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.