Fourteen-year-old Brenda Fruhvirtova Reaches First Pro Circuit Final; Parks Advances to Championship Match at Georgia $60K; Stricker and Nishioka Meet in Second Straight Challenger Final; Dallas Open Qualifying Begins Sunday

Brenda Fruhvirtova has advanced to the final of the $25,000 ITF Women's World Tennis Tour tournament in Argentina, after defeating top seed Paula Ormaechea of Argentina 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. The 14-year-old from the Czech Republic wasn't able to serve out the match at 5-2, but she held her nerve in her second attempt, although she needed three match points to get past Ormaechea, who, at 29, is more than twice her age. Despite being eligible to compete on the Pro Circuit since April of 2021, Fruhvirtova has played just three pro events: the WTA 125 in Korea in December, a $25 in Tunisia last month, where she lost in the first round, and this week's tournament.  With her win over Ormaechea, she has now beaten two WTA Top 200 players in consecutive days.

Fruhvirtova, who is currently No. 4 in the ITF junior rankings, will face No. 5 seed Carolina Alves of Brazil in Sunday's final. 

Tatjana Maria of Germany spoiled the opportunity for two American wild cards to play for the title Sunday at the $60,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Rome Georgia. Maria, a qualifier, but formerly in the WTA Top 50, defeated University of Virginia sophomore Emma Navarro 6-3, 6-2 in today's semifinals. Maria will play Alycia Parks, who defeated Caroline Dolehide 6-3, 7-6(4) in the other semifinal. 

Unseeded Sophie Chang and Angela Kulikov won the doubles title, beating top seeds Emina Bektas(Michigan) and Tara Moore 6-3, 6-7(2), 10-7 in today's final. That's an even dozen ITF doubles titles for Chang, while Kulikov, the 23-year-old USC graduate, now has three, all at the $60K level. Chang and Kulikov won one previous title together last year in Berkeley California.

For the second week in a row, Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan and Dominic Stricker of Switzerland will meet in an ATP 80 Challenger final in Ohio.  Last week in Columbus, Nishioka defeated Stricker 6-2, 6-4. This week in Cleveland, Nishioka, seeded No. 3, advanced to the final with a 7-6(6), 6-3 win over unseeded Thomas Fabbiano of Italy. The unseeded Stricker, who won the 2020 French Open boys title, defeated Michael Mmoh 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(2) in this evening's semifinal. With a match that close, there's very little that separated the two, but Stricker did have the better serve statistics, hitting 16 aces and just three double faults. Mmoh had just seven aces and also had seven doubles faults, two of which came in the third set tiebreaker. 

In the doubles final, No. 2 seeds Max Schnur(Columbia) and Will Blumberg(North Carolina) won their fourth Challenger title as a team, all since September. Schnur and Blumberg defeated top seeds Jackson Withrow(Texas A&M) and Robert Galloway(Wofford) 6-3, 7-6(4) in the final. Schnur, 28, has 17 titles in his career, 11 at the Challenger level. Blumberg, 24, has five, with an ATP title and four Challenger titles since last summer. 

The ATP returns to the United States next week for the 250 Dallas Open, which will be played at SMU's Styslinger Altec Tennis Complex. Qualifying, which begins Sunday, will feature SMU sophomores Adam Neff and Liam Krall, who received wild cards, as well as JJ Wolf (Ohio State), Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech), Ernesto Escobedo and Bjorn Fratangelo. Wolf and Eubanks have drawn each other in the first round of qualifying. 

Taylor Fritz is the top seed, with Reilly Opelka 2, John Isner 3 and Jenson Brooksby 4. They have first round byes.  Main draw wild cards were given to SMU senior Caleb Chakravarthi, Jack Sock and Mitchell Krueger.