Four US Juniors Receive Wild Cards at WTA 125 Dow Tennis Classic; Wolf, Nakashima Win Challenger Titles; Kirkov Claims Tallahassee $15K; Three More US ITF Junior Circuit Champions

©Colette Lewis 2021
Midland Michigan--

I'm in Midland for a few days to cover the WTA 125 Dow Tennis Classic, which is one of the few professional tournaments that managed to host its event in 2020 and 2021. It took a move from February to November this year to earn that distinction, while the tournament has also gone from a $100,000 ITF event to a WTA 125.

Word came early today, with the tournament's main draw beginning Monday, of the wild cards, all four of whom are prominent US juniors: USTA National 18s champion Ashlyn Krueger; USTA National 18s finalist Reese Brantmeier; Elvina Kalieva, recent finalist at the Rancho Santa Fe $60K; and Katrina Scott, a quarterfinalist this summer at a WTA 125 in Massachusetts. Krueger has drawn Sachia Vickery in the first round and they will kick off play on Stadium Court at 11 a.m. Monday. Katrina Scott is also on Monday's order of play; the 17-year-old will face No. 3 seed Maddison Inglis of Australia in the fourth match of day on Court 1.

Kalieva will play Whitney Osuigwe and Brantmeier has drawn No. 5 seed and 2019 Dow champion Caty McNally.

Madison Brengle, the 2018 Dow champion, is the No. 1 seed, and will face Asia Muhammad on Stadium court Monday.

Qualifying began today, and with the move to a WTA 125, the draw is just 16 players, meaning only eight matches today at the Great Midland Tennis Center. I ran into Ellie Douglas waiting for her second on match on Stadium Court, and we chatted about what she had been doing since I had last seen her, probably in qualifying here in 2019.  It turns out, not much, as she said had been injured for 18 months, going from February of 2020 to May of this year without playing. The 21-year-old Douglas, who left TCU after her freshman season, said she was also out for six weeks or so this summer with a minor wrist injury, but is happy with her level of play now. She qualified and won a round at the $60K in Berkeley and qualified for the $80K in Tyler Texas last week. 

Today she played No. 5 seed Peangtarn Plipuech of Thailand, who entered with a protected WTA ranking of 265. Douglas led throughout her 6-3, 6-2 victory, with her always dangerous backhand especially effective and a first serve percentage of 80 also instrumental. After giving back an early break in the first set, she got another with Plipuech serving at 2-3 and easily closed out the set. A break in the first game of the second set was all the 21-year-old Texan needed and when she got a second break to go up 5-2, there was no doubt. Douglas served it out at love to set up a final round qualifying match with No. 4 seed Katherine Sebov of Canada. Sebov saved a match point in the second set tiebreaker to beat Quinn Gleason(Notre Dame) 2-6, 7-6(7), 6-2.

Catherine Harrison, the No. 1 seed in qualifying, defeated Alexandra Riley 6-0, 6-0 in 39 minutes. Former UCLA Bruin Harrison, who won a $25K earlier this month in Redding California, won 48 of the 59 points played in the match. Harrison will play former University of Kentucky standout Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia, who came from 4-0 down in the second set to beat wild card Kari Miller (Michigan) 6-2, 7-5.

No. 3 seed Alexa Glatch, a 6-2, 6-1 winner over Beatrice Gumulya(Clemson) of Indonesia, will play No. 7 seed Sophie Chang, who got by Ivana Popovic of Australia 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

Dalayna Hewitt defeated No. 8 seed Nargi Hanatani of Japan 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 and will face No. 2 seed Marie Benoit of Belgium for a spot in the main draw Benoit beat wild card Emma Lella 6-3, 6-0.

For draws and Monday's order of play, see the tournament website.

Although both Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz lost their ATP finals today, two Americans did take home ATP Challenger titles. No. 4 seed Brandon Nakashima(Virginia) defeated unseeded Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-3, 6-3 to win the Challenger 90 in France. Nakashima did not drop a set all week and will move to a career-high 65 in the ATP rankings with his third Challenger title in the past 12 months.

At the Challenger 80 in Las Vegas, JJ Wolf(Ohio State) defeated Stefan Kozlov 6-4, 6-4, avenging his loss in the semifinals of the Columbus Challenger last month. The 22-year-old from Ohio, who was out from last November until July with an injury, now has five Challenger titles, and has his ranking back up to 160. His career-high of 120 came last fall, right before his injury. Wolf lost only one set this week in Las Vegas, in his second round victory over No. 2 seed Denis Kudla.

Only one American singles champion emerged from the four USTA Pro Circuit events this week: Vasil Kirkov at the $15,000 tournament in Tallahassee. The 2016 Kalamazoo 18s finalist, seeded No. 3, defeated qualifier Johannes Ingildsen(Florida) of Denmark 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 in the final. It's his second career ITF singles title and first since 2019. No. 4 seeds Liam Draxl(Kentucky) of Canada and John McNally(Ohio State) won the doubles title, beating top seeds Thomas Fancutt of Australia and Colin Sinclair(Cornell) of North Mariana Islands 6-2, 6-3 in the final. 

At the $25,000 tournament in Calabasas California, Universisty of North Carolina junior Rinky Hijikata of Australia defeated Stanford sophomore Tristan Boyer 3-6, 7-5, 6-2. Hijikata, who is taking the fall off, has now won five Pro Circuit singles titles, with four coming this year. Francis Alcantara(Pepperdine) and Raymond Sarmiento(USC) won the doubles title, beating another unseeded pair, Johannes Seeman(San Diego State) of Estonia and Wally Thayne(Utah) 6-4, 6-2 in the final.

Kayla Day fell in the final of the $25,000 tournament in Austin, with No. 6 seed Mirjam Bjorklund of Sweden coming back for a 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory. In the doubles final, two unseeded teams played for the title with Elysia Bolton(UCLA) and Maegan Manasse(Cal) defeating Rasheeda McAdoo(Georgia Tech) and Chanelle Van Nguyen(UCLA) 6-1, 7-5 in the final.

Misaki Doi of Japan will come into the Dow Tennis Classic, where she is the No. 2 seed,  on a five-match winning streak after capturing the title at the $80,000 tournament in Tyler today. Doi, the No. 4 seed, defeated No. 5 seed Harriet Dart of Great Britain 7-6(5), 6-2 in today's final. No. 2 seeds Giuliana Olmos(USC) and Marcela Zacarias of Mexico won the doubles title, defeating top seeds Doi and Poland's Katarzyna Kawa 7-5, 1-6, 10-5.

In addition to the four titles won by Americans at the J4 in South Carolina, three other ITF Junior Circuit champions were crowned outside the United States this week. At the J4 in Canada, No. 2 seed John Kim earned his first ITF Junior Circuit singles title, with the 17-year-old Californian beating unseeded Aleksandar Mitric of Canada 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 in the final. 

At the J4 in Zimbabwe, Aayush Bhat of the US and Aman Dahiya of India won the doubles title. The top seeds defeated No. 2 seeds William Jansen and Roy Keegan of Great Britain 7-6(3), 4-1, ret. It's the third ITF Junior Circuit doubles title for the 16-year-old Bhat, all this year.

At the J5 in Brazil, 15-year-old Athena Rosas won the doubles title, her first title on the ITF Junior Circuit, partnering with  Julia Rocha de Macedo Moraes of Brazil. The unseeded pair defeated Cecilia Costa and Aline Da Silva of Brazil 7-6(3), 2-6, 10-7 in the final. 

Mensik, Marcinko Win ITF JA Titles in South Africa; Filin and Goetz Claim J4 Championships; Kozlov and Wolf to Meet in Las Vegas Challenger Final; Tiafoe and Fritz Advance to ATP Finals

The JA in Cape Town South Africa concluded today, with No. 3 seeds triumphant in both the boys and girls draws.  Petra Marcinko of Croatia defeated fellow 15-year-old Clervie Ngounoue, the No. 6 seed, 6-3, 6-3 for her first JA title. The best Marcinko had done in a JA before this week were quarterfinals at this summer's JA in Milan and the US Open Junior Championships.

Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic defeated top seed Leo Borg of Sweden 6-3, 6-2 to win his first JA title. Mensik, who is 16, reached the final of the JA in Milan three months ago.

Fifteen-year-olds Nikita Filin and Taylor Goetz won the singles titles yesterday at the J4 in Lexington South Carolina, with Goetz completing her semifinal match Friday morning, then adding another win in the final a short time later. Goetz defeated top seed Isabella Chhiv 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-0 in their rain-interrupted semifinal, then took out Maddy Zampardo 7-6(0), 6-3 in the championship match.  Zampardo had managed to complete her semifinal Thursday before the rain arrived. Goetz now has two ITF Junior singles titles, both claimed this year.

No. 6 seed Filin, who had saved three match points in his 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 second round win over Will Mayew, had the advantage over Roy Horovitz, who had to finish his semifinal Friday morning, beating qualifier Andrew Delgado 7-6(4), 6-3. Filin, who had just finished his semifinal before the rain Thursday, defeated the unseeded Horovitz 6-3, 7-5 in the final, earning his first ITF Junior Circuit title.

