Ionescu Shocks Li at USTA Pro Circuit W75 in Rome Georgia; Few Changes in Latest ITA Division I Team Rankings; Top Seed Rolls, Coffee Bowl Champion Lam Out at ITF J300 Barranquilla; UTR Pro Tennis Tour January Results

As I wrote yesterday in my recap of the qualifying at the USTA women's Pro Circuit W75 in Rome Georgia, 15-year-old Elizabeth Ionescu had qualified for the main draw in her previous two appearances on the Pro Circuit, but she lost in the first round of both the W25 last summer in Colorado and at the W15 last fall in Tennessee.  She emphatically broke that pattern today in the first round of main draw action, beating No. 3 seed and WTA 164 Ann Li 6-0, 6-3 in an hour and 20 minutes. Ionescu, who has no WTA ranking, will earn one now with the 13 points she's earned so far; she will face another teenager, 2022 Wimbledon girls champion Liv Hovde, for a spot in the quarterfinals. Hovde defeated qualifier Dalayna Hewitt 7-5, 6-4 in the first round today. Ionescu, as you can see below in the UTR PTT results, is also playing with a lot of confidence and match play now.

Former USC All-American Madison Sieg, using an accelerator program spot for entry, defeated Gabriela Lee(Texas Tech) of Romania, last week's finalist in Vero Beach, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in three hours and nine minutes.

Despite last week's Kickoff Weekend, which featured all the top teams, this week's coaches poll for the Division I team rankings changed very little. The Top 10 from last week all won their regionals as hosts and will appear next month at the Women's Team Indoor Championships in Seattle. One notable move in the Top 25 saw Cal going from 19 to 15 after winning the Oklahoma regional in Norman; UCLA[13] is the one team in the Top 15 not going to the Indoors; No. 16 USC, who won the Tennessee regional, is in. Top 25 rankings can be found by clicking on the headings

Women's Division I Team Rankings Top Ten January 31, 2024

Brackets number of 1st place votes; parentheses previous rankings:

1. North Carolina[13](1)
2. Stanford(2)
3. Oklahoma State(3)
4. Georgia(4)
5. Michigan(5)
6. Pepperdine(6)
7. NC State(7)
8. Florida(8)
9. Texas A&M(9)
10. Texas(10)

The men's rankings did shuffle a bit due to Kickoff Weekend losses. Kentucky, who lost as a host to Alabama, fell out of the Top 10, going from 10 to 16; Stanford, who lost on the road to Michigan, went from 9 to 15. Columbia and Arizona took their places in the Top 10. Ohio State has consolidated its top spot, picking up five more first place votes than they had last week.

Men's Division I Team Rankings Top Ten January 31, 2024

1. Ohio State[11](1)
2. South Carolina[2](2)
3. Virginia(3)
4. Texas(4)
5. TCU(5)
6. Tennessee(6)
7. Southern Cal(7)
8. Duke(8)
9. Columbia(11)
10. Arizona(13)

For comparison, here is the Cracked Racquets Top 10 for women (I am serving as a voter). Their men's Top 10 should be out Thursday.

In just two and a half days of play at the ITF J300 in Barranquilla Colombia, upsets have occurred. Top seed Katie Rolls lost in the second round, her first match of the tournament, to fellow 16-year-old Greta Patrillo of Italy 7-5, 6-4. Patrillo advanced to Thursday's quarterfinals with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 win over Capucine Jauffret. She will play her third straight American in the quarterfinals, taking on No. 12 seed Thea Frodin.  Last week's Costa Rica J300 champion Shannon Lam, the No. 8 seed this week, lost to No. 9 seed Dune Vaissaud of France 6-2, 7-6(6) in today's round of 16. In addition to Frodin, the other three US girls in the quarterfinals are No. 2 seed Christasha McNeil, No. 3 seed Claire An and No. 4 seed Monika Ekstrand.

Costa Rica champion Ian Mayew is through to the boys quarterfinals, as is No. 12 seed Kase Schinnerer, but the results of the rest of the boys round of 16 matches have not yet been posted, with matches going late into the evening.

I'm going to try to post the UTR Pro Tennis Tour results on a more frequent schedule than I have done. Below are the January results.

MEN:

January 1 Long Beach CA

Karue Sell d. Strong Kirchheimer 6-1, 6-4

January 7 Winston Salem NC

Theodore Dean d. Filippo Moroni 6-3, 6-1

January 14 Bonita Springs FL

Mateusz Terczynski d. Nicholas Buitrago 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-3

January 15 Fort Worth TX

Lui Maxted d. Duncan Chan 7-6(4), 7-5

WOMEN:

December 31 Boca Raton FL

Akasha Urhobo d. Carol Lee 4-6, 6-3, 6-2

January 8 Long Beach CA

Brandy Walker d. Elina Nepliy 6-2, 6-7(1), 6-2

January 21 Atlanta GA

Elizabeth Ionescu d. Ariana Pursoo 4-6, 6-4, 3-0, ret.

Fifteen-year-old Ionescu Qualifies for W75 in Rome Georgia; Wild Cards Cassone, Vandecasteele Advance at ATP 75 Challenger in Cleveland; USA Faces Ukraine in Davis Cup Qualifying Thursday in Lithuania

The USTA Pro Circuit events this week are confined to one each for the men and women, both indoors, with the men's event an ATP Challenger 75 in Cleveland and the women's event a W75 in Rome Georgia.

Qualifying concluded in Rome today, with two American teenagers reaching the main draw: 17-year-old Victoria Osuigwe, who has verbally committed to North Carolina State, and 15-year-old Elizabeth Ionescu, who won the 18s USTA National Indoor Title back in November.

Osuigwe is a veteran of qualifying on the USTA Pro Circuit, with her 6-2, 6-3 win today over No. 4 qualifying seed Jessica Failla(USC/Pepperdine), Osuigwe, who has a WTA ranking of 717, has now qualified for five USTA Pro Circuit tournaments at the 60K level or higher (the 60K level has been eliminated by the ITF for 2024). 

Ionescu has much less experience on the USTA Pro Circuit, with this just her third event, although she did qualify for the main draw in her previous two events, a 15K and a 25K last year. The York Pennsylvania resident, who reached the third round of the Orange Bowl last month as a wild card, doesn't have a WTA ranking yet, but her 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 7 seed and WTA No. 532 Martina Okalova(Tulsa) of Slovakia should remedy that next week. She will face another Pennsylvania native, No. 3 seed Ann Li, in the first round Wednesday.  Osuigwe's first round opponent is former Princeton star Victoria Hu.

Other Americans advancing to the main draw via qualifying wins today are Dalayna Hewitt, Ava Markham(Wisconsin) and Sara Daavettlia(North Carolina). 

Wild cards were given to Clervie Ngounoue, who lost today to No. 4 seed and doubles partner Robin Montgomery 7-5, 6-4, and No. 2 seed Hailey Baptiste. Former USC star Madison Sieg is listed as a junior exempt entry, but that is more likely to be an entry via the ITA/ITF Accelerator program, given her status as a Top 5 collegiate player.

The top seed in Rome is last week's champion at the Vero Beach W75+H, Maria Carle(Georgia) of Argentina.  

Qualifying concluded Monday at the Cleveland Challenger, with Will Grant(Florida), Patrick Maloney(Michigan) and Stefan Kozlov the three American qualifiers. Grant lost to Sebastian Fanselow(Pepperdine) of Germany in the first round today; Maloney defeated lucky loser Zeke Clark(Illinois) 6-2, 6-3 and will face top seed James Duckworth of Australia in the second round. Kozlov also picked up a win in the opening round, beating Strong Kirchheimer(Northwestern) 3-6, 6-1, 7-6(3) today.

Wild cards were awarded to Oregon senior Quinn Vandecasteele, Arizona State junior Murphy Cassone and former UCLA All-American Keegan Smith. Smith lost to No. 4 seed Dennis Kudla 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the first round today; Cassone defeated last week's Wesley Chapel $25K champion Roberto Cid(South Florida) of the Dominican Republic 6-1, 7-6(7) this evening and Vandecasteele beat 2022 Australian Open boys champion Bruno Kuzuhara 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(3) yesterday in first round action.

2014 Kalamazoo 18s champion Noah Rubin(Wake Forest) won his first Challenger match since April of 2022, after his break from tennis that also included a brief flirtation with a Pickleball career. Rubin saved four match points in defeating qualifier Matija Pecotic(Princeton) of Croatia 5-7, 6-3, 7-5. 

Rubin is one of a host of Kalamazoo champions or finalists in the draw this week, joining No. 5 seed Patrick Kypson(16s champion 2015, 18s champion 2017), Kozlov(18s finalist 2015), No. 6 seed Tennys Sandgren(16s champion 2007), No. 8 seed Aidan Mayo(16s finalist 2019), Zachary Svajda (2019 and 2021 18s champion), and Ethan Quinn(18s finalist 2022). The two-time reigning Kalamazoo 18s champion Learner Tien withdrew with an injury.

After their loss to Finland last September kept them from advancing to the finals, the US Davis Cup team is required to play a World Group qualifying match this week against Ukraine to continue to compete at the top level qualifying this coming September. Seeded No. 7, the US has drawn Ukraine, and although Ukraine was to get the home match, they obviously couldn't host due to the Russian invasion, so the match will be held Thursday and Friday in Lithuania. 

