Five Teens Reach Quarterfinals at Naples $15K; Quevedo Advances to Semifinals at ITF J300 in Paraguay; ITA Men's D-I Team Indoor All-Tournament Team Announced; Wootton Out, Turati In at Missouri

The last three weeks on the USTA men's Pro Circuit have provided plenty of opportunities for teenagers trying to earn those precious ATP points and they have taken advantage of them, with this week's tournament in Naples Florida featuring five young quarterfinalists.

Advancing with victories today are wild card Ozan Baris, a freshman at Michigan State, No. 7 seed Bruno Kuzuhara, Stanford recruit Kyle Kang, all 18 years old, Victor Lilov, 19, and Japan's Rei Sakamoto, 16.

Baris defeated qualifier Ryan Dickerson(Duke/Baylor) 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-2 in over three hours to reach his second Pro Circuit quarterfinal. Kuzuhara needed nearly three hours to beat qualifier Arvid Norquist of Sweden 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 and Sakamoto came from 6-4, 5-2 down to defeat Alvaro Guillen Meza of Ecuador 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in three hours and 13 minutes. In matches completed in less than two hours, Lilov defeated No. 6 seed Viacheslav Bielinskyi of Ukraine 6-2, 7-6(6) and Kang beat No. 2 seed Sebastian Gima of Romania 7-5, 6-3.

Romania's Adrian Boitan(Baylor), who has won the previous two $15Ks in Florida, added to his winning streak, beating Nicolas Buitrago of Colombia 6-0, 4-6, 6-1. 

In Friday's quarterfinals, Sakamoto plays Boitan, Baris faces Kuzuhara, Lilov takes on qualifier Lucas Renard of Sweden, who beat No. 3 seed Sekou Bangoura(Florida) today. Kang will get another shot at Federico Agustin Gomez of Argentina, who beat him in the second round last week in Weston, after Kang had also eliminated the No. 2 seed there.

Kaitlin Quevedo, who turned 17 last week, reached the singles finals in her last two J300s and now has made the semifinals this week at the J300 Asuncion Bowl in Paraguay. Quevedo, the No. 2 seed, defeated wild card Luna Maria Cinalli of Argentina, a quarterfinalist at last year's Junior Orange Bowl 14s, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-1 in today's quarterfinals. She will face unseeded Francesca Gandolfi of Italy in the semifinals Friday. In the top half, No. 1 seed Sara Saito of Japan will play No. 3 seed Luciana Moyano of Argentina.

The boys semifinals feature top seed Adriano Dzhenev of Bulgaria versus No. 5 seed Atakan Karahan of Turkey and No. 3 seed Emilien Demanet of Belgium versus unseeded Andrea M'chich of France.

The ITA Men's Division I Team Indoor Championships All-Tournament team was announced today, with three of the six singles spots occupied by members of champion TCU. The Most Outstanding Player however, was awarded to runner-up Texas's Eliot Spizzirri. For the records of all the players and teams, see this article from the ITA's website.

SINGLES

No. 1: Eliot Spizzirri, Texas

No. 2: Luc Fomba, TCU

No. 3: Ondrej Styler, Michigan and Joshua Lapadat, Kentucky (tie)

No. 4: Sander Jong, TCU

No. 5: Sebastian Gorzny, TCU

No. 6: Will Cooksey, Michigan

DOUBLES

No. 1: Andrew Lutschaunig and James Trotter, Ohio State

No. 2: Joshua Lapadat and JJ Mercer, Kentucky

No. 3: Sebastian Gorzny and Pedro Vives, TCU

MOST OUTSTANDING PLAYER: 

Eliot Spizzirri, Texas

TEAM SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD:

TCU

In a terse statement this morning, the University of Missouri announced the departure of Chris Wootton as women's head coach, calling it a "change of leadership," and offering no reason for his mid-season departure. Bianca Turati, the former University of Texas star, takes over as the interim coach; Turati was hired as an assistant at Missouri last month.