Zampardo and Vivian Miller, the reigning 16s Orange Bowl champions, won the girls doubles title, with the unseeded pair defeating No. 2 seeds Victoria Osuigwe and Rose Seccia 6-0, 6-0 in the final.

The Delgado brothers, Andrew and James, won their second consecutive boys doubles title. Last week's Atlanta J4 champions, unseeded this week, defeated top seeds Adhithya Ganesan and China's Fnu Nidunjianzan 6-3, 6-3 in the final.  

Stefan Kozlov and JJ Wolf (Ohio State) will meet for the ATP Challenger 80 title in Las Vegas Sunday just over a month after they met in the semifinals of the ATP Challenger in Columbus. Kozlov, who went on to take the title, won that match 2-6, 6-3, 7-5, but Wolf had won their previous two Challenger meetings prior to last month.

Today, Wolf beat Michael Mmoh 6-3, 6-2 and Kozlov defeated wild card Aleks Kovacevic(Illinois) 6-2, 6-4.  

In the Las Vegas doubles final, No. 4 seeds Will Blumberg(North Carolina) and Max Schnur(Columbia) defeated No. 8 seeds Evan King(Michigan) and Jason Jung(Michigan) 7-5, 6-7(5), 10-5. It's the second Challenger title this fall for Blumberg and Schnur, who won in Cary last month.

Brandon Nakashima(Virginia) is in Sunday's final at the ATP Challenger 90 in France, with the No. 4 seed facing unseeded Joao Sousa of Portugal for his second Challenger title of the year. With his win today, Nakashima has now qualified for the Next Gen finals next month in Milan, joining Americans Jenson Brooksby and Sebastian Korda in that 21-and-under tournament.

Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz have both advanced to ATP finals, the first time since 2015 that two American men have played in different ATP finals on the same day. Tiafoe, who had to qualify for the ATP 500 in Vienna, was down 6-3, 5-2 to No. 7 seed Jannik Sinner of Italy before rebounding for a 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory. Tiafoe will face No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany in Tiafoe's first ATP final since April of 2018.

Fritz came back to defeat Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany 5-7, 6-1, 6-3 to reach his sixth ATP final in St. Petersburg. The fifth-seeded Fritz will play unseeded Marin Cilic of Croatia Sunday.

I'll be at the first day of qualifying at the WTA 125 Dow Tennis Classic in Midland Sunday. I can't find the draw anywhere, but the order of play is available here.

USC's Kwinta Named Men's Head Coach at Cal; Ngounoue Reaches ITF JA Final in South Africa; Four Americans Advance to Semifinals at Las Vegas Challenger; Pro Circuit Update; Fritz and Tiafoe Move into ATP Semifinals

The sudden retirement of Peter Wright at the end of August left the men's program at Cal without a head coach for the past two months, until today, when University of Southern California Associate Head Coach Kris Kwinta was named to lead the Bears. Kwinta played for UCLA and was an assistant coach there from 2008 until 2012, when he moved to crosstown rival USC for a similar position under Peter Smith. Kwinta stayed on as associate head coach when former associate head coach Brett Masi took over for Smith at USC in 2019. For more on the Kwinta, with quotes from Billy Martin and Brett Masi, see this article from the Cal website. There are currently seven players on Cal's roster, including three freshmen.

Clervie Ngounoue has advanced to her first ITF JA final today in South Africa, with the 15-year-old from Washington DC defeating No. 2 seed Ksenia Zaytseva of Russia 7-5, 6-2. No. 6 seed Ngounoue, who reached the semifinals of the JA in Milan this summer, will face No. 3 seed Petra Marcinko of Croatia in the championship match. Marcinko defeated No. 7 seed Yaroslava Bartashevich of Russia 6-4, 6-2.

The boys final will feature top seed Leo Borg, the son of Bjorn Borg, and No. 3 seed Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic. The 18-year-old from Sweden defeated No. 7 seed Neo Niedner of Germany 6-3, 6-1, while Mensik came back to beat unseeded Borys Zgola of Poland 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2. 

In the doubles finals today, No. 2 seeds Marcinko and her partner Johanne Svendsen of Denmark won the girls title, beating top seeds Brenda Fruhvirtova and Barbora Palicova of the Czech Republc 6-3, 6-2. The boys title went to the unseeded team of Paul Inchauspe of France and Tanapatt Nirundorn of Thailand, who defeated top seeds Mensik and Slovakia's Peter Privara 6-3, 6-4.

Four of the five Americans, all unseeded, who contested quarterfinals today at the ATP Challenger 80 in Las Vegas advanced.  In the only all-American quarterfinal, JJ Wolf (Ohio State) defeated Ernesto Escobedo 6-3, 6-3 to earn a semifinal berth against Michael Mmoh, who beat Mikael Torpegaard (Ohio State) of Denmark, 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-1. 

In the top half, alternate Stefan Kozlov, who saved eight match points in his 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(13) second round win over lucky loser Aidan McHugh of Great Britain, had an easier time of it today. Kozlov, who now has an eight-match Challenger winning streak after winning the Columbus Challenger last month, defeated No. 7 seed Emilio Gomez (USC) of Ecuador 7-6(3), 6-4. Kozlov will face wild card Aleks Kovacevic, a recent Illinois graduate, who beat No. 5 seed Taro Daniel of Japan 6-3, 6-2. 

Unlike Las Vegas, Americans are nowhere to be found at the $80,000 women's Pro Circuit tournament in Tyler Texas. Top seed Madison Brengle lost to unseeded Marcela Zacarias of Mexico 6-4, 6-3; No. 2 seed Claire Liu was beaten by No. 5 seed Harriet Dart of Great Britain 6-3, 6-4 and No. 7 seed Caty McNally lost to No. 3 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil 6-4, 6-4. Haddad Maia and Dart will meet in one semifinal Saturday, in the other, Zacarias will face No. 4 seed Misaki Doi of Japan, who beat No. 8 seed Katarzyna Kawa of Poland 6-3, 6-4.

At the $25,000 tournament in Austin Texas, wild card Kylie Collins and Kayla Day will meet in an all-American semifinal. Collins, a sophomore at Texas, defeated teammate and doubles partner Lulu Sun of Switzerland 6-4, 6-2 to reach her first semifinal at the $25K level. Day, also unseeded, defeated Sofia Shapatava of Georgia 6-1, 6-2. The top half semifinal will feature No. 6 seed Mirjam Bjorklund of Sweden and former Vanderbilt star Fernanda Contreras of Mexico. Bjorklund defeated qualifier Chanelle Van Nguyen(UCLA) 6-4, 6-3 and Contreras beat Ivana Popovic of Australia 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-2. 

Ryan Shane and Vasil Kirkov are the two Americans remaining at the $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Tallahassee. Shane, the 2015 NCAA singles champion while at Virginia, defeated top seed Antoine Cornut Chauvinc (Florida State) of France 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 and will take on qualifier Johannes Ingildsen (Florida) of Denmark. Kirkov, the No. 3 seed, beat unseeded Ben Shelton (Florida) 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-3 and will play Henry Patten (UNC-Asheville) of Great Britain, a 6-4, 6-2 winner over No. 2 seed Sho Shimabukuro of Japan. 

The quarterfinals of the $25,000 men's tournament in Calabasas will extend into tonight, but the top half semifinal is set, with No. 1 seed Rinky Hijikata (North Carolina) of Australia facing Nathan Ponwith(Arizona State). Hijikata defeated Omni Kumar (Duke) 6-3, 7-5, while Ponwith beat qualifier Max Basing (Stanford) of Great Britain 6-4, 6-4.

Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz have reached the semifinals of two different ATP tournaments in Europe. Tiafoe defeated No. 8 seed Diego Schwartzman of Argentina 6-4, 7-6(6) for his second Top 20 win in a row, after taking out top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece yesterday. Tiafoe will face No. 7 seed Jannik Sinner of Italy in the semifinals of the ATP 500 in Vienna. Fritz, the No. 5 seed at the ATP 250 in St. Petersburg, defeated John Millman of Australia 6-4, 6-2 today and will face unseeded Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany in Saturday's semifinal. 

Orange Bowl Acceptances; Top Seed Fruhvirtova Out, Ngounoue Reaches Semifinals at ITF JA in South Africa; Rain Pushes Two Semifinals to Friday at South Carolina J4

The acceptances for the ITF JA Orange Bowl, scheduled for December 6-12, were released today, and at least for now, the fields are strong, particularly for the girls. It's the tournament's 75th year, and it's great to see it back to a 64-player draw after having been reduced to 48 last year due to Covid concerns.

Seven of the ITF Top 10 girls have entered, including No. 1 Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva of Andorra, US Open finalist Kristina Dmitruk of Belarus and the Fruhvirtova sisters. The boys acceptance list features four of the Top 10, including the top three Americans: Samir Banerjee[3], Victor Lilov[6] and Bruno Kuzuhara[8]. The fourth is No. 10 Viacheslav Bielinskyi of Ukraine.

There are five US boys and six US girls accepted into the main draw; in addition to the three boys above, Ozan Colak and Ethan Quinn have entered. The boys ranking cutoff is 84, putting nine US boys in qualifying.

The US girls are Elvina Kalieva[10], Madison Sieg, Clervie Ngounoue, Alexis Blokhina, Qavia Lopez and Liv Hovde. The girls ranking cutoff is 87, with 16 US girls currently in qualifying.

