Top Four Seeds Out at Wichita $25K; Hovde Through to $60K Quarterfinal in Sumter; Zheng Reaches Final Eight at ATP Challenger in Puerto Rico; ITA Men's Kickoff Weekend Draft Notes

After two rounds of play at the men's $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Wichita Kansas, all four of the top seeds have been eliminated, leaving No. 5 seed and 2023 NCAA singles champion Ethan Quinn(Georgia) the highest seed remaining.

Duke's Garrett Johns beat top seed Tennys Sandgren(Tennessee) 6-0, 6-2 in the first round Wednesday; TCU's Jack Pinnington Jones of Great Britain took out No. 3 seed Aidan Mayo 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the first round, with qualifier Axel Nefve(Notre Dame/Florida) beating No. 4 seed Zeke Clark(Illinois) 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in today's second round.  No. 2 seed Aidan McHugh of Great Britain lost to 2023 NCAA doubles champion James Trotter(Ohio State) of Japan 4-6, 7-6(6), 7-6(5) in an astounding three hour and 44-minute second round match this afternoon. 

Johns and Pinnington Jones lost their second round matches today, to Bruno Kuzuhara and Peter Bertran(Georgia/S Florida) of the Dominican Republic respectively. Joining Quinn, Nefve, Trotter Betran and Kuzuhara in the quarterfinals are Cannon Kingsley[8], 19-year-old Ozan Baris(Michigan State) and either wild card Sebastian Gorzny(TCU) or No. 6 seed Jaimee Angele of France, who play tonight.

The women's $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Colorado Springs lost its top seed yesterday, with Cal rising junior Jessica Alsola of Canada beating top seed Cadence Brace of Canada 6-2, 6-1. Alsola won again today and will play Allie Kiick in the quarterfinals. Other Americans advancing to the quarterfinals are Gabby Price and Rhiann Newborn(Baylor), who play each other, qualifier Ayana Akli(Maryland/South Carolina) and Danielle Willson(USC/Ohio State).

At the women's $60,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Sumter South Carolina, No. 3 seed Liv Hovde has reached the second quarterfinal of her career at a $60K, defeating Stanford rising sophomore Alexis Blokhina 6-2, 3-6, 6-0 today. She will face qualifier Haley Giavara(Cal) next. No. 5 seed Maria Mateas(Duke) and Victoria Hu(Princeton) will face off in the other all-US quarterfinal, with No. 6 seed Grace Min the fifth American through to the final 8. Hu and Giavara are the only unseeded players in the quarterfinals, with top seed Stacey Fung(Washington) of Canada and No. 2 seed Karman Thandi of India also advancing.

Eighteen-year-old wild card Rohan Murali, a rising freshman at Harvard, has advance to the quarterfinals of the men's $15,000 SoCal Pro Series tournament in San Diego. None of the seeds reached the quarterfinals, with qualifier Alex Kotzen(Columbia) beating No. 2 seed Colin Markes(Texas) 6-2, 6-2 today and qualifier Ron Hohmann(LSU) defeating top seed Keegan Smith(UCLA) in the first round yesterday.  Hohmann lost to Tennessee fifth year Blaise Bicknell of Jamaica in today's second round, but three additional qualifiers are through, including Oregon rising junior Quinn Vandecasteele, Warren Wood(Claremont-Mudd-Scripps) and Cash Hanzlik(Tyler JC).

Sixteen-year-old qualifier Kate Fakih defeated Stanford rising freshman and No. 2 seed Eleana Yu 6-0, 7-6(7) in the first round yesterday of the women's $15,000 tournament in San Diego and she won again today to reach the quarterfinals. Katherine Hui, the second rising freshman at Stanford in the draw this week, has advanced to the quarterfinals for the third straight week of the SoCal Pro Series, beating No. 5 seed Solymar Colling(San Diego) 6-2, 6-2 in the second round today.

Columbia rising sophomore Michael Zheng advanced to the quarterfinals of the ATP Challenger 75 in Puerto Rico yesterday, defeating lucky loser Marius Copil of Romania 6-1, 6-3. The 2022 Wimbledon boys finalist, who qualified for two of the past three Challengers, will player former North Carolina State standout Alexis Galarneau of Canada, the No. 8 seed, in Friday's quarterfinals.

The 2024 ITF Kickoff Weekend draft is now complete with the men's draft concluding today. 

The men's field got to No. 74 in the rankings before it filled the 45 spots available at the 15 schools hosting regionals at the end of January.  (No. 13 Columbia, the men's host, does not have to participate in regionals, so No. 16 Mississippi State received the final hosting spot). The women's cutoff was the 64th-ranked team, so participation on the men's side was dramatically lower.  Five men's teams passed: Pepperdine[29], Cornell[37], Gonzaga[69], UAB[70] and Drake[73]. 

Eight eligible men's teams did not participate: UC-Santa Barbara[41], UCF[51], New Mexico [56], Denver[59], South Alabama[62], Wisconsin[63], Old Dominnion[65] and Georgia Tech[67].

No one wanted any part of No. 1 Virginia, No. 2 Ohio State or No. 4 TCU, with the highest ranked team to choose any of those regionals No. 48 Oregon, who is traveling to Columbus. While the women have three regionals with all four teams in the Top 30, the men have only one, with No. 11 Duke hosting No. 23 Middle Tennessee, No. 27 Cal and No. 30 NC State. No. 14 North Carolina's regional extends only to No. 32 Illinois, with No. 21 Wake Forest and No. 22 Florida playing in Chapel Hill. No. 15 Arizona has a field that looks like that of highly ranked Virginia, Ohio State or TCU, with Tulane, at No. 44, the highest ranked team opting for Tucson's regional.