Lopez and Guichard Take Out Top Two Seeds at Grade A Banana Bowl, Basavareddy Also Reaches Semifinals; New Faces Atop ITA Division I Singles Rankings; Discord Surfaces in BYU Men's Program

No. 5 seed Qavia Lopez and unseeded Ahmani Guichard reached Friday's semifinals at the ITF Grade A Banana Bowl after wins over the top seeds today in Criciuma Brazil. Lopez defeated top seed Kayla Cross of Canada in what looks, from the 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(7) score, to have been a gripping match. Guichard, playing in just her second Grade A tournament, defeated No. 2 seed Victoria Mboko of Canada 6-2, 6-4.  Guichard's ITF junior ranking is 134, Mboko is at a career-high of 13 after winning last week's J1 warmup event in Brazil. Guichard had lost to Mboko 6-1, 6-3 in the second round there.

Lopez will face No. 7 seed Lucia Havlickova of the Czech Republic, who came through qualifying, in the semifinals. Lopez defeated Havlickova in the first round of the Australian Open Junior Championships last month. Guichard's opponent is another Canadian, No. 8 seed Annabelle Xu. 

Unseeded Nishesh Basavareddy, who received a special exemption into the main draw as champion of the J1 last week, extended his winning streak to 11 matches with a 6-1, 6-4 win over unseeded Paul Inchauspe of France in today's quarterfinals. Basavareddy will play unseeded Yaroslav Demin of Russia on Friday. The other boys semifinal will feature No. 2 seed Gonzalo Bueno of Peru and No. 6 seed Bor Artnak of Slovenia. 

Cooper Williams and Aidan Kim will play for the boys doubles title on Friday against the No. 2 seeds Aldolfo Daniel Vallejo and Martin Antonio Vergara del Puerto of Paraguay.  The girls doubles final will feature No. 4 seeds Irina Balus and Nikola Daubnerova of Slovakia against the unseeded team of Weronika Ewald of Poland and Vivian Yang of New Zealand.

The individual rankings for Division I were released today, with two new No. 1s in singles. South Carolina's Sarah Hamner is in the women's top spot, replacing Southern Cal's Eryn Cayetano, while Washington's Clement Chidekh took over No.1, bumping Stanford's Arthur Fery to No. 2.

Below are the Top 10 in singles and Top 5 in doubles, with the full lists available by clicking on the headings.

ITA Women's Division I Singles Top 10, February 24, 2022

1. Sarah Hamner, South Carolina
2. Daria Frayman, Princeton
3. Alexa Noel, Iowa
4. Peyton Stearns, Texas
5. Eryn Cayetano, Southern Cal
6. Irina Cantos Siemers, Ohio State
7. Cameron Morra, North Carolina
8. Kari Miller, Michigan
9. Jaeda Daniel, NC State
10. Reilly Tran, North Carolina

ITA Women's Division I Doubles Top 5

1. Alicia Herrero Linana/Melany Krywoj, Baylor
2. Fiona Crawley/Elizabeth Scotty, North Carolina
3. Jayci Goldsmith/Tatiana Makarova, Texas A&M
4. Carmen Corley/Ivana Corley, Oklahoma
5. Tatsiana Sasnouskaya/Yulia Starodubtseva, Old Dominion

ITA Men's Division I Singles Top 10 February 24, 2022

1. Clement Chidekh, Washington 

2. Arthur Fery, Stanford

3. Ben Shelton, Florida

4. Stefan Dostanic, Southern Cal

5. Matej Vocel, Ohio State,

6. Johannus Monday, Tennessee

7. Alex Kotzen, Columbia

8. August Holmgren, San Diego

9. Gabriel Diallo, Kentucky

10. Cannon Kingsley, Ohio State

ITA Men's Division I Doubles Top 5

1. Robert Cash/Matej Vocel, Ohio State

2. Justin Boulais/James Trotter, Ohio State

3. Lui Maxted/Pedro Vives Marcos, TCU

4. Brian Cernoch/Mac Kiger, North Carolina

5. Jacob Fearnley/Luc Fomba, TCU

The Salt Lake Tribune reported yesterday that several student-athletes on the BYU men's team were going public with what they described as "bullying" and "abuse" by Director of Tennis and Head Coach Dave Porter. That article is behind a subscriber paywall, but this one, by the student newspaper, does provide some details. 

In more positive college tennis news, the University of Florida announced the completion of $650,000 upgrades to its Ring Tennis Complex, which include shade and chair-back seating.