The Orange Bowl 16s entries don't close until Tuesday November 2, with the acceptances expected to be released November 7.

The acceptances for the JA in Merida Mexico, which is the week of Thanksgiving, came out last week, with all the same US girls entered as the Orange Bowl. Only Lilov and Colak entered from the US boys Orange Bowl contingent, but Benjamin Kittay and Ryan Colby join them in the main draw. Merida is a 48-player draw, and the girls cutoff of 79 is higher than the Orange Bowl. The boys cutoff in Mexico right now is 95.

The Eddie Herr J1 acceptances won't be out for nearly two weeks, so it remains to be seen how many players will skip that tournament to concentrate of the two JAs.

Speaking of JAs, the semifinals of the current one in Cape Town South Africa are Friday, with 15-year-old Clervie Ngounoue among those reaching the final four. Ngounoue, the No. 6 seed, defeated unseeded Carolina Kuhl of Germany 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. Ngounoue will face No. 2 seed Ksenia Zaytseva of Russia, who beat No. 5 seed Johanne Svendsen of Denmark 6-3, 7-6(4). 

Top seed Brenda Fruhvirtova suffered a rare junior loss today, falling to No. 7 seed Yaroslava Bartashevich of Russia 6-4, 7-6(6). Bartashevich will play No. 3 seed Petra Marcinko of Croatia, who beat No. 8 seed Maria Sholokhova of Russia 6-3, 6-2. 

The boys semifinals will feature top seed Leo Borg of Sweden against No. 7 seed Neo Niedner of Germany and No. 3 seed Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic against unseeded Borys Zgola of Poland.

Rain at the J4 in South Carolina was particularly unfortunate for the four players who could not finish their semifinals. No. 6 seed Nikita Filin advanced to the final, his second this fall, with a 6-3, 6-1 win over unseeded Amor Jasika of Australia, but the second boys semifinal between Andrew Delgado and Roy Horovitz will have to be played Friday morning, with the final to follow. 

The same problem exists for the girls, with Maddy Zampardo already in the final with a 6-0, 6-0 victory over qualifier Emily Baek, while her opponent won't be decided until Friday morning, when top seed Isabella Chhiv and Taylor Goetz play. I assume both those semifinals are in progress, but there is no partial score given on the ITF junior website. 

Ngounoue Reaches Quarterfinals at ITF JA in South Africa; Just Two Seeds Remain in South Carolina J4; Wolf Beats Kudla at Las Vegas Challenger; Kang Earns First ATP Point in Calabasas

Fifteen-year-old Clervie Ngounoue has advanced to the quarterfinals in singles and the semifinal in doubles at this week's ITF JA in Cape Town South Africa. Ngounoue, the No. 6 seed, defeated Alina Khvatova of Russia 6-3, 7-5 in second round action today.  She will face the only unseeded player remaining in the girls draw, 16-year-old Carolina Kuhl of Germany. Kuhl had beaten No. 4 seed Barbora Palicova of the Czech Republic in the first round. 

Top seed Brenda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic plays No. 7 seed Yaroslava Bartashevich of Russia Thursday, with No. 3 seed Petra Marcinko of Croatia meeting No. 8 seed Maria Sholokohova of Russia. Marcinko defeated Qavia Lopez of the US 6-3, 6-2 today.  A third Russian quarterfinalist, No. 2 seed Ksenia Zaytseva, faces No. 5 seed Johanne Svendsen of Denmark.

As with the singles, the seeding has held in the doubles, with the top four seeds advancing to the doubles semifinals. Fruhvirtova and Palicova, the top seeds, will face Ngounoue and Belgium's Amelie Van Impe, the No. 4 seeds. No. 2 seeds Marcinko and Svendsen will play No. 3 seeds Bartashevich and Zaytseva. 

Half of the boys quarterfinalists are unseeded, including two from Morocco. Walid Ahouda will play top seed Leo Borg of Sweden, and Yassine Dlimi will face No. 7 seed Neo Niedner of Germany, both in the top half.

In the bottom half, No. 5 seed Sebastian Dominko of Slovenia will face No. 3 seed Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic, with unseeded Orel Kimhi of Israel and unseeded Borys Zgola of Poland playing in the other quarterfinal. Kimhi won the J2 warmup last week.

The boys doubles quarterfinals were not completed today, with two quarterfinals and both semifinals on the schedule for Thursday.

At the J4 in Lexington South Carolina this week, only one seed has advanced to both the boys and girls semifinals. 

Wild card Nikitia Filin, the No. 6 seed, will face Amor Jasika of Australia in one semifinal, with qualifier Andrew Delgado taking on Roy Horovitz in the other.

Top seed Isabella Chhiv will play Taylor Goetz and qualifier Emily Baek will face Maddy Zampardo in the girls semifinals Thursday.

The quarterfinals in the bottom half of the draw are set at the ATP Challenger 80 in Las Vegas, with JJ Wolf and former Ohio State teammate Mikael Torpegaard of Denmark advancing with wins today.  Wolf defeated No. 2 seed Denis Kudla 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 and Torpegaard took out qualifier Dayne Kelly of Australia 6-2, 6-3. Torpegaard will face unseeded Michael Mmoh on Friday, and Wolf will play Ernesto Escobedo. If both Wolf and Torpegaard win, they'll play each other for the fifth time at the Challenger level; Torpegaard won the first two, Wolf the most recent two.

The only Americans left in the top half are Stefan Kozlov and wild card Aleks Kovacevic, both of whom play their second round matches on Thursday.

At the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit men's tournament in Calabasas California, 16-year-old Kyle Kang earned his first ATP point with a 6-4, 7-5 win over fellow qualifier Giacomo Revelli. Revelli, of Great Britain, recently joined the UCLA Bruins. Kang will face another player with UCLA ties, taking on former Bruin No. 1 Gage Brymer, the No. 7 seed, in the second round Thursday.

Other juniors posting wins today: Zachary Svajda, who turns 19 next month, in Calabasas; 17-year-old Bruno Kuzuhara, who defeated No. 8 seed Guy Iradukunda(Florida State) of Burundi 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-2 in Tallahassee; Wild card Kylie Collins, who turns 19 in December, in Austin; and 17-year-old Katrina Scott, also in Austin. 

Top Boys Seeds Ousted at J4 in South Carolina; USTA Pro Circuit Tournaments Underway in Tyler, Austin, Calabasas and Tallahassee; Eddie Herr Acceptance Lists for 12s, 14s and 16s Released

This is the middle week of the three-tournament ITF Junior Circuit outdoor hard court swing in the Southern US, with Lexington South Carolina the host of this week's J4.

With a draw half the size of last week's 64 in Atlanta, the tournament is scheduled to end on Friday, so the quarterfinals are on tap Wednesday. They will not include the top two seeds in the boys draw with Fnu Nidunjianzan of China going out to Will Mayew 6-3, 6-3, and No. 2 seed Meecah Bigun losing to Roy Horovitz 7-6(5), 6-3 in today's second round. Mayew had lost to Nidunjianzan in the first round last week in Atlanta. The only seed left in the boys draw after two rounds is No. 6 Nikita Filin, who received a wild card.

In girls action yesterday, No. 2 seed Zara Larke of Australia was beaten by Maddy Zampardo 6-2, 6-3 in the first round, and Zampardo advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-2 win over last week's finalist, 13-year-old Iva Jovic. There are five seeded girls in the quarterfinals, including top seed Isabella Chhiv.

Qualifying is complete at the two women's USTA Pro Circuit tournaments this week in Texas. At the $80,000 tournament in Tyler, six Americans have advanced to the main draw: Whitney Osuigwe, Sophie Chang, Ashlyn Krueger, Elli Mandlik, Amy Zhu(Michigan) and Ellie Douglas(TCU). 

The top seed, once again, is Madison Brengle, with Claire Liu the No. 2 seed. Wild cards were given to Reese Brantmeier, Maria Mateas(Duke), Alana Smith(NC State) and Maria Kononova(North Texas) of Russia. 

At the $25,000 tournament in Austin, three Americans qualified: Elysia Bolton(UCLA), Chanelle Van Nguyen(UCLA) and Maribella Zamarripa, a freshman at Texas. 

Two Australians are the top seeds: Maddison Inglis No. 1 and Lizette Cabrera No. 2. Wild cards were given to Texas players Charlotte Chavatiporn and Kylie Collins, Sarah Hamner(South Carolina) and Ashley Lahey(Pepperdine). 

In addition to the ATP Challenger 80 in Las Vegas this week, there are two other tournaments in US for men.

At the $15,000 tournament in Tallahassee Florida, Jake Van Emburgh(Oklahoma/Ohio State) and Matt Kuhar(Bryant) are the two Americans who qualified. The top seed in the tournament is Florida State incoming freshman Antoine Cornut Chauvinc of France, with Sho Shimabukuro of Japan the No. 2 seed. Wild card recipients are Jack Anthrop, who starts at Ohio State in January, and three Florida State players: Youced Rihane of Algeria, Loris Pourroy of France and Andreja Petrovic of Norway.

