Longhorns Spizzirri and Braswell Meet for Wichita $25K Title; Two Tar Heels Reach San Diego W15 Final; British Collegians Earn ATP/WTA Top 100 Wins on Grass; Knight and Lorimer Earn Entry into Wimbledon U14 Tournament

The USTA Pro Circuit $25,000 men's title will be an all-Texas contest Sunday, with Eliot Spizzirri and qualifier Micah Braswell meeting for the championship in Wichita Kansas after straight-sets victories in today's semifinals.

Braswell defeated fellow qualifier Sebastian Gorzny 6-2, 7-6(5) after Gorzny, who recently announced his transfer from TCU to Texas, served twice for the second set, but couldn't force a third. Braswell, who won his sole Pro Circuit title in November of 2022, played  at line 2 for Texas all year, behind Spizzirri, who won his only Pro Circuit title back in 2021. Then unseeded Spizzirri, who finished the 2023-24 college season at No. 1 in the nation, defeated 2023 NCAA champion Ethan Quinn(Georgia) 6-3, 6-3 in today's other semifinal. 

Spizzirri and Braswell will meet for the first time on the Pro Circuit in Sunday's final.

In the doubles final today, No. 2 seeds Joshua Sheehy(Abilene Christian) and Pranav Kumar(SMU, Texas A&M) defeated  the unseeded team of Spizzirri and Canada's Cleeve Harper 6-7(4), 6-3, 10-8 for their first Pro Circuit title as a team. Spizzirri and Harper reached the NCAA doubles final last year, and the semifinals this year. 

At the women's W15 in San Diego, former North Carolina stars Fiona Crawley and Sara Daavettila will play for the title Sunday. Crawley, the top seed, defeated No. 5 seed Eryn Cayetano(USC) 6-2, 6-2, while Daavettila, who won last week's W15 in San Diego,  broke open a tight match late in the second set to defeat 17-year-old Alyssa Ahn 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 in just under three hours.

The 22-year-old Crawley and the 26-year-old Daavettlia, who played together on the 2020-2021 North Carolina team, have not faced in other on the Pro Circuit.

In the women's doubles final today, unseeded Anita Sahdiieva(Baylor, LSU) of Ukraine and Basak Eryadin of Turkey defeated sisters Anna Campana(Wake Forest, Pepperdine) and Carolyn Campana(Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, Pepperdine) 0-6, 6-3, 10-8. 

The men's final at the $15,000 SoCal Pro Series tournament in San Diego will feature University of San Diego star Oliver Tarvet of Great Britain and Nathan Ponwith(Georgia, Arizona State). USD rising junior Tarvet, the No. 8 seed, defeated No. 2 seed Strong Kirchheimer(Northwestern) 6-3, 6-3; the unseeded Ponwith defeated Patrick Maloney(Michigan), also unseeded, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

In the doubles final this evening, Ponwith and JJ Tracy(Ohio State), defeated Wally Thane(Utah, BYU) and Estonia's Johannes Seeman(San Diego State) 7-6(2), 6-2 in a contest between unseeded teams.

British players of any age traditionally excel on grass and this week's results have done nothing to dispel that maxim, with three former collegians getting their first ATP/WTA Top 100 wins  despite the many rain delays that also go with that surface.

Recent NC State graduate Amelia Rajecki, who reached the semifinals of the NCAA singles championships in 2023 and 2024, received a wild card into the qualifying of the WTA 250 in Birmingham, and the 22-year-old from Nottingham made good use of it today, beating WTA No. 72 Yafan Wang of China 7-6(5), 7-6(6). Rajecki, 794 in the WTA rankings, will face WTA No. 77 Katie Volynets, the 2019 USTA girls 18s champion, for a spot in the main draw.

Recent TCU graduate Jake Fearnley has had a banner week at the ATP Challenger 125 in Nottingham. Fearnley, a 22-year-old from Scotland, qualified for the main draw, then won the first Challenger match, and now is in the semifinals, after earning his first ATP Top 100 win today. Fearnley defeated No. 3 seed Jerry Shang of China 7-5, 7-5 and will try to continue his winning streak against Mattia Bellucci of Italy. Bellucci defeated Fearnley's TCU teammate Jack Pinnington Jones 6-4, 7-6(0) today; Pinnington Jones had gotten his first ATP Top 100 win with a 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over top seed and former Horned Frog Cam Norrie in the second round. 

Another British qualifer, Charlie Broom(Dartmouth, Baylor), also posted his best wins this week, advancing to the semifinals in Nottingham with wins over Lloyd Harris of South Africa in the second round and today, a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over No. 2 seed and ATP No. 62 Dan Evans of Great Britain. Broom, 26, will face Billy Harris of Great Britain in his first Challenger semifinal Sunday.

The grass season has also begun for younger players, with a Tennis Europe Category 1 tournament, which serves as a qualifying event for the Wimbledon U14 tournament, concluding today in London. The tournament, open to all Tennis Europe players, ended with two all-British finals. No. 7 seed Megan Knight, the 2023 Junior Orange Bowl 12s finalist, defeated No. 3 seed Daniella Britton 6-4, 7-5 to secure her place in the 16-player tournament contested on the final four days of Wimbledon. Eric Lorimer, the top seed, defeated No. 4 seed Niall Pickerd-Barua 6-4, 6-3 in the boys final. Complete draws for this week's event are here. 

I hope to have the names of the two US girls and two US boys who will be competing in the third edition of the Wimbledon U14 event soon.