Bigun Claims ITF J500 Title in Milan, Exsted and Woestendick Earn Doubles Championship; Chicago's D-III Titles Recap; Gorzny Transfering to Texas; Stearns Claims First WTA Title
After ten exhilarating and exhausting days covering the NCAA Division I men's and women's team and individual championships, I'm back home, badly in need of a holiday.
But tennis never stops, and there was big news today from the ITF J500 Trofeo Bonfiglio in Milan Italy, where Kaylan Bigun claimed his first J500 title. The sixth-seeded Bigun, who has signed with UCLA for this fall, defeated No. 8 seed Jangjun Kim of Korea 6-3, 6-3 for the biggest title of his career. The 18-year-old left-hander has shown he can play on all surfaces, reaching the Wimbledon junior quarterfinals last summer, the Orange Bowl semifinal on Har-Tru in December, the Australian Open quarterfinals in January, and now this prestigious title. He also won his first ATP Challenger match this spring in Sarasota. Bigun was the third straight boys finalist from the United States with Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) the 2022 champion and Cooper Williams(Harvard) a finalist in 2023. Maxwell Exsted and Cooper Woestendick won the boys doubles title, their fourth ITF J300 and above title of the year and their fifth as team. The No. 2 seeds defeated Hayden Jones of Australia and Charlie Robertson of Great Britain 6-4, 7-6(0)
Tyra Grant, the No. 2 seed, suffered her third loss of the year to Emerson Jones, the top seed, in the girls final today. Grant, who beat Jones on the Italian red clay a year ago in the first round of the J300 in Santa Croce, has yet to take a set from the 15-year-old Australian in their three matches since, losing twice in Australia to start the year and now in Milan. As a side note, it was five years ago that 2024 NCAA D-I champion Alexa Noel won the Milan title; she went on to make the Wimbledon final less than two months later.
No. 3 seeds Iva Ivanova of Bulgaria and Alena Kovackova of the Czech Republic won the girls doubles title, defeating the unseeded team
The Tennis Recruiting Network's Rhiannon Potkey has all the details on the University of Chicago's sweep of the NCAA Division III team titles last week in St. Louis. Another title is coming for the Maroons on Monday, with teammates Rena Lin[1] and Sylwia Mikos[5] playing for the women's singles title. Women's draws are here. The men's D-III singles quarterfinals and semifinals are tomorrow, with the final scheduled for Tuesday.
A week ago, Sebastian Gorzny was clinching TCU's first NCAA team title in program history, beating Texas's Jonah Braswell to seal the Horned Frogs' 4-3 victory. On Friday, the sophomore from Austin Texas entered the transfer portal, and two days later, I have confirmed that he will be transfering to the University of Texas. Although Gorzny is the most recent high-profile collegian to announce his transfer, other top players are also exploring their options, so look for plenty more intrigue this post-season.
Former Texas Longhorn Peyton Stearns, the 2022 NCAA women's singles and team champion, won her first WTA title yesterday at the 250 in Rabat Morocco. Stearns won the all-collegiate final, beating former Pepperdine star Mayar Sherif of Egypt 6-2, 6-1. Stearns was 7-12 in WTA-level matches(including 125s) this year before this run to the title at Rabat. For more on the final, see this article from the WTA website. Madison Keys won the WTA 250 in Strasbourg, beating 2014 and 2016 NCAA singles champion Danielle Collins(Virginia) 6-1, 6-2. With her runner-up result, Collins moves back into the Top 10, while Keys is at 12. Both have career-high WTA rankings of 7.
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