Stoiana and Noel Reach ITA Women's All-American Final, Spizziri and Cassone Meet for Men's Title; Kessler Versus Min in Rome $60K Final; Draxl wins 14th Straight; Svjada Closes in on Another Tiburon Title

The finals are set for Sunday's ITA All-American Championships, with University of Texas's fifth year Eliot Spizzirri aiming for both men's singles and doubles titles, while Alexa Noel of Miami and Mary Stoiana of Texas A&M will compete for their program's first women's A-A singles title.

Spizzirri's opponent in Sunday's final will be Arizona State junior Murphy Cassone, who is looking to be the first Sun Devil to claim and All-American title since Sargis Sargsian won all three major D-I singles titles in the 1994-95 season. Cassone, the No. 3 seed, defeated unseeded Gavin Young of Michigan 6-4, 6-2 in today's semifinals in Tulsa, his fifth straight-sets victory of the week.

Top seed Spizzirri has won three consecutive three-setters, but his 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 win today over unseeded Ozan Baris of Michigan State was the first time he had dropped the opening set. 

Spizzirri will be looking for his first D-I major title tomorrow; he reached the final of the Fall Nationals last year, losing to Nishesh Basavareddy. Texas has had a recent All-American men's singles champion, with Yuya Ito winning the title in 2019 over Florida's Sam Riffice.

Spizzirri and Cleeve Harper, who reached the NCAA doubles final back in May, losing to Ohio State's James Trotter and Andrew Lutschaunig, will again face a pair of Buckeyes, this time Robert Cash and JJ Tracy. Spizzirri and Harper, the No. 1 seeds, defeated Illinois's Hunter Heck and Karlis Ozolins, No. 5 seeds, 6-2, 3-6, 10-4. Cash and Tracy, who are unseeded, defeated unseeded Inaki Montes and James Hopper of Virginia 6-1, 6-3. Cash and Harper met in the 2022 NCAA doubles final, with Harper and Richard Ciamarra beating Cash and Matej Vocel, who had won both the All-American and Fall Nationals doubles titles the previous fall.

When Noel made the women's All-American final in 2021, she was at Iowa; now in her second season at Miami, she won her second consecutive three-setter today to advance to the final, beating No. 6 seed Ayana Akli of South Carolina 6-1, 4-6, 6-1. Noel, the No. 3 seed, would be the first Miami player to claim the All-American title; Sinead Lohan reached the final back in 2015, losing to Danielle Collins of Virginia.

No. 2 seed Stoiana has already made program history, become the first A&M woman to reach an All-American final. The junior from Connecticut defeated 2021 champion Sarah Hamner, a qualifier, 7-5, 6-4 to make her first ITA major final.

The women's doubles final is also an opportunity for a first All-American doubles title for Virginia and Oklahoma, with neither school having a team in the finals prior to today.  Virginia's Melodie Collard and Annabelle Xu defeated Sophie Abrams and Anna Zyryanova of NC State 7-5, 7-6(3); Oklahoma's Dana Guzman and Alina Shcherbinina beat Stoiana and Mia Kupres 6-4, 6-2 in the other semifinal this afternoon. 

In the consolation singles finals Sunday, for those who lost in the first round, Arizona's Colton Smith will face Virginia's Jeffrey von der Schulenburg for the men's title and Oklahoma State's Anastasiya Komar will play Auburn's Carolyn Ansari for the women's title.

Eryn Cayetano and Emma Charney of USC won the doubles consolation title via a walkover from Mai Nirundorn and Guillermina Grant of Georgia.

Cooper Williams and Daniel Milavsky of Harvard will play South Florida's Erik Grevelius and Alvin Tudorica for the men's doubles consolation title Sunday. (Final was played Saturday: Williams and Milavsky won 6-3, 3-6, 10-6).

The women's singles final is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. and the men's scheduled for noon. Cracked Racquets will have coverage of all four finals Sunday at their YouTube channel.

The final is set at the $60,000 women's USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Rome Georgia, with both finalists not far from home.  Former Florida All-American Mccartney Kessler, who grew up in Calhoun Georgia, defeated No. 5 seed Renata Zarazua of Mexico 6-4, 6-4 to reach her first Pro Circuit final above the $15K level. She will face Grace Min, who grew up in Lawrenceville Georgia, after Min's 6-2, 7-6(5) win over Jamie Loeb(UNC).  It's the 29-year-old Min's first Pro Circuit final since January of 2021, also at a $60K in Rome.

The Rome doubles title went to top seeds Sofia Sewing(Miami) and Anastasia Tikhonova of Russia, who defeated No. 3 seeds Robin Anderson(UCLA) and Mexico's Fernanda Contreras(Vanderbilt) 4-6, 6-3, 10-7.

Former Kentucky star Liam Draxl will play for his third consecutive $15K title tomorrow in Ithaca New York, after the top-seeded 21-year-old Canadian defeated No. 4 seed Alex Rybakov(TCU) 6-4, 6-3. Draxl, who won the $15Ks in Champaign and Albuquerque, will go for his 15th straight win against Cornell junior Radu Papoe of Romania. Papoe, the No. 2 seed, defeated qualifier Perry Gregg(Holy Cross) 6-1, 7-6(8).

The Big Red have already claimed a title at the event, with Cornell juniors Nathan Mao and Adit Sinha winning the doubles championship. The wild cards defeated University of Tennessee teammates Shunsuke Mitsui of Japan and Filip Pieczonka of Poland, the No. 4 seeds, 6-4, 6-1 in today's final.

At the ATP Challenger 75 in Tiburon California, two-time Kalamazoo champion Zachary Svajda will defend his title in Sunday's final, after the No. 3 seed defeated No. 5 seed Alexis Galaraneau(NC State) of Canada 6-3, 6-4 in this evening's semifinal. Svajda will face unseeded Adam Walton(Tennessee) of Australia, who defeated Tristan Schoolkate of Australia 6-4, 7-5 in the earlier semifinal. 

Luke Johnson(Clemson) of Great Britain and Skander Mansouri(Wake Forest) of Tunisia won their second straight Challenger 75 doubles title today. The No. 2 seeds, who won the Charleston Challenger title last week, defeated top seeds Will Blumberg(UNC) and Venzuela's Luis Martinez 6-2, 6-3 in today's final.

The $25,000 women's USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Redding California has been scheduling night matches, so 15-year-old wild card Iva Jovic has yet to begin her semifinal match with No. 6 seed Hanna Chang. Wild card Jovic, who beat Jessie Aney(UNC) 6-7(4), 6-2, 7-5 in last night's quarterfinals, missed her opportunity to compete in this summer's SoCal Pro Series due to injury, but she is making up for it with three impressive wins this week. Chang beat No. 2 seed Elvina Kalieva 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-3 in last night's quarterfinal.

Fifteen-year-old qualifier Tyra Grant lost in today's earlier semifinal, with 18-year-old Sayaka Ishii of Japan earning a 6-2, 6-4 victory. Ishii will soon be on her way to China for the ITF Junior Finals, which begin in ten days.

Seventeen-year-olds Clervie Ngounoue and Liv Hovde, the past two Wimbledon girls champions, are through to the doubles final in Redding; they will play No. 4 seeds Kayla Cross of Canada and Maria Fernanda Herazo Gonzalez of Colombia for the title after the Jovic-Chang singles semifinal.