Tian Sweeps SoCal Pro Series Titles Again; Tracy Wins First USTA Pro Circuit Title, Fung, Walton, Kumar Crowned Champions; Browning Survives Draxl Marathon in Dominican Republic; Krueger Nears WTA Top 100; Wimbledon Qualifying Begins Monday

NCAA singles champion Fangran Tian swept the titles again this week, adding her fourth of the month with the singles championship today at the $15,000 SoCal Pro Series tournament in Los Angeles. The 19-year-old from China, seeded No. 5, defeated No. 8 seed Jessica Alsola(Cal) of Canada 6-2, 6-1 for her tenth straight singles win, with the rising sophomore at UCLA dropping no more than five games in any of her five victories. On Saturday, Tian won the doubles title, so she has now won 18 singles and doubles titles in the past two weeks during the SoCal Pro Series, which moves to Irvine California next week. 

Unfortunately for Tian, she is not eligible to compete for the BNP Paribas Open qualifying wild card being offered to the player with the most points during this seven-week stretch, as she does not meet the criteria of holding American citizenship. Although not yet updated with this week's results, the links to the Race to Indian Wells standings can be found here.

The men's title in Los Angeles went to No. 3 seed Omni Kumar(Duke), who ended the run of qualifier Quinn Vandecasteele(Oregon) with a 6-4, 6-1 victory in today's final. It's the 21-year-old Irvine California native's fifth title, all at the $15K level, but the first outside of Tunisia. 

For more on the Los Angeles finals, see this article by SoCal Pro Series press aide Steve Pratt.

At the men's $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in South Bend, rising Ohio State senior JJ Tracy won his first Pro Circuit title. Unseeded, Tracy defeated top seed Strong Kirchheimer(Northwestern) 6-1, 6-2 in today's final, handing Kirchheimer his ninth defeat in the ten finals he's played on the Pro Circuit. 

Top seed Adam Walton of Australia, an NCAA singles semifinalist last year and the 2021 NCAA doubles champion, won his first Pro Circuit title at the $25,000 level today in Tulsa, defeating No. 2 seed Nick Chappell(TCU) 6-1, 6-3 in the final. The 24-year-old had no ATP ranking when he completed his eligibility at the University of Tennessee last May, but he has moved all the way up to 245 before these points are added. He is certainly getting close to US Open qualifying territory, but he does have the points from two $15K titles from last summer to replace. He is currently next in the main draw at the ATP Challenger in Bloomfield Hills in two weeks, so I don't think there are too many more $15K tournaments in his future. 

At the women's $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Wichita, No. 2 seed Stacey Fung(Washington) of Canada ended the run of ITA Player of the Year Fiona Crawley(North Carolina) 6-3, 6-2 in today's final. The 26-year-old Fung, who didn't drop a set all week, has three Pro Circuit singles titles this year and eight overall. An All-American in 2018, Fung completed her eligibility at the University of Washington in 2019 and, even with the pandemic delaying her rise, she has improved her WTA ranking every year. She is now at 259 and she too is looking likely to gain a spot in the US Open qualifying in August.

While Tracy and Kumar were the only American champions this week on the USTA Pro Circuit, another was crowned at the $15,000 ITF men's World Tennis Tour tournament in the Dominican Republic. Twenty-year-old Tauheed Browning won his first pro title the hard way: unseeded and in a three-hour and 52-minute final. Browning defeated No. 3 seed and former ITA No. 1 Liam Draxl(Kentucky) of Canada 7-6(5), 5-7, 7-6(8) in today's final. Browning had defeated top seed Justin Boulais(Ohio State) of Canada in the quarterfinals. 

Ashlyn Krueger, the 2021 USTA National 18s champion won the biggest title of her career today, defeating top seed Tatjana Maria of Germany 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 in the final of WTA 125 grass tournament in Italy. Krueger, 19, came from 5-2 down in the third set to win the final five games of the match. As she prepares for Wimbledon qualifying, Krueger will see her ranking rise to a career-high 108.

The Wimbledon men's qualifying begins Monday at Roehampton with only seven US men in the draw(there were 10 last year): Zachary Svajda, Brandon Holt(USC), Steve Johnson(USC), Denis Kudla, Michael Mmoh[13], Nicolas Moreno De Alboran(UC-Santa Barbara)[31] and Aleks Kovacevic(Illinois)[14]. The draw is available here; the order of play is here.

The final two men's main draw wild cards were given to Arthur Fils of France, the 2020 Orange Bowl champion who is now 62 in the ATP rankings, and Sebastian Ofner of Austria. 

The women's qualifying draw will be out Monday, with play beginning for them on Tuesday.