Top Seeds Advance to Semifinals at ITF J3 in Coral Gables; Krueger Lone Teen in Sarasota $25K Quarterfinals; Success Outside US for Young Americans; Times for This Weekend's D-I Super Regionals; LSU's Brandi Retires

The semifinals are set for Friday at the ITF Grade 3 in Coral Gables Florida, with both No. 1 seeds advancing.

Boys top seed Jelani Sarr, the only American in the boys semifinals, defeated No. 7 seed Dante Carlos Teramo of Argentina 6-0, 6-1 for his fourth consecutive straight-sets victory. Sarr will face No. 4 seed Matheus Amorim De Lima of Brazil in Friday's semifinals. No. 2 seed Fnu Nidunjianzan of China, a Princeton recruit, will play No. 9 seed Santiago Padilla Cote of Mexico in the bottom half semifinal. Padilla Cote defeated unseeded Matthew Forbes 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in today's quarterfinals.

Top seed Mayu Crossley of Japan, who reached the final of the J3 two weeks ago in Delray Beach, got through a tough quarterfinal today with Alanis Hamilton, a finalist at last week's J4 in Plantation, by a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(6) score. Crossley will face qualifier Taly Licht, who beat No. 3 seed Victoria Osuigwe 6-1, 6-2 today. The bottom half semifinal will feature No. 2 seed Ariana Pursoo, a 7-5, 6-4 winner over No. 6 seed Valeria Ray today, and No. 4 seed Taylor Goetz, who beat wild card Riley Crowder 6-2, 6-0.

All five Americans competing there are out of singles at the ITF J1 in Italy this week, but Aidan Kim has advanced to the doubles final with partner Tanapatt Nirundorn of Thailand, who has recently committed to Florida for this fall.

Alexander Frusina, the top seed this week at the J2 in Austria, has advanced to the singles semifinals.

Ashlyn Krueger is the only one of the six teenagers in action today at the $25,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Sarasota Florida to advance to the quarterfinals. The No. 7 seed, who turned 18 last Saturday, defeated 16-year-old qualifier Grace Levelston 6-3, 6-1 to set up a clash with 32-year-old Sabine Lisicki of Germany, who has a career-high WTA ranking of 12. The other four Americans to advance to the quarterfinals will play each other: No. 3 seed Sophie Chang against American Ellie Halbauer, the No. 8 seed, and Kennedy Shaffer(Georgia) versus wild card Samantha Crawford.

With little happening on the USTA Pro Circuit now, young Americans have traveled elsewhere and are posting some notable results.

Ohio State recruit Alexander Bernard reached the quarterfinals at the $15K in Cancun Mexico, defeating No. 2 seed Nick Chappell(TCU) 6-3, 7-6(4).

Eighteen-year-old Martin Damm qualified for the $25K in the Czech Republic and has advanced to the quarterfinals, defeating two former ATP Top 40 players in the first two rounds: 36-year-old top seed Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 7-6(4), 6-4 and today, 34-year-old Mischa Zverev of Germany 6-0, 4-6, 6-3. 

Bruno Kuzuhara, 18, has advanced to the quarterfinals of the $15K in Turkey, after making the semifinals of the $15K there the previous week. Today the ITF World Junior No. 1 defeated No. 6 seed Marsel Ilhan of Turkey 6-4, 6-1.

And at the $25K in Nottingham England, 17-year-old Robin Montgomery advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-2 win over No. 8 seed Pemra Ozgen of Turkey.

And 20-year-old Emilio Nava has advanced to his first ATP Challenger semifinal at the 80 in Kazakhstan, after defeating top seed Tennys Sandgren 6-3, 6-4 in the first round, former UCLA star Evan Zhu, a qualifier, 6-4, 6-4 in the second round and today, beating unseeded Victor Durasovic of Norway 6-1, 6-2. Nava, who received entry as an alternate, will play his third American this week in the semifinals: Ulises Blanch.

The NCAA Division I Super Regionals begin Friday, with half of the matches scheduled for Friday and the other eight set for Saturday. The schedule is below, with the team hosting in bold, all times Eastern. Streaming is via the TennisOne app; live scoring links are at collegetennistoday.com. 

TennisOne will be providing a pre-game show and commentary, with Patrick McEnroe and Mark Bey, for the men's Super Regional at Baylor, with the Bears hosting Stanford. The show will be on the TennisONE app at 7:30 pm Eastern time.

Friday:
Women:
Auburn[13] v Texas[4] 1:00 pm

Florida[16] v North Carolina[1] 4:00 pm
Miami[9] v Pepperdine[8] 4:00 pm
Georgia[14] v Duke[3] 5:00 pm
Stanford[15] v Oklahoma[2] 7pm

Men:

South Carolina[10] v Virginia[7] 3:00 pm

North Carolina[15] v Florida[2] 5:00 pm

Stanford v Baylor[3] 7:30 pm

Saturday:

Women:

Oklahoma State[12] v Virginia[5] 1:00 pm

California[1]] v NC State[6] 3:00 pm

Vanderbilt v Texas A&M[7] 3:00 pm

Men:

Southern Cal[13] v Ohio State[4] noon

Texas[12] v Michigan[5] noon

Wake Forest[9] v Kentucky[8] 2:00 pm

NC State v TCU[1] 4:00 pm

Florida State v Tennessee[6] 4:00 pm

LSU announced today that Andy Brandi, who had led the men's program in Baton Rouge for the last five years, is retiring. Brandi, who had a Hall of Fame career as the head coach of the Florida women in the late 1980s and 1990s, returned to college coaching at LSU after serving as a USTA Natonal coach, after many years of private coaching prior to that. Brandi contributed to Zootennis.com in the early years as part of the Coaches Q and A feature. Those posts linked under the Category section in the left sidebar. I also spoke with Brandi when he was a USTA  National Coach for this 2016 Tennis Recruiting Network article.

There are now four Power Five men's schools with coaching vacancies: Washington, Michigan State, Arkansas and LSU. The LSU women's program is also seeking new leadership.