Quinn and Dostanic Meet for Champaign $25K Title; Sieg and Mboko Advance to Saskatoon $25K Final; Krueger and Vickery Reach $60K Final; Kovacevic Beats Shelton at Indianapolis Challenger; Americans Sweep WTA Hamburg Titles

Ethan Quinn and Stefan Dostanic met last week in the second round of the $15,000 SoCal Pro Circuit tournament in Lakewood, with Quinn coming away with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 victory. The University of Georgia redshirt freshman and the University of Southern California rising senior will meet again in the first final of a $25,000 Pro Circuit event for either of them on Sunday in Champaign Illinois.

The 18-year-old Quinn defeated No. 8 seed Cannon Kingsley(Ohio State) 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, with qualifier Dostanic, 20, beating unseeded Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M) 7-5, 6-3. Dostanic has now won six singles matches in the past six days, and also won the doubles title today, with Johannes Monday(Tennessee) of Great Britain. Dostanic and Monday defeated the Ohio State pair of Justin Boulais of Canada and James Trotter of Japan 7-6(4), 6-3 in the final. 

Canadian Victoria Mboko, who reached the Wimbledon girls singles semifinals earlier this month, is through to her second $25K final of the year after the 15-year-old defeated No. 6 seed Elysia Bolton(UCLA) 6-2, 6-2 in today's semifinals in Saskatoon Canada today. Mboko, who turns 16 next month, will play USC rising freshman Madison Sieg, who received a walkover into the final from No. 3 seed Hurricane Tyra Black.

Seventeen-year-olds Marina Stakusic and Kayla Cross won the doubles title, with the Canadians defeating their fellow unseeded team of Kendra Bunch(Drexel) and Katarina Kozarov(Furman) of Serbia 6-3, 7-6(4) in today's final.

Ashlyn Krueger has advanced to her first $60K singles final, with the 18-year-old Texan defeating Catherine Harrison(UCLA) 6-0, 7-6(6) in today's semifinal in Evansville Indiana. Krueger will face No. 5 seed Sachia Vickery, who defeated Elli Mandlik 7-6(5), 7-5. Krueger and Vickery have played twice since last fall, at the WTA 125 in Midland and at the Orlando $60K, with Vickery winning both times in straight sets. The match is scheduled to be played indoors due to the excessive heat, the fourth straight day where conditions have not allowed play outdoors.

Wild cards Kollie Allen(Ohio State) and Ava Markham(Wisconsin) were the surprise winners of the doubles title in Evansville, beating 2021 NCAA doubles finalist Kylie Collins(Texas) and 2021 USTA girls 18s and US Open girls doubles champion Krueger 3-6, 6-1, 10-3 in today's final. 

Aleks Kovacevic(Illinois) spoiled a second straight Challenger final between Ben Shelton and China's Yibing Wu, when the 23-year-old avenged his lost last week to Shelton by taking a 6-4, 7-5 decision today at the Rajeev Ram Foundation's event in Indianapolis. Wu, last week's champion, defeated Yasutaka Uchiyama of Japan 7-5, 6-3 for his ninth consecutive Challenger win. It's the first Challenger final for Kovacevic, who completed his eligibility at Illinois in 2021.

Post-Wimbledon tournaments on European clay are not where you expect Americans to sweep titles, but the WTA 250 in Hamburg Germany concluded today with three Americans holding the winners' trophies.  Bernarda Pera, who won her first WTA title last week in Budapest as a qualifier, kept right on rolling this week, defeating top seed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia 6-2 6-4 in today's final.

As those who read my posts on the USTA Pro Circuit know, Sophie Chang and Angela Kulikov(USC) have been on a great run this year, with the pair claiming four titles all at the $60K and above level, on both clay and hard courts. In their first appearance in a WTA tournament this week, they won the title, beating No. 3 seeds Aldila Sutjiadi(Kentucky) of Indonesia and Miyu Kato of Japan 6-3, 4-6, 10-6. Both Chang and Kulikov will move into the WTA Top 100 in the doubles ranking with the title.

For more on today's Hamburg finals, see this article from the WTA website.

Today in the first round of qualifying at the ATP 250 Atlanta Open, Steve Johnson(USC), the No. 3 seed, saved a match point at 5-6 in the second set tiebreaker and went on to beat 18-year-old wild card Bruno Kuzuhara 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-3. The other American advancing to the final round of qualifying is Donald Young, who moved on when JJ Wolf(Ohio State) retired trailing 4-6, 6-4, 3-1.