Braswell and Fearnley's Smooth Transition to Professional Titles; Rajecki Qualifies for WTA 250, Meets Familiar Face in First Round; Crawley and Tarvet Earn Titles in SoCal Pro Series $15Ks in San Diego

Four weeks ago today, University of Texas senior Micah Braswell and TCU fifth-year Jake Fearnley played each other in the NCAA Team Championships. Braswell won that match at line 2 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, although Fearnley's team did claim the title with a 4-3 victory overall. Both lost in the round of 16 of the NCAA singles championship, Braswell to eventual champion Filip Planinsek of Alabama, Fearnley to eventual finalist Michael Zheng of Columbia, but have now begun their pro careers with titles after qualifying for events this week.

Braswell defeated teammate Eliot Spizzirri 6-4, 6-3 in today's championship match of the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Wichita Kansas, capturing his second Pro Circuit title after winning a $25K in Austin in 2022. As impressive as the week was for the 22-year-old from Florida, Fearnley outdid him on the grass courts of Nottingham, winning the ATP Challenger 125 there today when he had not earned a victory on the Challenger Tour prior to this week.

The 22-year-old from Scotland had to play two matches today, beating Mattia Bellucci of Italy 6-3, 6-1 in the semifinals, then downing fellow qualifier Charlie Broom(Dartmouth, Baylor) 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. Fearnley, who won a $25K to start 2024, before returning to Fort Worth for the dual match season, will improve his ATP ranking from 525 to 274, putting him in good position for US Open qualifying with any additional success this summer. It also marks him as a likely candidate for a Wimbledon main draw wild card, with the bulk of those expected to be announced Wednesday.

After posting her first WTA Top 100 victory yesterday in the first round of qualifying at the WTA 250 in Birmingham, NC State graduate Amelia Rajecki earned another one today to qualify for the main draw. The 22-year-old from Nottingham, who was named ITA Senior Player of the Year last week, defeated WTA No. 77 Katie Volynets 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4, coming from 4-0 down in the third set to earn a place in the main draw of a WTA tournament for the first time. 

Despite the fact that Rajecki is making her WTA main draw debut, she'll know plenty about the game of her first round opponent: Diana Shnaider. Currently 48 in the WTA rankings, Shnaider, who played No. 1 for the Wolfpack last year while Rajecki was playing at line 3, was inside the WTA Top 100 most of her time in Raleigh. For more on Rajecki's win, see this article from the LTA.

At the SoCal Pro Series $15,000 tournaments at the University of San Diego, top seed Fiona Crawley(North Carolina) and No. 8 seed Oliver Tarvet(San Diego) of Great Britain emerged this afternoon as the champions.

In the women's final, Crawley, a 22-year-old from Texas, beat No. 6 seed Sara Daavettila, a former teammate of Crawley's at UNC, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 for her third USTA Pro Circuit title. 

Tarvet, a rising junior at San Diego, defeated unseeded Nathan Ponwith(Georgia, Arizona State) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in a three-hour-plus men's final. It's the third Pro Circuit title for the 20-year-old Tarvet.

It was another big week for $15K titles for current/recent collegians in tournaments all over the world, with three picking up their first career singles titles on the Pro Circuit.

Illinois rising senior Karlis Ozolins of Latvia won his first ITF men's World Tennis Tour singles title at a $15,000 tournament in Korea.

Mississippi State rising junior Petar Jovanovic of Montenegro won his first title on the ITF men's WTT as qualifier, winning eight matches at a $15,000 tournament in Serbia.

Central Florida rising sophomore Olivia Lincer of Poland won her first ITF women's World Tennis Tour title at a $15,000 tournament in the Dominican Republic, beating Cal rising senior Katja Wiersholm 7-6(4), 6-1 in the final.

Recent Pepperdine graduate Janice Tjen won her second straight W15 in Tunisia.

And in non-college titles of note, 18-year-old Kaitlin Quevedo of Naples Florida, now representing Spain, won her sixth title, and her third this year, at a W15 in Madrid.