USTA Offers New Format to Decide NCAA US Open Wild Card; Roh and Buchnik Win J500 Titles in Osaka; Italy and Spain Claim European 16s Championships; Three J30 Titles for US Boys on ITF Junior Circuit

With the NCAA singles and doubles championships moving to the fall this year, the US Open main draw wild card for an American winner was likely to change, given the nine months from the NCAAs in November until next August's US Open. While there was never a guaranteed wild card, the American singles and doubles champions have traditionally received US Open wild cards, with just one exception this century.

Earlier this month Division I college coaches were notified of a new format, which will guarantee that wild card, but it will not necessarily go to Novembers NCAA champions. Instead the USTA will hold a four-player/team playoff for the US Open wild card next spring; the NCAA champion and finalist, if American, will automatically be included, with two other American collegians selected to join them. If, as happened with the women in 2023 and the men in 2019, no American is in the final, all four American collegians will be selected by a committee to compete in the playoff.

In one sense, this is an improvement, as it guarantees a US Open wild card to an American collegian every year. But there is no obvious advantage to winning the NCAAs if you are already one of the top Americans in college tennis. Knowing what was on the line in the NCAA final always added drama to the event; stakes still exist, but they aren't nearly as high as they were when the individual tournament was held in May. An American NCAA champion losing in the semifinals of the playoff will have nothing to show for his/her NCAA title in November, in the realm of wild cards anyway.

Below is a screenshot of the basic format. See this google document for other details, including the selection criteria and the makeup of the selection committee.

The ITF J500 in Osaka Japan produced two first-time J500 champions. Mika Buchnik of Israel, the No. 9 seed, defeated No. 10 seed Alana Subasic of Australia 6-3, 6-7(1), 6-2 in the final to become the first Israeli, girl or boy, to win a J500 title.

Hoyoung Roh of Korea, the No. 8 seed, defeated No. 7 seed Oliver Bonding of Great Britain, his doubles partner, 7-6(2), 7-6(3) to claim the boys title.

The girls doubles title went to unseeded sisters Renee Alame and Rianna Alame of Australia, who defeated No. 6 seeds Lidia Podgorichani and Kamonwan Yodpetch of Thailand 6-3, 5-7, 10-8 in the final. 

No. 3 seeds Timofei Derepasko of Russia and Naoya Honda of Japan won the boys doubles title, defeating No. 4 seeds Roh and Bonding 6-1, 3-6, 10-6.

The European Championships are now complete, with the 16s division concluding yesterday in Parma Italy. No. 2 seed Yannick Alexandrescou of Romania defeated unseeded Tito Chavez of Spain 6-2, 6-1 for the boys singles title. No. 7 seed Carla Giambelli of Italy won the girls title, beating unseeded Sona Depesova of Slovakia 7-6(4), 7-6(6).

Giambelli won the doubles title as well, with partner Fabiola Marino. The No. 5 seeds defeated the top-seeded Romanian team of Maia Burcescu and Giulia Popa 6-4, 5-7, 12-10.

The boys doubles title went to No. 10 seeds Chavez and Eudaid Gonzalez of Spain, who defeated No. 11 seeds Hryhorii Artavenko and Dmytro Vterkowskyi of Ukraine 6-2, 3-6, 10-7 in the championship match.

For more on the finals, see the Tennis Europe website.

It was a quiet week for Americans on the ITF Junior Circuit, with three boys singles titles at J30s, and three doubles titles. 

Sixteen-year-old William Zhang won his second straight J30 title in Taiwan. The No. 4 seed, Zhang beat No. 2 seed Gyeom Do of Korea 6-2, 6-1 in the final. 

At the Punta Cana J30, Matias Reyniak received a special exemption into the main draw after reaching the final of the previous week's J30 in Punta Cana and came away with the title, his first on the ITF Junior Circuit. The 15-year-old New Yorker defeated unseeded Anthony Dry in an all-US final 6-2, 5-7, 7-5. Dry and partner Vincent Weaver won the doubles title, with the unseeded pair defeating the unseeded Canadian pair of Antoine Clavel and Maxim Yevdayev 6-3, 6-4.

At the J30 in Nicaragua, 16-year-old Austin Taco won his first two titles on the ITF Junior Circuit. Taco, the No. 3 seed, defeated No. 7 seed Nick Mertgens of Germany 6-2, 6-2 in the singles final. Seeded No. 1 with partner Juan Carlos Portilla Morales of the United States, Taco won the doubles with a 5-4(4), 0-4, 10-7 win over No. 2 seeds Jose Argenal and Adriano Pezzarossi of Guatemala in the final.

Sena Yoon won the girls doubles title at the J100 in Korea with her partner Suha Lee of Korea. The unseeded pair defeated No. 3 seeds Elizabeth Ivanov and Sarah Mildren of Australia 4-6, 6-3, 10-3 in the final.

The ITF Junior Circuit returns to the United States this week at the J60 in Corpus Christi Texas, with the J300 Pan Am Closed next week in Houston. I will be covering the latter tournament again this year in person.

San Diego's Tarvet Sweeps ITA All-American Titles; Sholokova Claims Wisconsin's First Championship; Jovic Wins W35 in Berkeley; US Open Junior Photo Gallery

After an exciting week at the ITA All-American Championships, Sunday was something of a letdown, with the men's final not decided on the court in Tulsa. Texas's Sebastian Gorzny withdrew with an injury prior to the final, giving Oliver Tarvet of San Diego his second straight walkover, an anticlimatic day for the first ITA All-American Championships title in Toreros history. 

Tarvet did win his second All-American title the usual way, partnering with Stian Klaassen for the doubles championship. The unseeded Tarvet and Klaassen defeated Baylor's unseeded pairing of Marko Miladinovic and Oskar Brostrom Poulsen 7-6(4), 2-6, 10-5. Tarvet and Klaassen trailed 4-1 in the deciding tiebreaker before winning seven straight points to take control.

Tarvet is the first player since Virginia's Thai Kwiatkowski to win the All-American Championships singles and doubles titles in the same year.

Maria Sholokova of Wisconsin also made history for her school, becoming the first All-American champion in history with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over qualifier Elza Tomase of Tennessee in the women's final.  Sholokova, a junior from Russia, showed little indication of any nerves, and although she was unable to close out the first set on serve at 5-2, she broke Tomase to secure it.  Up 5-1 in the second set, Sholokova again couldn't close it out on her first attempt, but calmly served out the championship on her second try.

Tomase, who was playing her eighth singles match in seven days, looked understandably weary at times, while Sholokova was able to stay both consistent and aggressive, showing the form that had eliminated top seed Mary Stoiana of Texas A&M 6-4, 6-3 in the second round.

Sholokova admitted she was not expecting to take the title this week in Cary, but that win helped her believe it was possible.

"Honestly this whole tournament was an incredible experience for me," Sholokova told Alex Gruskin of Cracked Racquets after the final. "Coming here, I would never have thought I would make the final, or win this tournament. I think I just gained more and more confidence with each match, especially after my second round match, I thought I could do great in this tournament."

Sholokova was happy to see tangible results from work she and Wisconsin head coach Kelcy McKenna, who won the All-American title while at Arizona State in 2008, have done.

"All the work that me and Kelcy have put in these two years paid off," Sholokova said. "I'm more confident now in my forehand, my backhand...and I think my serve helped me a lot, and my returns have gotten so much better. Overall, it's been consistency and more aggressive tennis."

While qualifier Tomase was unsuccessful in her bid for a title, the doubles champions did follow the qualifying path to the peak, with Maddy Zampardo and Gabriella Broadfoot taking the title after coming though qualifying. The sophomores from NC State defeated unseeded Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle of UCLA 6-4, 6-4 to add a second title for the Wolfpack in the past three years. Amelia Rajecki and Nell Miller won the 2022 All-American doubles title.

All the ITA All American champions are now officially All-Americans. The ITA changed the critera for that honor this year to specifically include the All American champions. The other paths to earning All-American status remain the same. See this ITA article on the subject.

Four other players earned their spots in November's NCAA singles championships by reaching the consolation finals (the finals were not played) with wins today. Dasha Vidmanova[2] of Georgia defeated Sofia Johnson of Old Dominion 6-1, 6-2 and Mary Stoiana[1] of Texas A&M defeated Julia Fliegner of Michigan 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinals to ensure they will be in the NCAA singles field in Waco. 

Arizona's Jay Friend[9-16] and Colton Smith[5] won their consolation semifinals today, with Smith defeating Thomas Paulsell of Georgia 6-4, 6-2 and Friend beating Braden Shick of NC State 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(2) to earn their spots in the NCAA singles draw.

The three USTA Pro Circuit tournaments concluded today with just one of the three Americans in the finals emerging as the champion, and that was the youngest one.

Sixteen-year-old Iva Jovic won her second Pro Circuit title today at the W35 in Berkeley California, with the No. 2 seed defeating No. 5 seed Victoria Mboko of Canada 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 in this afternoon's championship match. Jovic, who saved a match point in her 2-6, 7-6(8), 6-3 win over Ena Koike of Japan in the second round, had lost in her previous two USTA Pro Circuit finals appearances this year. Next week's W35 tournament in Redding California is the site of her first Pro Circuit title, but she will not be defending that title; Jovic is on the entry list for next week's W75 in Rancho Santa Fe.