The American team consists of Taylor Fritz, Christopher Eubanks, Sebastian Korda, Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram; The Ukrainian team, without a top 150 player, consists of Vitaliy Sachko, Oleksii Krutykh, Viacheslav Bielinskyi, Valdyslav Orlov and Illya Belobordodko.

Chicago junior development coach Mark Bey is accompanying the team to Lithuania this weekend to assist Captain Bob Bryan and assistant Dean Goldfine; Tristan Boyer(Stanford) is serving as the hitting partner. 

Notes on the two teams can be found here. Quotes from the pre-match press conference are available here.

Lyutova Wins Second Straight J30 in SoCal; Thirteen Americans Seeded at ITF J300 in Colombia; Virginia Tops 2024 Recruiting Class Rankings; Texas A&M Beats Georgia Advance to National Indoor Championships

With all my attention last week on the Australian Open Juniors, the Coffee Bowl J300 and Les Petits As, I wasn't able to follow the lower level events, so I'll try to catch up on some of those today. 

Thirteen-year-old Christina Lyutova, who lives in the US but plays for Russia, extended her 2024 winning streak to ten matches, following her title at the ITF J30 in Claremont two weeks ago with another title at the J30 in San Diego last week. Lyutova, who won three consecutive J60 tournaments at the end of 2023, had her ITF Junior Circuit streak snapped in the qualifying at the Eddie Herr J300, but she is back to her straight-sets march through the draws in Southern California. Seeded No. 1 in San Diego, she defeated unseeded Emily Deming 6-2, 6-3 in the final for her fifth ITF Junior Circuit title and has added another win at this week's J30 in San Diego, where she is the No. 2 seed.

No. 7 seed Mario Garcia won his first ITF Junior Circuit single title, with the 17-year-old from San Diego defeating No. 5 seed Alexander Baez of Paraguay 7-5, 6-4 in the final.

No. 2 seeds Andre Alcantara and Ian Bracks won the boys doubles championship, defeating unseeded Liam Alvarez and Micah Ward 7-6(11), 3-6, 12-10 in the final.

Unseeded Sydney Barnhart and Alexandra Wolf took the girls doubles title, beating unseeded Kara Garcia and Shaya Jovanovic 7-5, 6-2 in the championship match.

Joining Lyutova as a two-time J30 champion this month is Agassi Rusher, who won back-to-back events in Uruguay. The unseeded 15-year-old from Florida won his first career ITF Junior Circuit title two weeks ago by beating top seed Bruno Loch Varella of Brazil 7-5, 6-4 in the final; last week he defeated No. 4 seed Pedro Albuquerque Dietrich of Brazil 6-1, 6-2 in the championship match.

Seventeen-year-old Dillon Beckles of Texas claimed the title last week at the J60 in South Africa, with the No. 5 seed defeating No. 3 seed Guy Vorwerk of South Africa 6-2, 6-2 for his third career ITF Junior Circuit singles title. 

Sixteen-year-old qualifier Nicole Weng of California won the J30 in Singapore last week, capturing her first ITF Junior Circuit title with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Jiyun Oh of Korea.

While most of the Americans who participated in the Australian swing are taking the week off, boys Australian Open doubles champion Cooper Woestendick is back in action at the ITF J300 in Barranquilla Colombia this week, where he is the No. 2 seed.

As was the case last week, the draws in Colombia have a large contingent of Americans, including Costa Rica champions and finalists Shannon Lam, Kristina Penickova, Ian Mayew and Matisse Farzam. Unlike Costa Rica, this week's draw is 48, not 32. The seeds are below, with a list of the other Americans competing this week in Colombia also included.

Girls seeds
1. Kaitlyn Rolls(USA)
2. Christasha McNeil(USA)
3. Claire An(USA)
4. Monika Ekstrand(USA)
5. Margot Phanthala(FRA)
6. Francesca Maguina Bunikowska(PER)
7. Jeline Vandromme(BEL)
8. Shannon Lam(USA)
9. Dune Vaissaud(FRA)
10. Ema Mravcova(SVK)
11. Mia Pohankova(SVK)
12. Thea Frodin(USA)
13. Natalia Trigosso(BOL)
14. Krisha Mahendran(IND)
15. Yichen Zhao(CHN)
16. Valentina Mediorreal Arias(COL)

Other American girls in the draw: Capucine Jauffret, Kristina Penickova, Anita Tu, Gabriella Kellner[Q], Kori Montoya[Q] and Julieta Pareja.

Boys seeds
1. Hoyoung Roh(KOR)
2. Cooper Woestendick(USA)
3. Nikita Filin(USA)
4. Miguel Tobon(COL)
5. Rafael Segado Esteve(ESP)
6. Connor Church(CAN)
7. Bernardo Munk Mesa(ESP)
8. Goncalo Marques(POR)
9. Stiles Brockett(USA)
10. Calvin Baierl(USA)
11. Noah Johnston(USA)
12. Kase Schinnerer(USA)
13. Matisse Farzam(USA)
14. Samuel Heredia(COL)
15. Joaquin Guilleme(NCA)
16. Dmitry Bessonov(RUS)

Other American boys in the draw: Lev Seidman[Q], Carel Ngounoue, Benjamin Willwerth[SE], Maximus Dussault, Yubel Ubri[Q], Cole Henceroth[Q], Ian Mayew[SE], Jordan Reznik, Meecah Bigun and Jacob Olar.

The January edition of Tennis Recruiting Network's men's Class of 2024 recruiting class rankings were published today, with Virginia, unsurprisingly, at the top (the surprise is that they weren't unanimous). Following Virginia are UCLA, Arizona State, Harvard and North Carolina. Arizona State is probably not accurately placed because Bor Artnak, who was expected to be in this fall's class, is actually already on the roster and playing for the Sun Devils.  Rounding out the top 10 are Arizona, Auburn, Columbia, South Carolina and Penn. As has been the case for all of these rankings over the years, I again submitted my votes for this poll. The women's rankings will be posted next Monday.

The last final of the men's ITA Division I Kickoff Weekend was played today in Athens Georgia, with No. 2 seed Texas A&M dropping the doubles point to Georgia and the first singles match to fall behind 2-0, but taking the next four matches to earn a 4-2 win and a spot in the National Team Indoor Championships next month in New York. It's the Aggies first trip to the Team Indoor Championships since 2020.

National Team Indoors men's qualifiers:

Saturday

Alabama[2] d. Kentucky[1] 4-2

Sunday

Duke[1] d. Middle Tennessee[2] 4-0

Tennessee[1] d. Oklahoma[2] 4-1

Ohio State[1] d. Boise State[3] 4-0

Virginia[1] d. Florida Atlantic[3] 4-0

Harvard[1] d. Northwestern[3] 4-0

South Carolina[1] d. LSU[3] 4-1

Wake Forest[2] d. Illinois[4] 4-1

Michigan[1] d. Stanford[2] 4-3

Texas[1] d. Oklahoma State[3] 4-1

TCU[1] d. Tulsa[2] 4-0

Arizona State[3] d. VCU[4] 4-2

Arizona[[1] d. Baylor[3] 4-2

USC[1] d. San Diego[2] 4-3

Monday

Texas A&M[2] d. Georgia[1] 4-2

No. 1 seeded hosts not advancing to Team Indoor Championships: North Carolina, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Georgia

National Team Indoors women's qualifiers:

Saturday

Michigan[1] d. Arkansas[2] 4-0

Virginia[1] d. Georgia Tech[2] 4-0

Auburn[2] d. Duke[1] 4-2 

Pepperdine[1] d. LSU[2] 4-0

North Carolina[1] d. Kentucky[3] 4-0

Southern California[3] d. Tennessee[1] 4-2

Texas[1] d. Florida State[2] 4-0

Stanford[1] d. Maryland[2] 4-0

Georgia[1] d. South Carolina[2] 4-1

Ohio State[1] d. Arizona State[3] 4-0

Sunday

Texas A&M[1] d. TCU[2] 4-0

Oklahoma State[3] d. Old Dominion[4] 4-0

NC State[1] d. Clemson[3] 4-0

Florida[1] d. San Diego[3] 4-3

Cal[2] d. Oklahoma[1] 4-3

No. 1 seeded hosts not advancing to Team Indoor Championships: Iowa State, Duke, Tennessee and Oklahoma

Antonius Wins Les Petits As Title; Mayew Champion at ITF J300 Costa Rica; Bicknell Upsets Svajda to Claim Title at Indian Wells Challenger; ITA Kickoff Results; Auburn's Lilley Dismissed

Michael Antonius had no difficulty reaching Sunday's Les Petits As final, losing just nine games in his first five victories. But the No. 2 seed was required to find another level in the final against No. 11 seed Izan Banares Lasala of Spain, who challenged the 13-year-old from Buffalo in nearly every game before finally succumbing 4-6, 6-2, 6-0.

Banares broke to start the championship match, but Antonius got the break back in the next game. Usually Antonius's point construction ends up with his opponent making a forced error, but Banares played outstanding defense and showed a willingness to come to the net when he had the advantage. The Spaniard, considerably shorter than the 6-foot Antonius, broke at 3-all and hung on, hitting a drop shot winner on his third set point to put Antonius in the rare unusual position of needing a comeback. In his title run at the Eddie Herr two months ago, Antonius won all six matches in straight sets.

