January Aces; Ohio State Men Defeat Top-ranked Tennessee; Navarro Through to Semifinals at $60K in Georgia; Mmoh Advances at Cleveland Challenger

Bruno Kuzuhara and his Australian Open titles kick off the article, but there are 15 other top performances from January featured in my monthly Tennis Recruiting Network column. Note that Brandon Holt has continued his winning streak in 2022 into February; after the former USC All-American won back-to-back $15K titles in Cancun the last two weeks of January, he's through to the semifinals there again this week.

No. 1 Tennessee made the trip to Columbus for a high-profile non-conference match with the No. 5 Buckeyes, and left with their first loss of the season, by the unexpected score of 4-0. 

Ohio State's doubles lineup is formidable, featuring top-ranked Matej Vocel and Robert Cash, who won both the majors this fall, at line 2. No. 2 Justin Boulais and James Trotter, who reached the final at the All-American Championships, were at line 1, with Cannon Kingsley and JJ Tracy at line 3. The Volunteers have their own national title holders at line 1, with NCAA champions Adam Walton and Pat Harper.  The match at 1 didn't finish, but Vocel and Cash defeated Emile Hudd and Shunsuke Mitsui 6-3 and Kingsley and Tracy beat Johannus Monday and Martim Prata 6-2 to give the Buckeyes what was expected to be a crucial point.

Five of the first sets of singles were either 7-6 or 7-5, but Ohio State won four of those and also got a 6-0 set. Trotter gave his team a quick second point with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Prata at line 3, and Tracy made it 3-0 Ohio State with a 7-6(4), 6-3 win over Angel Diaz at line 4. Although Tennessee got a split at line 1, with Walton earning a third set against Vocel, both Kingsley and Cash were racing to the finish at lines 2 and 5 against Monday and Hudd respectively. At 5-5 in the second Kingsley broke, while Cash was getting ready to serve for the match at 7-6(2), 5-2. Cash missed on his first match point, and before he could serve again, Kingsley closed out his 7-6(7), 7-5 victory.

Ohio State won't have much time to enjoy their win however, as they face No. 6 Virginia Sunday in Columbus.

University of Virginia sophomore Emma Navarro is through to the semifinals of the biggest tournament in women's tennis this week, the $60,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Rome Georgia. Navarro, who received a wild card, defeated former UCLA All-American Robin Anderson 7-5, 6-4 in the quarterfinals today, and will face qualifier Tatjana Maria of Germany for a place in the final. Maria, who has been as high as 48 in the WTA rankings, defeated Katie Volynets 6-3, 6-3.  Navarro, who is 4-0 at the No. 1 singles spot for the Cavaliers, won the last pro event she played, a $25,000 tournament in Orlando in November, so she is now on an eight-match winning streak on the Pro Circuit.

In the top half semifinal, Caroline Dolehide defeated qualifier Katarina Jokic(Georgia) of Serbia 2-6, 6-0, 6-1 and will face wild card Alycia Parks, who beat Francesca Di Lorenzo(Ohio State) 6-2, 6-3.

Reese Brantmeier and Elvina Kalieva, the US Open girls doubles finalists, lost to top seeds Emina Bektas(Michigan) and Great Britain's Tara Moore 7-5, 7-5. Bektas and Moore will face Sophie Chang and Angela Kulikov(USC), who beat Parks and Sachia Vickery 6-2, 7-6(1).

At the ATP Challenger 80 in Cleveland, Michael Mmoh is the sole American to advance to the semifinals, with wild card Will Blumberg(North Carolina) and No. 6 seed Ernesto Escobedo suffering quarterfinals losses. Blumberg couldn't hold off No. 3 seed Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 and Escobedo lost to Swiss teenager Dominic Stricker 6-3, 7-6(4).  Mmoh, who defeated qualifier Alexis Galarneau(North Carolina State) 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-0 in the late match, will face Stricker in the semifinals. Nishioka  will play unseeded Thomas Fabbiano of Italy.

Blumberg did get a win today in doubles, with partner Max Schnur (Columbia). The No. 2 seeds, who won three Challenger titles together last year, defeated No. 3 seeds Ruben Gonzales(Illinois) of the Philippines and Luca Margaroli of Switzerland 6-3, 4-6, 10-8 in the semifinals.