Shang Wins First Pro Circuit Title at Fayetteville $15K; Kozlov Claims First Challenger Title in Four Years; Blanch Wins Doubles Championship in Cancun $15K

Sixteen-year-old Juncheng Jerry Shang of China played his first pro tennis match back in March, when he received a wild card into the qualifying of the ATP Masters 1000 Miami Open, no doubt due to his status as an IMG client. He took 27-year-old Liam Broady of Great Britain (who won his first career Challenger title today in Switzerland) to a third-set tiebreaker before falling 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(6), then immediately traveled to the Easter Bowl ITF JB1 in San Diego, which he won. 

After a quarterfinal at the French Open junior championships, a semifinal at the Wimbledon junior championships and a finalist earlier this month at the US Open, Shang, who had ascended to the No. 1 spot in the junior rankings, Shang entered his second Pro Circuit event at the $15,000 tournament in Fayetteville Arkansas. Using the ITF junior reserved program for Top 100 junior players to gain entry, Shang, who had lost in the second round of qualifying in a $25K in Pensacola in May, earned his first, second, third, fourth and fifth pro wins this week. Today, he defeated No. 7 seed Mark Whitehouse of Great Britain 6-3, 6-0 in 64 minutes to earn the title. 

It's difficult to quantify what that kind of debut might mean for a player's confidence, but there's no doubt he will feel much more comfortable in his next Pro Circuit event.

Should he need a reminder Stefan Kozlov (and Broady, who was 0-7 in Challenger finals until today) could tell Shang just how difficult winning a tournament can be. The 23-year-old Floridian last made a Challenger final back in October of 2017, when, as a 19-year-old, he defeated Broady (who else would it be?) to win in Las Vegas. Today Kozlov won his third career title, defeating Max Purcell of Australia 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 at the ATP Challenger 80 in Columbus Ohio. It was the third straight match he won after dropping the first set. Kozlov, who was in the 500s in 2019, will move up to around 250 in the ATP rankings now, which will help him gain entry into slam qualifying. Kozlov also won the doubles title yesterday, with Canadian Peter Polansky.

The WTA 125 singles title in Columbus went to No. 2 seed Nuria Parrizas Diaz of Spain, who beat No. 8 seed Xinyu Wang of China 7-6(2), 6-3 in today's final. Wang and partner Saisai Zheng, also of China, defeated Parrizas Diaz and Dalila Jakupovic of Slovenia 6-1, 6-1 to take the doubles title.

At the $25,000 women's Pro Circuit tournament in Fort Worth Texas, top seed Kaia Kanepi defeated Kayla Day 6-2, 6-1 in under an hour to claim the title. 

The doubles title went to unseeded Amy Zhu(Michigan) and Sophie Chang, who beat Rasheeda McAdoo(Georgia Tech) and Ivana Popovic of Australia 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 in the final. 

Eighteen-year-old Dali Blanch won his first Pro Circuit doubles title this weekend at the $15,000 ITF men's World Tennis Tour tournament in Cancun. Blanch and Tom Jomby(Kentucky) of France, seeded No. 3, defeated No. 4 seeds Nicholas Bybel(Bucknell) and Jesse Flores 6-4, 7-5 in the final. It was the only one of their four victories that did not come via a 10-8 match tiebreaker. 

Speaking of doubles milestones, former University of Georgia star Jan Zielinski of Poland won his first ATP title today at the 250 in Metz France, with Hubert Hurkacz, won also won the singles title, a rare double in men's tennis. Zielinski, who played at Georgia from 2015-2019, and Hurkacz defeated Hugo Nys of Monaco and Arthur Rinderknech(Texas A&M) of France 7-5, 6-3 in the final. Zielinski, who has won 18 pro doubles titles at lower levels, including four Challenger titles in 2020-21, will move close to the Top 100 with this title.

University of San Diego's August Holmgren twice came within a point of advancing to the main draw of the ATP 250 San Diego Open today, but Salvatore Caruso of Italy came through with a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(7) victory. Caruso saved a match point serving at 4-5 in the third set, then Holmgren, a fifth-year senior from Denmark, saved four match points from down 6-2 in the tiebreaker and earned a second match point at 7-6, but Caruso won the final three points to get through. Chris Eubanks(Georgia Tech) advanced to the main draw with a 7-6(1), 7-5 victory over Darian King of Barbados. 

Andrey Rublev of Russia and Casper Ruud of Norway are the top seeds in San Diego, with Taylor Fritz, Brandon Nakashima, Sebastian Korda, Tommy Paul and Eubanks the Americans in the draw.