Antonius, didn't let his positive body language flag much, but he did look taken aback by the level of his opponent and started to rush a bit in third. He saved two break points in the first game of the second set, and then got his first break of Banares since the second game of the first set for a 2-0 lead. He never trailed after that, but could not consolidate, with Banares getting the break back every time until Antonius held for 5-2, finally beginning to get some free points on serve. After breaking Banares for the fourth time to close the out the set, Antonius appeared to have found a way to force more errors, as Banares began to show signs of fatigue. 

Antonius began the third set with yet another break and hold for a 2-0 lead, but Banares made one final push, earning two break points for a chance to get back on serve. Antonius saved both, and Banares had nothing more left, although there was a five-minute delay with Baranes serving at 0-5, 15-30 so he could replace his shoelaces. It did not bother Antonius, who came out and won the next two points to take the first Les Petits As singles title for an American since Victor Lilov won it in 2018.

The girls final also a comeback from the winner, as No. 7 seed Mariia Makarova trailed No. 2 seed Kseniia Ruchkina 3-0, two breaks in the early minutes of the match, but was able to find her form in a 6-4, 6-3 victory over her doubles partner.

Draws can be found at the Tennis Europe tournament site.

Americans swept all four titles at the ITF J300 Coffee Bowl in Costa Rica, adding the boys singles and doubles titles after Shannon Lam had won the girls singles and Lam and Thea Frodin claimed the girls doubles title earlier on Saturday. 

Ian Mayew, a 17-year-old from North Carolina, won three matches in qualifying, including a match tiebreaker in the final round over Benjamin Willwerth, then won his five main draw matches in straight sets. After taking out top seed Nikita Filin in the second round, Mayew faced three unseeded Americans, including in last night's final, where he defeated Matisse Farzam 7-6(5), 6-4. It's the first ITF Junior Circuit singles title for Mayew, who, with a current ITF junior ranking of 280 is not yet poised to compete in the summer's junior slams, but he will move into the Top 100 for the first time and has the remaining J300s in South America (he has received a special exemption into the main draw of the J300 in Colombia next week) and Southern California to continue to build on his success this week in Costa Rica. 

In the boys doubles, Willwerth and Noah Johnston defeated Mikael and Nicolas Arseneault of Canada 7-6(7), 6-4 in the final for their first ITF Junior Circuit title as a pair.

Former University of Florida and University of Tennessee star Blaise Bicknell won his first ATP Challenger title today at the Southern California Open in Indian Wells, taking out top seed Zachary Svajda 6-3, 6-2. The 22-year-old, who represents Jamaica, is up to 319 in the ATP live rankings with the title. For more on today's final, see this article from Steve Pratt.

Bicknell was one of three former collegians winning pro titles in the United States today. 

At the USTA Pro Circuit W75+H in Vero Beach Florida, former University of Georgia standout Maria Carle took the biggest title of her career, with the 23-year-old from Argentina defeating qualifier Gabriela Lee(Texas Tech) of Romania 6-4, 7-6(4) in today's final. Carle is closing in on the WTA Top 100, with her live ranking now up to 110.

Former University of Texas Longhorns Allura and Maribella Zamarippa won the doubles title, with the unseeded twin sisters defeating No. 2 seeds Whitney Osuigwe and Hailey Baptiste 6-3, 3-6, 10-4 in the final. It's the seventh Pro Circuit doubles title for the 21-year-olds.

It was a clean sweep for former collegians in the three US events this week, with both the singles and doubles titles at the $25,000 tournament in Wesley Chapel Florida also fitting into that category.

No. 6 seed Roberto Cid, a former All-American at South Florida, won the singles title, beating No. 3 seed Nick Chappell(TCU) 6-3, 6-2 in the final. Top seeds Simon Freund(LSU/UC-Santa Barbara) of Sweden and Johannes Ingildsen(Florida) of Denmark won their second doubles title in as many weeks, after winning indoors last week in Ithaca, the top seeds won outdoors in Wesley Chapel, beating unseeded Victor Lilov and Nicolas Buitrago of Colombia  6-4, 6-7(6), 10-4 in Saturday's final. They now have eight titles as a team, with five coming in the last six months.

The ITA Division I Kickoff Weekend is one match from complete, with Georgia and Texas A&M playing Monday afternoon to decide the fifteenth team to travel to New York for the men's National Team Indoor Championships next month.  No. 1 seeded hosts not advancing to the Indoors are North Carolina, Mississippi State and Kentucky, with one No. 1 seed, Georgia, still to play.

Qualifiers for Men's National Indoors in Seattle

(Saturday final):
Alabama[2] d. Kentucky[1] 4-2

(Sunday finals):
Duke[1] d. Middle Tennessee[2] 4-0
Tennessee[1] d. Oklahoma[2] 4-1
Ohio State[1] d. Boise State[3] 4-0
Virginia[1] d. Florida Atlantic[3] 4-0
Harvard[1] d. Northwestern[3] 4-0
South Carolina[1] d. LSU[3] 4-1
Wake Forest[2] d. Illinois[4] 4-1
Michigan[1] d. Stanford[2] 4-3
Texas[1] d. Oklahoma State[3] 4-1
TCU[1] d. Tulsa[2] 4-0
Arizona State[3] d. VCU[4] 4-2
Arizona[[1] d. Baylor[3] 4-2
USC[1] d. San Diego[2] 4-3

(Monday final):
Georgia[1] v Texas A&M[2]

The women's field is set after the five regional finals today, and a fourth No. 1 seed, the same number as last year) fell short of qualifying. No. 1 seeded hosts not advancing to the women's National Team Indoor Championships are Iowa State, Duke, Tennessee and Oklahoma.

Qualifiers for Women's National Indoors in Seattle

(Saturday finals):

Michigan[1] d. Arkansas[2] 4-0

Virginia[1] d. Georgia Tech[2] 4-0

Auburn[2] d. Duke[1] 4-2 

Pepperdine[1] d. LSU[2] 4-0

North Carolina[1] d. Kentucky[3] 4-0

Southern California[3] d. Tennessee[1] 4-2

Texas[1] d. Florida State[2] 4-0

Stanford[1] d. Maryland[2] 4-0

Georgia[1] d. South Carolina[2] 4-1

Ohio State[1] d. Arizona State[3] 4-0

(Sunday finals):

Texas A&M[1] d. TCU[2] 4-0

Oklahoma State[3] d. Old Dominion[4] 4-0

NC State[1] d. Clemson[3] 4-0

Florida[1] d. San Diego[3] 4-3

Cal[2] d. Oklahoma[1] 4-3

Auburn managed to qualify for the women's Indoor Championships yesterday despite the turmoil surrounding the program, with the school announcing today that head coach Caroline Lilley would no longer be leading the program effective immediately. Although associate head coach Megan Falcon was not mentioned in the release, she is also no longer at Auburn, with neither of them making the trip to Durham for the Kickoff Weekend. 

The reasons for these sorts of dismissals are usually not disclosed, but if there is anything more than this extremely curt release made public, I will link to it.

Parsa Nemati provided this information on the leadership for the team going forward as they begin a search for a new head coach.

Lam Claims ITF J300 Coffee Bowl Title in Costa Rica; Antonius Advances to Les Petits As Singles Final, Ahmad and Davidov Claim Doubles Title; Seggerman and Trhac Add Another Challenger Title; Big Upsets Highlight Men's Kickoff Weekend

After a very late night Friday watching the Australian Open Junior finals, and an early morning Sunday for Les Petits As finals in France, I'm not going to be able to stay up for the results of the boys singles and doubles  at the ITF J300 Coffee Bowl in Costa Rica, but the girls finals are finished. No. 7 seed Shannon Lam won her first J300 final, beating 14-year-old Kristina Penickova 6-3, 7-5 in this afternoon's championship match. Prior to this week, the 15-year-old Lam's best showing at J300 was a quarterfinal. Any time a player picks up a J300 title, they are in good position to move into the Top 50 and begin thinking about direct entry into junior slams; Lam will also pick up more points for her doubles  title, with she and Thea Frodin beating No. 4 seeds Ema Mravcova and Mia Pohankova of Slovakia 6-3, 6-2 in this evening's final.

I'll have the boys singles and doubles results Sunday.

Michael Antonius will play for the Les Petits As title Sunday, with the 13-year-old from Buffalo New York taking on No. 11 seed Izan Banares Lasala of Spain.  Antonius defeated fellow American Tabb Tuck 6-2, 6-3 in today's semifinal, but Tuck can take heart from the fact that his five games are more than Antonius lost in his previous four matches. Banares Lasala prevented an all-US final by defeating No. 3 seed Jordan Lee 6-3, 6-2.

Americans can sweep the boys titles with a win by Antonius Sunday, as Izyan Ahmad and Teodor Davidov collected the boys doubles title Saturday. The unseeded pair defeated Quentin Dodin and Thomas Grevoul of France, also unseeded, 2-6, 6-1, 10-6 in the final. 

The girls singles final Sunday will feature the girls doubles champions facing off against each other. No. 7 seed Mariia Makarova will face fellow Russian Kseniia Ruchina, the No. 2 seed, for the title after two eerily similar semifinal victories.

Makarova defeated No. 5 seed Anna Pircher of Austria 7-6(3), 7-5, while Ruchina beat No. 16 seed Nauhany Leme da Silva of Brazil 7-6(1), 7-5.

