My San Diego ITF Grade 1 Preview; Qualifier Quinn Reaches Semis at Bakersfield $25K; Michigan Men Blank No. 2 Ohio State; Wolf and Kudla to Play for Spot in Phoenix Challenger Final; Fritz Advances to BNP Paribas Semis

I've been in California for every edition of the Grade 1 spring tournament that has been held in conjunction with the Easter Bowl Grade B1, and I'll be in San Diego next week to continue that streak, which began with 15 years of coverage of the International Spring Championships in Carson California. After neither tournament was held 2020 due to the pandemic, both were at the Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego last year. This year, the Easter Bowl is returning to Indian Wells, but the J1 is not returning to Carson, and I wanted to find out more about that, so last week I talked with Ryan Redondo, CEO of Youth Tennis San Diego, the non-profit that owns Barnes. 

In my preview of the tournament for the Tennis Recruiting Network, Redondo explains the decision to take over the administration of it from USTA Southern California, and how that fits into the philosophy of the YTSD. It didn't make it into the article, but he also told me that next year they hope to reestablish the 16s division that was not held last year.

I also highlight the top contenders for the title, which include players with some impressive results in 2022, including Australian Open semifinalist Liv Hovde.

Defending San Diego J1 champion Ethan Quinn will be coming into the tournament with some serious confidence after defeating No. 2 seed Julian Lenz(Baylor) of Germany 7-5, 6-1 today to reach the semifinals of the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Bakersfield California. Quinn, who won two qualifying matches to reach the main draw, didn't have a main draw win on the Pro Circuit before this week, but has beaten the ATP No. 444 and 289 in the past two days.  Quinn will play No. 3 seed Rinky Hijikata of Australia, who left UNC last year. Hijikata defeated wild card Alex Michelsen, who also will be playing in San Diego next week, 6-3, 7-6(4).  Keegan Smith(UCLA) defeated wild card Martin Damm 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-2 and will face the winner of the night match between top seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran of India and No. 6 seed Adrian Andreev of Bulgaria.

For the second consecutive year, the Michigan men have defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes, with the Wolverines taking a 4-0 decision today indoors in Ann Arbor. After taking the doubles point, Michigan got three 6-4, 6-4 singles wins from Nick Beaty over Justin Boulais at line 6, Ondrej Styler over Cannon Kingsley at line 2 and the clincher from Jacob Bickersteth over James Trotter at line 5. 

Now that No. 12 Michigan has wins over both No. 3 TCU and No. 2 Ohio State, they should move into the Top 8 in the rankings, but they don't have much time to savor the win, with No. 6 Baylor coming to town on Sunday. The Buckeyes and Wolverines will play again in the regular season in Columbus, and, most likely, a third time in the Big Ten conference tournament. This was not an official conference match, but significant for Michigan regardless.

In better news today for Ohio State, JJ Wolf has reached the semifinals of the ATP Challenger 125 in Phoenix, which featured the best field of the year at the Challenger level. Wolf, who is unseeded, defeated former ATP Top 10 star Fernando Verdasco of Spain 7-5, 6-4.  

Wolf will face Denis Kudla in the semifinals, after Kudla, an unseeded alternate, defeated former ATP Top 10 star Richard Gasquet of France 6-3, 6-4. All eight seeds were ATP Top 100, but the only seed remaining is No. 8 David Goffin.

Taylor Fritz will play in the semifinals of the BNP Parbias Open for the second straight year after defeating Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-1. Fritz, who lost to Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia in the October 2021's BNP Paribas semifinal, will face Andrey Rublev Saturday. Rublev defeated Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 7-5, 6-2.