The first round of qualifying at the $25,000 tournament in Calabasas California was rained out Monday, so two rounds are being played today, as well as six first round matches. The Americans qualifying with two wins today are Michael Shabaz(Virginia), juniors Kyle Kang and Ethan Quinn, Austin Ansari(Clemson), Eric Hadigian(Gonzaga/Pepperdine) and Josh Sheehy(Abilene Christian). The other two qualifiers are current college freshmen from Great Britain: Max Basing of Stanford and Giacomo Revelli of UCLA.

North Carolina's Rinky Hijikata of Australia is the top seed, with Kalamazoo 18s champion Zachary Svajda the No. 2 seed. Wild cards went to Keegan Smith(UCLA), Andre Ilagan(Hawaii) and junior Aidan Mayo. Svajda received the fourth wild card.

The Eddie Herr returns next month,
after last year's tournament was canceled due to the pandemic

The acceptance lists for the 12s, 14s and 16s divisions of the Eddie Herr, set to begin on November 29th, have been published, with 46 spots of the 64 places in the main draw filled. The lists can be found here. The ITF J1 acceptance lists will not be out until November 10th.

ITA Division I Regional Singles Finals Results; United States Davis Cup Team Announced; ATP Las Vegas Challenger Underway

The ITA Division I Regional Championships will be wrapping up late tomorrow, but 21 of the 24 have been completed. Below are the results of the singles finals, with both finalists earning a spot in the ITA National Fall Championships next week in San Diego. 

It wasn't easy putting this list together, with one regional, long since completed, still without draws posted. In the rest, some of the draws don't have seeds, or don't have school names for every player, so I've had to go to the individual athletic websites to see if I can find the information. The seeding was the most difficult, so I've noted where I had to rely on draw placement or a school's article, although there were a couple that I just couldn't find.

Note that some regions opted for a Super regional format, while others did not. I'm not sure what the deal is with the women's Carolina regional, which had two separate draws, with separate seedings. I assume only the two winners advance to the Fall Nationals; no other regional used that format. Links to all the draws are available here. 

The Ohio State and Kentucky men and the Princeton and Virginia women featured teammates meeting in the final. Southern Cal and Pepperdine men and Stanford women still have that possibility.

The women's Northwest, and the men's Carolina and Southwest are scheduled to conclude Tuesday. I'll update this list when those titles are decided. 

Division I Regionals Singles Finals

Men:

Northwest: Arthur Fery[1](Stanford) d. Clement Chidekh[2](Washington) 3-6, 6-3, 6-1

Southwest: 

Andrew Rogers[15](Pepperdine) d. Pietro Fellin[30](Pepperdine) 2-6, 6-0, 6-4

Mountain: Franco Capalbo[2](Utah) d. James Davis[1](Denver) 6-2, 6-4

Texas: Juan Carlos Aguilar[16](TCU) d. Sven Lah[7](Baylor) 6-1, 6-3

Central: Jordan Hasson[6](Oklahoma) d. Aleksa Bucan(Arkansas) 7-6(4), 6-4

Midwest: James Trotter[3]Ohio State d. JJ Tracy[7]Ohio State 6-3, 6-4

Northeast: Alafia Ayeni[1](Cornell) d. Max Westphal[8](Columbia) 6-7(7), 7-6(5), 6-3

Ohio Valley: Gabriel Diallo[1](Kentucky) d. Francois Musitelli[9](Kentucky) 6-1, 6-2

Atlantic: Francois Le Tallec(ODU) d. Inaki Montes de la Torre[2](Virginia) walkover

Carolina: Andrew Zhang[11](Duke) d. Taha Baadi[7](Wake Forest) 5-7, 6-1, 6-1

Southern: (no draws) Nikola Slavic[3](Mississippi) d. Tad Maclean(Auburn) 6-2, 4-6, 6-4

Southeast: Andres Martin[5](Georgia Tech) d. Trey Hilderbrand[14](Central Florida) 6-2, 5-7, 6-2

Michigan's Kari Miller in today's Midwest regional
final (photo credit: Scott Gerber OhioTennisZone.com)

Women:

Northwest: Connie Ma[2](Stanford) d. Alexandra Yepifanova[5](Stanford) 6-4, 6-1

Southwest: Lisa Zaar[8](Pepperdine) d. Abigail Desiatnikov[17](San Diego) 6-4, 6-0

Mountain: Anna Riedmiller[2](Denver) d. Molly Helgesson[4](UNLV) 6-2, 6-1

Texas: Kylie Collins[5](Texas) d. Alicia Herrero Linana[9](Baylor) 6-4, 6-4

Central*: Thasaporn Naklo[1](Iowa State) d. Karine-Marion Job(Kansas State) 6-3, 0-6, 6-0

Midwest: Kari Miller[2](Michigan) d. Irina Cantos Siemers[1](Ohio State) 3-6, 6-1, 6-3

Northeast*: Daria Frayman[2](Princeton) d. Victoria Hu[1](Princeton) 7-6(9), 6-0

Ohio Valley: Elza Tomase[9](Tennessee) d. Rebeka Mertena[1](Tennessee) 6-1, 6-3

Atlantic: Natasha Subhash[1] d. Elaine Chervinsky[3](Virginia) 6-4, 6-2

Carolina: 

Main Draw A1: Cameron Morra[2]North Carolina d. Jaeda Daniel[5]NC State 4-6, 7-5, 6-4

Main Draw A2: Fiona Crawley[1]North Carolina d. Ayana Akli[2] South Carolina 6-4, 6-4

Southern: Tiphanie Fiquet[4](Mississippi) d. Safiya Carrington[5](LSU) 6-2, 7-5

Southeast: Mell Reasco[16](Georgia) d. Petra Hule[12](Florida State) 6-1, 7-5

*seed numbers not showing on draws

The USTA announced the members of the United States Davis Cup team that will be competing next month in two European cities. John Isner(Georgia), Reilly Opelka, Taylor Fritz, Jack Sock and Rajeev Ram(Illinois) will represent the United States in the revamped competition, which begins November 25. The complete press release is below:

John Isner, Reilly Opelka, Taylor Fritz, Jack Sock and Rajeev Ram to Represent U.S. at 2021 Davis Cup by Rakuten Finals

 

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., October 25, 2021 – The USTA and United States Davis Cup Captain Mardy Fish today announced that John Isner, Reilly Opelka, Taylor Fritz, Jack Sock and Rajeev Ram will represent the U.S. at the Davis Cup by Rakuten Finals Nov. 25-Dec. 5 in Turin, Italy, and Madrid, Spain.

 

This year's Davis Cup Finals will expand on the 18-team format debuted in Madrid in 2019, with group-stage and quarterfinal matches being played across three cities – Turin, Madrid and Innsbruck, Austria – culminating with the semifinals and finals in Madrid. Team USA will begin its quest for a record-extending 33rd title in Turin, with group matches against the home Italians on November 26 and Colombia on November 28. Each matchup is a best-of-three tie featuring two singles and one doubles match. The full schedule and field can be viewed on the Davis Cup website.

 

Isner, 36, is ranked No. 26 and is a former world No. 8. The Davis Cup veteran would be making his first appearance for the U.S. team since the 2018 Quarterfinals. Isner played Davis Cup every year from 2010-18, which ranks third all-time for the U.S. in consecutive years played, and has a 17-11 overall record in Davis Cup play.

 

Opelka, 24, is ranked No. 27. He made his Top 20 debut in September at No. 19 after a summer in which he reached his first ATP Masters 1000 final in Toronto and reached the fourth round at the US Open. He is making his third straight appearance for the U.S. Davis Cup Team, having helped the U.S. qualify for these Finals with a 4-0 victory over Uzbekistan in March 2020.

 

Fritz, 23, is ranked No. 28 and is coming off his first ATP Masters 1000 semifinal at Indian Wells. Fritz is also making his third consecutive U.S. Davis Cup appearance since debuting at the 2019 Finals, where he defeated Matteo Berrettini to help the U.S. beat Italy in Madrid.

 

Sock, 29, is ranked No. 148 in doubles and No. 152 in singles and has career-high ranks of No. 2 and No. 8, respectively. A three-time Grand Slam doubles champion and 2016 Rio Olympic men’s doubles gold medalist, Sock is 8-3 overall in Davis Cup play with a 4-0 mark in doubles, including a notable victory with Sam Querrey over Italy’s Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolelli at the 2019 Madrid Finals, a match that marked the second-latest finish in tennis history, at 4:04 a.m.

 

Ram, 37, is ranked a career-high No. 4 in doubles and will be making his Davis Cup debut. A two-time U.S. Olympian and 2016 Rio silver medalist in mixed doubles, Ram won his second Grand Slam and third ATP Masters 1000 doubles titles this summer at the US Open and Toronto, respectively, and owns 22 career ATP doubles titles.

There are four USTA Pro Circuit tournaments this week, which I'll get to tomorrow, when the qualifying is complete, but there is also an ATP Challenger 80 in Las Vegas, which is not a part of the USTA Pro Circuit. Donald Young, who lost last week in the second round of the $15K in Vero Beach, qualified today, beating Michael Redlicki(Arkansas) 7-6(5), 1-6, 7-6(10). 2019 Wimbledon boys champion Shintaro Mochizuki of Japan, now 18, also qualified for the main draw.  Steve Johnson(USC) is the top seed; main draw wild cards were given to Aleks Kovacevic(Illinois) and two UNLV seniors: Christopher Bulus and Jordan Sauer.

