College Seniors Stoiana and Honer Earn First Pro Circuit Titles as Wild Cards; Tien Makes History While Claiming Third Challenger Title; Monday Sweeps at Louisville $25K

Now that the 2024 ITF J300 Pan American Regional Championships have concluded and I'm back home, it's time to catch up on the four USTA Pro Circuit events that finished today.

Two college seniors won their first singles titles today, with Texas A&M's Mary Stoiana taking the championship at the W75 Edmond Open in Oklahoma and UC-Santa Barbara's Amelia Honer claiming the title at the W35 in Bakersfield California. 

Stoiana, who received a wild card into the main draw, defeated former North Carolina State All-American Alana Smith, a qualifier, 7-5, 6-3 in the final. The 21-year-old Stoiana, No. 1 in the ITA rankings, had avenged her loss to Sophie Chang in her only other W75 final in July, taking out the eighth-seed Chang 6-4, 6-2 in the second round. She then eliminated Georgia teammates Dasha Vidmanova and Anastasia Lopata in the quarterfinals and semifinals. Stoiana is now up to 320 in the WTA live rankings.

Smith, 24, defeated No. 6 seed Maria Mateas(Duke) in the first round and No. 4 seed Anastasia Tikhonova of Russia in the quarterfinals. She got a retirement from Victoria Mboko of Canada in the semifinals to reach her first Pro Circuit final at any level. 

Kayla Day and Australia's Jaimee Fourlis won the doubles title, beating No. 3 seeds Chang and Rasheeda McAdoo 7-5, 7-5 in Saturday's final.

Honer, who also was a wild card entry in Bakersfield and is also 21, defeated No. 7 seed Haley Giavara in the second round and No. 3 seed Sahaja Yamalapalli(Sam Houston State) in the quarterfinals, before taking on two unseeded youngsters. Honer defeated 17-year-old wild card and UCLA freshman Kate Fakih 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 in the semifinals, to set up a meeting with the even younger Julieta Pareja, who is 15. Pareja, who had eliminated top seed Hanna Chang 7-6(9), 6-7(6), 6-1 in a three-hour and 15-minute semifinal, may have been suffering the effects from that match today, with Honer winning 6-4, 6-3 in one hour and 50 minutes.

The doubles title was won by Eryn Cayetano(USC) and India Houghton(Stanford), with the unseeded pair defeating No. 2 seeds Mana Ayukawa of Japan and Yujia Huang of China 7-6(8), 6-2 in the final. Cayetano won last week's doubles title in the W35 in Redding California with Ayana Akli.

The only top seed to win a singles title this week was 18-year-old Learner Tien, who captured the ATP Challenger 75 in Fairfield California. The two-time Kalamazoo 18s champion, who played a semester at USC in 2023, defeated No. 7 seed Bernard Tomic of Australia 6-0, 6-1 in 39 minutes. That is the record for the shortest final in Challenger history; the previous record was 43 minutes with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeating Dudi Sela 6-1, 6-0 in a 2019 Challenger final in France.

With his third Challenger title, following his July title in Bloomfield Hills and his September title in Las Vegas, Tien is now up to 124 in the ATP rankings after starting 2024 at 453.

Ryan Seggerman and Patrick Trhac made it a sweep for No. 1 seeds in Fairfield, with the pair picking up their sixth Challenger title in 2024 and their eighth since beginning their partnership in the summer of 2023. Seggerman and Trhac defeated unseeded Adrian Boitan(Baylor) of Romania and Bruno Kuzuhara 6-2, 3-6, 10-5 in Saturday's final.

The fourth singles title on the USTA Pro Circuit went to recent Tennessee graduate Johannus Monday of Great Britain, who won the $25,000 tournament in Louisville Kentucky. The unseeded 22-year-old left-hander defeated No. 4 seed Tyler Zink(Georgia, Oklahoma State) 6-2, 6-3 in the final, after having eliminated top seed Aidan McHugh of Great Britain 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 in the semifinals. It's the second title of the year for Monday, both at the $25K level, and his fourth overall. 

Monday also claimed the doubles title in Louisville, with JJ Mercer(Kentucky). The unseeded pair defeated No. 3 seeds Evan Zhu(UCLA) and Jody Maginley(Northern Kentucky) of Antigua and Barbuda 7-5, 6-4 in Saturday's final. 

At the men's $25,000 tournament in Edmonton, former Kentucky All-American Liam Draxl of Canada won the title today, with the No. 2 seed defeating No. 4 seed Patrick Maloney(Michigan) 6-4, 6-1 for his first title of 2024, and the sixth of his career.

Maloney went from today's 11 a.m. final in Edmonton to qualifying for the Calgary Challenger 75 three hours south, with his match with Alvin Tudorica(South Florida) of Canada scheduled for not before 6 p.m. tonight. (UPDATE: Maloney won the match 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-1).