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 meeting 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.