After the singles semifinals, Makarova and Ruchina teamed up to take the doubles title, with the top seeds beating No. 6 seeds Jana Kovackova and Katerina Zajickova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 3-6, 10-5.

Welles Newman fell in the final of the consolation draw (for those losing in the first round) to Sakino Miyazawa of Japan 1-4, 4-0, 5-3.

Links to live streaming and live scoring are available here. Draws are here.

Top seed Zachary Svajda and unseeded Blaise Bicknell(Florida/Tennessee) of Jamaica will play for the title at the Southern California Open Challenger 50 Sunday in Indian Wells.  Svajda defeated Sebastian Fanselow(Pepperdine) of Germany 6-2, 6-4, while Bicknell advanced to his second career Challenger final with a 7-6(5), 6-4 win over qualifier Andre Ilagan(Hawaii).

In the doubles final today, Ryan Seggerman and Patrik Trhac did it again, taking their second consecutive title in as many weeks in Indian Wells, and their 12th pro title since agreeing to partner last July in SoCal Pro Series. The top seeds defeated unseeded Thomas Fancutt of Australia and Ajeet Rai of New Zealand 6-4, 3-6, 10-3 for their fourth Challenger title. 

Steve Pratt wrote a feature article, which came out prior to the two SoCal sponsored tournaments in Indian Wells, with lots of details on how the two San Diego residents managed to get together despite their prickly relationship as juniors. 

For more on their doubles title and the singles semifinals today, see this article, also by Pratt.

Ten women's teams earned their spots in next month's Division I Team Indoor Championships in Seattle, with two of those, Auburn and Southern California, getting wins over hosts. The other five women's regional finals are set for Sunday, with another host, Iowa State, already out after losing to No. 4 seed Old Dominion 4-0 today.

Saturday's Kickoff Weekend regional finals results:

(upsets in bold)

Michigan[1] d. Arkansas[2] 4-0

Virginia[1] d. Georgia Tech[2] 4-0

Auburn[2] d. Duke[1] 4-2 

Pepperdine[1] d. LSU[2] 4-0

North Carolina[1] d. Kentucky[3] 4-0

Southern California[3] d. Tennessee[1] 4-2

Texas[1] d. Florida State[2] 4-0

Stanford[1] d. Maryland[2] 4-0

Georgia[1] d. South Carolina[2] 4-1

Ohio State[1] d. Arizona State[3] 4-0

Last year all 15 men's hosts advanced to the National Team Indoors (only 11 women's hosts did in 2023); that will not be the case this year, with three already out despite most of the finals not being played until Sunday.

One men's regional final was played today and that saw host Kentucky lose to No. 2 seed Alabama 4-2. That was a surprise, with Kentucky No. 10 in the current rankings and Alabama unranked, but another host lost their first match against a No. 4 seed, with 12th-ranked Mississippi State falling to Virginia Commonwealth 4-3 in Starkville. So in that final Sunday, No. 4 seed VCU will play No. 3 seed Arizona State, who beat No. 2 seed Florida State 4-3 today.

The third host to bow out was North Carolina, in what was widely considered the most competitive men's region going in. The Tar Heels were beaten by No. 4 seed Illinois 4-3, and will face No. 2 seed Wake Forest, who beat No. 3 seed Florida 4-1.

Updated brackets and a live scoreboard can be found at Slam Tennis. Cracked Racquets will continue to provide coverage on their YouTube channel and on ESPN+ Sunday, with one regional final Monday, hosted by the Georgia men.

Top Seed Jamrichova Claims Australian Open Girls Title, Sakamoto Captures Boys Singles Championship; All-US Boys Final at ITF J300 Coffee Bowl

Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia was the No. 1 seed at the last junior slam, but the 16-year-old lefthander came up short in New York, falling in three sets to No. 9 seed Tereza Valentova of the Czech Republic. Once again the top seed this week Australia, Jamrichova lived up to role as favorite, defeating No. 6 seed Emerson Jones of Australia 6-4, 6-1 for the Australian Open girls singles title.

Jones started the match well, getting an early break and holding three times for a 4-1 lead. But Jamrichova adjusted to the occasion and the atmosphere of the Rod Laver Arena, saved a break point serving at 1-4 and went on to win 14 of the next 15 points to serve for the set at 5-4. Jamrichova had to save a break point at 30-40 in that game, but her serve was there when she needed it and she closed out the set.

When Jones was broken for the third straight time to open the second set, an air of inevitability seemed to set in, and Jamrichova quickly won three more games, for a total of nine straight, before Jones held for 4-1.

Jamrichova had to save two break points to go up 5-1, but Jones's unforced errors began to pile up and she was broken in the final game.

Jamrichova is the second Slovakian to claim the Australian Open girls championship, with Tereza Mihalikova winning the title in 2015.

The girls final lasted just over an hour, while the boys final that followed was two hours and 13 minutes of twists and turns before No. 4 seed Rei Sakamoto of Japan closed out a 3-6, 7-6(2), 7-5 win over unseeded Jan Kumstat of the Czech Republic. 

Kumstat, playing in his first junior slam, showed no sign of nerves, getting one break, in the fourth game and making it stand up. His serve, often measured at more than 200 kph, was the key to his success, with 25 aces overall, but Sakamoto didn't appear discouraged by all those balls flying by him. He kept himself in front throughout the second set, with neither playing facing a break point, then dominated in the tiebreaker, with Kumstat making several errors and losing both his service points from 2-3.

Unbothered by that poor game, Kumstat held to start the third, but Sakamoto finally got a break in the third game, only to give it back immediately. Kumstat's serve was still formidable, but his ground strokes were not as reliable as previously and he found himself down break points in his next two service games. He saved all four, and was two points from the title with Sakamoto serving at 4-5 deuce, missing a makeable forehand that would have given him a match point.  

Sakamoto held, and another tiebreaker loomed when Kumstat went up 40-0 serving at 6-5. But Kumstat lost that game after five aces, saving three break points but not the fourth, double faulting, for just the third time in the match, to lose the game.

Sakamoto closed out the championship in style, hitting big serves and forehands to emphatically end the drama that had built throughout the final six games of the match.

The 17-year-old has now begun his last year of junior tennis on a 12 match winning streak, having won the title at the Traralgon J300 last week, and joins Shintaro Mochizuki, the 2019 Wimbledon champion, as the only Japanese boys to earn junior slam singles titles.

The boys final at the ITF J300 in Costa Rica will be an all-US contest, with Matisse Farzam facing qualifier Ian Mayew for the title. Farzam defeated No. 2 seed Miguel Tobon of Colombia 6-4, 6-1, while Mayew beat Max Dussault 6-3, 6-1. Farzam and Mayew played last year at the J300 in San Diego, with Farzam winning 7-5, 6-2.

The girls singles final, also between two Americans, features No. 7 seed Shannon Lam and unseeded Kristina Penickova.

The doubles finals will also feature American teams, with Noah Johnston and Benjamin Willwerth facing Canadians Mikael and Nicolas Arseneault. No. 3 seeds Lam and Thea Frodin will face No 4 seeds Ema Mravcova and Mia Pohankova of Slovakia in the girls final.

Americans Sweep Australian Open Junior Doubles Titles; Lee, Antonius and Tuck Reach Semifinals at Les Petits As, Girls Top Seed Kovackova Ousted; Lam and Penickova Meet Saturday in Costa Rica ITF J300 Final

Because I plan to stay up tonight to watch the Australian Open Juniors singles finals, I will put up a second post much later tonight that covers those two matches and tonight's boys semifinal results at the ITF J300 Coffee Bowl.

But we had a busy day Friday in Melbourne and Tarbes, with two titles for American doubles teams at the Australian Open and three American boys reaching the semifinals at Les Petits As.

Due to rain on Thursday, the doubles semifinals and finals were both played on the same day, which was possible when those players in both singles and doubles losing in the doubles semifinals.

No. 3 seeds Tyra Grant and Iva Jovic defeated top seeds Sara Saito and Ena Koike of Japan 6-3, 7-6(4) in the semifinals, with that second set as close as they came to dropping a set throughout the tournament. In the final, the two-time Orange Bowl champions defeated unseeded Julie Pastikova of the Czech Republic and Julia Stusek of Germany 6-3, 6-1. Pastikova and Stusek had surprised No. 2 seeds Mingge Xu and Hannah Klugman of Great Britain 6-3, 1-6, 10-8 in the semifinals. It's the first junior slam title for Jovic; Grant won the Roland Garros doubles title last June with Clervie Ngounoue. 

Although they were unseeded, Max Exsted and Cooper Woestendick were not taken lightly by any of their opponents after they had captured the doubles title at ITF J300 in Traralgon last week. Exsted and Woestendick dropped just one set in their five wins, in the semifinals against top seeds Rei Sakamoto of Japan and Federico Cina of Italy, who they had also beaten in the semifinals at Traralgon. After that semifinal win, they took on No. 5 seeds Petr Brunclik of the Czech Republic and Viktor Frydrych of Great Britain, who had beaten Kaylan Bigun and Jagger Leach 6-7(5), 6-3, 10-5 in the semifinals. Exsted, 16, and Woestendick, 17, won the championship match 6-3, 7-5 to earn their first junior slam titles.

Exsted and Woestendick replicated the accomplishments of Cooper Williams and Learner Tien at last year's Australian swing, winning titles at both Traralgon and the Junior Championships.

It is the first time since 1992 that two all-American teams have swept the boys and girls slam doubles titles. 

In Saturday's singles finals, the home country will have a definite favorite for the first time since 2016, when Oliver Anderson won the boys singles title. No. 6 seed Emerson Jones of Australia came from 1-4 in the first set (quarterfinal match suspended at that time due to rain) to beat No. 2 seed Sara Saito of Japan 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 advancing to the semifinals, where she downed No. 16 seed Iva Ivanova of Bulgaria 6-4, 6-1. Ivanova had defeated No. 12 seed Mingge Xu of Great Britain 6-4, 6-3 in the other rain delayed quarterfinal.

The top half semifinal, with both players having won their quarterfinals before the rain Thursday, was a close one, with top seed Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia finally getting over the semifinal hump at a junior slam with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 win over No. 10 seed Ena Koike. Jones, who won last week's ITF J300 in Traralgon, is the first Australian girl since Jessica Moore in 2008 to reach the final in Melbourne. Jamrichova, who reached the semifinals at Wimbledon and the US Open juniors last year, would be the second Slovakian girls champion in Australia, with Tereza Mihalikova winning the title in 2015.

The boys final will also feature this year's Traralgon champion, with No. 4 seed Rei Sakamoto of Japan now on a 11-match winning streak. Sakamoto earned his second win over No. 2 seed Nikolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway in that stretch; after beating him in the Traralgon final 6-4, 6-1, he took a 6-2, 6-4 decision in Friday's semifinals. 

His opponent in the final would not have been on anyone's short list of contenders, but unseeded Jan Kumstat of the Czech Republic is growing in confidence with each win in his first junior slam. He defeated unseeded Mees Rottgering of the Netherlands 6-1, 6-3 in the semifinals. 

In the mixed double final, No. 3 seeds Jan Zielinski of Poland and Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan saved a match point to defeat No. 2 seeds Desirae Krawczyk(Arizona State) and Great Britain's Neal Skupski(LSU) 6-7(5), 6-4, 11-9. It's the first mixed title for both, although Hsieh has six major doubles titles and is going for a seventh in Australia with Elise Mertens of Belgium. Zielinski, a 2017 NCAA doubles finalist while competing for the University of Georgia, reached the men's doubles final in Australia last year. For more on the mixed final, see this article from the ATP.

Three of the four semifinalists at Les Petits As are from the United States, with all three boys in Friday's quarterfinals putting up wins today.

No. 2 seed Michael Antonius has kept his opponents to an average of one game a match this week, which is just what unseeded Bernardo Carvalho of Brazil got in Antonius's 6-1, 6-0 victory. Antonius will play No. 16 seed Tabb Tuck, who beat fellow wild card Pablo Pradat of France 6-2, 6-2 for his fourth consecutive straight-sets victory. Tuck and Antonius met in the final of the Eddie Herr 12s in 2022, with Antonius winning that match 6-1, 6-2.

No. 3 seed Jordan Lee has dropped sets in his last two victories; today he defeated unseeded Stan Put of the Netherlands 4-6, 6-1, 6-2. Lee will face No. 11 seed Izan Banares Lasala of Spain, who beat unseeded Rafael Thao-Keuang of France 6-1, 6-0. 

We know there will be an American in the singles final; on Saturday two other Americans will play for the doubles title. Izyan Ahmad and Teodor Davidov will face France's Quentin Dodin and Thomas Grevoul in the final between two unseeded teams.

Top seed and Junior Orange Bowl 14s champion Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic was upset in the quarterfinals today, with No. 7 seed Mariia Makarova of Russia securing a 6-2, 6-4 victory. Makarova will play No. 5 seed Anna Pircher of Austria, who beat Xinran Sun of China 2-6, 6-2, 6-0. No. 2 seed Kseniia Ruchkina of Russia, a 6-3 6-1 winner over Grace Bernstein of Sweden, will face Nauhany Leme Da Silva of Brazil, who beat Ida Wobker of Germany 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The draws can be found here.

The girls final is set at the ITF J300 Coffee Bowl in Costa Rica, with No. 7 seed Shannon Lam to face unseeded Kristina Penickova after four Americans battled in today's semifinals. The 15-year-old Lam took out top seed Katie Rolls 6-4, 6-1; the 14-year-old Penickova, who won the Eddie Herr 16s title last month, defeated Thea Frodin 6-4, 6-4.

The boys semifinal between qualifier Ian Mayew and Max Dussault is also an all-US contest; Matisse Farzam will face the only international boy and seed, Colombia's Miguel Tobon[2], in the other semifinal.

US Boys Fall in Australian Open Quarterfinals; Antonius, Lee and Tuck Reach Les Petits As Quarterfinals; All-USA Semis at Coffee Bowl; Ngounoue Advances at Vero Beach W75; ITA Kickoff Weekend Begins Friday

The last two Americans competing in singles at the Australian Open Junior Championships bowed out Thursday, with No. 5 seed Kaylan Bigun dropping a 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-2 decision to No. 2 seed Nikolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway and unseeded Cooper Woestendick losing to No. 4 seed Rei Sakamoto of Japan 7-5, 6-3. 

Budkov Kjaer had lost a three-setter to Bigun in the Orange Bowl quarterfinals last month, and he'll have another opportunity for revenge Friday against Sakamoto, who beat him 6-4, 6-1 in last week's final at the ITF J300 in Traralgon.

The other boys semifinal is between two unseeded players, with 17-year-old Jan Kumstat of the Czech Republic defeating No. 16 seed Hayden Jones 6-7(2), 6-3, 7-5 and 16-year-old Mees Rottgering of the Netherlands beating Amir Omarkhanov of Kazakhstan 6-2, 6-0 in the quarterfinals. None of the four boys semifinalists had ever been to the quarterfinals of a junior slam before this week; Kumstat, who is making his junior slam debut several weeks after turning 17, has never even reached a J300 final.

Due to rain late in the day Thursday, only one of the girls semifinals is set.  Top seed Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia put an end to the run of 14-year-old wild card Ksenia Efremova of France 6-2, 6-1, while Japan's Ena Koike, seeded No. 10, defeated No. 15 seed Vlada Mincheva of Russia 7-6(6), 6-0. Jamrichova has now made the semifinals of the last three junior slams and leads Koike 2-0 in the head-to-head, with the most recent in the semifinals of ITF Junior Finals in October.

The other two matches quarterfinals were in progress when they were postponed, with No. 16 seed Iva Ivanova of Bulgaria leading No. 12 seed Mingge Xu of Great Britain 5-4 in the first set, and No. 2 seed Sara Saito of Japan leading No. 6 seed Emerson Jones of Australia 4-1 in the first set. 

Those two matches and both semifinals are on Friday's schedule, with the boys semifinals also scheduled for Friday.

The doubles semifinals did not begin and were pushed to Friday as well, with both the semifinals and finals on the schedule. Saito and Koike are in the doubles semifinals, and I believe that if they were to reach the doubles final, they would have the option to move it to Saturday. If Saito beats Jones, and she and Koike win their doubles semifinal, she would have three and a half matches to play in one day. The same scenario applies to Xu, who is also in the doubles semifinals.

Doubles semifinals:

Kaylan Bigun and Jagger Leach v Petr Brunclik(CZE) and Viktor Frydrych(GBR)[5]

Cooper Woestendick and Max Exsted v Federico Cina(ITA) and Rei Sakamoto(JPN)[1]

Tyra Grant and Iva Jovic[3] v Ena Koike(JPN) and Sara Saito(JPN)[1]

Julie Pastikova(CZE) and Julia Stusek(GER) v Mingge Xu(GBR) and Hannah Klugman(GBR)[2]

No. 2 seeds Desirae Krawczyk(Arizona State) and Great Britain's Neal Skupski(LSU) will play for the mixed doubles title Friday against No. 3 seeds Jan Zielinski(Georgia) of Poland and Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan. Krawczyk is going for the career slam, having won at least one mixed title at Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open.

Coco Gauff lost to defending champion Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 7-6(2), 6-4 in the women's semifinals; Sabalenka will face Qinwen Zheng of China in Saturday's final.

Three American boys have advanced to Les Petits As quarterfinals: No. 2 seed Michael Antonius, who has lost a total of three games in three matches, No. 3 seed Jordan Lee and No. 16 seed Tabb Tuck. Lee defeated last week's champion at Bolton in three sets, while Tuck earned a quick victory over the No. 4 seed.

Thursday's third round results of Americans at Les Petits As

Pablo Pradat[WC](FRA) d. Teodor Davidov[12] 6-2, 7-6(5)

Izan Banares Lasala[11](ESP) d. Izyan Ahmad[8] 6-2, 6-4

Jordan Lee[3] d. Taiki Takizawa[15](JPN) 6-1, 1-6 6-3

Tabb Tuck[16[(WC) d. Richard Krizan[4](SVK) 6-1, 6-1

Michael Antonius[2] d. Evgenii Kafelnikov[14](RUS) 6-0, 6-1

Jana Kovackova[1](CZE) d. Margaret Sohns[15] 3-6, 6-2, 6-4

Xinran Sun(CHN) d. Lani Chang[WC] 6-4, 6-0

Friday's quarterfinals matches featuring Americans:

Jordan Lee[3] v Stan Put(NED)

Tabb Tuck[16](WC) v Pablo Pradat(FRA)

Michael Antonius[2] v Bernardo Carvalho(BRA)

Draws are here, links to live streaming and live scoring are here.

