Hovde Claims Fourth USTA Pro Circuit Title at W35 in Boca Raton; Sarasota Challenger Doubles Title for Boyer; Kentucky Men Earn SEC Championship with 4-3 Win Over Tennessee; Easter Bowl Gallery, 14s Finals Videos

Liv Hovde won her fourth USTA Pro Circuit title in her fifth final today at the W35 in Boca Raton Florida, with the 18-year-old defeating 17-year-old wild card Akasha Urhobo 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. Hovde, the No. 5 seed, didn't hold serve until the fourth game of the second set, despite getting 80 percent of her first serves in; Urhobo was also unable to take advantage after that first set, however, holding just once in the final set. 

Hovde, the 2022 Wimbledon girls champion, should be close to the top 250 when the points are added, which may give her a chance at the qualifying at Roland Garros.

At the ATP Challenger 75 this week in Sarasota, unseeded Tennys Sandgren(Tennessee) was the last American competing in singles and he lost Saturday in the semifinals to No. 4 seed Zizou Bergs of Belgium 6-2, 3-6, 6-4. He then was scheduled to play both his semifinal and final matches in doubles that same afternoon, with Ethan Quinn(Georgia). Quinn and Sandgren won their semifinal, but lost in the final last night, to Tristan Boyer(Stanford) and Oliver Crawford(Florida) of Great Britain 6-4, 6-2.  It's Boyer's first doubles title as a pro, at any level; Crawford has one other doubles title, claimed nearly five years ago at a $25K. 

No. 3 seed Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia won the singles title, beating Bergs 6-3, 1-6, 6-0. 

At the ATP Masters 1000 in Monte Carlo, former collegians Joran Vliegen(East Carolina) and Sander Gille(E Tennessee St) of Belgium won their eighth ATP title, and first Masters title, beating Marcelo Melo of Brazil and Alexander Zverev of Germany 5-7, 6-3, 10-5 in the final. With the title, the pair are back into the ATP Top 20, tied for 19th and just off their career-highs of 17 and 18. For more on their title, see this article from the ATP website.

Today was the last day of regular season play for the SEC, Big 12 and ACC, with regular season conference champions crowned. The Oklahoma State women finished a perfect 24-0, capturing the B12 regular season title for the first time since 2017. The Texas men went 7-0 in the Big 12 to claim the men's regular season title.

In the ACC, the Virginia men won their fourth straight conference title, all of them with perfect 12-0 records. The senior class of Chris Rodesch, Inaki Montes, Jeffrey von der Schulenburg and Alex Kiefer are 48-0 in conference play during their four years, a remarkable accomplishment. The Virginia women will share the conference regular season title with North Carolina; both teams suffered one loss, UNC to NC State and Virginia to UNC. North Carolina receives the top seed in next week's ACC conference tournament.

The SEC women also have a shared title, with Texas A&M and Georgia both finishing the year with one conference loss. The Aggies lost to Georgia; Georgia fell to Auburn.

The men's SEC title came down to today's match between No. 5 Kentucky and No. 6 Tennessee. Kentucky had already clinched a share of the title, with Tennessee having a loss to Texas A&M, but a win today in Lexington would give the Wildcats a perfect conference record and the outright conference championship. The match was as close as anticipated, with Kentucky winning the doubles point in a tiebreaker at line 3 after the teams had split lines 1 and 2 by 7-5 scores. 

Tennessee took the first two points in singles, with Johannus Monday at 1 and Angel Diaz at 6 getting straight-sets victories over Taha Baadi and Eli Stephenson, but Kentucky tied it up when Charlelie Cosnet beat Nicholas Kobelt 7-6(7), 6-3 at line 4. That was the last match decided in straight sets, with lines 2, 3 and 5 all going three. Tennessee got the flip they needed at line 2, with Shunsuke Matsui beating Joshua Lapadat 2-6, 6-1, 6-3, but Jaden Weekes brought the Wildcats to 3-all with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win over Christopher Li. That meant two freshman left-handers would decide the match at line 5, with Jack Loutit leading Filip Pieczonka 3-1 when all the attention went to that match. Pieczonka, down 2 breaks, got one break back and a had a deciding point with Loutit serving at 4-3, but he made an unforced error early in the point, giving Loutit the hold and a 5-3 lead. Pieczonka forced him to serve it out, but he did, finishing off the match with a spectacular passing shot.

For more on the Kentucky conference title and this match, see this UK Athletics article.

The Tennis Recruiting Network published my Easter Bowl Photo Gallery today, which includes shots of the top eight finishers in all eight divisions. 

I processed the 14s videos, which, due to the simultaneous nature of the finals of the 12s and 14s divisions, are not as long as I would like. Expect the 16s and 18s videos next week.