USA Advances to Davis Cup Finals with Sweep of Colombia; A Look at the Pro Success of UCLA Bruins; Emory and Chicago Women Reach D-III Team Indoor Final; USTA Spring Team Tourney Underway; Montgomery and Krueger and Parks Reach Arcadia $60K Finals

US Davis Cup Team, photo credit: Mike Lawrence/USTA

The United States will compete in the 16-team Davis Cup Finals this fall after defeating Colombia in today's doubles match in Reno Nevada. Last night, Sebastian Korda, making his Davis Cup debut, defeated Nicholas Mejia 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 and Taylor Fritz gave the US a 2-0 lead with a quick 6-1, 6-0 decision over Alejandro Gonzalez. It was up to Jack Sock and Rajeev Ram to finish a drama-free win and they were helped by an injury to Robert Farah. Nicolas Barrientos stepped in for Farah, but he and Juan Sebastian Cabal fell to Sock and Ram 6-3, 6-4. Tommy Paul won the dead rubber over Meija 7-5, 7-6(4) to make the final score 4-0. For more on today's US win, see this from the Associated Press.

The US joins today's other qualifiers: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden. The three teams who did not need to qualify but are among the 16 who will play in the round robin competition September 14-18 are wild cards Great Britain and Serbia and 2021 finalist Croatia. Because defending champion Russia has been banned, one more country will be added. 

For more on the finals, see the Davis Cup website.

Steve Tignor of tennis.com spoke with UCLA head coach Billy Martin about the recent ATP success of his former players Mackenzie McDonald, Marcos Giron and Maxime Cressy. Martin, who was one of the best junior players ever and had a successful pro career himself before going into coaching, tells Tignor how each of those three took a different path to pro success. He also acknowledges what any good college coach will admit when asked how they "produce" pro players.

“We get guys who come in very good players already,” Martin says, “and we commit to helping them get better and get the most they can from their games. That’s good for them, and good for us, because it makes them better team players as well.”

The finals are set for the ITA Women's Division III Team Indoor Championships in Nicholasville Kentucky Sunday, with top seed Emory taking on No. 3 seed Chicago for the title. Chicago got by No. 2 seed Pomona-Pitzer 5-4, while Emory defeated No. 4 seed Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 6-3.  For more on today's action, see this article from the ITA, which mistakenly says Emory is the defending champion. CMS actually won the title in 2020, the last time the event was held in Division III, beating Emory 5-4 in the final. 

The USTA National Spring Team Championships are underway in Mobile Alabama and Tucson Arizona this weekend. Despite his brain cancer diagnosis just a few weeks ago, 15-year-old David Filer is playing in the tournament for 14s, 16s and 18s and is on the Eagles. The PlayTennis site for the 12s tournament in Tucson is here.

Alycia Parks finished her quarterfinal match with Liv Hovde earlier today at the $60,000 USTA women's Pro Circuit in Arcadia California, taking the third set 6-2, after she had won the first set on Friday 6-3 and Hovde had taken the second 7-6(2) before the match was postponed. After a brief rest, Parks began her semifinal match with top seed Chloe Paquet of France, but that too was interrupted after two sets. Perhaps her experience with that scenario helped, because when play resumed Parks took out Paquet 7-6(6), 0-6, 6-2 to reach Sunday's final. She will play No. 5 seed Rebecca Marino of Canada, who beat qualifier Ellie Douglas 6-3, 6-2 before the rain arrived. 

Reigning US Open girls doubles champions Robin Montgomery and Ashlyn Krueger are through to the doubles final, with the 17-year-olds defeating Marino and partner Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 3-6, 11-9. Montgomery and Krueger were up 9-4 in the match tiebreaker before Marino and Fruhvirtova won the next five points, but the teens closed it out on their sixth match point. They will face No. 2 seeds Giuliana Olmos(USC) of Mexico and Harriet Dart of Great Britain in the final.