Kang Reaches First Pro Circuit Final in Naples; Michelsen Advances to Rome Challenger Final; Italians Sweep ITF J500 Titles in Cairo; Stanford Women Get Key Win Over Texas

Eighteen-year-old Stanford recruit Kyle Kang will play in his first USTA Pro Circuit final Sunday at the $15,000 men's tournament in Naples Florida, after he came from behind to defeat Victor Lilov today in the All-US-teen semifinal.

After dropping the first set to the 2021 Wimbledon boys finalist 6-4, Kang was up 5-2 in the second set, only to see Lilov get the break back and forced a tiebreaker. Kang won that easily, then broke Lilov in the third game of the final set, with that break all he needed, winning five of the next six games to take the 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-2 decision. 

Kang will have his work cut out for him in the final, where he'll face Adrian Boitan of Romania, who beat No. 7 seed Bruno Kuzuhara 6-1, 7-6(4) for his 14th consecutive victory in the last three weeks.

Kuzuhara trailed 6-1, 5-1, but fought back to force a tiebreaker before the former Baylor All-American ended the comeback. It will be the first meeting between the two, but with titles the last two weeks in Palm Coast and Weston, Boitan obviously has the edge in experience.

In today's doubles final, the unseeded Czech pair of Jiri Jenicek and Daniel Paty defeated Viacheslav Bielinskyi of Ukraine and Alvaro Guillen Meza of Colombia, also unseeded, 7-6(2), 6-4 for the title.

Wild card Alex Michelsen continued his great start to 2023, with the 18-year-old Georgia signee advancing to his first ATP Challenger final today with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 win over No. 8 seed Seong-chan Hong of Korea in Rome Georgia.

Michelsen was broken early in the first set and Hong didn't give Michelsen a single break point to work with as he secured the lead.  But Michelsen began to get looks in the second set and broke for a 4-2 lead, only to get broken at love serving for the set at 5-3. Michelsen let two set points get away with Hong serving at 4-5 and had to save a break point at 5-all, but he broke on his third set point to even the match.

Hong's speed gave Michelsen problems in the first two sets, and on several occasions the Southern Californian had to hit three or four overheads before he could finally get one past Hong. Both had limited success with drop shots in the early going, but it was Michelsen who adjusted better, on both offense and defense, when that shot surfaced in the latter stages of the match. Once Michelsen got an early break in the third set, after saving three break points in the first game, to take a 3-0 lead, Hong started serving and volleying, but that tactic wasn't effective and Michelsen closed out the win with little difficulty.

Michelsen, who is now up to 356 in the ATP live rankings, will face top seed Jordan Thompson of Australia for the title Sunday, after Thompson defeated Zachary Svajda 7-6(3), 7-6(5).

No. 2 seeds Luke Johnson(Clemson) of Great Britain and Sem Verbeek(Pacific) of the Netherlands took the doubles title, defeating unseeded Gabriel Decamps(UCF) of Brazil and Alex Rybakov(TCU) 6-2, 6-2 in today's final.

The J500 in Cairo Egypt concluded today with Italians winning both the boys and girls singles titles. No. 2 seed Federica Urgesi, an 18-year-old who had won the J300 warmup tournament last week in Cairo, defeated top seed Mirra Andreeva of Russia 6-3, 6-3 in today's final, while No. 13 seed Federico Bondioli, 17, beat No. 16 seed Branko Djuric of Serbia 6-7(6), 6-3, 7-6(5) for the boys title. Djuric had won the warmup tournament the previous week, beating Bondioli 6-1, 6-4 in the second round.

Unseeded Jan Hrazdil and Vojtech Petr of the Czech Republic won the boys doubles title, beating unseeded Sasa Markovic and Vuk Radjenovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-3 in the final. 

The Czechs also took the girls doubles title, with unseeded Alena Kovackova and Laura Samsonova beating No. 2 seeds Malak El Allami and Aya El Aouni of Morocco 6-4, 6-3 in the championship match.

At this week's J300 in Asuncion Paraguay, Kaitlin Quevedo finished as runner-up for the third straight J300 tournament that she played. The 17-year-old from Florida, seeded No. 2, lost to top seed Sara Saito of Japan 6-2, 6-4 in the final. No. 3 seed Emilien Demanet of Belgium won the boys singles title, beating top seed Adriano Dzhenev of Bulgaria 6-2, 6-1.

The Stanford women, seeded No. 5, had a disappointing National Team Indoor earlier this month, going 1-2 and falling to 22 in this week's rankings. With no highly ranked teams in the Pac-12 so far this year, today's match with No. 8 Texas in Austin took on added significance as far as positioning for seeds in the NCAA championships in May.  After Texas won the doubles point, with straightforward wins on lines 1 and 3, prospects weren't bright, but Stanford got singles points from Alexandra Yepifanova at line 1, Connie Ma at line 2, Alexis Blokhina at 4 and, delivering the clinching point, Angelica Blake at 3. The match was played out, with Stanford ultimately earning a 5-2 victory. For the full box score, see this article from gostanford.com.