In the doubles final today, unseeded Maegan Manasse(Cal) and Elysia Bolton(UCLA) of Australia won the title, beating the unseeded team of Ema Burgic(Baylor) and Rutuja Bhosale(Texas A&M) of India 6-7(3), 6-2, 10-6.

At the W75 in Templeton, top seed Renata Zarazua of Mexico, who lost in the final of last year's tournament, defeated 25-year-old Usue Arconada 6-4, 6-3. The 27-year-old from Mexico is now up to a career-high of 69 in the WTA rankings.

No. 2 seeds Sophie Chang and Rasheeda McAdoo(Georgia Tech) won their second title as a pair, both this year, defeating No. 4 seeds Rebecca Marino of Canada and Carmen Corley(Oklahoma) 1-6, 6-2, 10-4 in today's final.

Nineteen-year-old Nishesh Basavareddy, a junior at Stanford, lost in the final of the ATP Challenger 75 in Charleston South Carolina to lucky loser Edas Butvilas of Lithuania 6-4, 6-3. Basavareddy, now 0-3 in Challenger finals, has shown a willingness to play nearly every week, and with his history of injuries, the fact that he's remained healthy is a positive sign. He is entered in this week's Challenger 75 in Tiburon California and is scheduled to play Bernard Tomic of Australia in the first round. 

Tennis Recruiting Network has just published the Zootennis.com photo gallery from the US Open Junior Championships, featuring 40 of the Americans who competed in New York earlier this month. 

Gorzny and Tarvet Reach Men's All-American Final, Unseeded Tomase and Sholokova Meet for Historic Women's All-American Title; Jovic Makes W35 Final in Berkeley; Basavareddy Advances to Charleston Challenger Final

The finals are set for Sunday at the ITA All-American Championships, with Saturday's semfinals featuring two three-setters, one straight-sets match and a walkover.

The walkover came in the men's draw, with TCU's Pedro Vives pulling out due to what appears to have been a minor injury prior to taking on No. 3 seed Oliver Tarvet of San Diego Saturday afternoon. 

Tarvet's opponent in the final will be unseeded Sebastian Gorzny, who defeated qualifier Aidan Kim of Ohio State 7-5, 5-7, 7-5. Both Gorzny, a junior, and Kim, a sophomore, are representing new teams this season, with Gorzny joining Texas from TCU and Kim transferring from Florida. 

Kim served for the first set at 5-4, but began to have trouble with his forehand, which helped Gorzny build some momentum and finish off the set. Gorzny led 4-1 in the second set, with Kim facing two break points serving at 1-4, but Kim held with some clutch serving throughout the later stages of the second set, while finding the range on his forehand again.

Kim took a 4-2 lead in the third set, but Gorzny went into the mode some fans might recognize from his final set against Texas's Jonah Braswell in the clinching, last-match-on in the NCAA final in May. He didn't make errors while stepping up his aggression level, putting Kim on defense, and Kim had to come up with two good first serves at 4-5, 30-40 to save two match points. After Gorzny held for 6-5, Kim netted a routine backhand at 30-all to give Gorzny two more match points, but saved No. 3 with another first serve that forced a return error from Gorzny.  On the deciding point, Kim again made a first serve, Gorzny's return was deep and up the middle, but Kim blasted a forehand deep into the corner, which should have forced an error from Gorzny and sent the match to a third set tiebreaker. It didn't, with Gorzny getting the ball in back in play and Kim missing a short forehand well wide to end it.

Texas now has a chance for its second consecutive All-American men's singles championship, after Eliot Spizzirri claimed the title last year; Tarvet will be looking for San Diego's first, with August Holmgren reaching the 2022 final before falling to Florida's Ben Shelton.

The consolation semifinals are set after two matches were played today. Colton Smith[5] of Arizona will play Thomas Paulsell[9-16] of Georgia and Jay Friend[9-16] of Arizona will face Braden Shick of North Carolina State. Those two semifinal winners will get automatic entry into November's NCAA singles championships.

Tarvet will also play for the double title on Sunday, with Stian Klaassen. The pair defeated Zsombor Velcz and Devin Badenhorst of Baylor 6-3, 6-2 in Saturday afternoon's semifinals. They will face another Baylor team for the title, with Marko Miladinovic and Oskar Brostrom Poulsen advancing to the final with a 7-5, 7-5 win over Hugo Hashimoto and Michael Zheng of Columbia.

The three-setter in the women's semifinal came in the morning match, with Maria Sholokova of Wisconsin defeating North Carolina's Tatum Evans 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. Sholokova, who defeated top seed Mary Stoiana of Texas A&M in the second round, is the first player from Wisconsin to reach the championship match of the All-American Championships.

She will face qualifier Elza Tomase of Tennessee, who, with her 6-4, 6-1 win over Thea Rabman of North Carolina, has now won seven matches in the past six days. Tomase is the first Tennessee woman to reach the final of the All-American Championships, so a program first is guaranteed regardless of who wins.

A qualifier will also play in the women's doubles final, with Gabriella Broadfoot and Maddy Zampardo of North Carolina State picking up their sixth win in six days with a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Lily Fairclough and Grace Piper of Southern Cal. Qualifiers Broadfoot and Zampardo will face UCLA's Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle, who beat Cal's Mao Mushika and Jessica Alsola 6-3, 6-2 in Saturday's other semifinal.

The women's consolation semifinals will feature the top two seeds, who would meet the final if both win. No. 2 seed Dasha Vidmanova of Georgia will face Sofia Johnson of Old Dominion and No. 1 seed Mary Stoiana of Texas A&M will face Julia Fliegner of Michigan. The winners of those semifinals receive automatic entry into November's NCAA championship.

Cracked Racquets will have coverage of all of Sunday's finals on the ITA YouTube Channel. The women's singles final is scheduled to begin at noon Eastern Sunday; with the women's doubles at 1:30 pm. The men's singles final is scheduled for noon Central Sunday and the doubles at 1 p.m., but with Tarvet in both finals, that is obviously not going to happen.

Sixteen-year-old Iva Jovic is through to the final of the USTA Pro Circuit W35 in Berkeley after the No. 2 seed defeated Whitney Osuigwe 6-2, 6-3. She will face 18-year-old Victoria Mboko of Canada, the No. 5 seed, who defeated No. 8 seed Jaimee Fourlis of Australia 6-3, 6-2. Mboko and Jovic have played once in ITF juniors, with Mboko beating Jovic 6-2, 6-2 in the third round of the US Open back in 2022.

Usue Arconada is in her first final since 2021, at the USTA Pro Circuit W75 in Templeton California, after enduring nearly two years of injuries that kept her from competing. Arconada, who beat No. 2 seed Rebecca Marino of Canada yesterday, took out Katrina Scott 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in today's semifinals. The 25-year-old will play top seed Renata Zarazua of Mexico, who defeated LSU freshman Cadence Brace of Canada, a qualifier, 6-1, 6-0. 

Templeton press aide Steve Pratt spoke with Arconada about her long recovery and her return to competition this spring after her win Friday over Marino for this article.

Nineteen-year-old Nishesh Basavareddy, a junior at Stanford, has advanced to his third ATP Challenger final after two victories today at the Challenger 75 in Charleston South Carolina. Unseeded, Basavareddy defeated No. 4 seed JJ Wolf(Ohio State) 7-5, 6-2 in the afternoon quarterfinals, then beat top seed Chris Eubanks(Georgia Tech) 6-4, 7-6(5) in the semifinals this evening. Basavareddy, who lost in his previous two Challenger finals, to Zachary Svajda last fall in Fairfield and to Learner Tien(USC) this summer in Bloomfield Hills, will not play a two-time Kalamazoo champion this time. Tien was beaten in the quarterfinals by Tristan Boyer(Stanford) 7-6(6), 2-6, 6-3, who then lost to lucky loser Edas Butvilas of Lithuania 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals.

Basavareddy is now into the ATP 200 in the live rankings.

My Article on ATP Accelerator Program for Juniors; Upsets Continue, One Seed Remains in ITA All-American Championships Semifinals; Jovic Defeats Ngounoue to Reach W35 Berkeley Semifinals; Five Americans in Charleston Challenger Quarterfinals

One of the most significant initiatives in decades in junior and college tennis is the ATP's Accelerator Program, which was introduced for 2023 and is now in its second full year. The Challenger opportunities for top juniors and top collegians it offers have already had a huge impact on scheduling decisions, with finishing in the Top 20 of the ITF junior or ITA rankings the difference between eight entries and none.

I spoke with many of the boys competing in the US Open Junior Championships about the program, discussed it with USTA head of men's tennis Kent Kinnear and talked via Zoom with James Marsalek of the ATP about some of the details of the program as data from the first two years becomes available. I wrote an article for Tennis Recruiting Network, published today, about the junior program, but much of it pertains to the collegiate program as well. I learned that during the second week of the US Open, the ATP announced a $1000 travel stipend per Challenger played for those in the Next Gen cohort, which includes collegians and juniors who have qualified for the Accelerator Program and all players 20-and-under. Because I was busy with the US Open Junior Championships, I missed the press release, but it can be found here. This addresses a problem identified primarily on the collegiate side of the program, where US summer Challengers are in high demand and those at the top of the collegiate rankings are regularly taking the two spots available, leaving others who would like to play a US Challenger either in qualifying or shut out altogether. 

