Seven Americans Reach Semifinals at ITF J300 in Ecuador; Stearns Advances to Quarterfinals at Rome $60K; Michelsen Makes Doubles Semifinals at Cleveland Challenger; Florida, TCU Men Earn Top 20 Wins

With Americans comprising 12 of the 16 quarterfinalists at the ITF J300 in Ecuador, the fact that seven of the eight semifinalists are from the United States isn't exactly a surprise, but there is now a guarantee that an American boy will claim his first J300 title.

Top seed Kaylan Bigun, who defeated qualifier Cooper Woestendick 6-3, 6-1 in today's quarterfinals, will face No. 8 seed Roy Horovitz, who beat Luca Miremont of Argentina 6-3, 6-3.  In the bottom half, unseeded Darwin Blanch, a 7-6(2), 3-6, 2-1 ret. winner over No. 4 seed Meecah Bigun, will play No. 7 seed Alexander Razeghi, who beat unseeded Phoenix Weir of Great Britain 6-4, 6-3. The Blanch-Razeghi match will be a first meeting between the last two Kalamazoo 16s champions.

The only international player remaining is girls top seed Lucciana Perez Alarcon of Peru, who will play last week's champion at the J300 in Costa Rica, No. 3 seed Iva Jovic. Perez Alarcon advanced when No. 6 seed Valeria Ray retired trailing 7-6(6), 2-1. Jovic, the No. 3 seed, repeated her win in the final in Costa Rica, again beating unseeded Mika Buchnik of Israel, this time by a 6-4, 6-1 score, in today's quarterfinals. 

No. 4 seed Mia Slama got past unseeded 14-year-old Tyra Grant 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 to set up a meeting with No. 2 seed Kaitlin Quevedo, who beat unseeded Piper Charney 6-3, 6-2. 

Although they lost in singles, Charney and Ray will be playing in the doubles final, with the unseeded pair facing No. 2 seeds Isabelle Lacy and Hephzibah Oluwadare of Great Britain.

In the boys doubles final, the unseeded team of Blanch and Canada's Duncan Chan will take on No. 4 seeds Henry Searle and Luca Pow of Great Britain.

Friday's quarterfinals at the $60,000 women's USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Rome Georgia will feature just one seed, No. 8 Marcela Zacarias of Mexico. Zacarias will play Francesca Di Lorenzo(Ohio State), who had beaten No. 2 seed Elli Mandlik in the opening round. Di Lorenzo beat Hina Inoue 6-2, 6-3 today. 

The No. 3, No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 seeds lost today, with Lulu Sun(Texas) of Switzerland beating No. 3 Ann Li 6-4, 3-6, 6-4; No. 4 seed Ashlyn Krueger lost to qualifier Gabriela Knutson of the Czech Republic 6-2, 7-5; No. 5 seed and 2022 ITF World Junior champion Petra Marcinko was beaten by Andrea Lazaro Garcia(Florida International) of Spain 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 and No. 6 seed Robin Anderson(UCLA) lost to 2022 NCAA singles champion Peyton Stearns 5-7, 7-5, 7-5 in three hours and 34 minutes.

Qualifier Johanne Svendsen of Denmark beat wild card Liv Hovde 7-6(4), 6-4 and will face Stearns next; Sun and Lazaro Garcia are the other quarterfinal in the top half. Ashley Lahey(Pepperdine), who beat Robin Montgomery 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 will face Knutson, while Zarcarias and Di Lorenzo meet in the bottom quarter.

Former Texas Longhorn Stearns, who won the $25K last week in Orlando, has received a wild card into the new WTA 250 in Austin Texas, which begins at the end of the month.

The quarterfinals are set at the ATP Cleveland Challenger 75 with five Americans in the final eight. Two of the matches Friday will be all-US contests, with Steve Johnson[3](USC) playing Aleks Kovacevic[5](Illinois) and Zachary Svajda facing Tennys Sandgren(Tennessee). Svajda defeated wild card Alex Michelsen 7-5, 6-3 in a match that featured nine service breaks; Sandgren got past No. 7 seed Brandon Holt 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.

No. 6 seed Stefan Kozlov defeated qualifier Ryan Harrison 6-4, 6-4 and will play No. 2 seed Yibing Wu of China, who beat Strong Kirchheimer(Northwestern) 7-6(9), 7-6(1).

In the top quarter, No. 1 seed Emilio Gomez(USC) of Ecuador will face No. 8 seed Gabriel Diallo(Kentucky) of Canada.

Although Georgia signee Michelsen lost in his attempt at his first Challenger quarterfinal, the Wimbledon boys doubles champion moved into the semifinals in doubles, with partner Nick Chappell(TCU). After beating No. 3 seeds Will Blumberg(North Carolina) and Keegan Smith(UCLA) in the first round, Michelsen and Chappell took out veterans Bradley Klahn(Stanford) and Evan King(Michigan) today, setting up a semifinal meeting with top seeds Robert Galloway(Wofford) and Mexico's Hans Hach Verdugo(Abilene Christian).

The ATP provided this feature on Michelsen after his win over No. 4 seed Jack Sock on Tuesday.

Two notable results tonight in men's Division I action, with No. 3 seed TCU going to Knoxville and beating No. 10 Tennessee 4-1. Even without Jack Pinnington Jones, the 2022 National Indoor Champions are looking like top contenders for national championships again this year.

At the College Match Day tonight in Lake Nona, No. 15 Florida beat No. 12 Florida State 4-2 in a tense and well-played match that was streamed live on ESPN Plus. It's been some time since I watched a College Match Day, the numbers of which have definitely decreased since the pandemic, and I was impressed by the production values. Irina Falconi, a former Georgia Tech All-American, provided top-notch color commentary and between the singles and doubles, Ben Shelton dropped by to discuss his recent success and what college tennis has meant, and still means to him. 

The Gators took the doubles point, then got singles wins from freshman Togan Tokac at line 6, sophomore Nate Bonetto at line 3 and the clinch from freshman Jonah Braswell at line 4. Florida State's points came from Antoine Cornut Chauvinc at line 1 and Joshua Dous-Karpenschif at line 5. 

Right now the only other College Match Day on the schedule is the February 18 contest between Navy and Air Force, with both the men's and women's teams competing in Lake Nona. 

I hope more will be added, especially if they can be streamed, as it really does help bring college tennis to a wider audience.

Friday's big match will be a rematch of the 2022 NCAA team final, with No. 5 Kentucky playing No. 1 Virginia in Charlottesville at 5 p.m.  Links to live streaming and live scoring are here.