Reese, the 2014 NCAA doubles champion (with Mikelis Libietis), has now won seven Challenger doubles titles, including one last week with Evan King(Michigan). 

King also won a doubles title this week, at the ATP Challenger 80 in Italy. King and former Baylor star Julien Lenz of Germany, the top seeds, defeated No. 2 seeds Karol Drzewiecki of Poland and Sergio Martos Gornes of Spain 3-6, 6-3, 11-9 in the final. 

And at the ATP level, Michael Venus(LSU) of New Zealand and John Peers(Baylor) of Australia won the Geneva 250 title. The No. 2 seeds won their fourth title as a team with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Simone Bolelli of Italy and Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina. The ATP website article has some interesting facts about their lengthy and productive doubles careers. 

The women's Division I singles and doubles draws were released today, with first round action beginning on Sunday. No alternates were used in the women's draw, so the seeds stayed as they were in the selection announcement. Sara Daavettila of North Carolina, the No. 1 seed, is scheduled to play Solymar Colling of San Diego at noon Sunday. TennisONE app will be providing the streaming for the individual championships. 

The men's doubles draw was also released today. Men's singles play begins tonight with one match, with Sean Hill of BYU versus Finn Reynolds[9] of Mississippi. BYU doesn't allow Sunday competition for religious reasons, so the match was moved up a day to accommodate Hill.