A graphic prepared by the ATP, detailing some of the examples and numbers from the Junior Accelerator Program in 2024 can be found here.

The upsets just kept coming today at the ITA All-American Championships, in both the women's and men's draws; when the round of 16 and quarterfinal matches in singles were finished, just one of the eight players remaining was a seed.

Take a bow No. 3 seed Oliver Tarvet of San Diego, who is that lone seed; he defeated Jonah Braswell of Texas in the third round and qualifier Corey Craig of Florida State in the quarterfinals. 

Tarvet and Craig are two of the eight men who have now qualified for November's NCAA individual championships, with the others Lui Maxted of TCU, Sebastian Gorzny of Texas, Samir Banerjee of Stanford, Aidan Kim of Ohio State, Michael Zheng[2] of Columbia and Pedro Vives of TCU.

Gorzny took out the only seed in the top half in the third round, beating No. 5 seed Colton Smith of Arizona 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. He then beat former teammate Maxted 6-3, 6-4 to reach Saturday's semifinals. 

Gorzny will face qualifier Kim, who defeated Martin Katz of Miami 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 in the third round and Banerjee 6-3, 1-0 ret. in the quarterfinals. 

Tarvet's opponent in the semifinals is Vives, who took out two seeds Friday. In the third round Vives defeated Jay Friend of Arizona, a 9-16 seed, 6-1, 6-4 then surprised Zheng, the 2024 NCAA singles finalist, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. 

The men's singles semifinals are scheduled for 1 p.m. Central Saturday. 

The women's third round and quarterfinals were played indoors due to rain, while a tornado warning disrupted even those matches. But the doubles quarterfinals were played outside, so there is hope for the semifinals being played outdoors Saturday.

The four women's semifinalists are all unseeded, two of them North Carolina sophomores, who eliminated three seeds between them Friday.

Tatum Evans took out two of the three seeds in the top half, beating No. 4 seed Connie Ma of Stanford 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 and then No. 5 seed Ange Oby Kajuru of Oklahoma State 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-0. 

Thea Rabman defeated No. 10 seed Julia Fliegner of Michigan 7-6(7), 6-1 in the third round, then came back for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Auburn's DJ Bennett. 

Rabman will face qualifier Elza Tomase of Tennessee, who beat wild card Valerie Glozman of Stanford 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, while Evans will play Maria Sholokhova of Wisconsin, who followed up her second round win over Mary Stoiana yesterday with wins over Piper Charney of Michigan 6-0, 3-6, 6-2 and No. 6 seed Savannah Broadus of Pepperdine 7-6(1), 6-1. 

Despite their losses in the quarterfinals, Broadus, Kajuru, Glozman and Bennett have all earned spots in the NCAA singles championships in November.

The women's semifinals are scheduled for 10:00 am Eastern, for Sholokova and Evans and 11:30 am for Tomase and Rabman.

None of the four teams in the women's doubles semifinals are seeded either. Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle of UCLA will face Mao Mushika and Jessica Alsola of Cal in the top half; qualifiers Maddy Zampardo and Gabriela Broadfoot of NC State will play Lily Fairclough and Grace Piper of Southern Cal in the bottom half.  All four semifinalists have qualified for the NCAA doubles championships.

One of the men's doubles quarterfinals is still in progress, but three of teams in the semifinals have been decided, and all semifinalists will also be unseeded  Michael Zheng and Hugo Hashimoto of Columbia will face Baylor's Marko Milandinovic and Oskar Brostrom Poulsen in the top half semifinal. Oliver Tarvet and Stian Klaassen of San Diego eliminated the last seeds, No. 3 Togan Tokac and Giulio Perego of Texas A&M 6-4, 7-5 tonight. Tarvet and Klaassen will face the winners of the quarterfinal between Baylor's Devin Badenhorst and Zsombor Velcz and Cal's Alex Chang and Michael Wright.

Cracked Racquets will be providing coverage via the ITA YouTube Channel. Draws and results, including for consolation matches, can be found here for men and here for women.

No. 2 seed Iva Jovic advanced to the semifinals of the USTA Pro Circuit W35 in Berkeley California, with the 16-year-old from Torrance California beating No. 6 seed Clervie Ngounoue, 18, 6-2, 6-3 in just over an hour. This is the second convincing victory by Jovic over Ngounoue in the space of two months; she won their semifinal in San Diego at the USTA Nationals 6-1, 6-2. Jovic will face unseeded Whitney Osuigwe, who, like Ngounoue, is a former ITF junior No. 1, in the semifinals. The other semifinal features 18-year-old Victoria Mboko of Canada, the No. 5 seed, and No. 8 seed Jaimee Fourlis of Australia. 

The quarterfinals and semifinals at the ATP Challenger 75 in Charleston South Carolina will be played Saturday, after rain washed out all four second round matches on Thursday. Those were played late this afternoon, with five Americans in the quarterfinals. No. 2 seed Learner Tien(USC) and No. 8 seed Tristan Boyer(Stanford), who met in the Las Vegas final two weeks ago, will face off, as will No. 4 seed JJ Wolf(Ohio State) and Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford). Chris Eubanks(Georgia Tech), the top seed, is the fifth American in the quarterfinals. He will play unseeded Alexis Galarneau(NC State) of Canada. The quarterfinal without an American features Bernard Tomic of Australia and lucky loser Edas Butvilas of Lithuania. 

Top Seeds Stoiana, Vidmanova and Mohr Upset at ITA All-American Championships; Only Five of 16 Seeds Reach Third Round in Men's and Women's Draws; Teens Ngounoue and Jovic Renew Rivalry in Berkeley W35 Quarterfinals

After half of the top eight seeds lost in the first round yesterday at the men's ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa, but all the top eight seeds in the women's ITA All-American Championships in Cary advanced, it seemed as if the themes of the two events might diverge. That won't be the case, as the women's second round produced even bigger upsets, with the top three seeds going out today.

Top seed and defending champion Mary Stoiana of Texas A&M lost to Wisconsin junior Maria Sholokhova 6-4, 6-3. Sholokhova is No. 44 in the ITA preseason rankings to Stoiana's 1; coincidentally, that is the same ranking as Theo Dean of Cal, who defeated No. 1 Ozan Baris of Michigan State in Wednesday's first round.

No. 2 seed Dasha Vidmanova of Georgia lost to North Carolina sophomore Thea Rabman 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 and No. 3 seed Celia-Belle Mohr of Vanderbilt was beaten by Tennessee senior Elza Tomase 6-1, 5-7, 6-0. 

Only five seeds remain: Savannah Broadus[6] of Pepperdine, Connie Ma[4] of Stanford, and Ange Oby Kajuru[5] of Oklahoma State in the top half, and Sarah Hamner[8] of South Carolina and Julia Fliegner[10] of Michigan in the bottom half. 

Three qualifiers are still playing: Tomase, Catherine Aulia of Tennessee and Kailey Evans of San Diego. The pre-qualifiers saw their win streaks end at six, with Imogen Haddad of Southern Cal losing to Sofia Johnson of Old Dominion 6-2, 6-1 and Carmen Andreea Herea losing to Fliegner 7-5, 6-4. Four schools have two players in the round of 16: Michigan, North Carolina, Tennessee and Stanford. No. 2 newcomer Valerie Glozman defeated Ellie Coleman of Duke 6-4, 6-4 to join Ma in the third round.

Rain in the afternoon in Cary meant the final two singles matches had to be completed indoors, with all of the second round doubles matches to follow. That draw can be found here.

Five seeds remain in the men's draw, including No. 2 and 3, who picked up straight-sets wins today. Second seed Michael Zheng of Columbia defeated DK Suresh of Wake Forest 7-5, 6-3 and third seed Oliver Tarvet of San Diego beat qualifier Miguel Perez Pena of Georgia 7-5, 6-4. In the only third round match between two seeds in either the men's and women's draws, Zheng will face JC Roddick of Texas A&M, a 9-16 seed, who defeated qualifier Alex Bernard of Ohio State.

Jay Friend of Arizona[9-16] is the fourth seed remaining in the bottom half; he advanced by beating qualifier Rudy Quan of UCLA, the No. 3 Newcomer 5-7, 6-3, 6-0. 

The only seed in the top half is Friend's teammate Colton Smith, the No. 5 seed. The two seeds who lost today were both in the top half, with Samir Banerjee of Stanford defeating No. 4 Cooper Williams 7-5, 6-2 and Jeremy Jin of Florida beating Sebastian Dominko of Notre Dame 6-1, 2-6, 6-4. 

As with the women, there are four men's teams with two players in the third round: TCU, Ohio State, Arizona and Texas.

Qualifiers advancing to the third round are Aidan Kim of Ohio State and Corey Craig of Florida State, who have now won four matches. Pre-qualifiers Jaden Weekes of Kentucky and Max Sheldon of Michigan State lost in three sets today.

The second round of doubles was completed in Tulsa, and in keeping with the theme of the tournament, just one seeded team has advanced to Friday's quarterfinals: No. 3 seeds Togan Tokac and Guilio Perego of Texas A&M. Top seeds Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez of Mississippi State lost to Zheng and Hugo Hashimoto of Columbia 4-6, 7-6(6), 10-8 in the second round today. With their loss, all No. 1 seeds in singles and doubles are out by the end of the second day.