In first round action today, Thai Kwiatkowski(Virginia), Ernesto Escobedo and Aleks Vukic(Illinois) of Australia posted wins.

Shang Adds Third USTA Pro Circuit Title in Past Month at Vero Beach; Brengle Claims Macon $80K; Li Wins First WTA Title; ITF JA in South Africa Begins Monday

Since falling in the boys final at the US Open to Spain's Daniel Rincon, 16-year-old Juncheng "Jerry" Shang of China has lost one match, to former ATP Top 50 player Ryan Harrison, 13 years older. Shang has won 16 matches, all at $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournaments in the United States, with his third title since the end of September coming today in Vero Beach Florida.

Shang, who trains at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, defeated No. 3 seed Ricardo Rodriguez-Pace of Venezuela 7-6(6), 6-4 for his second straight title, having won last week's $15K in Naples Florida. Shang, the ITF's top-ranked junior, had the advantage of not having to go through qualifying at any of the four $15Ks he played the past five weeks; although he had no ATP ranking, and was given no wild cards, Shang was able to take advantage of the ITF junior reserved program, which sets aside three main draw spots at every $15K tournament for its Top 100 juniors. 

In the past two weeks, Shang has lost just one set in his ten victories, and has won all three tiebreakers he has played.

After the US Open final, I asked him if he was planning to play any more junior events, particularly the upcoming Florida tournaments that close out the year, and he said most likely no, although he did say he was considering one more junior slam.

"Maybe I'll go to Australia," he said. "That would be the last grand slam for the juniors. Hopefully it will be a good transition year to the pros next year."

After his success this past month, Shang is ahead of schedule and should be able to get into the main draw of $25K tournaments going forward.

In the final of the $15,000 men's ITF World Tennis Tour tournament in Cancun, Wimbledon boys finalist Victor Lilov fell to top seed Matias Descotte of Argentina 7-5, 6-4.

Top seed Madison Brengle won the title at the $80,000 USTA women's Pro Circuit event in Macon Georgia, beating No. 2 seed Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. Brengle, who should move up to 70 in the WTA rankings with the title, had not won a title since before the pandemic.

Twenty-one-year-old Ann Li won her first WTA title today at the 250 in Tenerife Spain, defeating 2019 US Open girls champion Camila Osorio of Colombia 6-1, 6-4. Li, who had shared a title with Anett Kontaveit of Estonia in a 2021 pre-Australian Open tournament where the final wasn't played, is now 23-13 on the WTA tour this year, which included several months out with an injury. Coincidentally, Kontaveit also won a title today, at the 500 in Moscow.

For more on today's Tenerife final, see this article from the WTA.

The ITF JA in Cape Town South Africa begins Monday, after the completion of qualifying over the weekend. Four Americans are in the main draws: Yannik Rahman, Olivia Lincer, Qavia Lopez and Clervie Ngounoue[6]. Benjamin Kittay and Azuma Visaya, initially on the acceptance list, were late withdrawals. 

With the late withdrawal of Aleksander Orlikowski of Poland, Leo Borg of Sweden is the top boys seeds. Brenda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic is the top seed in the girls draw.

Ngounoue was the only American to claim a title last week on the ITF Junior Circuit, with the exception of all the champions at the J4 in Atlanta, which I covered the past several days. Ngounoue won the doubles title at the J2 warmup tournament in South Africa, with Amelie Smejkalova of the Czech Republic. The No. 3 seeds defeated Irina Balus of Slovakia and Natacha Schou of Denmark, who were unseeded, 6-4, 6-2 in the final. 

Ngounoue and Lopez reached the singles quarterfinals. Top seed Johanne Svendsen of Denmark won the girls title, with No. 8 seed Orel Kimhi of Israel claiming the boys singles title.

At the J3 in Mexico, Ava Krug and Luca Hotze reached the singles finals, and Carla Pacot and Catherine Walker advanced to the girls doubles final. 

Charney, Truwit Claim ITF J4 Titles in Atlanta; Shang Aims for Second Straight $15K Title Sunday; Lilov Through to Final at Cancun $15K

Top seed Emma Charney defended her 2020 singles title at the ITF J4 in Atlanta today, with the University of Southern California recruit defeating 13-year-old wild card Iva Jovic 6-2, 6-0. Charney, who beat Ashlyn Krueger in the final last year, lost only 16 games in her six singles victories this week. Yesterday, Charney and her younger sister Piper took the doubles title, and again, were never taken to a third set. Charney, who also swept the titles at the J5 in McKinney Texas last month, now has a total of six ITF Junior Circuit titles.

In the boys singles final, 18-year-old Teddy Truwit won his first ITF Junior Circuit title, in his first and only appearance on the ITF Junior Circuit since he lost in qualifying four years ago in Lexington South Carolina. The blue chip, who has committed to Duke, defeated No. 3 seed Fnu Nidunjianzan of China, a Princeton recruit, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4. 

Juncheng Jerry Shang has stretched his USTA Pro Circuit win streak to nine matches, advancing to the final of the $15,000 USTA men's Pro Circuit tournament in Vero Beach Florida. The 16-year-old, who reached the final of the US Open junior championships last month, defeated the No.1 ranked player in the ITA Division I preseason rankings, Canadian Liam Draxl of Kentucky, 6-4, 6-4 in today's semifinals. The unseeded Shang, who won the $15K in Naples last week and is 15-1 in Pro Circuit $15Ks in the past month, plays No. 3 seed Ricardo Rodriguez-Pace of Venezuela for the Vero Beach title Sunday.  Rodriguez-Pace defeated No. 7 seed Zeke Clark(Illinois) 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the other semifinal.

In the doubles final, former University of Florida teammates Johannes Ingildsen of Denmark and Duarte Vale of Portugal defeated No. 2 seeds Draxl and another Gator, Ben Shelton, 6-3 6-4. Ingildsen, who completed his eligibility this spring, and Vale, a senior this year, did not come close to dropping a set this week, despite being unseeded.

While Shang is competing for his third $15K title tomorrow, another junior slam finalist will be playing for his first. Victor Lilov, the Wimbledon boys runner-up, has advanced to his first ITF World Tennis Tour men's final, a day after reaching his first semifinal at the $15,000 tournament in Cancun.  The unseeded Lilov, who is 17, defeated No. 7 seed Mwendwa Mbithi 6-2, 6-1 in the semifinals, after Mbithi had to finish his quarterfinal match with No. 2 seed Jerry Lopez(TCU) of Mexico. Lilov will get another shot at top seed Matias Descotte of Argentina, who beat Lilov in three sets last week in the quarterfinals of another $15K in Cancun.

Mbithi did get a title out of a grueling day's worth of tennis however. The 23-year-old American won his first title on the Pro Circuit in the men's doubles, partnering with Joshua Peck of Canada, a recent North Carolina graduate, who also won his first Pro Circuit title today. The fourth-seeded pair defeated top seeds Peter Bertran(South Florida) of the Dominican Republic and Jorge Panta of Peru 7-5, 7-6(4) in the final, after completing their semifinal earlier in the day.

Madison Brengle will take over the top spot in the USTA's Australian Open wild card challenge, although with her ranking at 78, it's unlikely that she would need it. Brengle, the top seed, defeated No. 7 seed Xiyu Wang of China 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the final of the $80,000 USTA women's Pro Circuit tournament in Macon Georgia. Brengle will face No. 2 seed Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan, who defeated No. 4 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil 6-4, 6-1.

No. 2 seeds Quinn Gleason(Notre Dame) and Catherine Harrison(UCLA) won the doubles title, beating unseeded Alana Smith(North Carolina State) and Alycia Parks 6-2, 6-2 in today's final. It's not their biggest title as a team, with that a title at the $100,000 tournament in Kentucky last February.  Harrison has nine pro doubles titles; Gleason now has 13, including a $60K title earlier this month in Las Vegas.

Macavei Chooses Vanderbilt; Lilov Reaches Semifinals at Cancun $15K; Draxl Tops Shelton in Vero Beach; Brengle Sole American in Macon $80K Semis; Atlanta J4 Finals Set; Brooksby, Li Advance to ATP, WTA Semifinals

I spoke with blue chip senior Sonya Macavei a couple of weeks ago in Kentucky about her verbal commitment to Vanderbilt, and wrote this article for Tennis Recruiting Network. With the National Letter of Intent signing period beginning on November 10, keep tabs on everyone in the senior class at TRN. Here's their overview of blue chip boys, with the girls list set to come out next week.

Wimbledon boys finalist Victor Lilov, who had made the quarterfinals of two $15,000 ITF men's World Tennis Tour tournaments in Cancun since the end of last month, advanced to the semifinals of this week's event in Cancun with a 6-4, 7-5 win today over former Tennessee standout Gilles Hussey of Great Britain. Hussey had won last week's tournament in Cancun. The 17-year-old Lilov, who has been entering these events via the ITF Junior Circuit's reserved method, is currently No. 6 in the ITF junior rankings. 

His opponent in the semifinals has not been determined, with the quarterfinal match between No. 7 seed Mwendwa Mbithi and No. 2 seed Jerry Lopez(TCU) of Mexico interrupted.

