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).