Friday is the day the tournaments double up, with the third round and quarterfinals of singles scheduled. All eight third round singles matches are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Central Tulsa. The women's singles matches have not yet been scheduled. The men's draw is here; the women's draw is here.

Cracked Racquets will continue to provide its CrossCourt coverage at the ITA YouTube Channel.

The USTA Pro Circuit W35 in Berkeley California will be the site of another meeting between two of the best young American juniors. No. 2 seed Iva Jovic and No. 6 seed Clervie Ngounoue will play for the first time on the Pro Circuit, but they have met four times in juniors.  Ngounoue, 18, won the first three meetings: the Orange Bowl semifinals in 2022, the Indian Wells J300 semifinal in 2023, and a week later, the San Diego J300 final. Jovic got on the board last month in the semifinals of the USTA 18s National Championships in San Diego, posted an emphatic 6-1, 6-2 win over Ngounoue. 

In today's second round in Berkeley, Jovic saved a match point in the second set tiebreaker and went on to beat 17-year-old Ena Koike of Japan 2-6, 7-6(8), 6-3 in just under three hours. Ngounoue defeated 15-year-old qualifier Kristina Penickova 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in two hours and 12 minutes. Ngounoue and Jovic were playing doubles together, but gave their opponents a walkover today. 

The other Americans advancing to the quarterfinals are No. 4 seed Jamie Loeb(UNC), Whitney Osuigwe and Alana Smith(NC State). 

Top Seed Baris Among Nine Seeds Ousted in All-American Championships First Round, All Top Eight Women's Seeds Advance; Grant and Kennedy Lead US Teams for Junior Billie Jean King and Davis Cups

The All-American Championships were considered wide open on the men's side this year, and the first day did nothing to discourage that view with nine of the 16 seeds, including top seed Ozan Baris of Michigan State, eliminated in their first round matches.

Graduate student Theo Dean of Cal, No. 44 in the ITA Division I preseason rankings, beat No. 1 Baris, a 2024 NCAA singles semifinalist, 6-2, 2-6, 6-1. Dean played at Yale prior to joining the Bears for this season.

Baris was one of four top 8 seeds to lose: No. 6 seed Radu Papoe of Cornell lost to Pedro Vives of TCU 6-1, 6-0; No. 7 seed Gavin Young of Michigan lost to Peter Makk of Southern Cal, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 and No. 8 seed Jack Anthrop of Ohio State was beaten by Casey Hoole of South Carolina 6-2, 7-5.  

The five 9-16 seeds who lost are Mississippi State's Petar Jovanovic, Thomas Pausell of Georgia, Paul Inchauspe of Princeton, Shunsuke Mitsui of Tennessee and Pedro Rodenas of Duke. Qualifier Sam Landau of Duke defeated Jovanovic 6-4, 2-6, 6-2; Sebastian Gorzny of Texas beat Paulsell 6-2, 7-5; qualifier Aidan Kiim of Ohio State defeated Inchauspe 4-6, 6-3, 7-5; Kalamazoo 18s champion Matt Forbes of Michigan State, a wild card entry, defeated Mitsui 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 and Jaden Weekes of Kentucky beat Rodenas 6-7(2), 6-4, 6-4.

Weekes, who came through pre-qualifying, has now won six matches in the past five days. He will play qualifier Corey Craig of Florida State next. Max Sheldon of Michigan State is the other pre-qualifier advancing to Thursday's second round. He defeated Fons Van Sambeek of NC State 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. More than half the men's first round matches, 17 to be exact, went to a third set.

There were upsets in the women's first round as well, but they were all confined to players seeded 9-16. The two pre-tournament favorites, top seed and defending champion Mary Stoiana of Texas A&M and No. 2 seed Dasha Vidmanova of Georgia, started with straight-sets victories. Stoiana defeated Sydni Ratliff of Ohio State 6-1, 6-1 and Vidmanova beat qualifier Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer of UCLA 6-2, 6-4.

No. 9 seed Anastasiya Komar of Oklahoma State was beaten by Lily Jones of Michigan 6-1, 7-5; No. 11 seed Amelia Honer of UC-Santa Barbara lost to Oyiniomo Quadre of Florida International 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-4; No. 12 seed Emma Charney of Southern Cal dropped a 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 decision to Tatum Evans of North Carolina; No. 13 seed Julia Garcia Ruiz of Oklahoma was beaten by Sofia Johnson of Old Dominion 6-1, 6-1; No. 15 seed Carolina Gomez Alonso of Arkansas lost to qualifier Catherine Aulia of Tennessee 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-1 and No. 16 seed Mia Kupres of Texas A&M was beaten by Ellie Coleman of Duke 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Note that the consolation tournament this year is a feed-in through the round of 16, after previously being confined to first round losers. This is because the two consolation finalists receive entry into the NCAA singles field in November, joining the quarterfinalists from this event as qualifiers.

As with the men, two players who came through pre-qualifying advanced to the second round with their sixth wins of the tournament: Carmen Andreea Herea of Texas beat wild card Eleana Yu of Duke 7-6(2), 6-3 and Imogen Haddad of Southern Cal defeated qualifier Guillermina Grant of Georgia 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-4.

Doubles action is still underway, but there have already been major upsets in the first round, with men's No. 2 seeds Niels Ratiu and Freddy Blades of Georgia falling to Gavin Young and Benjamin Kittay of Michigan 7-5, 6-3, and women's top seeds Ange Oby Kajuru and Anastasiya Komar of Oklahoma State losing to Reece Carter and Alexia Jacobs of Washington 3-6, 7-6(1), 10-3. No. 3 seeds Luciana Perry and Sydni Ratliff of Ohio State lost to Mao Mushika and Jessica Alsola of Cal 6-4, 6-4.

The second round of singles and doubles and the first round of qualifying in singles and doubles is scheduled for Thursday. See the ITA YouTube channel for the Cracked Racquets coverage. IonCourt is handling the live scoring: men's here, women's here.

The women's draws are here; the men's draws are here.

The ITF has announced the team nominations for November's Junior Billie Jean King Cup and Junior Davis Cup, which is limited to players 16 and under. The tournament is being held in Turkey, November 11-17.

The United States Junior BJK Cup team, captained by Georgi Rumenov, consists of Tyra Grant, Kristina Penickova and Julieta Pareja. Grant was on the US team that won the Cup last year, with Alanis Hamilton and Iva Jovic, who are no longer age-eligible.

Other strong teams include Great Britain, with Hannah Klugman and US Open champion Mika Stojsavljevic, the Czech Republic, with Julie Pastikova and Tereza Krejcova and Germany, with Julia Stusek and Sonja Zhenikhova.

The rosters for all 16 teams can be found here.

The United States Junior Davis Cup team, captained by Jose Caballeros, consists of Jack Kennedy, Jack Secord and Keaton Hance. Other strong teams in the boys competition include France and Germany. 

The rosters for all 16 teams can be found here.

ITA All-American Championships Begin Wednesday with Michigan State's Baris and Texas A&M's Stoiana Top Seeds, Ten Pre-Qualifiers Reach Main Draw; USTA Announces Australian Open Wild Card Challenge Dates, Davis Cup Team

Qualifying is now complete at the first major tournament of the Division I fall season, the ITA All-American Championships.  Main draw action begins Wednesday morning at both the women's tournament in Cary, North Carolina and the men's tournament in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The draws have been posted, with the seeds listed below. Click on the heading to see the draw. I don't know why the women's draw is seeded 1-16, while the men opted to group the 9-16 players. Preseason No. 1s Mary Stoiana of Texas A&M and Ozan Baris of Michigan State are the top seeds. It will be interesting to see how the seeds hold up, as they weren't what you'd call reliable in the pre-qualifying and qualifying. 

I mentioned the mystery surrounding 2024 NCAA singles finalist Anastasiya Lopata of Georgia's participation. She is not in the draw, instead taking a wild card into the USTA Pro Circuit W75 this week in Templeton California, where she beat Carson Branstine(Texas A&M) 6-1, 6-1 today in the first round. She will face No. 2 seed Rebecca Marino of Canada in the second round. For more on Lopata's win, see this recap of the tournament from Steve Pratt.

Women:
1. Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M
2. Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia
3. Celie-Belle Mohr, Vanderbilt
4. Connie Ma, Stanford
5. Ange Oby Kajuru, Oklahoma State
6. Savannah Broadus, Pepperdine
7. Nicole Khirin, Texas A&M
8. Sarah Hamner, South Carolina
9. Anastasiya Komar, Oklahoma State
10. Julia Fliegner, Michigan
11. Ameila Honer, UC-Santa Barbara
12. Emma Charney, Southern Cal
13. Julie Garcia Ruiz, Oklahoma
14. Kimmi Hance, UCLA
15. Carolina Gomez Alonso, Arkansas
16. Mia Kupres, Texas A&M

Men:

1. Ozan Baris, Michigan State

2. Michael Zheng, Columbia

3. Oliver Tarvet, San Diego

4. Cooper Williams, Duke

5. Colton Smith, Arizona

6. Radu Papoe, Cornell

7. Gavin Young, Michigan

8. Jack Anthrop, Ohio State

9-16

Petar Jovanovic, Mississippi State

Thomas Paulsell, Georgia

Sebastian Domoinko, Notre Dame

Paul Inchauspe, Princeton

Pedro Rodenas, Duke

Shunsuke Mitsui, Tennessee

Jay Friend, Arizona

JC Roddick, Texas A&M

Five men and five women extended their time in Tulsa and Cary to a fifth day, at least, having made it through pre-qualifying and qualifying to reach the main draw. All but one of those 10 have won five matches in the past four days; Anthony Wright of North Carolina got into qualifying as a lucky loser in pre-qualifying, so he has won four matches. How much gas will they have left in the tank for the main draw remains to be seen, but it's a notable achievement regardless of their results Wednesday.