At the $15,000 USTA men's Pro Circuit tournament in Vero Beach, No. 6 seed Liam Draxl, a junior at the University of Kentucky, ended the seven-match Pro Circuit winning streak of Florida sophomore Ben Shelton, the No. 4 seed.  The Canadian posted a 6-1, 6-7(3), 6-4 victory in two hours and 47 minutes to set up a semifinal meeting with Juncheng Jerry Shang of China. The unseeded 16-year-old Shang, who won last week's $15K in Naples Florida, defeated Duarte Vale of Portugal, the No. 8 seed and senior at Florida, 6-3, 7-6(4).  Former Illinois star Zeke Clark, the No. 7 seed will face No. 3 seed Ricardo Rodriguez-Pace of Venezuela. Clark defeated wild card Matthew Segura 7-5, 6-4, while Rodriguez-Pace beat qualifier Juan Manuel Benitez Chavarriaga of Colombia 6-2, 6-2.

Top seed Madison Brengle is through to the semifinals of the $80,000 USTA women's Pro Circuit tournament in Macon, after she defeated qualifier Louisa Chirico 7-6(5), 6-4 in today's quarterfinals. Brengle will play No. 7 seed Xiyu Wang of China, who got past wild card Catherine Harrison(UCLA) 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(5). Harrison served for the match at 5-4 in the third set. No. 2 seed Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan defeated qualifier Vicky Duval 6-1, 6-4 to set up a semifinal against No. 4 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil. Haddad Maia advanced when Renata Zarazua of Mexico retired trailing 3-0 in the first set. 

North Carolina State senior Alana Smith has advanced to the doubles final in Macon. She and Alycia Parks, who are unseeded, defeated Abbie Myers and Ivana Popvic of Australia 3-6, 7-5, 10-4 in today's semifinals. They will face No. 2 seeds Harrison and Quinn Gleason(Notre Dame) in Saturday's final. 

Iva Jovic, the 13-year-old Southern Californian play in her first ITF Junior Circuit, has advanced to the final of this week's J4 in Atlanta. Jovic, a wild card, moved into the final when No. 2 seed Cadence Brace of Canada retired trailing 6-1, 1-0.  Jovic will play top seed Emma Charney, who defeated unseeded 14-year-old Katie Rolls 6-4, 6-3.

No. 3 seed Fnu Nidunjianzan of China beat top seed Joseph Phillips 6-3, 6-2 to advance to Saturday's final, where he'll meet unseeded Teddy Truwit. Truwit took out unseeded Ari Cotoulas 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the semifinals.

Two pairs of siblings won the doubles titles today in Atlanta. Emma Charney and younger sister Piper took the girls title, with the No. 8 seed defeating unseeded Reya Coe and Brooke Schafer 6-3, 6-0. The sisters did not drop a set in their five doubles victories, and Emma has yet to lose a set in singles in her five wins so far.

Andrew and James Delgado won the battle of the brothers in the boys doubles final, beating Will and Ian Mayew 6-1, 4-6, 10-8 in a match between unseeded teams. It's the first ITF junior circuit title for both Delgados. 

Two Americans are in the semifinals of events in Europe, with Ann Li through to the final four at the WTA 250 in Spain and Jenson Brooksby(Baylor) advancing to the semifinals at the ATP 250 in Belgium.  The unseeded Li, who will be playing in her third semifinal of 2021 when she faces Alize Cornet of France Saturday, defeated Irina Begu of Romania 7-5, 7-5 today. 

Brooksby, a qualifier, downed unseeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain 7-5, 6-0 in today's quarterfinals. Brooksby will play No. 2 seed Diego Schwartzman of Argentina, who beat qualifier Brandon Nakashima(Virginia) 6-4, 6-2.

Shelton Extends Pro Circuit Win Streak to Seven with Victory over Bicknell; Qualifiers Nakashima, Brooksby Reach ATP European Open Quarterfinals; Three Pairs of Siblings in Atlanta J4 Doubles Finals; Banerjee's Bombshell

University of Florida sophomore Ben Shelton advanced to the quarterfinals at the $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Vero Beach Florida, beating former teammate Blaise Bicknell 3-6, 6-1, 6-2. The All-American champion and Kalamazoo 18s finalist, seeded No. 4, now has a seven-match winning streak on the USTA Pro Circuit, after winning a $25K in Champaign Illinois prior to Kalamazoo this summer. 

Where Shelton will play in the Florida lineup this year is the subject of much speculation among college tennis fans, with the consensus that he won't move ahead of 2021 NCAA champion Sam Riffice or last year's No. 1 singles player Duarte Vale. Vale is also playing in Vero Beach this week and if both win their quarterfinals on Friday, will meet in the semifinals. Shelton played No. 5 for Florida last year, behind Duarte, Riffice, Andy Andrade and Bicknell.

Shelton has to get by the ITA's No. 1 ranked player in the preseason, Canadian Liam Draxl of Kentucky, to reach the semifinals. The two are doubles partners this week and have advanced to the semifinals as the No. 2 seeds. Draxl, the No. 6 seed in singles, defeated Florida State's Loris Pourroy of France 7-5, 6-4 in today's second round action. In order to advance to a meeting with Shelton, Vale must put an end to the streak of 16-year-old ITF World No. 1 junior Juncheng Jerry Shang, who extended his winning streak to seven matches with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over William Bushamuka(Kentucky). Shang won the $15K in Naples last week.

In tonight's feature match in Vero Beach, wild card Matthew Segura upset top seed Donald Young 6-3, 4-0, retired.

I thought it was strange that both Jenson Brooksby(Baylor) and Brandon Nakashima(Virginia) had to qualify for the ATP 250 tournament in Antwerp Belgium this week, but the field was strong, with the main draw cutoff 76. Both Brooksby, the No. 1 seed in qualifying, and Nakashima, the No. 2 seed in qualifying, made it through to the main draw, and both have won two matches this week.  

Brooksby defeated No. 5 seed Reilly Opelka in the first round, and yesterday beat US Open quarterfinalist Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands to reach the quarterfinals.  Nakashima defeated No. 6 seed Alex de Minaur of Australia 6-4, 6-0 in the first round and got past fellow qualifier Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 6-3 today. Brooksby plays 2017 Wimbledon boys champion Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain Friday, while Nakashima faces No. 2 seed Diego Schwartzman of Argentina. If they both win, they play each other; they have a rivalry from their junior days that is entirely in Brooksby's favor. He is 4-0, including the 2018 Kalamazoo 18s final.

Friday's singles semifinals and doubles finals at the ITF J4 in Atlanta are set after a long day that included rain.

Top seed Joseph Phillips will take on No. 3 seed Fnu Nidunjianzan of China in the top half of the boys draw Friday. Phillips defeated unseeded Andrew Delgado 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 and Nidunjianzan beat No. 6 seed Felipe Pinzon Moreno 6-2, 6-4. In the bottom half, unseeded Teddy Truwit, who beat No. 8 seed Grant Lothringer 6-3, 6-3, will take on unseeded Ari Cotoulas, who beat wild card Robert Bauer 6-1, 6-4.

Girls No. 1 seed Emma Charney advanced, again with little difficulty, beating qualifier Jo-Yee Chan 6-3, 6-1. She will play unseeded Katie Rolls, who beat qualifier Shannon Lam 6-3, 7-5. No. 2 seed Cadence Brace defeated No. 6 seed Theodora Rabman 6-4, 6-4, while wild card Iva Jovic, who is playing in her first ITF junior tournament, beat No. 10 seed Victoria Osuigwe 6-1, 6-3. 

Charney and her younger sister Piper are through to the doubles final, where the eighth-seeded pair will face the unseeded team of Reya Coe and Brooke Schafer. 

The boys doubles final will feature not one but two pairs of siblings, with Andrew and James Delgado, who are unseeded, taking on Ian and Will Mayew, who are also unseeded.

Parsa Nemati dropped a big bombshell today on Twitter, with the news that Samir Banerjee has decommitted from Columbia and is verbally committing to Stanford for the fall of 2022. 

After decommitting from Columbia and recently taking a visit to Palo Alto, blue-chip recruit Samir Banerjee (UTR 13.62 / #2 in the class of 2022 / #1 in NJ @TennisRecNet) has verbally committed to @StanfordTennis. The 18-yo boys' #Wimbledon champ has an ITF juniors ranking of #3. pic.twitter.com/ocvxnzo9cr

— Parsa Bombs 💣 (@ParsaBombs) October 21, 2021

Texas Signs Former ITF Top Ten Junior Bailly; Zheng, Kittay Earn First ATP Points in Vero Beach; Navarro and Smith Advance in Macon; Quarterfinals Set at ITF J4 in Atlanta

The University of Texas picked up one of the best international recruits of the 2021-22 season today, signing Belgium's Pierre Yves Bailly, who turned 18 last Friday. Bailly, who reached the quarterfinals at the US Open Junior Championships, where he lost to finalist Jerry Shang in three sets, has been ranked as high as 7 in the world. He has a J1 title to his credit and is now ranked 21 in the ITF Junior rankings.  For more on Bailly's signing at Texas, see this article.

