Basavareddy Wins Brazil J1; More Milestones for Fruhvirtova Sisters; TCU Upsets Ohio State, Meets Tennessee in Men's Team Indoor Final; Barry Claims D-II Indoor Title; Norrie Champion at ATP Delray Beach

Qualifier Nishesh Basavareddy didn't look like the competitor who had already played seven matches in eight days Sunday at the J1 in Brazil. The 16-year-old from Indiana won his first Grade 1 title with a 6-0, 6-1 victory in the final over top seed Gonzalo Bueno of Peru, giving him wins over the No. 2, No. 5, No. 6 and No. 1 seeds in the past four days. He lost just one set in his eight victories, in a second set tiebreaker in the quarterfinal match with Cooper Williams.

Fifteen-year-old Victoria Mboko of Canada won her first Grade 1 singles title a day after collecting the doubles title. The No. 2 seed defeated No. 8 seed Mia Kupres, also of Canada 7-6(5), 6-2.

In today's singles final at the $15,000 men's USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Naples, unseeded Evan Zhu fell to No. 5 seed Jonathan Mridha of Sweden 6-2, 7-6(4). 

Fourteen-year-old Brenda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic, who won back-to-back $25,000 ITF Women's Pro Circuit tournaments in Argentina the last two weeks, qualified today for the WTA 250 in Guadalajara Mexico. Fruhvirtova defeated Sara Errani of Italy in the first round 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-2 Saturday and beat Leonie Kung of Switzerland 6-2, 6-1 in the final round of qualifying today. Fruhvirtova will play in her first WTA match above the 125 level against No. 6 seed Sloane Stephens.

Linda Fruhvirtova, two years older, won her third career ITF Women's Pro Circuit title and the first at the $25,000 level this week in Cancun Mexico. Unseeded, she defeated No. 2 seed Rebecca Marino 6-3, 6-4 in today's final.

Keegan Smith (UCLA) won the men's $25K in Cancun today, his second Pro Circuit title and first at the $25,000 level. Smith, who was unseeded, didn't drop a set in his five wins, including a 6-2, 6-4 victory over top seed Geoffrey Blancaneaux of France in the quarterfinals. In today's final, the 23-year-old Californian defeated qualifier Lucas Gerch (Oklahoma State) of Germany 6-4, 6-1.

In Canberra Australia, Asia Muhammad won her second $25K title in as many weeks, with the No. 2 seed defeating top seed (and doubles partner) Arina Rodionova of Australia 6-1, 7-6(7) in the final. The pair have won the doubles titles the past two weeks as well.

Clervie Ngounoue, 15, reached the doubles final of the $15,000 ITF Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Tunisia with fellow junior Sofia Costoulas of Belgium, the Australian Open girls finalist.

The finals are set for the ITA Men's Division I Team Indoor Championships after the top two seeds were eliminated in Sunday's semifinals.

Ohio State came into Seattle as the heavy favorite with four top 10 wins in Columbus the previous two weekends, but it was No. 5 TCU who will be playing for the title Monday, with the Horned Frogs taking a 4-3 victory in the afternoon semifinal. 

TCU won the doubles point, which had been a strength of the Buckeyes, with the top two doubles in the country playing at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions. But after Ohio State lost the doubles point to Washington on Friday, some of the aura dissipated, and TCU took wins at those two spots to take the lead.

The teams split first sets, meaning that the Buckeyes would need to force a three-setter to have a chance to win. Ohio State's JJ Tracy, Cannon Kingsley and James Trotter all closed out their matches in routine fashion to give Ohio State a 3-1 lead, but TCU's Luc Fomba and Lui Maxted finished their matches without incident to make it 3-3. That left the match on the racquets of Ohio State's Jake Van Emburgh and TCU's Sander Jong at line 3, with Van Emburgh needing to force a third set after dropping the first. Serving at 5-6 in the second, Jong saved a set point on a deciding point to force the tiebreaker, but Van Emburgh kept the pressure on in that final game, getting the first mini-break to go up 4-3 and winning the next three points.

After serving well and making no errors in the tiebreaker, Van Emburgh looked like he was going to be able to transfer that level to the third set when he went up 15-40 on Jong's serve. But Jong held, then broke, winning both deciding points and that was the end of the drama, with Jong quickly closing out the 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-0 win.

TCU is into the Team Indoor final for just the second time in program history and the first time since 1992.