The draws do not show who has gotten in via qualifying, so the list is below. Adit Sinha of Cornell and Reece Carter of Washington are in as lucky losers.

All-American qualifiers

MEN:

Anthony Wright, North Carolina Pre-qualifying lucky loser

Max Sheldon, Michigan State Pre-qualifier

Corey Craig, Florida State

Sam Landau[4], Duke

Rudy Quan, UCLA

Aristotelis Thanos, Michigan State

Carl Overbeck[7], Cal

Luca Staeheli[8], North Carolina State

Mark Miladinovic, Baylor Pre-qualifier

Maxwell Smith, Clemson Pre-qualifier

Devin Badenhorst[11], Baylor

Jaden Weekes, Kentucky Pre-qualifier

Charlelie Cosnet, Kentucky

Miguel Perez Pena[14], Georgia

Alexander Bernard[15], Ohio State

Aidan Kim[16], Ohio State

NC State freshman Paskaukas is one of three freshmen
 who came through pre-qualifying (Fakih, Herea)

WOMEN:

Melodie Collard, Virginia

Ashton Bowers, Texas

Elza Tomase[3], Tennessee

Alexis Blokhina[4], Stanford

Chloe Noel, Oklahoma

Carmen Andreea Herea, Texas Pre-qualifier

Kate Fakih, UCLA Pre-qualifier

Sabine Rutlauka[8], Penn

Leonie Moeller, Memphis Pre-qualifier

Kailey Evans, San Diego

Guillermina Grant[11], Georgia

Valencia Xu[12], Stanford

Imogen Haddad, Southern Cal Pre-qualifier

Gabia Paskauskas, North Carolina State Pre-qualifier

Catherine Aulia[15], Tennessee

Anne-Christine Lutkemeyer[16], UCLA

Cracked Racquets will be providing coverage on the ITA YouTube Channel; links to individual streams and live scoring can be found on the men's and women's tournament pages.

The USTA announced the Australian Open Wild Card Challenge dates yesterday, and the women's race is much earlier than usual, beginning next week and ending the week of October 21. This means the WTA 125 Dow Tennis Classic in Midland, which begins November 4, will not be part of the race; it has played a major role in past Wild Card Challenges since the tournament moved to November and became a WTA 125 in 2021.

The men's race begins the week the women's ends, October 21, and extends, as usual, through the indoor hard court Challenger swing in the United States. All indoor and outdoor hard-court and carpet events at the M25 and W25 level and above, including WTA, ATP Tour and Challenger events, will be included in the Challenge. The best three results in those four-week spans will decide the winner of the reciprocal wild card with Australia. 

The USTA also announced the team Captain Bob Bryan will take to Spain for the Davis Cup quarterfinals in November: Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Ben Shelton(Florida), Rajeev Ram(Illinois) and Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M). For more on Shelton's Davis Cup debut, see this article from usta.com.

ITF J500 in Osaka Underway with Five Americans Entered; Secord, Moe and Lee Win ITF J100 Titles; Preda and Kostovic Claim European 18s Championships, 16s Champions to be Crowned This Week in Italy

The Osaka Mayor's Cup, the fifth of the seven ITF J500s this year, has begun, with five Americans making the long trip to Japan basically for this one event. There was no J300 warmup, and nothing in the area after, unless you consider a J200 in Uzbekistan as a geographic option. The three boys playing in Japan are Max Exsted, the No. 9 seed, Jacob Olar and Benjamin Willwerth, Exsted and Olar are scheduled to play their first round matches Tuesday; Willwerth lost his Monday. 

The two US girls competing are Chukwumelije Clarke, who lost her first round match Monday, and Leena Friedman, who won her first round match.

2024 Australian Open finalist Jan Kumstat of the Czech Republic, who is likely playing the ITF Junior Finals in China next month, is the top boys seed; Tereza Krejcova of the Czech Republic is the top girls seed. Both won their opening round matches Monday.

Three Americans claimed ITF J100 titles last week, with Jack Secord and Kaya Moe winning the singles titles in Canada and 14-year-old Jordan Lee capturing his biggest title in Bosnia Herzegovina.

The 16-year-old Secord, the top seed in Quebec City, didn't drop a set in his five victories, defeating No. 2 seed Simon Caldwell 6-4, 6-3 in an all-US final.  It's the third career ITF Junior Circuit title for Secord and his first this year. 

Moe, a 16-year-old blue chip from Connecticut, swept the girls titles, winning her first in singles title on the ITF Junior Circuit as a qualifier. Moe, who has played just four ITF Junior Circuit tournaments, all this year in the US or Canada, beat just one seed en route to the title, defeating No. 1 Ava Rodriguez 6-0, 6-4 in the second round. In the championship match, Moe downed unseeded Lucy Oyebog Atang 6-4, 6-2 for her eighth win of the week.  Moe and Carrie-Ann Hoo won the doubles title, with the No. 2 seeds beating the Canadian team of Clemence Mercier and Ned Rahimkhani 6-2, 6-4 in the final. Both teams were unseeded. 

Joseph Oyebog and France's Sasha Colleu won the boys doubles title, beating top seeds Secord and Ford McCollum 7-5, 6-1 in the final. 

No. 8 seed Lee, who had reached two J60 finals this year, got his first singles title in Mostar last week, defeating No. 2 seed Egor Shcherbakov of Russia 7-6(3), 6-4 in the final. Shcherbakov had beaten No. 4 seed Michael Antonius 6-4, 6-7(5), 7-6(3) in the semifinals. Antonius and Lee lost in the doubles semifinals.

The other titles for Americans last week all came in J30s.  Fourteen-year-old Anay Kulkarni of Arizona won his first two ITF Junior Circuit titles in Managua Nicaragua. Seeded No. 8 in singles, Kulkarni defeated fellow American Juan Carlos Portilla Morales, the No. 2 seed, 6-1, 6-2 in the singles final. Kulkarni partnered with Nick Mertgens of Germany for the doubles title, with the No. 3 seeds beating the unseeded Mexican team of Roger Chile Garcia and Macario Reyna 6-4, 7-6(5) in the final.

At the J30 in Punta Cana Dominican Republic, top seed Mason Taube won his second ITF Junior Circuit singles title, with the 16-year-old from Georgia beating unseeded Matias Reyniak of New York 6-2, 6-3 in the final. Top seeds Ciara Harding and Natalie Oliver won the girls doubles title, beating No. 4 seeds Sofia Mills and Gabriella Slovak 6-0, 6-2 in the all-USA final.

In Taiwan, 16-year-old William Zhang won his first ITF Junior Circuit title, with the No. 4 seed defeating No. 5 seed Kuan-Huai Mao of Taiwan 6-2, 6-4 in the final.

The top seeds took the titles at the ITF J300 European Championships last week in Austria, with Luca Preda of Romania sweeping the boys championships and Teodora Kostovic of Serbia continuing her domination of J300 tournaments by taking the girls singles title.

The 18-year-old Preda defeated No. 11 seed Jacopo Vasami of Italy 6-3, 6-1 in the singles final, then partnered with Stefan Horia Haita of Romania for the doubles title. The No. 2 seeds defeated top seeds Izan Almazan Valiente and Andres Santamarta Roig of Spain 7-6(6), 6-1 in the final. 

The 17-year-old Kostovic, who has won four J300 singles titles since June, didn't drop a set all week, defeating No. 4 seed Alena Kovackova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-0 in the final. No. 6 seeds Joy De Zeeuw and Britt Du Pree of the Netherlands won the girls doubles title, beating No. 8 seeds Elena Ruxandra Bertea and Diana-Ioana Simionescu of Romania 6-2, 5-7, 11-9 in the final.

With the 14s division championships two weeks ago, and the 18s division last week, it's now time for the European Championships for the 16s, with that event being held for a second time in Parma Italy.  Flynn Thomas of Switzerland is the top seed in the boys tournament; Charo Esquiva Bañuls of Spain is the top seed in the girls draw. See the Tennis Europe tournament page for links to draws, live streaming and live scoring.

Nakagawa, Anderson and Sanchez Martinez Claim USTA Pro Circuit Titles; ITA All-American Pre-Qualifying Complete, Qualifying Begins Monday; Europe Comes Back to Win Laver Cup

The three events this week on the USTA Pro Circuit wrapped up today, with an alternate, a qualifier and a No. 6 seed taking the titles.

At the ATP Challenger 75 in Columbus, alternate Naoki Nakagawa, who had never advanced past the second round of a Challenger until this week, defeated former Ohio State Buckeye James Trotter 7-6(8), 5-7, 7-6(5) in the first all-Japanese Challenger final outside of Asia. The three-hour and 19-minute final saw Trotter hit 27 aces and save nine of 10 break points, but it wasn't enough against Nakagawa. Both players received special exemptions into the main draw of next week's Challenger 75 in Charleston South Carolina, with Nakagawa playing wild card Henry Lieberman(UNC) and Trotter facing a qualifier or lucky loser.

