Shang Captures Fourth USTA Pro Circuit Title at Naples $15K; Top Seed Case Western Earns First D-III Men's Team Indoor Title; Ohio State, Texas Women Post Top 10 Wins

Juncheng Jerry Shang won his fourth $15,000 men's USTA Pro Circuit title today in Naples Florida, his first title of 2022. The unseeded 17-year-old from China, who trains at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, defeated unseeded Felix Corwin(Minnesota) 7-6(4), 7-6(1) in two hours and 20 minutes to add to the titles he won last fall in Fayetteville Arkansas, Naples and Vero Beach. 

Shang, who is still using his ITF Junior ranking (currently No. 2) to get into these $15,000 tournaments, should finally break into the ATP Top 600 after this title and is likely to receive another qualifying wild card into the Miami Open next month, after taking Great Britain's Liam Broady to a third set tiebreaker in last year's qualifying. 

Top seed Case Western Reserve won the ITA Men's Division III Team Indoor title today in Mayfield Ohio, defeating No. 6 seed University of Chicago 5-1 in this morning's final. Case Western was clearly the best of the eight-team field, losing only one point in each of their three matches this weekend. The Spartans swept all three doubles points and Ansh Shah at line 3 and Jonathan Powell at line 6 clinched the win for Case Western. Chicago's sole point came from former University of Virginia transfer Christian Alshon at line 2.

It's the first title for Case Western in the 21-year history of the tournament. For more, see this recap from the school's website.

The post-Division I Team Indoor calendar hasn't lacked for great matches, as the top schools continue to seek quality non-conference opponents before the conference seasons begin in earnest. 

There were two Top 10 matchups today on the women's side, with No. 4 Ohio State defeating No. 8 Pepperdine 5-2 in Columbus and No. 5 Texas beating No. 6 Cal 4-3 in Berkeley. 

Ohio State dropped the doubles point in a tiebreaker at line 2, but came back in singles to take five first sets. The Buckeyes closed out three of those matches, with Kolie Allen at line 4, Isabelle Boulais at line 2 and Irina Cantos at line 1 getting straight-sets wins to put Ohio State up 3-1. The other three matches went to third sets, with Pepperdine needing all three, but it was freshman Sydni Ratliff's 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 win that clinched it for the Buckeyes. They played out the final two matches, with Pepperdine winning at 5 and Ohio State at 6. For more on this match, see the Ohio State website.

Cracked Racquets provided RedZone coverage of the Ohio State-Pepperdine match, in the first of their scheduled coverage every Sunday of Big Ten conference dual matches. SEC coverage on Fridays is also anticipated, so check their YouTube channel for updates as we get deep into conference play in the coming weeks.

Texas, who had lost to 5-2 to No. 64 Stanford in Palo Alto Friday,  won the doubles point and got wins from Peyton Stearns at line 1, Vivian Ovrootsky at line 6, with Sabina Zeynalova clinching it for the Longhorns at line 3. Texas had beaten Cal 4-2 in the consolation stage of the Women's Team Indoor two weeks ago.

The most notable result in men's action today was a conference match in the Big 12, with No. 4 Baylor coming from behind to defeat No. 20 Oklahoma 4-3 in Norman. The Sooners took the doubles point and three first sets in singles, then led 2-0 and 3-2, but Baylor got the three-set win they needed from Finn Bass at line 4 to tie it and Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi took the deciding match at line 5 over Justin Schlageter 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3. A recap is available at the Oklahoma website.

A quick note of congratulations to 2013 NCAA doubles champion Kaitlyn Christian of USC, who won her first WTA doubles title today in Guadalajara Mexico. No. 3 seeds Christian and her partner Lidzaya Marozava of Belarus defeated Xinyu Wang and Lin Zhu of China 7-5, 6-3 in this evening's final.

In ATP Challenger action, former University of Virginia standout Alexander Ritschard reached the final of the Challenger 80 in Italy as a qualifier and had four match points in the third set tiebreaker, but lost to Great Britain's Jack Draper 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(8). It's the second Challenger final for Ritschard, who should move into the ATP Top 250 for the first time; Draper, the 2018 Wimbledon boys finalist, has now won back-to-back Challenger titles and will move into the ATP Top 150.