Hovde Reaches Lubbock $15K Final; Williams Earns First Pro Circuit Title in Doubles; Top Seeds Advance to Finals at Berkeley $60K, Columbus Challenger; Giron Makes First ATP Final in San Diego

Sixteen-year-old Liv Hovde has advanced to her first Pro Circuit final at the $15,000 women's tournament in Lubbock Texas. The Wimbledon girls champion, who turned pro a few weeks after that title, defeated wild card Mccartney Kessler(Florida) 7-6(3), 6-4 in Hovde's first Pro Circuit semifinal today. She will face No. 8 seed Carson Branstine of Canada, with the Texas A&M senior defeating top seed Martyna Kubka of Poland 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 in a semifinal that lasted three hours and 6 minutes. 

In today's women's doubles final in Lubbock, No. 2 seeds Veronica Miroshnichenko(Loyola Marymount) of Russia and Katarina Kozarov(Furman) of Serbia defeated top seeds Connie Hsu(Penn) of Taiwan and Maria Kononova(North Texas) of Russia 6-1, 4-6, 11-9.

The mens' singles final Sunday at their $15,000 tournament in Lubbock will feature qualifier Olle Wallin of Sweden, a junior at Texas Tech and No. 2 seed Blaise Bicknell(Florida/Tennessee) of Jamaica. Wallin defeated No. 6 seed Alex Michelsen 7-6(10), 6-3 and Bicknell beat Jordan Hasson(Oklahoma) of Israel 6-2, 6-3. 

Former Texas A&M teammates Pranav Kumar and Juan Carlos Aguilar, who now represents Canada, won the doubles title in a final between two unseeded teams. Kumar, now at SMU, and Aguilar, who played last season at TCU, defeated Wichita State teammates Kristof Minarik of Slovakia and Alexander Richards 6-3, 7-5. It's the fifth pro doubles title for Aguilar and the first for Kumar.

A long week of tennis in both Columbus Ohio and Berkeley California will end with the top two seeds facing off for the singles titles. 

No. 1 seed Jordan Thompson of Australia ended Ohio State senior and wild card Cannon Kingsley's run today in the ATP Challenger 80 semifinals today in Columbus, posting a 7-6(6), 6-3 victory. No. 2 seed Emilio Gomez(USC) of Ecuador came back to beat No. 8 seed Rinky Hijikata(North Carolina) of Australia 3-6, 6-3, 6-0. The 30-year-old Gomez will crack the ATP Top 100 for the first time if he wins the title Sunday.

The top seeds in doubles, Julian Cash(Mississippi St/Oklahoma St) and Henry Patten(UNC-Asheville) of Great Britain took the doubles title, beating unseeded Charlie Broom(Dartmouth/Baylor) of Great Britain and Constantin Frantzen(Baylor) 6-2, 7-5 in the final.

North Carolina State freshman Diana Shnaider had been racking up the routine wins this week at the $60,000 women's tournament in Berkeley, but she was on the other side of the equation today, with top seed Madison Brengle beating the 18-year-old Russian 6-1, 6-2 in 50 minutes. Brengle will play No. 2 seed Yue Yuan of China, who came back to beat No. 8 seed Louisa Chirico 5-7, 7-5, 6-1. 

Unseeded Peyton Stearns(Texas) and Elvina Kalieva are in the doubles final after defeating the Cal wild card team of Jessica Alsola of Canada and Valentina Ivanov of New Zealand 6-3, 6-4. They will play the Zamarripa twins, Maribella and Allura, who turned pro after their freshman year at Texas. The Zamarripas defeated Robin Montgomery and Ashlyn Krueger 6-3, 6-3.

Seventeen-year-old Cooper Williams earned his first Pro Circuit title today in the doubles final at the $15,000 tournament in  Fayetteville Arkansas. Williams, a Harvard recruit, and Oklahoma State freshman Alessio Basile of Belgium defeated Arkansas teammates Adrien Burdet of Switzerland and Melvin Manuel of France 6-4, 6-3. Williams had made the doubles final of the last two Pro Circuit events he played this summer, with other partners.

2021 NCAA champion Sam Riffice(Florida) will play Blu Baker of Great Britain in the Fayetteville singles final Sunday. Riffice, the No. 7 seed, defeated Cornell sophomore Radu Papoe of Romania 6-3, 6-0, while Baker, the No. 2 seed, beat Wake Forest senior Menelaos Efstathiou of Cyprus 6-4, 6-4.

At the ATP 250 in San Diego, 2014 NCAA champion Marcos Giron(UCLA) has advanced to his first ATP final, with the 29-year-old from Thousand Oaks California defeating top seed Dan Evans 6-3, 7-5 this afternoon. Giron, the No. 3 seed, will play the winner of tonight's match between No. 5 seed Brandon Nakashima and unseeded Christopher O'Connell of Australia. O'Connell saved two match points at 3-5 in the third set in last night's quarterfinal with No. 2 seed Jenson Brooksby and went on to post a 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 victory. (UPDATE: Nakashima defeated O'Connell 6-4, 7-6(3) to make it an all Southern California final in San Diego).