At the $15,000 tournament in Fayetteville Arkansas, qualifier Benito Sanchez Martinez of Germany, a junior at Mississippi State, defeated Niccolo Baroni of Italy, a freshman at Mississippi State 6-2, 6-2 for his first ITF men's World Tennis Tour title.

No. 6 seed Robin Anderson, the former UCLA All-American, ended the run of qualifier Ashley Kratzer today in the final of the W35 in San Rafael California, defeating the 2017 USTA 18s champion 7-6(6), 6-2. It's the first singles title of the year for Anderson, who also claimed the doubles title, with Alana Smith(NC State) yesterday.

The pre-qualifying is complete at the Women's ITA All-American Championships in Cary North Carolina, with the 16 players who won both their matches today advancing to the qualifying, which begins Monday. The qualifying draws do not identify those who received entry via pre-qualifying, so those 16 players are listed here:

Women's pre-qualifiers:
Kate Fakih, UCLA
Gracie Epps, Oklahoma State
Kallista Liu[17], Maryland
Gaby Rivera[4], LSU
Eva Alvarez Sande, Washington State
Carmen Andreea Herea[17], Texas
Leonie Moeller, Memphis
Valeria Ray[17], Vanderbilt
Olivia Center, UCLA
Gabia Paskauskas, NC State
Zoe Hammond, Kentucky
Xin Tong Wang, Wichita State
Ariana Pursoo[13], Texas
Xinyi Nong, Miami
Imogen Haddad, Southern Cal
Ava Catanzarite[17], Oklahoma

I'm not sure how the seeding was done, but it wasn't impressive, with just two players expected to advance through pre-qualifying(Rivera and Pursoo) actually doing so.

The results of the Men's ITA All-American Championships pre-qualifying in Tulsa Oklahoma can be found here, with the winners listed below. Again, the seeding has not proven to be a reliable indicator of who might get through three matches to reach the qualifying portion of the tournament, with just three of the 16 players below--Brown, Giamichelle and Weekes--seeded to reach the qualifying round.

Nicholas Heng, Auburn

Julien Penzlin, LSU

Mehdi Benchakroun, Central Florida

Lucas Andrade da Silva[17], South Carolina

Landon Ardila, Princeton

Manfredi Graziani, Penn

William Mroz, Illinois

Sean Daryabeigi[17], South Carolina

Lucas Brown[9], Texas

Maxwell Smith, Clemson

Santiago Giamichelle[11], Central Florida

Noah Schlagenhauf, Mississippi

Max Sheldon, Michigan State

Noa Vukadin[17], Clemson

Jaden Weekes[15], Kentucky

Marko Miladinovic, Baylor

After residing with the World Team the past two years, the Laver Cup title returned to Europe, with Carlos Alcaraz of Spain playing a major role in today's comeback. He and Casper Ruud won the doubles over Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe, and then clinched the championship with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Taylor Fritz in the final singles match of the day. In all, Alcaraz won 8 of Europe's 13 points, which is a record for the event.

Kratzer Beats Top Seed Day to Advance to W35 San Rafael Final; Mississippi State Guaranteed Title at Fayetteville $15K; Trotter Reaches Second Challenger Final in Columbus; Americans Give World Team Lead in Laver Cup

2017 USTA Girls 18s champion Ashley Kratzer has been out of competition for four years, due to a doping suspension, the details of which you can review in Stephanie Myles' July article on her website OpenCourt. Kratzer, a 25-year-old left-hander, reached 200 in the WTA rankings in 2018, but has played only twice this year, since her suspension was lifted in March. That may be due to the fact that she has no WTA ranking and therefore needs wild cards; she received one for the W75 this summer in Evansville and won a round, but needs three tournaments to get a WTA ranking. 

This week she received a wild card into qualifying at the W35 in San Rafael California and she has rolled through her opponents, including top seed and WTA No. 170 Kayla Day, the 2016 USTA Girls 18s champion, whom she defeated 6-2, 6-3 in just over an hour. Kratzer, who has now won six matches without dropping a set, will face No. 6 seed Robin Anderson(UCLA) in what is just Kratzer's fourth Pro Circuit final. Kratzer is 0-3 in finals, so will be looking for her first title against Anderson. Anderson, who beat No. 4 seed Sophie Chang 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(2) in today's semifinals, has split her two previous meetings with Kratzer, but those obviously go way back, to 2017 and 2018.

In today's doubles final, Anderson and partner Alana Smith(NC State) took their first title as a team, with the No. 2 seeds beating No. 4 seeds Jamie Loeb(UNC) and Makenna Jones(UNC) 7-5, 6-2. 

At the $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Fayetteville Arkansas, Mississippi State has been flexing its muscle, with three of the four semifinalists currently on the Bulldogs' roster. In the all-Mississippi State semifinal, freshman Niccolo Baroni of Italy defeated junior Mario Martinez Serrano of Spain 6-3, 6-2; qualifier Benito Sanchez Martinez, a junior from Germany, defeated top seed Timo Legout(Texas) of France 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinal in the top half. 

Legout did collect a title this week, in doubles, with Oklahoma State's Isaac Becroft. The unseeded pair defeated top seeds Alfredo Perez and Jack Vance 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 in today's final. 

James Trotter of Japan reached his second ATP Challenger final today in a familiar setting, with the 2023 Ohio State graduate defeating Stanford junior Nishesh Basavareddy 6-7(4), 6-1, 6-0 at the Ty Tucker Tennis Center in Columbus. Trotter, who won his first Challenger in June in Texas, saw his 5-2 lead in the first set slip away, but he immediately took control of the second set and rolled through the third, with his 13 aces and Basavareddy's many unforced errors the key factors in his victory.

Trotter will face alternate Naoki Nakagawa of Japan for the title Sunday. The 27-year-old Nakagawa, who had never reached a Challenger quarterfinal before this week, defeated qualifier Kyle Edmund of Great Britain, a former ATP Top 20 player, 7-6(5), 0-6, 6-2. According to Challenger expert Damian Kust, it's the first Challenger final between two Japanese players outside of Asia.

Trotter, the 2023 NCAA doubles champion, collected his fifth Challenger doubles title of the year in Columbus, his second with Hans Hach Verdugo(Abilene Christian) of Mexico. It may be a good omen for Trotter, who also won the doubles with Hach Verdugo at Tyler to sweep the titles there. Hach Verdugo and Trotter defeated unseeded Christian Harrison and Ethan Quinn(Georgia) 6-4, 6-7(6), 11-9 in this afternoon's final.

The annual Laver Cup team exhibition began on Friday in Berlin, with the score between the World and Europe tied at 2. No Americans played singles for the World Friday, but Frances Tiafoe, Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz all played singles today. Tiafoe defeated Daniil Medvedev 3-6, 6-4, 10-5, Shelton lost to Carlos Alcaraz 6-4, 6-4 and Fritz defeated Alexander Zverev 6-4, 7-5. With matches worth twice as much Saturday as Friday, that gave the World a 6-4 lead, which they expanded to 8-4 with Shelton and Alejandro Tabilo's 6-1, 6-2 win in doubles over Casper Ruud and Stefanos Tsitsipas. 

For more on tomorrow's matches, which will determine if the World can earn its third straight title, see this article for the Laver Cup website.

ITA All-American Championships Pre-Qualifying Begins Saturday; Main Draw Selections Feature Two Notable Freshmen Wild Cards; Basavareddy Reaches Columbus Challenger Semis; All-US Weekend Set at San Rafael W35

Pre-qualifying begins Saturday for the men's and women's All-American Championships, with the men in Tulsa Oklahoma and the women in Cary North Carolina. This is earlier in the season than usual for these events, which have always been in October, due to the major changes in the fall calendar. Qualifying begins Monday and main draw begins Wednesday.

The main draw acceptance lists were posted today, and with qualification for November's NCAA singles and doubles championships available to the All-American quarterfinalists (and the consolation finalists), the fields are strong.

2024 NCAA singles semifinalists Ozan Baris of Michigan State and Colton Smith of Arizona are in the men's field, as is NCAA finalist Michael Zheng of Columbia. NCAA champion Filip Planinsek of Alabama is not competing this fall.

Kalamazoo 18s champion Matt Forbes of Michigan State received a wild card, as did Stanford sophomore Kyle Kang. The host school receives a wild card, and Reiya Komagata of Tulsa was awarded that one. Texas and Duke have the most players in the main draw with three.

The men's list of main draw and qualifying competitors can be found here.

The prequalifying draw is here.

The women's main draw has finally expanded; after being a 32-player draw for decades, it now is the same as the men: a 64-draw.

Texas A&M's Mary Stoiana has entered, as has Georgia's Dasha Vidmanova; 2024 NCAA singles finalist Anastiasiia Lopata of Georgia is showing under the Players tab here, but not on the Google document, so we may have to wait for the main draw to be posted to see if she's playing. 

