NCAA Champions Shelton and Collins Claim ATP, WTA Titles; Scott Wins W35 in Mississippi; San Francisco Drops Tennis Programs; Four Wild Cards for Summer Junior Slams Awarded; My Podcast Chat with Gruskin on Juniors, USTA PD

Two NCAA singles champions from Florida won professional titles today, with Gainesville's Ben Shelton taking the ATP 250 in Houston and St. Petersburg's Danielle Collins capturing the WTA 500 in Charleston.

Top seed Shelton, who two years ago was playing No. 1 for the Gators but had yet to win his NCAA title, defeated No. 3 seed and defending champion Frances Tiafoe 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships for his second ATP Tour title and his first on clay. Shelton, who will move to a career-high ATP ranking of 14 with the title, was by no means dominant in his four victories, needing three sets in three of them, with his 7-5, 7-6(9) win over fellow Kalamazoo 18s finalist Brandon Nakashima the only two-setter. The 21-year-old is not expected to compete on the European clay until the Madrid Masters 1000, at the end of the month.

Collins, who won the NCAAs in 2014 as a sophomore at Virginia and in 2016 as a senior, won her 13th straight match in the past three weeks, overwhelming No. 4 seed Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-2, 6-1 in today's final. It's the second WTA 500 of the 30-year-old's career, and she is now up to 15 in the WTA ranking. Her career high is 7. Collins is not on the USA Billie Jean King Cup team that will play Belgium this week in Lake Nona, so she can rest and celebrate all her success in the past several weeks.

2021 USTA National 18s champion Ashlyn Krueger and Sloane Stephens, who were a wild card entry into the Charleston doubles field, won the title, beating unseeded Ukrainian twins Lyudmyla and Nadiia Kichenok 1-6, 6-3, 10-7 in today's final. 

Jordan Thompson and Max Purcell won the Houston doubles title last night, with the No. 4 seeds defending their 2023 championships. They defeated unseeded Will Blumberg(North Carolina) and John Peers(Middle Tennessee State/Baylor) 7-5, 6-1 for the title.

The third NCAA champion in a final today, Jamie Loeb, whose NCAA title while at UNC was sandwiched between Collins' two, lost to 19-year-old Katrina Scott 7-6(9), 7-6(6) in a two-and-a- half-hour battle at the USTA Pro Circuit W35 in Jackson Mississippi. It's the first title for Scott since July of 2022. 

At the ATP Challenger 125 in Mexico City, Ryan Seggerman(Princeton/UNC) and Patrik Trhac(Idaho State/Utah) won their 13th title, all since last July, with the unseeded pair beating No. 4 seeds Adam Walton(Tennessee) and Tristan Schoolkate of Australia 5-7, 6-4, 10-5 in the final. It's their fifth, and biggest, Challenger title, but they only moved up to 130 and 131 in the ATP doubles rankings, far from the ranking needed for entry into the majors.

With all the good news for college tennis this weekend, bad news seems out of place, but Division I University of San Francisco announced on Friday that it would be discontinuing both its men's and women's tennis programs at the end of this year. The release puts the cost for these programs in excess of a million dollars a year(not clear if this each, or for both) and cites enrollment "shortfalls" as impacting the school's budget. 

Four wild cards, two for Wimbledon and two for Roland Garros, were decided this weekend in Great Britain and South America. The LTA's 16-and-under championships were held at the National Tennis Centre, with Hollie Smart and Mark Ceban claiming the titles. Both reached the finals of the international Wimbledon 14U event last year, with Ceban beating Svit Suljic of Slovenia 7-6(5), 6-3 for the title and Smart falling to Luna Vujovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-1. 

Roland Garros has held a competition for a main draw junior wild card in South America for many years; this year's champions are both from Brazil (Joao Fonseca won the wild card in 2022): 

14-year-old Nauhany Vitoria Leme Da Silva, who reached the quarterfinals of the Junior Orange Bowl 14s last year, and 15-year-old Luis Augusto Queiroz Miguel, who is currently 200 in the ITF junior rankings. The YouTube channel for this event can be found here.

I joined Cracked Racquets' Alex Gruskin on the Great Shot Podcast last Friday, and we had a wild ranging conversation, beginning with 30 minutes on the Jose Higueras email. We also discussed the results from the ITF J300 in San Diego, the ITF J300 in Indian Wells and the Easter Bowl, then wrapped up with some college tennis.