In the evening semifinal, No. 3 seed Tennessee took out No. 2 Baylor 4-2, with a similar pattern to TCU's win over Ohio State.

Baylor was up a break in all three doubles matches, but it was Tennessee that came back to take the point. Each team won three first sets in singles, and all five matches that finished were won in straight sets. Baylor's chance to get the third set they needed fell to Sven Lah at line 3. Lah had lost the first set to Emile Hudd 6-4 and they were deep in the second set with Tennessee up 3-1. Baylor had a set-and-a-break leads at both 2 and 6, so those two points looked safe, leaving Lah with task of winning the second set. He led 5-3 and had two set points, but Hudd came back to tie it, then forced a tiebreaker. The first 14 points of the tiebreaker went to the server, with Lah saving a match point at 5-6 and Hudd saving set points at 7-6 and 8-7. Lah double faulted to give Hudd another match point, but Hudd couldn't convert that one, only to be the beneficiary of another Lah double fault serving at 9-10. Baylor's Matias Soto had two match points at line 2 in his match with Johannus Monday, so it was as close to a 4-3 decision as possible without being that.

Tennessee dealt TCU its only loss of the season last month in Fort Worth, by a 4-3 score. It's the Volunteers first trip to the Team Indoor final since they made back-to-back finals in 2010 and 2011.

The final is scheduled for 3 p.m. Eastern time Monday. Cracked Racquets will be providing RedZone coverage via their YouTube Channel.

Men's Team Indoor Division I Semifinals February 20, 2022

TCU [5] 4, Ohio State[1] 3
Singles
1. Luc Fomba (TCU) def. Matej Vocel (OSU) 6-4, 6-42. Cannon Kingsley (OSU) def. Juan Carlos Aguilar (TCU) 6-4, 6-0
3. Sander Jong (TCU) def. Jake Van Emburgh (OSU) 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-0
4. JJ Tracy (OSU) def. Pedro Vives Marcos (TCU) 6-0, 6-2
5. James Trotter(OSU) def. Jacob Fearnley (TCU) 6-3, 6-4
6. Lui Maxted (TCU) def. Robert Cash (OSU) 7-5, 6-2

Order of Finish: 4,2,5,6,1,3

Doubles
1. Luc Fomba/Jacob Fearnley (TCU) def. Matej Vocel/Robert Cash 6-4 (OSU)
2. Sander Jong/Lui Maxted (TCU) def. Justin Boulais/James Trotter (OSU) 6-2
3. Cannon Kingsley/JJ Tracy (OSU) def. Juan Carlos Aguilar/Tim Reuehl (TCU) 6-3

Order of Finish: 2,3,1

====================================
Tennessee[3] 4, Baylor[2] 2
Singles
1. Adrian Boitan (BAY) def. Adam Walton (TENN) 6-3, 6-2
2. Matias Soto (BAY) vs. Johannus Monday (TENN) 7-6(7), 5-4, unfinished3. Emile Hudd (TENNIS def. Sven Lah (BAY) 6-4, 7-6(9)
4. Angel Diaz (TENN) def. Finn Bass (BAY) 6-4, 6-4
5. Shunsuke Mitsui (TENN) def. Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi (BAY) 6-4, 6-0
6. Tadeas Paroulek (BAY) def. Connor Gannon (TENN) 7-6(5), 6-2

Order of Finish: 5,1,4,6,3

Doubles
1. Emile Hudd/Shunsuke Mitsui (TENN) vs Sven Lah/Finn Bass (BAY) 6-6(5-5), unfinished
2. Pat Harper/Adam Walton (TENN) def. Matias Soto/Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi (BAY) 6-4
3. Mark Wallner/Johannes Monday (TENN) def. Adrian Boitan/Tadeas Paroulek (BAY) 7-5

Order of Finish: 2,3
The finals of the Men's Division II Team Indoor Championships today in Indianapolis saw top seed Barry defeat No. 2 seed Columbus State 4-3. For more on that exciting final, see this article from the ITA.

Another highlight of the day for TCU was the title for former Horned Frogs star Cameron Norrie at the ATP 250 in Delray Beach Florida. Reilly Opelka plays a lot of tiebreakers and wins most of them, but not today, with the top-seeded Norrie earning his third career ATP title with a 7-6(1), 7-6(4) decision over the No. 2 seed. For more on Norrie's win today, see this article from the ATP website.