Talking NCAA Round of 16 with Cracked Racquets; Perego and Macavei Take Plantation ITF J4 Titles; Three US Finalists at Dominican Republic J3; Volynets Beats Brengle at $100K; Gauff and Opelka Reach Semis at Italian Open

I spoke with Alex Gruskin of Cracked Racquets again today about the NCAA round of 16 coming up in Lake Nona for his Mini-Break Podcast. We focused on the women, with their eight matches scheduled for Sunday, but also spent a few minutes on the men's matches, which will take place, weather permitting, on Monday. Alex, Matt Stachowiak and Chris Halioris go into more detail in their men's round of 16 preview, and Alex also spoke to all 32 head coaches of the teams in Lake Nona for his Cracked Interviews podcast, so check out apple podcasts or spotify for that series to listen to what the coach of your favorite teams has to say about their match Sunday or Monday. 

Gruskin will be in Orlando calling some of the action for the TennisONE app, which is providing streaming of all round of 16 matches as well as the early matches in the quarterfinals and semifinals. The schedule for Tennis Channel is here, with TennisONE providing streaming on the matches TC is not covering. Tickets for some sessions are sold out, that information is also available at the tournament site.

The third and final ITF Junior Circuit J4 event in Florida (and the last in the US until July), concluded today in Plantation, with Giulio Perego and Sonya Macavei winning the singles titles. Top-seed Perego, who made all three finals in this stretch, defeated unseeded Luca Hotze 6-0, 6-3 to finish his straight-sets run to the final. Were it not for his loss to Ethan Quinn in last week's final, the Texas A&M recruit from Italy would be 15-0 in the past three weeks; he also won the J4 in Las Vegas in March. 

The 17-year-old Macavei, the No. 8 seed, came back to defeat unseeded Emma Charney 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 for her first ITF Junior Circuit singles title. Macavei also won the doubles title in Plantation yesterday, with Valeria Ray.

In the boys doubles final today, No. 2 seeds Sebastian Gorzny and Nathan Cox defeated top seeds Perego and Adit Sinha 3-6, 6-3, 12-10.

As in Plantation, three Americans have reached the singles finals at the J3 in the Dominican Republic, with Aidan Kim, the No. 2 seed and the champion at last week's J3 there, taking on No. 3 seed Azuma Visaya. Kim defeated unseeded Jonah Braswell 6-3, 6-0, while Visaya beat unseeded Joel Pierleoni of Great Britain 6-2, 6-1. 

Unseeded Katja Wiersholm advanced to the girls final with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over No. 4 seed Alexia Harmon. Wiersholm defeated top seed Annabelle Xu of Canada in the first round. Wiersholm will play 14-year-old Victoria Mboko of Canada, the No. 6 seed, in the final. Mboko, who has won the previous two J3s in the Dominican Republic, defeated No. 7 seed Mao Mushika of Japan 4-6, 7-6(6), 7-5 in today's semifinals.

Wild card Katie Volynets took out top seed Madison Brengle 6-1, 6-2 in tonight's quarterfinals at the $100,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Bonita Springs Florida. The 19-year-old Californian avenged her loss to Brengle in last week's Charleston $100K quarterfinals to earn her second WTA Top 100 victory. She will play qualifier Hanna Chang, who has never been to a Pro Circuit semifinal above the $25K level. Chang defeated former Ohio State All-American Francesca Di Lorenzo, playing her second match of the day, 6-3, 6-3. It will be Romania versus USA in the final regardless of who wins Saturday's semifinals, with No. 5 seed Irina Bara taking on qualifier Irina Fetecau in the bottom half. Both need more than three hours to earn quarterfinal victories today.

A damp day at the Italian Open didn't allow the quarterfinals to finish, but two Americans did manage to advance to their first Masters 1000 semifinals. In the women's draw, Coco Gauff moved through when No. 1 seed Ashleigh Barty of Australia retired with an arm injury, leading 6-4, 2-1. Gauff will play the winner of the Saturday's quarterfinal match between No. 15 seed Iga Swiatek of Poland and No. 5 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine.

In the men's quarterfinals, Reilly Opelka defeated unseeded Federico Delbonis of Argentina 7-5, 7-6(2) today and he does know his opponent for Saturday's semifinal, No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal.