Fonseca Chooses ATP Pro Career Over UVA; ITA Women's D-III Team Indoor Begins Friday; Jovic Advances in Singles and Doubles in W35 in Texas; Mark Bey Feature

One of my Tennis Recruiting Network's Eight Intriguing Questions for 2024 has been answered before the calendar turns to March, with 2023 US Open boys champion Joao Fonseca announcing he will not be attending the University of Virginia this fall, after signing with the Cavaliers in November of 2023. With his success first at the ATP Challenger level and then, this month, at the ATP level, Fonseca looked increasingly likely to bypass college, and like Alex Michelsen last year, the decision was almost made for him with his pro results. Fonseca's notice, which now gives Virginia time to pursue other recruits, can be found here. 

The eighth and final ITA Team Indoor begins Friday in Nicholasville Kentucky, with the D-III women's championships. The University of Chicago is the two-time defending champions, but they are the No. 2 seeds, with 2022 and 2023 NCAA champions Claremont-Mudd-Scripps the top seeds.

1. CMS

2. Chicago

3. Pomona-Pitzer

4. Emory

5. Johns Hopkins

6. MIT

7. Sewanee University of the South (host)

8. Carnegie Mellon

Top Seed Tennis, which hosted the D-III men's Team Indoor last weekend, is again the venue.

Iva Jovic received entry into the main draw of the USTA Pro Circuit W35 in Spring Texas as a lucky loser, and she is now through to the quarterfinals, along with five other Americans. The 16-year-old Californian defeated Thaisa Pedretti of Brazil 6-3, 6-0 in today's second round, advancing to a rematch in the quarterfinals with qualifier Malkia Ngounoue, who had beaten Jovic in the final round of qualifying 6-2, 2-6, 14-12. Former Kansas standout Ngounoue, the older sister of Clervie, defeated No. 3 seed Ana Sofia Sanchez of Mexico 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. 

Allura Zamarripa(Texas) defeated twin sister Maribella 6-3, 6-4 and will face No. 2 seed Varvara Lepchenko, who beat wild card Shannon Lam 6-2, 6-4. 

Top seed Maria Mateas(Duke) plays No. 8 seed Whitney Osuigwe in Friday's quarterfinals, with the day's fourth singles match between Ena Shibahara(UCLA) of Japan and qualifier Maria Kononova(North Texas) of Russia. 

Jovic and partner Ashley Lahey(Pepperdine) are through to the doubles semifinals after defeating No. 4 seeds Jessie Aney(UNC) and Jessica Failla(USC/Pepperdine) 4-6, 6-3, 10-2.

Clervie Ngounoue has played back-to-back W50s in South Africa, making the second round last week and the quarterfinals this week. The 17-year-old lost to 19-year-old Hanne Vandewinkel of Belgium 6-4, 6-2 today.

At the W15 in Spain, Kaitlin Quevedo, who now represents Spain after switching from the US last year, is through to the quarterfinals. The 17-year-old, seeded No. 7, defeated wild card Cristina Ramos Sierra of Spain 6-1, 6-0 today.

I forgot to mention it in Wednesday's post, but late Tuesday night at the WTA 500 in San Diego, Stanford freshman and US Open girls champion Katherine Hui lost to No. 7 seed Donna Vekic 7-5, 6-2. Hui, a wild card, broke WTA No. 31 Vekic four times, but struggled to earn points on her first serve, winning just 12 of 35, while Vekic was 24 of 31 in that category.

In conjunction with Black History Month, USTA Midwest/Chicago spoke to renowned development coach Mark Bey about his recent trip to Lithuania for the US Davis Cup tie with Ukraine, as well looking back at how he got involved in tennis. I've known Mark for a long time, but I didn't know that his decision to spend his working life as a coach was actually a detour from an expected career in law. In addition to coaching he has also begun branching out to commentary in the past several years; you'll often hear him on college tennis matches on Cracked Racquets, ESPN+ and on the world feed at the US Open, with doubles and juniors his primary focus there.