Last night in the second round of the ITF J300 Coffee Bowl in Costa Rica, qualifier Ian Mayew defeated top seed Nikita Filin 6-1, 7-6(1), and Yubel Ubri defeated Rafael Botran of Guatemala 7-5, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals, making six US boys in the final eight. Three of the boys quarterfinals are late matches, but one of the all-US quarterfinals is complete, with Max Dussault defeating Dominick Mosejczuk 6-2, 6-2. Of the eight quarterfinalists, there is just one seed remaining: Miguel Tobon of Colombia. 

The girls quarterfinals are complete, and all four advancing to the semifinals are Americans. Top seed Katie Rolls cruised past Jeline Vandromme of Belgium 6-4, 6-0; No. 7 seed Shannon Lam defeated No. 4 seed Margot Phantala of France 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 and will play Rolls next.

In the bottom half, 14-year-old Kristina Penickova defeated No. 3 seed Monika Ekstrand 6-0, 7-6 and will face 15-year-old Thea Frodin, who beat Naomi Xu of Canada 6-0, 2-6, 6-4. 

See the tournament website for results, draws and Friday's schedule.

Clervie Ngounoue, who won her first Pro Circuit title two weeks ago at the W35 in Naples, advanced to the quarterfinals of the W75+hospitality USTA event in Vero Beach Florida. Ngounoue, a wild card entry, defeated qualifier Sayaka Ishii of Japan 6-4, 6-3 in today's second round. Ishii, 18, and Ngounoue, 17, had met four times in ITF junior play, splitting those matches; this was their first meeting on the Pro Circuit. Ngounoue will face No. 2 seed Maria Carle(Georgia) of Argentina in Friday's quarterfinals. 

The ITA Division I Kickoff Weekend begins Friday, with 30 four-team regionals across the country. The draft, which was held last summer, allows teams to choose their regional in attempting to qualifying for the National Team Indoor Championships, with draft position determined by the order of their final rankings from 2023. The top 15 teams in the rankings host, with the National Indoor hosts receiving direct entry. The Columbia men and Washington women are the hosts this year. 

If you've forgotten who chose to go where, here are the drafts for women and men. 

Chris Halioris at College Tennis Ranks has posted events pages for both men and women, with links to live scoring and video. Submitted lineups and previews are also available for the men. 

Cracked Racquets will be providing coverage of action from 20 of the 30 sites, either on ESPN+ or on their Cracked Racquets YouTube Channel. For more on which regional can be viewed where, see this article from the ITA.

The Great Shot Podcast has a women's preview with Alex Gruskin and John Parsons; Parsons' No-Ad No Problem podcast has a men's preview with Ethan Moszkowski.

Bigun and Woestendick Reach Australian Open Juniors Singles Quarterfinals, Doubles Semifinals; Five US Boys, Two US Girls Advance to Les Petits As Third Round; Americans Plentiful in ITF J300 Coffee Bowl Quarterfinals; Ohio State Men Move to Top Spot in Latest Rankings

The last three US girls in the draw at the Australian Open Junior Championships lost in Wednesday's third round, but two of the four US boys in action did advance to Thursday's quarterfinals with three-set victories. 

No. 5 seed Kaylan Bigun, who also reached the quarterfinals at the Wimbledon Junior Championship last summer, came back to defeat 11 seed Petr Brunclik of the Czech Republic 6-7(7), 6-3, 7-6(8) after trailing 3-1 in the third set. Bigun will face No. 2 seed Nikolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway, whom he defeated in the quarterfinals of the Orange Bowl last month.

Unseeded Cooper Woestendick defeated Atakan Karahan of Turkey 7-6(2), 1-6, 7-5, his third consecutive three-set victory and once again the 17-year-old from Kansas broke his opponent in the final game, with a double fault ending the match. Woestendick will play No. 4 seed Rei Sakamoto of Japan in the quarterfinals; if both Americans win, they will meet in the semifinals. 

Both Bigun and Woestendick are also playing in the doubles semifinals Thursday, Bigun with Jagger Leach and Woestendick with Max Exsted. Iva Jovic and Tyra Grant are through to the girls doubles semifinals.

Wednesday's third round Australian Open junior matches featuring Americans:

Kaylan Bigun[5] d. Petr Brunclik[11](CZE) 6-7(7), 6-3, 7-6(8)

Mees Rottgering(NED) d. Roy Horovitz[10] 6-4, 6-4

Jan Kumstat(CZE) d. Alex Razeghi[6] 7-6(4), 6-2

Cooper Woestendick d. Atakan Karahan(TUR) 7-6(2), 1-6, 7-5

Ksenia Efremova[WC](FRA) d. Mia Slama 6-4, 6-2

Emerson Jones[6](AUS) d. Tyra Grant[9] 7-5, 6-3 

Iva Ivanova[16](BUL) d. Aspen Schuman[Q] 7-5, 4-6, 6-4

Thursday's Australian Open junior matches featuring Americans:

Singles:

Cooper Woestendick v Rei Sakamoto[4](JPN)

Kaylan Bigun[5] v Nikolai Budkov Kjaer[2](NOR)

Doubles:

Kaylan Bigun and Jagger Leach v Petr Brunclik(CZE) and Viktor Frydrych(GBR)[5]

Cooper Woestendick and Max Exsted v Federico Cina(ITA) and Rei Sakamoto(JPN)[1]

Tyra Grant and Iva Jovic[3] v Ena Koike(JPN) and Sara Saito(JPN)[1]

The boys top seed at Les Petits As was beaten in today's second round in Tarbes France, with Pavel Dufek of the Czech Republic losing to Rafael Thao-Keuang of France 6-4, 7-6(5).  That leaves Michael Antonius, at No. 2, the favorite now, and the Eddie Herr champion looked the part in his 6-1, 6-1 win over Luka Kostic of Serbia. Antonius is one of five seeded Americans, and they have all reached the third round. 

The two US girls who won their first round matches, Maggie Sohns[15] and Lani Chang, also advanced to Thursday's round of 16.  Sohns faces top seed Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic, Chang plays unseeded Xinran Sun of China.

Second round results of Americans at Les Petits As:

Michael Antonius[2] d. Luka Kostic(SRB) 6-1, 6-1

Jordan Lee[3] d. Daniel Turcan(MDA) 6-1, 6-0

Izyan Ahmad[8] d. Alex Tuomolin(FIN) 6-0, 6-0

Teodor Davidov[12] d. Istvan Damjan Mokan(HUN) 6-3, 6-3

Tabb Tuck[16] d. Luca Iliescu[WC](FRA) 6-0, 6-4

Erikas Maskolaitis[Q](LTU) d. Jason Eigbedion 6-4, 6-4

Maggie Sohns[15] d. Darina Matvejeva[WC](LAT) 6-3, 6-4

Lani Chang[WC] d. Viktoria Novakova(SVK) 6-7(2), 6-4, 7-5

Draws can be found here; live streaming and live scoring links are here.

The singles quarterfinals will be played Thursday at the ITF J300 Coffee Bowl in Costa Rica, with at least five US boys and four US girls still competing. There are three third round singles matches being played tonight, all involving Americans, including the all-USA match between top seed Nikita Filin and qualifier Ian Mayew. No. 3 seed Monika Ekstrand and unseeded Yubel Ubri are the other two Americans with an opportunity to reach the quarterfinals.

Orange Bowl 16s champion Dominick Mosejczuk, who received a wild card, defeated No. 3 seed Rafael Segado of Spain 7-5, 6-1 and will play Max Dussault for a place in the semifinals. Kase Schinnerer will face the Filin-Mayew winner in another all-US quarterfinal. Matisse Farzam defeated qualifier Meecah Bigun in an all-US second round to reach the final eight.

The US girls are spread out in the draw, with the only possible all-US quarterfinal Ekstrand versus Kristina Penickova. Orange Bowl 16s finalist Thea Frodin, No. 7 seed Shannon Lam and top seed Katie Rolls will have international opponents in their quarterfinals. Draws that are updated throughout the day can be found at the tournament's website. 

South Carolina's 4-3 win over No. 1 and defending NCAA champion Virginia over the weekend caused a shakeup in this week's men's poll, with Ohio State taking over the No. 1 position. But unlike the previous polls, that wasn't unanimous, with votes also going to Virginia and South Carolina.

The wins over Michigan and Ohio State over the weekend boosted the Oklahoma State women to No. 3; Texas fell from 6 to 10 after a loss to UCLA. The lists of the Top 25 teams this week can be found by clicking on the headings.

Women's Division I Team Rankings Top Ten January 24, 2024

Brackets are number of 1st place votes; parentheses are previous rankings

1. North Carolina[13] (1)

2. Stanford(2)

3. Oklahoma State(5)

4. Georgia(3)

5. Michigan(4)

6. Pepperdine(7)

7. NC State(8)

8. Florida(9)

9. Texas A&M(10)

10. Texas(6)

Men's Division I Team Rankings Top Ten January 24, 2024

1. Ohio State[6](2)

2. South Carolina[4](5)

3. Virginia[3](1)

4. Texas(3)

5. TCU(4)

6. Tennessee(6)

7. Southern Cal(7)

8. Duke(8)

9. Stanford(9)

10. Kentucky(10)

Seven American Juniors Advance to Australian Open Third Round; Gauff Reaches Women's Semifinals; Two More Wins for US Boys at Les Petits As; 2023 Kalamazoo Finalists Advance at SoCal Challenger, USTA Pro Circuit Update

All five American juniors playing in the second round Australian Open Junior Championships Tuesday earned victories, joining Alex Razeghi[6] and Roy Horovitz[10], who had won their matches on Monday, in Wednesday's third round. Three of the boys were expected by their seeds to advance, as was No. 9 Tyra Grant, with three others having excellent results on the hard courts in Melbourne: qualifier Aspen Schuman, NC State signee Mia Slama and reigning Kalamazoo 16s champion Cooper Woestendick. Woestendick avenged his November second round loss on Mexican clay to Max Schoenhaus of Germany in the closest of the five matches, breaking in the final game, with the assist of two double faults, for a 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-5 win.