2024 USTA 18s finalist Valerie Glozman of Stanford received a main draw wild card. Tatum Evans of North Carolina received the host wild card. 2022 National 18s champion Eleana Yu, who transferred to Duke after her freshman year at Stanford, is one of five players from Duke in main draw. Yu received a wild card as the ITA National Summer champion. 

Cracked Racquets will again provide coverage of the event, beginning next Wednesday, with the start of the main draw.

The semifinals are set at the ATP Challenger 75 in Columbus, with no seeded players remaining in the draw. Nineteen-year-old Nishesh Basavareddy, who is taking the fall off from Stanford and is unsure about returning in January, reached his fifth Challenger semifinal with today's 6-0, 6-2 win over Las Vegas finalist Tristan Boyer(Stanford). Basavareddy will face Ohio State graduate James Trotter of Japan, who defeated Ernesto Escobedo of Mexico 7-6(3), 6-2.  Top seed Chris Eubanks(Georgia Tech) lost to Naoki Nakagawa of Japan 2-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(4); Nakagawa had never been beyond the second round of a Challenger until this week. Nakagawa will face qualifier Kyle Edmund of Great Britain, whose comeback from injury has gone on more than two years. This is the former ATP No. 14's first Challenger semifinal since 2019.

At the W35 in San Rafael California, American champions are guaranteed with all four singles semifinalists and both doubles finalists from the United States.

Two former USTA 18s champions will square off in the top half, with top seed Kayla Day, the 2016 San Diego champion, playing qualifier Ashley Kratzer, the 2017 San Diego champion. Day defeated No. 5 seed Katherine Sebov of Canada 7-5, 6-4 while Kraztzer beat No. 3 seed Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus 6-3, 6-1.

In the bottom half, No. 6 seed Robin Anderson(UCLA) defeated No. 2 seed Gabriela Knutson(Syracuse) of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-2 to set up a semifinal contest with No. 4 seed Sophie Chang. Chang defeated Lea Ma(Georgia) 6-1, 6-4 in today's quarterfinals.

The doubles final will feature No. 2 seeds Anderson and Alana Smith(NC State) against No. 4 seeds Jamie Loeb(UNC) and Makenna Jones(UNC). Jones, the 2021 NCAA doubles champion, had not played singles or doubles since last November, so it's great to see her back on the court this week and winning matches, even if she is only playing doubles.

ITF Approves Use of World Tennis Number for Junior Entry; Quarterfinals Set at ITF J300 European Championships, with No. 2 Girls Seed Upset Today

I missed this late last week, but the International Tennis Federation has announced that its World Tennis Number rating system will be used as a secondary entry criteria for 14s and 16s tournaments for the following federations: Asia, Oceania, Central American and the Carribbean, South America and Africa. January 1, 2025 is the start date for this initiative.

Obviously some large federations are missing, with no mention of the USTA or Tennis Australia, but the release does state that this secondary method for entry is one Tennis Europe "is hoping to implement in the near future."

An ITF junior ranking is still the primary method of acceptance to ITF Junior Circuit tournaments, but since 2022, a player without a ITF junior ranking could receive entry into smaller events based on their World Tennis Number. By introducing this WTN system regionally for the 14s and 16s should lead to more data and more accurate ratings throughout the system.

Last month the ITF announced that it would be making "enhancements" to the WTN algorithm, which were implemented in the ratings beginning September 11. It sounds from the release that the primary tweak focused on the juniors. The three key points:

1. As with any algorithm, it is important to ensure its accuracy and having closely monitored the data from junior players and their changes over time, it’s become increasingly apparent that some players are being initialised too high. By adjusting where players begin their journey on the WTN scale, they will now see a greater improvement to their rating as their level improves.
2. We are enabling player ratings to transition to their ‘true’ skill level faster from the initial rating given to them. This will mean that when a player is given an initial rating that is too low or too high, they will update to a more accurate rating much faster from their first few matches.
3. Every match you play counts towards your rating but it’s important that the rating change reflects the difference in ability. As such, we have listened to feedback and studied the data. Players will now experience smaller changes to their WTN in matches when losing to a superior player. However, players will still see a sharp increase to their rating should they beat a player with a substantially better rating.

Read the release, with other frequently asked questions, here. I think it's important that the ITF continue to work to improve the World Tennis Number, and the fact that they are being transparent about making these changes and doing so in advance, based on feedback from coaches and players, is a good sign.

The quarterfinals of the ITF J300 European Regional Championships will be played Friday in Austria, and although No. 1 seeds Luca Preda of Romania and Teodora Kostovic of Serbia have advanced, other top seeds have not.

No. 2 seed Jeline Vandromme of Beligum, who won the 16s title last year, beating Kostovic in the semifinals, lost to No. 14 seed 

Ekaterina Perelygin of Austria 7-6(3), 6-4.  No. 4 seed Andres Santamarta Roig of Spain was beaten by No. 15 seed Glib Sekachov of Ukraine 6-1, 6-3, and No. 6 seed Oskari Paldanius of Finland lost to Austria's Nico Hipfl 7-5, 6-3.

Hipfl is one of three unseeded boys to make the quarterfinals.

Boys:

Luca Preda[1](ROU) v Adam Jilly(HUN)

Glib Sekachov[15](UKR) v Nico Hipfl(AUT)

Jacopo Vasami[11](ITA) v William Rejchtman Vinciguerra[3](SWE)

Joao Dinis Silva(POR) v Henry Bernet[2](SUI)

Girls:

Teodora Kostovic[1](SRB) v Mia Pohankova[10](SVK)

Vittoria Paganetti[3](ITA) v Eliska Tichackova[6](CZE)

Noemi Basiletti[9](ITA) v Alena Kovackova[4](CZE)

Monika Stankiewicz[5](POL) v Ekaterina Perelygina[14](AUT)

For links to live streaming and live scoring, see the Tennis Europe tournament page.

Electronic Line Calling Set to Debut at ITA All-American Championships; Leach Earns First ATP Point in Fayetteville; Teens Ahn and Crossley Advance at San Rafael W35; Basavareddy Reaches Columbus Challenger Quarterfinals

The ITA announced today that their long-awaited move to electronic line calling will begin in earnest next week at the men's ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa Oklahoma. The company the ITA has selected for this initiative is PlayReplay, a Swedish company, with the pilot program starting first with the All-American Championships, then followed by the women's West Sectional in Los Angeles in November, the Men's and Women's Team Indoor Championships in February and dual matches at Pepperdine in March.

How all this will work remains to be seen, but this is from today's ITA release:

The PlayReplay ELC system utilizes a minimally intrusive camera solution that provides users a high level of necessary player and ball tracking data, “challenges” to line calls, a visual representation of where balls land, and a ruling on the call. The PlayReplay system also provides players and coaches access to a wealth of player analysis data, including shot speed, court positioning, in/out percentage, and many other useful metrics. By utilizing coaching features provided by the system, players will also be able to select target areas and gain insight into their accuracy during a training session.

After years of assurances that electronic line calling would be coming to college tennis (the US Open began using it on all their courts in 2021), it's finally here and I'm eager to see it in action next week in Tulsa. 

Jagger Leach is the rare junior who earned his first ATP point in his first opporunity, with the 17-year-old making his Pro Circuit debut today at the $15,000 tournament in Fayetteville Arkansas. Leach, who received entry via the ITF's Junior Reserved program, did not have to play No. 2 seed Nathan Ponwith, who withdrew. Leach faced instead lucky loser Arthur Bellegy of France, a recent Arkansas transfer, and won that match 6-1, 6-0 in 70 minutes.

The women's Pro Circuit, back after a four-week hiatus, is in San Rafael California for a W35 this week, with Kayla Day and Gabriela Knutson(Syracuse) of the Czech Republic the top two seeds.

Wild cards were given to India Houghton(Stanford), Katja Wiersholm(Cal), Alexis Nguyen and Alyssa Ahn. Only Ahn managed a victory in the first round, with the 17-year-old from San Diego, who has verbally committed to Stanford, defeating Cal senior and qualifier Jessica Alsola 6-1, 4-6, 7-5.

Qualifiers who won their first round matches include Carolyn Campana(Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, Pepperdine), Ashley Kratzer, the 2017 USTA 18s National champion, Alicia Herrero Linana(Baylor) of Spain and Mayu Crossley of Japan. The 18-year-old Crossley, who has verbally committed to UCLA for next year, defeated Houghton 7-6(5), 7-5 in today's first round. Crossley faces Day in Thursday's second round.

The third tournament this week on the USTA Pro Circuit is the ATP Challenger 75 in Columbus, with Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech) and Tristan Schoolkate of Australia the top seeds. Eubanks advanced with a win over Cooper Williams(Harvard, Duke), but Schoolkate lost to qualifier Patrick Zahraj(UCLA) of Germany yesterday. Zahraj's run ended there, with a second round loss today to former Ohio State standout James Trotter of Japan.

All three wild cards went to Ohio State players, with Alex Bernard beating No. 4 seed Brandon Holt(USC) on Monday, but falling in the second round today 6-2, 6-3 to Naoki Nakagawa of Japan. Bryce Nakashima lost to Tristan Boyer(Stanford) in the first round 6-1, 7-6(3), but the third Buckeye wild card, Jack Anthrop, did earn a win, beating qualifier Murphy Cassone(Arizona State).

