New ITF Grade A in Offenbach Germany Underway; Qualifying Complete at Charleston $100K, Vero Beach $15K; Mmoh Retires at Savannah Challenger, Opening Door for Wolf

The ITF announced last year that it was adding another Grade A tournament in Europe with an upgrade to the Grade 1 in Offenbach Germany. That change also required a new spot on the calendar, going from June to late April, and I thought at the time that might be an issue. I've been to Germany several times in mid-May, and the weather has rarely been suitable for an outdoor tennis tournament; April could only be more problematic. 

With a 64-draw and a Tuesday start, there was no room for any weather delays, but only the girls first round was completed today, meaning that the boys will have to play two matches on one day in order to finish on Sunday. 

The only American in either draw is Mia Slama, the No. 11 seed, who won her first round match today over German wild card Helene Sommer 6-1, 6-1. 

Australian Open girls finalist Sofia Costoulas of Belgium is the top seed, and she comes into the event having won singles and doubles at the last two J1s in Europe. The ITF did an in-depth interview with her prior to this week's tournament, which can be found here.

The boys top seed is Edas Butvilas of Lithuania, who is looking for his first ITF Junior Circuit singles title above the J2 level, but has won three Grade A doubles titles, including at Wimbledon last year. Kilian Feldbausch of Switzerland is the No. 2 boys seed, with Lucie Havlickova of the Czech Republic the No. 2 girls seed.

Qualifying for the $100,000 Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Charleston this week is complete, with five Americans advancing to the main draw: Catherine Harrison(UCLA), Alexa Graham(UNC), Ellie Halbauer, Chanelle Van Nguyen(UCLA) and Whitney Osuigwe. 

Wild cards were given to Marcela Zacarias of Mexico, Sophie Chang, Hailey Baptiste and Taylor Townsend. Louisa Chirico received a special exemption after winning the Charlottesville $60K on Sunday. With Virginia off this week after reaching the final of the ACC conference tournament on Sunday, Emma Navarro is in the draw based on her WTA ranking.

Chirico, No. 3 seed Katie Volynets and No. 6 seed Coco Vandeweghe are all still very much in the running for the USTA's Roland Garros wild card, although Vandweghe lost her first round match today, dimming her chances. Irina Bara of Romania is the top seed, with Tatjana Maria of Germany seeded No. 2.

At the $15,000 Men's Pro Circuit tournament in Vero Beach, two Americans advanced to the main draw via qualifying today: Noah Schachter(Texas A&M) and Jakub Wojcik(South Florida). 

Junior reserved spots went to Nicholas Godsick, Nishesh Basavareddy and Cooper Williams.

Alex Michelsen received a wild card and will be playing in his first event since reaching the quarterfinals of the $25K in Bakersfield and sweeping the Easter Bowl JB1 titles. He plays No. 3 seed Sekou Bangoura(Florida) in the first round Wednesday. Ethan Quinn(Georgia), Nathan Ponwith[8](Arizona State) and Jibril Nettles are the other three wild card recipients.

In the first round of doubles today, Quinn and Godsick defeated top seeds Alejandro Hoyos France of Colombia and Antonio Cayetano March of Ecuador 7-6(2), 2-6, 10-6. They will play wild cards Basavareddy and Venezuela's Ricardo Rodriguez, who beat Bangoura and his partner Sathi Reddy Chirala of India 6-2, 6-2.

At the ATP Challenger 80 in Savannah Georgia, Michael Mmoh retired from his first round match with Jason Kubler of Australia trailing 6-3, 1-1. This means he can't earn any more points in the USTA Roland Garros wild card race, which ends this week for the men. That opens the door for No. 6 seed JJ Wolf, but the former Ohio State All-American has to win the title to overtake Mmoh. He is one victory closer after today, with a 7-6(4), 6-0 win over Ramkumar Ramanathan of India in the first round.

Other Americans to advance to the second round are Christian Harrison, Alex Rybakov(TCU), No. 4 seed Jack Sock, No. 8 seed Bjorn Fratangelo, wild card Oliver Crawford(Florida) and qualifier Govind Nanda(UCLA). Crawford defeated 16-year-old wild card Learner Tien 6-3, 6-1 in the first round yesterday; Nanda took out No. 5 seed Tomas Barrios Vera of Chile 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(5) today.  Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina is the top seed, and he has advanced with a 6-4, 6-1 win over qualifier Aidan Mayo; No. 2 seed Stefan Kozlov lost to qualifier Jose Pereira of Brazil 6-1, 6-0.

Just a reminder that the TennisONE app is featuring live shows on Wednesday nights in advance of the Division I NCAA championships. Mark Bey and Madison Golden will talk about last weekend's conference tournaments, as well as those coming up this weekend, at 8 p.m. EDT tomorrow. A look at teams on the bubble will include an interview with Princeton men's head coach Billy Pate. The team selection shows are streaming Monday May 2nd at NCAA.com.

To download the TennisOne app, go to this page. Although meant for mobile devices, the app content is also available at https://tennis.one/

And for more on Division I college tennis, watch the Cracked Racquets Deciding Point shows Tuesday(women) and Thursday(men) live or archived on the CR YouTube channel.