Two US juniors picked up a first ATP point today at the $15,000 USTA men's Pro Circuit tournament in Vero Beach, with 17-year-old qualifier Michael Zheng and 18-year-old wild card Benjamin Kittay getting victories.  Zheng defeated qualifier Reece Falck(UNC-Wilmington) of New Zealand 7-5, 6-1 and Kittay beat 17-year-old qualifier Credit Chaiyarin of Thailand 7-6(4), 6-4. 

Last week's champion at the Naples $15K, US Open boys finalist and ITF No. 1 Shang, got his second win in as many weeks over Damien Wenger of Switzerland. Seeded No. 2 this week, Wenger lost to the 16-year-old left-hander 6-1, 6-4 today, after losing to him in three sets in the semifinals in Naples.

Florida sophomore Ben Shelton, the No. 4 seed, beat friend and Kalamazoo 18s doubles partner (and champion) Bruno Kuzuhara 7-5, 7-6(9) in two hours and 40 minutes. Shelton will face former Florida teammate Blaise Bicknell, who has transferred to Tennessee for the spring season, in the second round.

Ten Americans won their first round matches today at the $80,000 USTA women's Pro Circuit tournament in Macon Georgia, including University of Virginia sophomore Emma Navarro and North Carolina State senior Alana Smith.  Navarro beat fellow wild card Hailey Baptiste 6-2, 6-4, while Smith defeated fellow qualifier Whitney Osuigwe 6-0, 5-7, 6-4. Smith was one of five qualifiers to win their opening round matches in the main draw today: Robin Anderson(UCLA), Hanna Chang, Vicky Duval and Louisa Chirico. 

Wild card Catherine Harrison(UCLA) advanced when No. 3 seed Kristina Kucova of Slovakia retired trailing 6-4. Top seeds Madison Brengle and Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan both were taken to three sets today, but did advance. 

At this week's ITF Junior Circuit J4 in Atlanta, No. 1 seed Emma Charney and No. 2 seed Cadence Brace of Canada have advanced to Thursday's quarterfinals, but not much else has gone as expected in the girls draw. Charney, a senior who recently committed to Southern California, has rolled through her first three opponents, losing only three games total. She will face qualifier Jo-Yee Chan in the quarterfinals. Qualifier Shannon Lam and unseeded Katie Rolls play in the other top half quarterfinal. No. 10 seed Victoria Osuigwe, Whitney's younger sister, plays Easter Bowl 14s champion Iva Jovic, a wild card. The fourth quarterfinal features Brace, the only non-American, against No. 6 seed Theodora Rabman, the 16s Easter Bowl champion. 

Boys top seed Joseph Phillips is through to the quarterfinals, where he'll play unseeded Andrew Delgado. No. 2 seed Preston Stearns, who recently committed to Ohio State, lost to Duke recruit Teddy Truwit. Truwit plays No. 8 seed Grant Lothringer, who recently committed to Texas A&M. The only quarterfinal between two seeds features No. 3 seed Fnu Nidunjianzan of China, a Princeton recruit, and No. 6 seed Felipe Pinzon Moreno, the 2021 16s Clay Court champion. Unseeded Ari Cotoulas and wild card Robert Bauer, a Georgia Tech recruit, meet in the other boys quarterfinal.

Eight Americans Advance to $80K Macon Main Draw; Cooper Williams Qualifies for Vero Beach $15K; ITF Junior Hospitality Update; Wimbledon to Host 14U Event in 2022

Qualifying is now complete at the two USTA Pro Circuit tournaments this week in Georgia and Florida. At the women's $80,000 tournament in Macon, all eight qualifiers are Americans, while at the men's $15,000 tournament in Vero Beach, just two Americans have reached the main draw via qualifying.

North Carolina State senior Alana Smith picked up the best pro circuit win of her career today, defeating No. 2 seed and WTA 226 Conny Perrin of Switzerland 6-2, 6-4. Smith, who received a wild card into qualifying, had defeated No. 13 seed Francois Abanda of Canada 3-6, 6-2, 10-8 in the first round of qualifying.

The other Americans advancing to the main draw: Robin Anderson(UCLA), Louisa Chirico, Whitney Osuigwe, Allie Kiick, Vicky Duval, Hanna Chang and Danielle Lao(USC).

Madison Brengle is the top seed in the main draw, with Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan seeded No. 2.  Wild cards were given to 2021 NCAA champion Emma Navarro(Virginia), Hailey Baptiste, Usue Arconada and Catherine Harrison(UCLA). 

The USTA provide an early update on its Australian Open wild card challenge last night, with Elvina Kalieva, who is not playing Macon, leading with 63 points, followed by Brengle, with 35 points and Maria Mateas(Duke) with 25 points. That competition runs through the week of November 1. The men's AO wild card challenge begins next week.

Sixteen-year-old Cooper Williams, who reached the quarterfinals of the ITF JB1 Pan American Closed in Nicholasville two weeks ago indoors, has qualified for the Vero Beach $15K on the green clay. Williams defeated top qualifying seed Louroi Martinez of Switzerland yesterday 7-6(6), 3-6, 10-6, and today took out LSU junior Ron Hohmann, the No. 13 seed, 7-5, 7-5.  

The other American to advance to the main draw is JanMagnus Johnson, who briefly played for Central Florida during the 2019-20 season. 

Donald Young, who received a wild card, is the No. 1 seed. He will play Pan American Closed champion Jack Anthrop in the first round. Anthrop received entry via the ITF Junior reserved program. The other wild cards were given to Matthew Segura, 17-year-old Michael Zheng, a Pan Am semifinalist, and 18-year-old Pan Am doubles finalist Benjamin Kittay.

Ben Shelton is the No. 4 seed, and will take on Bruno Kuzuhara, another junior reserved entrant. Shelton and Kuzuhara won the 18s doubles title at Kalamazoo in August. 

Last week's champion at the $15K in Naples, Jerry Shang of China, will face No. 2 seed Damien Wenger of Switzerland in the first round. They played in the semifinals last week with Shang recording a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory.

All first round matches are scheduled for Wednesday.

I ran across an update from the ITF last month on several issues, including hospitality requirements for 2022 for the various levels of tournaments. There was also an easing of the requirements for being included in the final ITF junior rankings at year-end, and of the rule against playing two tournaments in the same week. I assume players were sent this update via email, but for anyone else interested, it can be found here.

Wimbledon announced information for the 2022 tournament, which included this: In addition, 2022 marks the first year of the 14&U Junior Championships, which will take place in the second week.

No details were provided, so I'm not sure if this is an initiative only for British players, or if it will include international players as well.

Welcoming New Advertiser Junior Tennis Champions Center; One Singles Title, Three Doubles Titles for American Juniors Last Week on ITF Junior Circuit; ITF J4 Underway in Atlanta

I hope many of you have noticed the new advertiser this month on Zootennis.com: Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park Maryland.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, IMG Academy, a longtime advertiser, decided not to renew for 2021, so I'm delighted to have another top junior development academy step in. I've been covering the ITF J1 in College Park since 2014, and before that I was familiar with JTCC due to Denis Kudla, Frances Tiafoe, Mitchell Frank and others training there, so its great to be partnering with them to get the word out on their many offerings, including the high performance program.

In addition, I want to take this opportunity thank my two other direct sponsors, OTZ Sports/EcoGrip and the John McEnroe Tennis Academy, for their continued support. They stuck with me throughout the pandemic, when much of the news I was posting in 2020 was not much more than canceled tournaments and dropped college teams. I can say, with the exception of Wimbledon this year, my schedule since this spring has been  back to normal, and I hope the resumption of my live coverage of events has been valuable to those reading this. That also means a return to significant travel expenses, so please take a moment to click on their ads to learn about those places and products that are contributing to offsetting that side of the ledger.  

I have resisted going the Patreon route, or another form of subscription model, for the basic reason that I want anyone who is interested in junior or college tennis information to have access to what I write, but there are still ways you can help, if you wish: exploring the offerings of my advertisers; ordering via the Tennis Warehouse link; making a donation via the Paypal link; purchasing a Recruiting Advantage subscription at Tennis Recruiting Network, where I continue to write regularly.

Thanks for reading and supporting Zootennis.com.

Although there were no ITF J1s last week, there were 21 tournaments on the ITF Junior Circuit and Americans took home winners' trophies in three of them.

Maya Joint, a 15-year-old blue chip from Michigan, swept the titles at the J5 in Austria. Joint, the No. 3 seed, won her first singles title with five straight-sets victories, losing only 14 games in the process. In the final, she defeated unseeded Emma Leitner of Austria 6-0, 6-1. Joint won her second ITF Junior Circuit doubles title, partnering with Eszter Berenyi of Hungary. The top seeds defeated the No. 2 seeds Aneta Junova and Nicole Lukesova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-0 in the final. 

At the J4 in the Dominican Republic, No. 4 seeds Ria Bhakta and Esther Vyrlan won the girls doubles title, defeating No. 3 seeds Gabriela Rondon of Colombia and Masha Vrsalovic Gimenez of Bolivia 6-2, 7-5 in the final. Thirteen-year-old Les Petits As champion Mathilde Ngijol Carre of France won the girls singles title, her second in as many weeks. With her 6-2, 6-0 win over No. 7 seed Martina Marica of the US in the final, she has now won 16 straight matches since September.