Woestendick is also one of six US boys in the doubles quarterfinals Wednesday, with he and Max Exsted, last week's champions at Traralgon, beating No. 3 seeds Razeghi and partner Hayden Jones of Australia 6-3, 6-2. Woestendick and Exsted will face Horovitz and his partner, future Virginia teammate Keegan Rice of Canada, who beat Eddie Herr champions Daniil Sarksian and Timofey Derepasko of Russia 6-4, 7-5. The all-US pair of Kaylan Bigun and Jagger Leach will play Matthew Forbes and his partner Max Stenzer of Germany, who defeated No. 2 seeds Tomasz Berkieta of Poland and Maxim Mrva of the Czech Republic 6-0, 7-5 in the second round.  

No. 3 seeds Iva Jovic and Grant, the two-time Orange Bowl doubles champions, are also through to the quarterfinals after beating Yelyzaveta Kotliar of Ukraine and Monika Stankiewicz of Poland 6-3, 6-4.

Tuesday's second round Australian Open junior results of Americans:

Kaylan Bigun[5] d. Thijs Boogaard(NED) 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
Cooper Woestendick d. Max Schoenhaus(GER) 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-5
Mia Slama d. Hephzibah Oluwadare[Q](GBR) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
Tyra Grant[9] d. Julie Pastikova(CZE) 3-6, 6-2, 6-3
Aspen Schuman[Q] d. Gaeul Jang(KOR) 7-6(5), 6-1

Wednesday's third round Australian Open junior matches featuring Americans:

Kaylan Bigun[5] v Petr Brunclik[11](CZE)
Roy Horovitz[10] v Mees Rottgering(NED)
Alex Razeghi[6] v Jan Kumstat(CZE)
Cooper Woestendick v Atakan Karahan(TUR)

Mia Slama v Ksenia Efremova[WC](FRA)
Tyra Grant[9] v Emerson Jones[6](AUS)
Aspen Schuman[Q] v Iva Ivanova[16](BUL)

The last American standing in the men's and women's singles at the Australian Open is the same as it was the US Open, with Coco Gauff surviving a three-hour battle with Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 7-6(6), 6-7(3), 6-2 to advance to the semifinals. She'll face the woman she beat to take the US Open title, No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, who has yet to be tested in her first five matches. Taylor Fritz, the last US man in the draw, lost to top seed Novak Djokovic 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the men's quarterfinals last night. 

Two more American boys advanced to the second round of the Les Petits As in Tarbes France today, with Jason Eigbedion and No. 16 seed Tabb Tuck picking up victories. They join Michael Antonius[2], Jordan Lee[3], Zizou Ahmad[8] and Teodor Davidov[12], all of whom won Monday, in second round action Wednesday. The two US girls in the second round are Maggie Sohns[15] and Lani Chang, who won their first round matches Monday.

Live streaming and live scoring links are here. Draws are here. Replays of matches can be found at the Les Petits As YouTube channel.

Rain washed out play Monday at the Southern California Open ATP Challenger 50 in Indian Wells, but the sun is shining in the desert today, with the qualifying finishing and ten first round matches scheduled. 

The six players advancing to the main draw are Arizona State senior Max McKennon, Michigan State sophomore Ozan Baris, 2022 Australian Open boys champion Bruno Kuzuhara, Matias Soto(Baylor) of Chile, Andre Ilagan(Hawaii) and Arizona State freshman Bor Artnak of Slovenia.

Both 2023 Kalamazoo 18s finalists were in action today, with two-time champion Learner Tien getting his second victory in as many weeks over Giovanni Oradini(Mississippi State) of Italy 6-2, 6-3. SMU freshman Trevor Svajda, the Kalamazoo finalist, started his match against No. 5 seed Tennys Sandgren(Tennessee) by losing the first set 6-0, but won the next two sets in tiebreakers to earn his first Challenger main draw win 0-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(3). The 17-year-old from San Diego served for the match at 5-4 in the third set, wasn't able to close it out, but kept his nerve in the tiebreaker to beat the current ATP No. 266, who has been ranked as high as 41.  Svajda will play former Pepperdine star Sebastian Fanselow of Germany, who is 32 years old, in the second round. 

Trevor's older brother Zach, a wild card recipient and the No. 1 seed this week, won his first round match today. The 2019 and 2021 Kalamazoo 18s champion defeated 18-year-old Gabriel Debru of France 6-4, 6-1. In addition to the Svajda brothers, Ryan Seggerman(Princeton/UNC) received a wild card. He lost to last week's finalist Brandon Holt(USC) 6-3, 6-4 today. 

There are two USTA Pro Circuit events this week, both in Florida, with the men competing at a $25K in Wesley Chapel and the women at a W75+hospitality in Vero Beach.

American men who qualified are Axel Nefve(Notre Dame/Florida) Kyle Overmyer, UCLA signee Rudy Quan, Alex Kobelt(Ohio State/UNLV), Patrick Maloney(Michigan), Preston Brown and Trey Hilderbrand(UCF/Texas A&M).

Wild cards were given to Jake Van Emburgh(Oklahoma/Ohio State), Jorge Cavero, NCAA champion Ethan Quinn(Georgia) and Auburn signee Alex Frusina. Frusina defeated No. 7 seed Victor Lilov 7-5, 6-2 in first round action today.  Texas freshman and 2022 ITF World Junior Champion Gilles Bailly is the No. 4 seed this week and he won his first round match today. 

Toby Kodat is the No. 1 seed this week in Wesley Chapel, with Quinn seeded No. 2.

The top seed in Vero Beach is WTA No. 101 Renata Zarazua of Mexico, with WTA No. 124 Maria Carle(Georgia) of Argentina the No. 2 seed. 

Americans who qualified are Sophie Chang, Vivan Wolff(Georgia/UCLA) and Lea Ma(Georgia). Wild cards were given to Clervie Ngounoue, Madison Sieg(USC), Allie Kiick and Fernanda Castillo Huerta of Mexico.

NCAA singles finalist Layne Sleeth(Florida/Oklahoma) of Canada received an ITF Accelerator spot in the draw and beat No. 7 seed Elvina Kalieva 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 in first round action today.

Razeghi and Horovitz Reach Third Round at Australian Open Juniors; Filin and Rolls Top Seeds at Costa Rica ITF J300 Coffee Bowl; Six Americans Advance at Les Petits As

This is the week I'm focusing on three vastly different time zones, with Les Petits As six hours ahead of EST, the Coffee Bowl in Costa Rica one hour behind EST and the Australian Open 16 hours and a day ahead of EST.

Monday's second round matches at the Australian Open Junior Championships featured four Americans, with the two seeded players advancing to the third round Wednesday. No. 6 seed Alex Razeghi(Stanford signee) defeated qualifier Yeonsu Jeong of Korea 6-3, 6-1 to make the last 16 of a junior slam for the first time, while No. 10 seed Roy Horovitz(Virginia signee) saved a match point in his 1-6, 7-6(8), 6-2 win over Eddie Herr finalist Theo Papamalamis of France.

Five Americans attempt to join Razeghi and Horovitz in the third round with wins Tuesday.

Monday's second round Australian Open Junior results of Americans:
Vlada Mincheva[15](RUS) d. Kate Fakih 6-1, 7-6(3)
Hayden Jones[16](AUS) d. Jagger Leach 6-4, 6-0
Alex Razeghi[6] d. Yeonsu Jeong[Q](KOR) 6-3, 6-1
Roy Horovitz[10] d. Theo Papamalamis(FRA) 1-6, 7-6(8), 6-2

Tuesday's second round Australian Open junior matches featuring Americans:

Kaylan Bigun[5] v Thijs Boogaard(NED)

Cooper Woestendick v Max Schoenhaus(GER)

Mia Slama v Hephzibah Oluwadare[Q](GBR)

Tyra Grant[9] v Julie Pastikova(CZE)

Aspen Schuman[Q] v Gaeul Jang(KOR)

While Kaylan Bigun (UCLA signee) takes on one of the top players from the 2008 birth year, his twin brother Meecah(Princeton commit) is in Costa Rica, where he qualified for the ITF J300 Coffee Bowl this past weekend and defeated No. 4 seed Cesar Cruz of El Salvador 6-4, 6-0 in today's first round action. Maximus Dussault took out No. 5 seed Connor Church of Canada 6-1, 6-3 to add to the win tally for American boys, who fill exactly one half of the 32-player draw. The best matches in Costa Rica are often scheduled late into the evening to accommodate the tournament's many fans; top seed Nikita Filin is unlikely to take the court before 10 p.m. EST tonight. The girls draw has "only" 12 US girls, the top three seeds are Americans.  Two-thirds of the first round singles matches were played today, the rest will play on Tuesday.  For a look at the strength of the field, which has many more European players than normal, see this article from the tournament website, which is arguably the most informative of any junior event in the world. 

