Six US Women, Three US Men Advance to NCAA Division I Singles Quarterfinals; Seven More Americans Move on at Roland Garros Qualifying; Defending Champions Wesleyan and Emory Reach D-III Finals Wednesday

After a host of seeds were eliminated in the first two rounds, Tuesday's third round of the NCAA Division I singles championships saw just one beaten, and the top half of the men's draw featuring the matchups the seedings had predicted.

Will Blumberg of North Carolina continued his march through the draw, defeating Gabriel Diallo of Kentucky, a 9-16 seed, 6-3, 6-1.  Blumberg will play Baylor's Adrian Boitan in Wednesday's quarterfinals, after Boitan defeated unseeded August Holmgren of San Diego 6-3, 5-7, 6-4. 

Aside from Blumberg, the player posting the most impressive results is probably No. 2 seed Daniel Rodrigues of South Carolina, who had yet to drop a set in his three wins. Today he defeated unseeded Daniel Cukierman of Southern California, like Rodrigues a former No. 1 in the national rankings, 6-4, 7-6(5). He takes on Illinois's Aleks Kovacevic, who rebounded to beat Alexis Galarneau of North Carolina State 4-6, 6-4, 6-0.

For the third consecutive day, top seed Liam Draxl of Kentucky dropped the first set, and for the second time this week saved match points, as he moved into the quarterfinals with a 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 win over Adam Walton of Tennessee, a 9-16 seed. Draxl will play hometown favorite Gabriel Descamps of Central Florida, who saved match points in his first round contest against Micah Braswell of Texas. Descamps, seeded No. 8, defeated Luc Fomba of TCU, a 9-16 seed, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. 

No. 4 seed Valentin Vacherot of Texas A&M will take on No. 6 seed Sam Riffice of Florida, after Vacherot defeated unseeded Rinky Hijakata of North Carolina 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 and Riffice earned his first straight-sets win of the tournament, a 6-2, 6-0 decision over Siphosothando Montsi of Illinois.

All five of the remaining women's seeds won today, with only one, No. 6 seed Anna Rogers of North Carolina State, pushed to three sets. Rogers came back to beat Bunyawi Thamchaiwat of Oklahoma State 5-7, 6-4, 6-1. Rogers will face unseeded Janice Tjen of Oregon, who followed up her second round win over 2019 finalist Katarina Jokic of Georgia with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Georgia Drummy of Duke.

No. 7 seed Abbey Forbes of UCLA will try to end the win streak of defending champion Estela Perez-Somarriba of Miami, the No. 2 seed, who has now won nine straight matches in NCAA singles competition. Forbes defeated Emma Antonaki of Mississippi State 6-3, 6-3, while Perez-Somarriba downed ITA Fall National Champion Alexa Graham of North Carolina by the same score.

Top seed Sara Daavettila defeated unseeded Jessica Failla of Pepperdine 6-3, 6-2 and will face Vanderbilt's Christina Rosca in the quarterfinals. The unseeded Rosca took out Duke's Kelly Chen 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. No. 3 seed Emma Navarro defeated Meg Kowalski of Georgia 6-1, 6-1 and will face another unseeded player in the quarterfinals. LSU's Paris Corley defeated unseeded Selin Ovunc of Auburn 6-4, 6-0.

The only school with two players remaining in singles is North Carolina, with Daavettila and Blumberg. Boitan and Riffice are the only quarterfinalists who competed in the Team finals on Saturday.

Both of the top seeds in doubles fell in second round action Tuesday night, with Elysia Bolton and Jada Hart of UCLA defeating top seeds Akvilė Paražinskaitė and Fiona Arrese of  Kentucky 6-3, 6-2 and Siim Troost and Vlad Lobak of Minnesota ousting Tim Sandkaulen and Finn Reynolds of Mississippi 6-4, 3-6, 10-4. 

All eight singles quarterfinals matches are scheduled for noon on Wednesday, and can be live streamed at the TennisONE app. The eight doubles quarterfinal matches are scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday.

The first round of qualifying at the French Open was almost completed today, with just a couple of matches unfinished. Advancing to the second round today were Thai Kwiatkowski(Virginia), Mackenzie McDonald(UCLA), Denis Kudla, Jenson Brooksby(Baylor), Claire Liu, Asia Muhammad, Francesca Di Lorenzo and Coco Vandeweghe. Grace Min was leading her first round match with Pemra Ozgen of Turkey 6-3, 4-2 when play was suspended for the day.

Claire Liu, who celebrated her 21st birthday today with a three-set win over Rebecca Marino of Canada, will face Hailey Baptiste Wednesday in a battle of young Americans. In addition to those mentioned above, Bjorn Fratangelo, Ernesto Escobedo and Varvara Lepchenko will also be in action Wednesday.

The Division III women's team final Wednesday in Chattanooga will feature defending champion Wesleyan against perennial contender Emory. Wesleyan defeated Kenyon 5-1, while Emory took down Tufts 5-2. In 2019, Wesleyan and Emory met in the semifinals and the Cardinals came through with a thrilling 5-4 victory. 

The men's semifinals produced an upset, with Case Western Reserve defeating Washington-St. Louis in a match that came down to No. 5 singles, with Jonathan Powell defeating Abhi Ramirreddy 7-6(0), 4-7(5), 6-4 to give the Spartans a 5-4 victory over the pre-tournament favorites. 

Case Western, which will be playing for the first NCAA title in the school's athletic history Wednesday, will face Emory, the defending champions, who have won five NCAA Division III titles. Emory defeated previously undefeated Johns Hopkins 5-1.