At the J4 in North Vancouver Canada, Nicholas Godsick and John Kim captured the boys doubles title. The No. 1 seeds, Godsick and Kim defeated the unseeded Canadian team of Kuang Qing Xu and Junghee You 6-4, 6-4 in the final. 

After a week off, the ITF Junior Circuit resumes in the United States with the J4 in Atlanta.  Recent Southern California commit Emma Charney and Joseph Phillips are the top seeds, and both advanced with straight-sets victories in today's first round. No. 3 seed Ana Grubor of Canada was beaten 6-3, 6-4 by Ellee Dryer, and in the boys draw, Easter Bowl 14s champion Cooper Woestendick defeated No. 4 seed Jiayang Dong of Australia 6-4, 6-2.  

Shang Wins Second USTA Pro Circuit Title in Naples; Kingsley Claims $15K in Norman; Norrie Champion at BNP Paribas Open; ITA Cup Small College Winners

Juncheng Shang of China won his second USTA Pro Circuit title since reaching the boys final at last month's US Open, defeating University of Florida senior Duarte Vale of Portugal 6-3, 7-6(3) today at the $15,000 tournament in Naples Florida.

The 16-year-old Shang, known as Jerry here in the US, again used his ITF junior exemption for entry, just as he had done when he played his first main draw at a Pro Circuit event in Arkansas last month. After winning that title, the ITF World No. 1 returned to Florida for the first of two $15,000 tournaments at the Sanchez Casal Academy in Naples, where he used to train (he's now at IMG). He lost to Ryan Harrison, who went on to win the tournament, in the second round, then got right back on track this week, although he was again unseeded.

Shang lost only one set, to No. 3 seed Damien Wenger of Switzerland in the semifinals, and is now 11-1 in USTA Pro Circuit events since September 26th.

Raveena Kingsley, who reached the WTA Top 300 as an 18-year-old back in 2016, won her first title since 2018 at the $15,000 USTA women's Pro Circuit event in Norman Oklahoma. Kingsley, who played only one tournament last year, right before the pandemic lockdowns hit, ended the unexpected run of 17-year-old Canadian Annabelle Xu with a 6-2, 6-0 win in today's final.

The other teens in the finals also fell today. Eighteen-year-old Elvina Kalieva, who qualified for the $60,000 tournament in Rancho Santa Fe California and beat three seeds, lost in the final today to top seed Rebecca Peterson of Sweden 6-4, 6-0.

Seventeen-year-old Rachel Gailis, who recently committed to the University of Florida, lost to 19-year-old top seed Darja Semenistaja of Latvia, who claimed her third straight $15K title in Cancun with a 7-5, 7-5 victory.

At the $25,000 USTA women's Pro Circuit tournament in Florence South Carolina, qualifier Emiliana Arango of Colombia took the title, beating top seed Xiyu Wang of China 6-3, 0-6, 7-6(0). The 20-year-old, a former ITF Top 10 junior, has now won two $25K titles in the past two months.  The unseeded team of Emily Appleton of Great Britain and Lily Miyazaki(Oklahoma) of Japan took the doubles title, defeating No. 2 seeds Robin Anderson, a former UCLA Bruin and Elysia Bolton, a UCLA senior, 6-3, 1-6, 10-8 in Saturday's final. 

Great Britain's Cameron Norrie won the ATP Masters 1000 BNP Paribas Open men's singles title tonight in Indian Wells, coming back to defeat Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. The former TCU star is the first British man to win the title and the first former collegian to take the winner's trophy since Larry Stefanki (Cal) in 1985. The 26-year-old left-hander will now move to No. 16 in the ATP rankings and is No. 10 in the race to the ATP year-end finals.

The ITA Cup concluded today in Rome Georgia, with the champions crowned in the NAIA and Junior College divisions. The singles finals results from all four divisions:

NAIA women:
Stephanie Petit[2], Montreat def. Nicole Coopersmith[1], Keiser 7-5, 4-6, 6-4

NAIA men:
Agustin Tamagnone, Georgia Gwinnett def. Francisco Faria, Olivet Nazarene 6-4, 4-6, 7-5

Divison II women:

Deniz Khazan[1], Barry def. Mae Canete[2], Central Oklahoma 6-2, 6-4

Division II men:

Alvaro Regalado[1], Columbus State def. Joaquin Benoit, North Georgia 6-2, 6-2

Division III women:

Eliza McPherron[2], Emory def. Sahana Raman[1], Middlebury 3-6, 7-5, 6-2

Division III men:
Stan Morris, Middlebury, def. Chase Cohen[3], Williams 2-6, 6-3, 6-1

Junior College women:

Lauren Anzalotta[1], Tyler def. Justine Lespes[3], Seward 6-3, 6-1

Junior College men:

Takeshi Taco[2], Cowley def. Boruch Skierkier[4] Cowley 6-3, 7-6(1)

Kalieva One of Four Juniors Reaching ITF Pro Circuit Finals; Three Unseeded Champions at Tennis Europe 14U and 16U Masters Championships; Norrie Advances to BNP Paribas Open Final

It's a banner week when a couple of juniors reach finals in USTA and ITF Pro Circuit tournaments, but this week has seen four such achievements, with 18-year-old Elvina Kalieva leading the way.

Kalieva, the Easter Bowl finalist and US Open girls quarterfinalist, advanced to the final of the $60,000 tournament in Rancho Santa Fe by defeating No. 2 seed Fiona Ferro of France 4-6, 6-4, 3-0 ret.

Ferro, at 83 in the rankings, is more than 500 spots above Kalieva, who advanced to the main draw via qualifying. But Kalieva has now defeated the No. 4, No. 8 and No. 2 seeds this week, and will need to prevail over top seed Rebecca Peterson of Sweden if she is to claim her first ITF women's Pro Circuit title. Peterson defeated No. 3 seed Madison Brengle 6-4, 6-2 today.

The other three finalists are at a $15,000 tournaments, a level more conducive to junior finalists.

Just three weeks after capturing his first USTA Pro Circuit title in Arkansas, 16-year-old Juncheng Jerry Shang of China is in another final, this time in Naples Florida. Shang, the ITF's top-ranked junior, has played only three Pro Circuit main draws, all since reaching the final of the US Open junior championships last month, and has a record of 10-1. Today he defeated No. 3 seed Damien Wenger of Switzerland 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.  Shang will face University of Florida senior Duarte Vale of Portugal, who beat lucky loser Blu Baker of Great Britain 7-6(2), 6-3. This is Vale's second $15K final since August. 

Seventeen-year-old Bruno Kuzuhara won his first professional title today, partnering with fellow teenager Abedallah Shelbayh of Jordan to take the doubles championship. Shelbayh, a freshman at Florida defeated Vale and former Florida Gator Johannes Ingildsen of Denmark 6-4, 6-1 in today's final. 

Annabelle Xu of Canada continued her run at the tournament in Norman Oklahoma, with the 17-year-old defeating Oklahoma State senior Martina Zerulo of Italy 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals. Xu, will face Raveena Kingsley, also unseeded, in Sunday's final. Kinglsey defeated wild card Ivana Corley(Oklahoma) 6-3, 7-6(3).

The Oklahoma State team of Zerulo and Oona Orpana of Finland took the doubles title, defeating Kelly Williford(Virginia Tech) of the Dominican Republic and South Carolina recruit McKenna Schaefbauer 6-2, 5-7, 10-6. Both teams were unseeded. 

In Cancun, University of Florida recruit Rachel Gailis is through to the final, her second at the $15K level, after Pamela Montez retired at 3-6, 6-3. Gailis will play 19-year-old Darja Semenistaja of Latvia, the top seed, who defeated Madison Sieg. Semenistaja is going for her third straight title in as many weeks in Cancun.

Christian Langmo, the former Miami standout, is also going for his third title in three weeks tomorrow in Cancun against recent Tennessee standout Giles Hussey of Great Britain.

The Tennis Europe Masters event, which featured eight of the top 14U and 16U players in Europe, concluded yesterday, with only one seed claiming a title.

The boys 14s title went to Max Schoenhaus of Germany, who beat compatriot Justin Engel 7-5, 7-5 in a contest between two unseeded players. 

The only seeded player to win was in the girls 14s, where No. 3 Laura Samsonova of defeated No. 4 seed Eva Maria Ionescu of Romania 6-4, 6-4.

In the 16s, Russia's Mariia Masiianskaia claimed the girls title with a 6-4, 7-5 win over No. 4 seed Monika Stankiewicz of Poland, and Bosnia and Herzegovina's Marko Maksimovic won the boys title with a 7-5, 6-3 win over No. 4 seed Michal Karjci of Slovakia.

For more on the finals, see this Tennis Europe article.

Former TCU star Cameron Norrie keeps adding to his fantastic season, reaching the final of the ATP Masters 1000 BNP Paribas Open with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgari today in Indian Wells. Norrie, the No. 21 seed, will face No. 29 seed Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia, who beat Taylor Fritz this evening 7-6(5), 6-3. Norrie will break into the Top 20 for the first time, just over four years after leaving TCU after his junior year in 2017. Not only will Norrie become the British No. 1 after this week, but he will also be the highest ranked player, male or female, to have competed in college. He will move past John Isner(Georgia) and Danielle Collins(Virginia).

For more on Norrie's win today, see this article from the ATP.