Zheng Beats Galarneau to Advance to Semifinals at ATP Challenger in Puerto Rico; 16-Year-Old Fakih Reaches San Diego $15K Semis; Final Four at Wichita $25K All Competed Last Month at NCAAs in Lake Nona; Hovde Reaches First $60K Semifinal

Michael Zheng has a successful freshman year at Columbia, with the 19-year-old named the Ivy League Player of the Year. The 2022 Wimbledon boys finalist earned All-American status by advancing to the round of 16 at last month's NCAA singles tournament, where he lost to finalist Ondrej Styler of Michigan in two tiebreakers. Zheng had reached as high as 871 in the ATP rankings last summer, reaching the final of a $15K in Florida in the spring, but his ranking dropped when he was unable to defend those points while in school.

1379 in the ATP rankings at the end of last month, Zheng left Lake Nona and went directly to the Little Rock Challenger the next week, where he qualified, then fell in the first round. Last week at the Tyler Challenger, Zheng lost in the first round of qualifying, but made the trip to Puerto Rico for this week's Challenger 75, where he has now won five matches, two in qualifying and three in the main draw. Today he defeated No. 8 seed Alexis Galarneau(NC State) of Canada 6-3, 0-6, 6-3, with that second set the first set he's lost in his five victories.  Zheng faces unseeded Beibit Zhukayev of Kazakhstan in the semifinals, after Zhukayev defeated Liam Draxl(Kentucky) of Canada 6-4, 6-3 in today's quarterfinals.

Zheng is now up to 653 in the ATP live rankings, six spots above Mili Poljicak of Croatia, who beat him in the Wimbledon boys final. Zheng, the only American to reach the quarterfinals in Puerto Rico this week, has sliced his ranking in half in the last three weeks.

Kate Fakih, a rising high school senior, began playing USTA Pro Circuit events this year, and until this week, her most notable result was qualifying for the $60K in Arcadia California in early March. The 16-year-old from Pasadena lost in qualifying last week at the first SoCal Pro Series tournament she played, but at this week's $15K in San Diego she made it through to the main draw and has now advanced to the semifinals. Fakih, who is at a career-high of 137 in the ITF junior rankings, beat No. 2 seed Eleana Yu in the first round, but has faced two qualifiers since then and will play another in Saturday's semifinals: Chanel Simmonds of South Africa. The Simmonds, who got past Stanford rising freshman Katherine Hui 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(9) today, was as high 158 in the WTA rankings ten years ago, but hadn't played for more than a year and a half until resuming at these SoCal Pro Series events the past three weeks.

The other women's semifinal will feature No. 1 seed Sara Daavettila(UNC) and and No. 4 seed Kimmi Hance(UCLA).

While there are two qualifiers in the women's semifinals, there are three in the San Diego men's $15K, with Tennessee's Blaise Bicknell of Jamaica the exception. The unseeded Bicknell will face Warren Wood(Claremont-Mudd-Scripps) in the top half; Columbia's rising senior Alex Kotzen will play Lorenzo Claverie of Italy to decide the finalist from the bottom half. 

Cracked Racquets will have coverage of the SoCal Pro Circuit singles semifinals and doubles finals on their YouTube channel Saturday.

The four semifinalists at the men's $25,000 tournament in Wichita Kansas all competed in the NCAA Division I Championships in Lake Nona last month. No. 5 seed Ethan Quinn won the the singles title of course, while also competing in the team event at the top line for Georgia. He will face James Trotter of Japan, who reached the singles round of 16 and won the doubles title and played line 4 for Team finalists Ohio State.  Trotter beat teammate (and doubles partner this week) Cannon Kingsley, the No. 8 seed, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 in today's quarterfinals.

Wild card Sebastian Gorzny played line 5 for TCU and did not qualify for the NCAA individual tournament, but he avenged his loss to Alexander Bernard of Ohio State in the team semifinals in the first round this week, then took out No. 6 seed Jaimee Angele of France 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. Today the 19-year-old, the 2022 Wimbledon boys doubles champion, defeated 2022 Australian Open boys singles and doubles champion Bruno Kuzuhara 6-4, 1-6, 6-2.  He will play fellow 19-year-old Ozan Baris, who lost in the second round of the NCAA singles and doubles tournament as a freshman at Michigan State. Baris defeated qualifier Axel Nefve(Notre Dame/Florida) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 today.  Baris and Gorzny have played once before on the Pro Circuit, over a year ago, with Baris winning 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of a $15K in Florida.

No. 3 seed Liv Hovde is through to the semifinals at the women's $60,000 tournament in Sumter South Carolina; the 2022 Wimbledon girls champion, who beat qualifier Haley Giavara(Cal) 6-3, 6-3, will face former Old Dominion star Yuliia Starodubtseva of Ukraine, the No. 8 seed, who defeated top seed Stacey Fung(Washington) of Canada 6-2, 7-6(4) today. It's the first semifinal at the $60K level for the 17-year-old from Texas.

The semifinal in the bottom half will feature No. 5 seed Maria Mateas(Duke) and No. 2 seed Karman Thandi of India. 

At the $25,000 women's tournament in Colorado Springs, unseeded Allie Kiick and unseeded Rhiann Newborn(Baylor) will play for a spot in the final. In the bottom half, No. 4 seed Katarina Kozarov(Furman) of Serbia will face No. 2 seed Saki Imamura of Japan.