My Article on Frusina's Commitment to Auburn; Basavareddy Beats Top Seed Michelsen to Reach Semifinals of Fairfield Challenger; US Champion Guaranteed with Grant, Crawley, Beck and Osuigwe Reaching Florence $25K Semis

In the last two months Alex Frusina has won the Kalamazoo 18s doubles title, earning a wild card into the US Open main draw, reached the semifinals at the College Park J300, where he won the doubles title, advanced to the quarterfinals of the US Open Junior Championships and won his first ITF J300 title last month in Houston. Frusina had not yet made his decison on a college, but his stock obviously was rising throughout, with many coaches at Top D-I schools watching his matches closely in that stretch. 

After Houston, Frusina made his visits and selected Auburn. I spoke to him earlier this week about that choice, and as is always the case when I do these Tennis Recruiting Network commitment articles, I learned a great deal about his background and his goals, as well as his reasons for choosing Auburn for the next stage of his development.

In last night's post, I linked to my coverage of the 2022 Easter Bowl ITF J300 boys final between  Alex Michelsen and Nishesh Basavareddy in reference to their meeting in today's quarterfinals at the ATP Challenger 75 in Fairfield California. Michelsen played outstanding tennis in that Easter Bowl final, taking it 6-2, 6-3; today the tables were turned, with Basavareddy playing at his peak in a 6-3, 6-3 victory. 

Michelsen, 19, didn't play badly, at all, but he did make a few errors now and then. The 18-year-old Basavareddy, a sophmore at Stanford, made almost no unforced errors despite an aggressive game from the baseline, and when he was called on for defense and creativity, he excelled in those aspects as well. 

Basavareddy, who reached the quarterfinals last week in Tiburon before losing 6-0, 6-2 to eventual champion Zachary Svajda, is now up to 595 in the ATP live rankings, after start the Tiburon Challenger at 1114.

Basavareddy will face veteran Steve Johnson(USC), who defeated Christian Harrison 6-1, 6-2 this afternoon. Basavareddy's first Challenger victory was a 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 win over Johnson this summer in Chicago.

The other semifinal Saturday will feature No. 4 seed Svajda, a 6-4, 6-2 winner over Brandon Holt(USC), and Alexander Ritschard(Virginia) of Switzerland, who beat Mitchell Krueger 6-3, 6-3.

Free live streaming is available through the ATP Challenger website, with Mike Cation providing commentary.

At the same time Basavareddy was earning his first Challenger semifinal berth, 20-year-old Martin Damm was doing the same, at the ATP Challenger 125 in Slovakia. Qualifier Damm, the 2018 Kalamazoo 16s champion, defeated No. 7 seed Maxime Cressy(UCLA) 6-4, 7-6(6) in today's quarterfinals. He will face unseeded Gabriel Diallo(Kentucky) of Canada in Saturday's semifinals. 

A third young American, 21-year-old Emilio Nava, has also reached a Challenger semifinal this week, the sixth of his career, at the 125 in Malaga Spain. He will play Mattia Bellucci of Italy in Saturday's semifinals. None of the semifinalists are seeded, with the two players in the top half semifinal, Maxime Janvier and Ugo Blanchett of France, both qualifiers. Regardless of the outcome Saturday, Nava will break into the ATP Top 150 for the first time.

Fifteen-year-old Tyra Grant has continued her impressive play at the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit level this month, advancing to her second consecutive semifinal, this week in Florence South Carolina. Grant, who had defeated fellow teen wild card Valerie Glozman 6-4, 6-4 in the second round, beat No. 8 seed Maria Mateas(Duke) 7-6(6), 6-2 in today's quarterfinals. Grant will face ITA preseason No. 1 Fiona Crawley(North Carolina), who defeated qualifier Nicole Khirin of Israel, a sophomore at Texas A&M, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in today's quarterfinals. 

Two other unseeded Americans will play in the bottom half, with Duke's Chloe Beck, who recently turned pro, facing Whitney Osuigwe.

Beck's 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 win over top seed and WTA 126 Panna Udvardy of Hungary is the best of her career; Osuigwe survived a two and a half hour battle with University of Georgia newcomer Alexandra Vecic of Germany 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(5).