Stanford junior Nishesh Basavareddy, who is taking the fall off to compete in this stretch of weekly Challengers in the US,  reached his seventh career Challenger quarterfinal with a 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 win over 2023 NCAA champion Ethan Quinn(Georgia). The five other quarterfinalists will be determined on Thursday.

Pan Am ITF J300 Regional Acceptance Lists; Qualifying Complete at Fayetteville $15K; Legendary Coach Robert Lansdorp Dies

The next ITF Junior Circuit event in the United States that will have significant points on offer is next month's ITF J300 Pan American Regional Championships in Spring Texas.

Last year was the first year the event was held in the Houston suburb, and it was three weeks earlier, in mid-September due to a request by the ITF, but it has returned to its usual place on the schedule this year, with the main draw beginning Monday October 7. 

The Giammalva Racquet Club will be hosting the event for the second year, and with 48-player draws, there are plenty of courts at the facility to accommodate the busy schedules of the first few days. The weather was extremely hot last year, but hopefully three more weeks of autumn moderation will bring the temperatures down this year.

The tournament is open to all players from North and South America; rarely do South Americans enter, but this year Miguel Tobon of Colombia (who lives in Florida) and Luna Maria Cinalli of Argentina are among the top-ranked players on the acceptance list.

Jagger Leach, who reached the semifinals last year, is, at 15, the highest ranked boy at the close of entries. Other ITF Top 50 boys on the acceptance list are Cooper Woestendick, Tobon, Ian Mayew and Jack Kennedy. Alex Frusina, who is no longer age-eligible for ITF junior tournaments, defeated Stanford freshman Alex Razeghi in the final last year. 

Kristina Penickova, who at No. 11, is the highest ranked girl, lost in the second round last year to Aspen Schuman, who is returning after making the semifinals last year. Another 2023 semifinalist, Alanis Hamilton, has also entered.  The other ITF Top 50 girls on the acceptance list are Kaitlyn Rolls, Cinalli, Thea Frodin, Schuman, Annika Penickova and Christasha McNeil. WTA No. 114 Maya Joint won last year's title over Tyra Grant. Joint is no longer eligible to play this event as she now represents Australia, while Grant did not enter this year.

I'll have more on the W35 in San Rafael California and the ATP Challenger in Columbus Wednesday, but the qualifying is complete at the first non-Challenger USTA Pro Circuit men's event in the United States in a full month: the $15,000 tournament in Fayetteville Arkansas.

Qualifying concluded today, with five Americans advancing to the main draw: David Saye(Michigan State), Oren Vasser(William & Mary, Miami), Max Sheldon(Michigan State), JC Roddick(UCF, Texas A&M) and Connor Smillie(Arkansas).

Wild cards were given to Arkansas juniors Bozo Barun and Benedikt Emesz, Arkansas red shirt freshman Lukas Palovic and freshman Jakub Vrba.

The juniors who received entry via the ITF Junior Reserve program are Jagger Leach and Auburn freshman Alex Frusina, with 2023 Orange Bowl champion and Vanderbilt sophomore Danil Panarin receiving entry via the ITF Junior Exempt program. 

The top seed is Tim Legout of France, who has been a student at Texas, but does not appear to have been cleared by the NCAA yet. The No. 2 seed is Nathan Ponwith(Georgia, Arizona State), who will face Leach in the first round Wednesday.

Word of the death of renowned coach Robert Lansdorp came yesterday, and the acknowledgments of his impact on the game began to appear today.  Joel Drucker, a true historian of the sport, grew up in Southern California, so his perspective on Lansdorp's coaching career and philosophy has the feel of an insider. Drucker reviews Lansdorp's life and influence in this remembrance, posted yesterday at tennis.com.

I had met Lansdorp at an Easter Bowl seminar more than 15 years ago, and that led to a 2009 phone conversation that I summarized here. As I read it again, for the first time in many years, it's apparent just how unique his approach to coaching was and how committed he was to doing things his way.

Ken Thomas at radiotennis.com spoke to Lansdorp during the pandemic, and that interview from June of 2020 can be found here.

Americans Chica, Augustin, Lee and Hazelitt Sweep Titles on ITF Junior Circuit; Put and Kovacevic Claim European 14s Championships; Kostovic and Preda Top Seeds at This Week's European 18s Championships

The ITF Junior Circuit was packed with tournaments last week; 26 in total, with none above the J200 level. I recapped the J200 in Montreal, with Lachlan Gaskell taking the boys singles title and Claire An the girls doubles title in my post Saturday. Jacob Olar won the boys doubles title at the J200 in South Africa with Nikolai Barsukov of Germany. The No. 3 seeds defeated No. 2 seeds Ivan Iutkin of Russia and Kriish Tyagi of India 6-0, 1-6, 11-9 in the final. It's the 17-year-old Olar's seventh ITF Junior Circuit doubles title, all with different partners, but the first above the J100 level.

Americans swept all titles at the ITF J60 in Mexico, with 16-year-old Jacob Lee and 14-year-old Jordyn Hazelitt getting two titles apiece.

They were the first two titles for Hazelitt, who was unseeded, but didn't drop a set and beat the top two seeds; in the singles final she took out No. 1 Marianne Angel of Mexico 6-4, 6-0. In doubles No. 8 seeds Hazelitt and Lyla Middleton also won the title without the loss of a set, beating top seeds Ana Camila Celis Avila and Zoe Levresse Zavala of Mexico 6-4, 6-2 in the final.

Lee, a 16-year-old from Georgia, the No. 4 seed, won his fourth ITF Junior Circuit title with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 win over No. 16 seed Navneet Raghuram in an all-US final. In the doubles final, Lee and compatriot Anirudh Dhanwada, the No. 5 seeds, defeated No. 2 seeds Luis Andres Flores Avila and Guillermo Marcio of Mexico 6-2, 6-2. Lee now has three doubles titles, with two coming at J60s this month with Dhanwada.

At the J60 in Honduras, 16-year-old Zavier Augustin won his first ITF Junior Circuit singles title to go with the six doubles titles he's earned, five of which have come this year. Augustin won the doubles title with Sean Grosman, with the No. 2 seeds beating top seeds Oliver Moises Aguilar Gasperin of Mexico and Lucas Martin Velasco of Colombia 7-5, 7-5 in the final. The following day, Augustin, the top seed, and No. 7 seed Grosman faced off in the singles final, with Augustin earning a 6-3, 6-4 victory.

Daniela Chica, who reached the final two weeks ago at the J60 in Cartagena, avenged her loss in the final to Marcella Roversi in the semifinals and went on to win last week's J30 in Barranquilla Colombia. The 17-year-old top seed defeated Isabella Pisarczyk 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 for her third ITF Junior Circuit singles title. She partnered with Luciana Chica, who I assume is her younger sister, for the doubles title, with the unseeded pair beating No. 2 seeds Roversi and Alessia Franco 6-3, 6-4 in an all-US final.

The European Championships are usually held in July, but not this year, with the 14s taking place last week in the Czech Republic and the ITF J300 Regional Championships moving from its usual location in Switzerland to Austria.

At the 14s last week, there was what I would consider a big upset in the final, with top seed Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic, who is up to 104 in the ITF junior rankings losing to No. 2 Tea Kovacevic of Bosnia 6-7(7), 6-4, 6-4. Kovackova did win the doubles title, with Katerina Zajickova. The weather was poor, leading to an indoor final and short scoring in doubles.

Stan Put of the Netherlands took the boys 14s singles title, with the No. 7 seed repeating his Wimbledon 14U round robin win over Scott Watson of Great Britain, who was the No. 3 seed this week. Put defeated Watson 6-0, 4-6, 6-4. No. 4 seeds Pavel Dufek and Matyas Marsik of the Czech Republic won the boys doubles title.

For more on the 14s championships, and links to all the draws, see the Tennis Europe tournament page.

The J300 was scheduled to begin today in a new venue in Oberpullendorf Austria, but rain caused many matches to be canceled.

The European 18s Championships top eight seeds:

Boys:

1. Luca Preda, Romania

2. Henry Bernet, Switzerland

3. Wiliam Rejchtman Vinciguerra, Sweden

4. Andres Santamarta Roig, Spain

5. Izan Almazan Valiente, Spain

6. Oskari Paldanius, Finland

7. Andreas Timini, Cyprus

8. Jan Klimas, Czech Republic

Girls:

1. Teodora Kostovic, Serbia

2. Jeline Vandromme, Belgium

3. Vittoria Paganetti, Italy

4. Alena Kovackova, Czech Republic

5. Monika Stankiewicz, Poland

6. Eliska Tichackova, Czech Republic

7. Julia Stusek, Germany

8. Joy De Zeeuw, Netherlands

The girls event features most of the top European girls who have not moved on to pro tennis, but the boys field is missing quite a few players I would have expected to play: Charlie Robertson(GBR), Mees Rottgering(NED), Maxim Mrva(CZE) and Jan Kumstat(CZE), and Max Schoenhaus, all with another year of junior eligibility. This is a good opportunity to collect points for next year's ranking and for the Top 10 finish this year that would earn them the eight ATP Challenger wild cards for 2025. In fact, the 2006 players, such as Theo Papamalamis[11](FRA) and Tomasz Berkieta[13](POL) would benefit from the points in that race to the Top 10, so the relatively weak boys field surprises me.

Links to live streaming and live scoring can be found at the Tennis Europe tournament page.