Boitan Takes Third Straight $15K in Florida; Michelsen Falls in Rome Challenger Final; Montgomery, Krueger Qualify for Austin's WTA 250; Norrie Beats Alcaraz for Rio Title; Texas A&M Women Beat Ohio State; Case Western Repeats as Men's D-III Indoor Champion

There is no stopping former Baylor All-American Adrian Boitan, who won his third $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit title in Florida in as many weeks Sunday afternoon in Naples. The 23-year-old from Romania defeated 18-year-old Stanford recruit Kyle Kang 6-3, 6-1 in today's final to run his winning streak to 15 matches. He withdrew from next week's $15K, again in Naples, and unfortunately did not receive a wild card into next week's Waco Challenger. Kang is on acceptance list as an ITF junior reserved entry at the second $15K in Naples, as is Kaylan Bigun.

The other American 18-year-old playing for a title in the US today, Alex Michelsen, also lost, with the Georgia signee falling to top seed Jordan Thompson of Australia 6-4, 6-2 at the ATP 75 Challenger in Rome. Thompson, currently No. 93 in the ATP rankings, is the first player in the ATP Top 100 that Michelsen has faced and he struggled a bit today with the depth and quality of Thompson's ball. After dropping the first game on serve, Michelsen stayed close, but wasn't able to regroup as he had down in early matches. He did manage to break back for 2-2 in the second set, but that was the last game Michelsen won, as Thompson lost only one more point on serve the rest of the way.

Michelsen received a special exemption into the main draw at the Waco Challenger, as did former Wake Forest All-American Borna Gojo of Croatia, who reached the final today at the ATP Monterey Challenger 125 in Mexico, losing to former Mississippi State All-American Nuno Borges of Portugal 6-4, 7-6(6). Main draw wild cards were given to Toby Kodat, Ryan Harrison and No. 3 seed Aleks Kovacevic(Illinois). Thompson and Rinky Hijikata(North Carolina) of Australia are the top two seeds in Waco.

Also in Texas this week is the new WTA 250 tournament in Austin, with qualifying concluding today. 2021 US Open girls champion Robin Montgomery is through to the main draw after beating top qualifying seed Jodi Burrage of Great Britain yesterday and Elvina Kalieva today. Another 18-year-old, Ashlyn Krueger, the 2021 USTA Girls 18s National champion, also qualified, beating No. 6 seed Erika Andreeva of Russia 1-6, 7-5, 6-1 today in the final round of qualifying. Montgomery and Krueger, the 2021 US Open girls champions, who won the $60K title in Orlando earlier this month, will also compete in the main draw in doubles. The other two Americans qualifying for the main draw today are Ann Li and Louisa Chirico. 

2022 NCAA singles (and team) champion Peyton Stearns is back in action in Austin as a wild card, after taking the $60K title in Orlando; the former Longhorn will face qualifier Katie Boulter of Great Britain in the first round.

The top seed is Magda Linette of Poland, with Shuai Zhang of China the No. 2 seed. The other wild cards went to Elli Mandlik and Sweden's Mirjam Bjorklund.

Former TCU All-American Cameron Norrie came from a set and a break down to beat world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz of Spain 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 to earn his fifth ATP title at the Rio Open 500 in Argentina. Alcaraz, returning from a injury layoff that kept him from competing at the Australian Open, had beaten Norrie in the final of the ATP tournament in Buenos Aires last week. For more on Norrie's comeback, see this article from the ATP website.

The Texas A&M women, ranked No. 7, played No. 2 Ohio State for the second time this month, with both traveling to Lake Nona for a rematch outdoors. Although today's 5-2 win for the Aggies was closer than the 4-0 decision they earned over the Buckeyes in the quarterfinals of the National Team Indoors, it did solidify Texas A&M as one of the top contenders for the NCAA title in May, and that should be reflected in the next rankings release. For more on the match, see this article from 12thman.com.

The Case Western men earned their second straight Division III Men's Team Indoor title today in Minnesota, with the second-seeded Spartans defeating No. 4 seed Washington-St. Louis 5-1 in the final. Washington-St. Louis had defeated top seed Chicago 6-3 in Saturday's semifinals. For more on the final, see this article from the Case athletics website.