Challenger Titles for Tien and Fearnley; Miller Claims W35 in Punta Cana; Zheng Wins Southern Intercollegiates; Overbeck, Lopata Champions at Battle in the Bay

Eighteen-year-old Learner Tien earned his second ATP Challenger 75 title this afternoon in Las Vegas, defeating No. 6 seed Tristan Boyer, a former standout at Stanford, 7-5, 1-6, 6-3.

The two-time Kalamazoo 18s champion, seeded No. 3, trailed 5-3 in the first set, but Boyer won only two points in the next four games.

Boyer, who had dropped the first set in his previous two matches, served much better in the second set, with five aces and just one double fault, while Tien's first serve percentage plummeted, from 75 to 47 percent. 

After five breaks in the first set and two in the second, there was just one break in the third, with Tien getting two looks with Boyer serving at 3-4. Boyer saved the first, at 30-40, with a forehand winner, but a netted forehand gave Tien a second chance and Boyer's forehand went just beyond the baseline, giving Tien a chance to serve for the match. He got to 40-15 with a good first serve, then converted his first match point when Boyer hit a forehand long.

It's the second Challenger title of the summer for former USC Trojan Tien, who is now up to 151 in the ATP live rankings. He is not playing the Columbus Challenger next week; Boyer is in the draw, unseeded, and is scheduled to play wild card Bryce Nakashima, a sophomore at Ohio State, in the first round.

In last night's doubles final, No. 2 seeds Trey Hilderbrand(UCF, Texas A&M) and Alex Lawson(Notre Dame) defeated the unseeded team of Boyer and Tennyson Whiting(Brigham Young) 6-7(9), 7-5, 10-8 for their first title as a team. Hilderbrand has won four Challenger titles this year, the first three with Hady Habib(Texas A&M) of Lebanon.

While Tien is 19-4 in Challenger play this year, recent TCU graduate Jake Fearnley has been even more impressive, winning his third title in the four Challengers he's played. The 23-year-old from Great Britain, seeded No. 8,  won the ATP Challenger 100 in France today, beating No. 4 seed Quentin Halys of France 0-6, 7-6(5), 6-3, saving two match points. Fearnley is now up to 129 in the ATP live rankings, after being outside the Top 500 when he left Fort Worth at the end of May.

Another notable title today for a recent college graduate came at the W35 in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, with Michigan All-American Kari Miller winning her second title on the ITF women's World Tennis Tour, again as a qualifier.

The 22-year-old from Ann Arbor, who won the W15 in Huntsville Alabama last month, beat four seeds in her five main draw matches, defeating No. 3 seed Zhibek Kulambayeva of Kazakhstan 7-5, 5-7, 6-1 in three hours and 12 minutes. Miller outlasted top seed Sahaja Yamalapalli(Sam Houston State) of India in the quarterfinals 0-6, 7-5, 7-6(5) in a three-hour and 44-minute marathon.

The first two big Division I college tournaments on the fall schedule concluded today in Berkeley California and Athens Georgia.

At the University of Georgia, top seed Michael Zheng won the Red flight of the Southern Intercollegiate Championships, winning an all-Columbia final with a 6-2, 6-4 decision over Nicolas Kotzen. Columbia had three semifinalists, with Kotzen beating Hugo Hashimoto 6-3, 6-4 to reach the final.

Freddy Blaydes and Niels Ratiu defeated Miguel Perez Pena and Oscar Pinto Sansano 6-0 in an all-Georgia Red flight doubles final.

At the Battle in the Bay, Cal senior Carl Overbeck swept the titles. The No. 5 seed in singles, Overbeck defeated No. 4 seed Lui Maxted of TCU 7-6(8), 6-4 to claim a Challenger wild card at an upcoming Challenger in Northern California. Overbeck had beaten No. 1 seed Ozan Baris of Michigan State 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinals.

In the men's doubles final, Cal's Overbeck and Theo Dean, seeded No. 4 defeated unseeded Danial Rakhmatullayev(MSU) and Duncan Chan(TCU) 8-6.

The women's doubles title went to top seeds Ange Oby Kajuru and Anastasiya Komar of Oklahoma State, who defeated No. 2 seeds Isabel Pascual and Jade Otway of TCU 8-2 in the final.

No. 2 seed and 2024 NCAA singles finalist Anastasiia Lopata of Georgia won the women's singles title and a wild card into  upcoming USTA Pro Circuit W60s in California, when Kajuru gave her an injury walkover in the final.