Talking with Nanda about Calgary Final, Win Over Basavareddy at Sioux Falls Challenger; Stoiana Beats No. 2 Seed Chirico, Five Americans Advance to Main Draw at Tyler W100; Three Teens Qualify at W35 Hilton Head
Calgary finalists Murphy Cassone and Govind Nanda both returned to action today at the ATP Challenger 75 in Sioux Falls South Dakota, and both picked up victories. Calgary champion Murphy Cassone, a senior at Arizona State, defeated qualifier Antoine Ghibaudo of France, a freshman at Kentucky, 6-4, 6-4 to run his Challenger winning streak (including qualifying) to eight matches. He will face Stefan Kozlov, who beat No. 5 seed Dmitry Popko of Kazakhstan 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-4 in the second round.
Calgary finalist Govind Nanda(UCLA), who, like Cassone, received a special exemption into the main draw, continued his stellar play this fall, beating No. 7 seed Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) 6-4, 6-4. On Wednesday, Nanda will play Michigan State junior Ozan Baris, who beat Alastair Gray(TCU) of Great Britain 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 Monday.
Thanks to ATP legend Greg Sharko, who is at Sioux Falls Challenger, I had an opportunity to talk with Nanda this evening, and he told me that although the Calgary final might have felt like it was "a little bit out of nowhere," he attributed his recent success to all the work that he has been putting in since completing his eligibility at UCLA last spring.
The 23-year-old has reunited with Joe Gilbert, who he worked with from 2019-2021, and is based out of Sacramento.
"I've been working with him since end of July, early August, it's been a few months now," Nanda said. "Before that, I was just kind of on my own, didn't have any guidance, so I was lucky enough to run into to Joe at one of the $15Ks, and we talked, and decided it was a good idea to work together again."
After leaving UCLA, Nanda wasn't clear on what direction he needed to take.
"The first few tournaments I played out of school, I felt a little bit lost," Nanda said. "A little bit fearful, a little bit doubtful about my ability. But I got through a couple of tough matches last week and it gave me a lot of confidence moving forward into this one. I obviously had a tough opponent today and I played super solid, stuck with the game plan really well and got it done."
Nanda, who faced only one break point in his win over Basavareddy, said taking care of his serve was key.
"I served pretty solid, won a lot of second serve points, I think my win percentage on my second serve was like 72 percent," Nanda said. "It's pretty unheard of against a guy like that. I was defending my serve really well; I know he's a very tough returner, but I was hitting my spots pretty well. I feel like he was kind of pressing out of the neutral rallies before I was. That paid off for me, staying neutral, staying disciplined in my decision making."
Nanda said he has practiced a bit with Baris, but has never played him, in singles or in doubles.
The other Calgary wild cards were given to Arizona senior Colton Smith, who beat Martin Damm 5-7, 7-6(3), 6-1, and Kyle Edmund of Great Britain, who will play Smith in the second round.
The top three seeds in the draw are Chris Eubanks(Georgia Tech), Mitchell Krueger and Zachary Svajda.
Seventeen-year-old Cooper Woestendick doubled his ATP point total by qualifying for the main draw, with a 6-4, 7-6(5) win over No. 2 qualifying seed Omni Kumar. Woestendick lost to Alexis Galarneau of Canada 6-4, 6-3 in the first round today, but his four ATP points for qualifying will make him less reliant on wild cards for entry into the lower level ITF men's circuit tournaments.
Woestendick and Max Exsted, the Australian Open boys doubles champions, received a wild card into the doubles draw in Sioux Falls.
Kalamazoo 18s champion Matt Forbes, a freshman at Michigan State, received a main draw wild card, losing 6-2, 6-4 to Aidan Mayo in first round action today.
Texas A&M senior Mary Stoiana didn't get the best draw this week at the W100 in Tyler Texas, with No. 2 seed Louisa Chirico her first round opponent. But the 21-year-old from Connecticut kept her hopes for the USTA's Australian Open reciprocal wild card alive with a 7-5, 6-4 victory in one of the four first round matches contested today.
Wild card Alana Smith(NC State) also eliminated a seed, with Smith defeating No. 4 seed Valeriya Strakhova of Ukraine 7-6(1), 6-3.
Five Americans qualified for the main draw with wins today, including Texas A&M freshman Lexington Reed, who defeated No. 1 qualifying seed Michaela Bayerlova(Washington St) of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-3.The other four American qualifiers are Brandy Walker(N Arizona) who beat 2024 ITA All-American champion Maria Sholokhova(Wisconsin) of Russia 6-3, 6-2; Rhiann Newborn(Syracuse, Baylor), who beat Mouna Bouzgarrou(NJIT, St. Johns) of Tunisia 6-0 ,6-1; Mary Lewis(Arizona, Michigan State), who defeated Adriana Reami(NC State) 6-4, 2-6, 7-5; and Ashley Kratzer[5], who beat Emma Ghirardato(Oklahoma) of Italy 6-2, 6-0.
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