Boitan and Shang Advance to Fayetteville $15K Semifinals; Wolf and Kozlov Reach Columbus Challenger Semis; Qualifier Ardila Wins ITF J5 Boys Title in Texas; LSU's Chris Brandi Placed on Leave

Adrian Boitan will face 16-year-old Jerry Shang Saturday in the semifinals of the $15,000 Men's Pro Circuit tournament in Fayetteville Arkansas after beating their quarterfinal opponents in contrasting fashion today.

The unseeded Boitan, a 22-year-old Romanian who is a junior at Baylor, defeated No. 7 seed Pedro Vives Marcos of Spain, a TCU freshman, 6-2, 6-1 in 90 minutes. 

The 16-year-old Shang, playing his first ITF Pro Circuit tournament main draw this week after reaching the US Open boys final two weeks ago in New York, squeezed past No. 4 seed Toby Kodat 2-6, 6-0, 7-5, after Kodat led 5-3 in the third and served for the match at 5-4. Shang represents China, but lives and trains at the IMG Academy in Bradenton Florida.

Boitan reached the finals of the Champaign $15K last week, where he lost to another IMG resident, 17-year-old Martin Damm.

The other semifinal will feature by an all-British contest, with qualifier Henry Patten(UNC-Asheville) taking on No. 7 seed Mark Whitehouse.  Patten ended the 12-match winning streak of No. 2 seed Paul Jubb, also of Great Britain, with a 7-6(8), 6-4 victory. Jubb, the 2019 NCAA singles champion at South Carolina had won back-to-back $25K titles in Portugal the previous two weeks.

At the ATP Challenger 80 in Columbus Ohio, former Ohio State Buckeye JJ Wolf and top seed Tennys Sandgren(Tennessee) battled to 5-all in a third-set tiebreaker before an error by Sandgren gave Wolf a match point, which he immediately converted with an ace for a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(5) win. Wolf, the No. 7 seed, has claimed a Columbus Challenger title in both 2019 and 2020. Out for more than six months this year with an injury, Wolf will face unseeded Stefan Kozlov in Saturday's semifinal. Kozlov prevented an all-Buckeye semifinal by defeating Mikael Torpegaard of Denmark 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-4. Torpegaard served for the match at 6-5 in the second set.

While the top half will feature an all-USA semifinal, the finalist in the bottom half will be from Australia. Former Illinois star Aleks Vukic defeated No. 3 seed Alex Bolt, also from Australia, 7-5, 6-4 and will play unseeded Max Purcell Saturday. Purcell beat Nicolas Mejia of Colombia 6-4, 3-6, 6-0.

Wolf is not the only Ohio State player still vying for a title. The wild card doubles team of James Trotter, an OSU senior, and Andrew Lutschaunig, an OSU junior, have improbably advanced to the final.  They defeated No. 2 seeds Evan King(Michigan) and Jackson Withrow(Texas A&M) in yesterday's quarterfinals and beat the unseeded Korean team of Yunseong Chung and Seong-chan Hong today. Trotter and Lutschaunig will face Kozlov and Peter Polansky of Canada, who beat top seeds Robert Galloway(Wofford) and Alex Lawson(Notre Dame) in this evening's semifinal. 

At the $25,000 Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Fort Worth, Kayla Day is the sole American to advance to the semifinals. The 2016 US Open girls champion defeated No. 2 seed Sachia Vickery 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 to reach her first semifinal on the Pro Circuit since 2017. She will face former Georgia standout Maria Carle of Argentina, the No. 4 seed, who beat No. 8 seed Emiliana Arango of Colombia 1-6, 6-0, 7-5.  Top seed Kaia Kanepia of Estonia defeated No. 6 seed Emma Navarro(Virginia) 6-2, 6-2 to set up a semifinal with Alexandra Bozovic of Australia. Bozovic defeated qualifier Alexa Graham(UNC) 7-5, 6-4.

The boys singles title at the ITF J5 in McKinney Texas went to Dallas resident Landon Ardila, a qualifier. Ardila, whose only other appearance in the ITF Junior Circuit came in Easter Bowl qualifying this year, defeated wild card Nikita Filin 6-2, 6-0 in today's final. Ardila, 17, went 8-0, dropping only one set, to earn his first ITF Junior title.

LSU men's co-coach Chris Brandi has been placed on administrative leave, pending a university investigation, according to this article from the Baton Rouge Advocate. No other details were provided.