Sieg and Lopez Reach Naples $15K Singles Semifinals, Doubles Final; No. 1 Tennessee Men Fall to South Carolina 4-3, with Overrule in Tiebreaker Deciding Match; Miami Open Awards Wild Cards to Five Teenagers

Doubles partners Madison Sieg and Qavia Lopez won their quarterfinal singles matches today at the $15,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Naples Florida to set up a meeting in the semifinals, while also advancing to Saturday's doubles final.

The 18-year-old Sieg, who has signed with USC for this fall, defeated top seed Valentina Ryser of Switzerland 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-2, while the 16-year-old Lopez beat 15-year-old qualifier Akasha Urhobo 6-1, 6-2. It's the third $15K semifinal for Sieg, while Lopez had won only one match in Pro Circuit events prior to this week. 

In the other semifinal, No. 5 seed Hina Inoue will face qualifier Samantha Crawford, after the 18-year-old Inoue defeated qualifier Mao Mushika of Japan 6-2, 6-2 and Crawford, the 2012 US Open girls champion, defeated Gailis 7-5, 6-1. Crawford, who reached the WTA Top 100 in 2016, had not played on the Pro Circuit between 2017 and this year.

In doubles, Sieg and Lopez breezed past No. 3 seeds Rachel Gailis and Anastasia Sysoeva 6-1, 6-1 and will face Latvia's Liga Dekmeijere and Maria Kononova for the title. 

Play is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Saturday, with rain expected during the day.

Two big matches in men's SEC action this evening, with an only-in-college-tennis finish taking top billing in Knoxville Tennessee. The top-ranked Volunteers and No. 7 South Carolina battled to a 3-3 score with the match coming down to a third set between Connor Thomson and Tennessee's Angel Diaz at line 3. Thomson held from 4-5 and 5-6 to send the match to a third set tiebreaker, and after Diaz held for 1-0, Thomson served. Diaz called the first serve out, was overruled, and that was the match for South Carolina, as it was the fourth overrule for Diaz. I don't know when he received his point penalty for the third overrule--it wasn't while the Cracked Racquets SEC Red Zone was focused on the match--but the fourth is a game penalty, and in a tiebreaker, that's the same thing as a match penalty (fifth overrule). 

Obviously, it was a huge win for South Carolina, who had been playing without its full squad during last weekend's matches; Tennessee was without their No. 2, Johannes Monday, in today's match. For more on South Carolina's win, see this article from their website.

South Carolina faces No. 8 Georgia on Sunday, while Tennessee will host No. 5 Florida.

In the other Top 10 match today, Florida went into Athens and blanked the Bulldogs, with the match moved from the outdoor courts to the four-court indoor facility in the middle of first sets in singles. The Gators, who had secured the doubles point outdoors, got wins from Sam Riffice at line 2, Andy Andrade at line 4 and Ben Shelton at line 1. Shelton, currently No. 1 in the ITA singles rankings, defeated No. 19 Hammish Stewart of Georgia 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 to clinch it.

The Miami Open announced its wild cards today, with five top juniors getting spots in the main draw: Juncheng Shang of China, Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic, Alexandra Eala of the Philippines and Americans Ashlyn Krueger and Robin Montgomery. 

In addition to Shang's, men's wild cards went to Andy Murray, Nick Kyrgios, Jordan Thompson and Jack Draper. 

The other main draw wild cards for women were given to Naomi Osaka (who may get in on her ranking and won't need it), Sofia Kenin, Hailey Baptiste and Astra Sharma(Vanderbilt).

The men's qualifying wild cards were given to Emilio Nava, Michael Mmoh, Shintaro Mochizuki, Martin Damm and Ulises Blanch. 

The women's qualifying wild card recipients are 2021 Wimbledon girls finalist Natasja Schunk of Germany, Alycia Parks, Christina McHale, Storm Sanders, Rebecca Marino and Xiyu Wang. 

The WTA Credit One Charleston Open, which is in early April, announced two of its five wild cards today: Sofia Kenin and 2021 NCAA champion Emma Navarro. 

Navarro, who received a wild card into the main draw of the BNP Paribas Open, lost 6-2, 6-2 to Amanda Anisimova late last night.

Shang, the first Chinese man to play in the main draw of the BNP Paribas Open after his qualifying run, lost his first round match to fellow qualifier Jaume Munar of Spain 6-3, 6-4. The ATP published a good feature article on Shang today.