Costa Rica Coffee Bowl Seeds:

Boys

1. Nikita Filin(USA)

2. Miguel Tobon(COL)

3. Rafael Segado Esteve(ESP)

4. Cesar Cruz(GUA)

5. Connor Church(CAN)

6. Bernado Munk Mesa[(ESP)

7. Goncalo Marques(POR)

8. Stiles Brockett(USA)

Girls

1. Kaitlyn Rolls(USA)

2. Claire An(USA)

3. Monika Ekstrand(USA)

4. Margot Phanthala(FRA)

5. Jeline Vandromme(BEL)

6. Dune Vaissaud(FRA)

7. Shannon Lam(USA)

8. Ema Mravcova(SVK)

In Tarbes France, four of the five US boys in action Monday at Les Petits As won their first round matches, as expected, as all four are seeded. Eddie Herr champion and No. 2 seed Michael Antonius defeated Thomas Grevoul of France 6-0, 6-0, with Jordan Lee[3], Zizou Ahmad[8] and Teodor Davidov[12] also posting wins. Jason Eigbedion, qualifier Tomas Laukys and Tabb Tuck[16] are on Tuesday's schedule.

In girls first round play, No. 8 seed Welles Newman, the Junior Orange Bowl 14s finalist, lost to Grace Bernstein of Sweden 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(7) in the first round today, but No. 12 seed Maggie Sohns advanced, as did wild card Lani Chang. Janae Preston plays her first round match Tuesday.

Top seed Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic has picked up right where she left off after her Junior Orange Bowl 14s title last month, beating Junior Orange Bowl 12s champions Daniel Baranes of Israel 6-0, 6-1 in the first round. 

Draws can be found at the Tennis Europe tournament page. Live scoring and live streaming links are available from the tournament's website.

Nine American Juniors Reach Australian Open Junior Championships Second Round; Thirteen Americans Ready for Les Petits As; No. 1 Virginia Falls at Home to South Carolina; Krueger and Nakashima Win Challenger Titles

Nine of the 13 American juniors competing in the boys and girls draws at the Australian Open have advanced to the second round, including qualifier Aspen Schuman. Schuman defeated No. 3 seed Kaitlin Quevedo, who recently changed her country affiliation from the United States to Spain, 7-5, 6-3 to join Mia Slama, Kate Fakih and Tyra Grant[9] in round 2.  No. 8 seed Iva Jovic had five match points in the second set of her match with Vendula Valdmannova of the Czech Republic, but couldn't hold off Valdmannova, who won 1-6, 7-5, 6-4.

No. 6 seed Alex Razeghi beat 15-year-old wild card Cruz Hewitt of Australia, the son of Lleyton Hewitt, 6-2, 6-3 and was featured in Sunday's ITF boys article. 

Sunday's first round matches featuring Americans
Alex Razeghi[6] d. Cruz Hewitt[WC](AUS) 6-2, 6-3
Cooper Woestendick d. Thanaphat Boosarawongse[Q](THA) 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-2
Diego Dedura-Palomero(GER) d. Max Exsted 6-2, 3-6, 6-4
Kaylan Bigun[5] d. Rohan Hazratwala[WC](AUS) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4
Nicolai Budkov Kjaer[2](NOR) d. Matthew Forbes 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-1

Mia Slama d. Koharu Nishikawa[WC](AUS) 6-2, 6-2
Vendula Valdmannova(CZE) d. Iva Jovic[8] 1-6, 7-5, 6-4
Aspen Schuman[Q] d. Kaitlin Quevedo[3](ESP) 7-5, 6-3
Tyra Grant[9] d. Reina Goto[Q](JPN) 6-2, 6-3

Monday's second round Australian Open Junior matches featuring Americans:

Kate Fakih v Vlada Mincheva[15](RUS)

Hayden Jones[16](AUS) d. Jagger Leach 6-4, 6-0 

Alex Razeghi[6] v Yeonsu Jeong[Q](KOR)

Roy Horovitz[10] v Theo Papamalamis(FRA)

Just two Americans remain in the men's and women's singles draws at the Australian Open: Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz. No. 4 seed Gauff continued her stroll through the draw, beating Magdalena Frech of Poland 6-1, 6-2 to remain undefeated in 2024 and run her slam winning streak to 11; Fritz, the No. 12 seed, reached his first Australian Open quarterfinal with a 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 win over No. 7 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece. Amanda Anisimova lost to No. 2 seed and defending champion Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 6-3, 6-2.

Former collegians Cameron Norrie[19](TCU) of Great Britain and 2019 NCAA singles finalist Nuno Borges(Mississippi State) are playing Monday for a spot in the quarterfinals. Norrie faces No. 6 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany, while Borges, into the second week of a major for the first time, plays No. 3 seed Daniil Medvedev of Russia.

The Les Petits As tournament begins Monday in Tarbes, with eight US boys and five US girls contending for the world's most prestigious 14U title. I don't remember ever seeing so many Americans in the draws, but three boys--Michael Antonius[2], Jordan Lee[3] and Teodor Davidov[12]--all received entry based on their Tennis Europe rankings. Four other boys are those who qualified from the November USA Playoffs--Izyan Ahmad[8], Jason Eigbedion, Tabb Tuck[16] and Arjun Krishnan--and Tomas Laukys made it through international qualifying to give the US eight of the 64 players in the boys draw.

The five girls in the draw are the four USA Playoff winners--Welles Newman[8], Maggie Sohns[15], Caroline Shao and Janae Preston--plus wild card Lani Chang, the daughter of Michael Chang.

Junior Orange Bowl 14s champion Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic is the No. 1 seed, and she will play Junior Orange Bowl 12s champion Daniel Baranes of Israel, a wild card, in the first round. 

Pavel Dufek of the Czech Republic is the top seed in the boys draw.

Draws can be found at the Tennis Europe tournament site. Links to live scoring and live streaming can be found at the Les Petits As tournament site.

It was a busy day in college tennis, with many of the top teams taking on quality opponents in advance of the Division I Kickoff Weekend that begins Friday. Both No. 1 and defending NCAA championship teams prepared by hosting two highly touted opponents, but the outcomes diverged dramatically. 

The North Carolina women, with six returning starters, needed just over two hours to blank No. 3 Georgia, an impressive showing from start to finish. The Virginia men, who had just earned a huge win on the road last Thursday over No. 3 Texas, lost to No. 5 South Carolina 4-3, despite taking a quick doubles point to start. Both teams were missing their No. 2 players, UVA's Inaki Montes, who also did not play against Texas, and South Carolina's Connor Thomson. South Carolina was also missing its No. 3, James Story, but Gamecock freshman Sean Daryabeigi battled through Alex Kiefer at line 5 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 to clinch it. Five of the six singles matches went to a third set, so there was little to separate the two teams, but it's a huge confidence boost to South Carolina. Read the South Carolina recap here.

Rain continued into the Sunday morning at the Southern California Open ATP Challenger 50 in Indian Wells, but they did manage to get the two finals played.  No. 4 seed Mitchell Krueger, who just turned 30, completed his semifinal this morning, beating Paul Jubb(South Carolina) of Great Britain 6-4, 6-4, then faced No. 3 seed Brandon Holt(USC), who had yesterday reached the final, his first at the Challenger level, with a win over Thai Kwiatkowski(Virginia). Holt struck first, but Krueger fought back to take the title 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, his first Challenger title since September of 2021.

Top seeds Ryan Seggerman (Princeton/UNC) and Patrick Trhac(Idaho State/Utah) took the doubles championship, their eleventh as a team and their third Challenger title, all coming since last July. They defeated Kwiatkowski and Alex Lawson(Notre Dame) 6-2, 7-6(3) in the final. 

Qualifying for the second Indian Wells ATP Challenger 50 is underway, although rain is likely Monday as well.

No. 4 seed Brandon Nakashima(Virginia) won the title at the ATP Challenger 100 in Tenerife Spain, beating No. 2 seed Pedro Martinez of Spain 6-3, 6-4 in the final. It's the first Challenger title for Nakashima since 2021, and it brings his ATP ranking up to 103.

The titles at the two USTA Pro Circuit events this week went to unseeded Karue Sell(UCLA) of Brazil and Marie Benoit of France. Sell defeated No. 7 seed Tristan McCormick(Notre Dame/Georgia) 6-3, 3-0 ret. in the final of the $25,000 tournament in Ithaca New York. It's the fifth career Pro Circuit singles title for the 30-year-old Sell. 

Top seeds Simon Freund(LSU/UC-Santa Barbara) of Sweden and Johannes Ingildsen(Florida) of Denmark won the doubles title, beating No. 3 seeds Pranav Kumar(SMU/Texas A&M) and Joshua Sheehy(Abilene Christian) 6-4, 7-6(4) in the final.

At the women's W35 in Naples Florida, No. 6 seed Benoit defeated unseeded Leonie Kung of Switzerland 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 in today's singles final. The doubles title went to No. 3 seeds Elvina Kalieva and Maria Kozyreva(St. Mary's) of Russia, who beat No. 2 seeds Lia Karatancheva of Bulgaria and Isabelle Haverlag of the Netherlands 6-0, 6-0 in the final.