Few Upsets on Long Opening Day at NCAA D-I Singles Championships; Jovic Advances at WTA 125 in Charleston; Ekstrand and Crossley Qualify at W50 in Boca Raton; Men Close Out USTA Pro Circuit Year in Austin and Tallahassee
The first day of competition at the NCAA Division I Individual Championships at Baylor's Hurd Tennis Center provided some dramatic matches, but few upsets, with only four women's seeds and two men's seeds failing to advance to Wednesday's second round.
With the first two days of the individual tournament often encompass more than 12 hours, with 64 matches each day, so good weather is imperative to stay on schedule, which Waco delivered, with sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 70s. Tomorrow is predicted to be quite a bit cooler, but no one is complaining about a forecast without in any rain for the duration of the event.
Men's top seed Sebastian Gorzny of Texas got off to a rocky start, which was not surprising, as he hadn't played since late September, when he withdrew from the final of the ITA All-American Championships. Gorzny had a tough first round opponent in Michigan's Gavin Young, who was No. 7 in the preseason rankings, and despite a shaky start, and end, Gorzny got through 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. Despite a 3-0 lead in the final set, Gorzny had to save seven break points in his 4-3 and 5-4 service games before closing out the win.
No. 2 seed Michael Zheng of Columbia, the May 2024 NCAA singles finalist, had a much less tense opener, beating Jeremy Jin of Florida 6-1, 6-2 in 69 minutes.
Women's top seed Mary Stoiana of Texas A&M avenged her three-set loss this summer to UCLA freshman Kate Fakih, in the second round of the Wichita W35 with a convincing 6-1, 6-1 victory today.
No. 2 seed Dasha Vidmanova of Georgia was expected to get an early test from preseason No. 11 Anastasiya Komar of Oklahoma State, but Vidmanova's recent form and the confidence it has created led her to a 6-3, 6-2 win.
Both ITA All-American champions went out in the first round today. Maria Sholokova of Wisconsin, who came out of nowhere to win the All-American title in Cary North Carolina two months ago, was beaten by Tennessee junior Catherine Aulia 6-3, 7-5. Aulia, who qualified for the NCAAs just 10 days ago by winning the South section without dropping a set, plays North Carolina senior Carson Tanguilig on Wednesday.
Men's All-American champion and No. 7 seed Oliver Tarvet of San Diego, who received a walkover in the semifinals prior to the walkover he received from Gorzny in the final, lost to Radu Papoe of Cornell 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. Papoe, who was No. 6 in the preseason rankings, lost in the second round as the top seed last week at the Columbus $25K, but the senior from Romania found his form against Tarvet, the preseason No. 3.
The three other women's seeds to fall today were all in the 9-16 category. Elaine Chervinsky of Virginia defeated Emilija Tverijonaite of Arizona State 7-5, 6-2; Ozlem Uslu of Virginia Tech beat Bridget Stammel of Vanderbilt 7-6(7), 6-2 and Sabine Rutlauka of Penn advanced when Amerlia Honer of UC-Santa Barbara reitred after losing the first set 6-1.
Michigan(Lily Jones, Piper Charney and Julia Fliegner), Cal (Lan Mi, Mao Mushika and Katja Wiersholm) and Stanford (Valerie Glozman, Alexis Blokhina and Connie Ma) have the most players in the the third round.
No men's team has more than two players in the second round, with Texas the last team with an opportunity for three. Longhorn junior Jonah Braswell, a 9-16 seed, had six match points in the second set of his late evening contest with Denver's Raffaello Papajcik, but Rafaello saved them all to force a third set. The junior from England broke Braswell on a deciding point at 5-6, after Braswell had saved one match point at 30-40, ending his three-hour and 39 minute, 5-7 7-6(3), 7-5 victory over 13 hours after the first ball was struck at the Hurd Tennis Center.
Cracked Racquets is providing two feeds for the tournament this week at ESPN+, one with Alex Gruskin doing the CR CrossCourt coverage, and one with Chris Halioris calling a men's and women's Match of the Day. Updated draws and live scoring (under the results button) via ioncourt, can be found here.
The USTA Pro Circuit is winding down this week, with a women's W50 in Boca Raton Florida, a men's $25K in Austin Texas and a men's $15K in Tallahassee Florida. The women have a W50 in Tampa the first week of December, but this is it for the men for 2024; if they want to continue playing, they will have to leave the country.
In addition to the USTA Pro Circuit, there is a WTA 125 on clay in Charleston South Carolina this week. Iva Jovic, who is still entered in the ITF J500 Orange Bowl next month, is playing in her first 125, and she is seeded No. 8. Today she defeated Usue Arconada 6-4, 6-4 and will play qualifier Gabriela Lee(Texas Tech) of Romania in the second round Thursday. Renata Zarazua of Mexico and Alycia Parks are the top two seeds.
In Boca Raton, 17-year-old Monica Ekstrand and 18-year-old Mayu Crossley of Japan advanced to the main draw by winning their final round qualifying matches today. Crossley, who reached the final of the W50 in Miami two weeks ago, didn't drop a game in either of her qualifying matches. Ekstrand defeated No. 11 seed Olivia Bergler of Poland, a freshman at Central Florida, 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 to qualify.
Other Americans qualifying: Rhiann Newborn(Baylor), Tori Kinard and Maribella Zamarripa(Texas).
Wild cards were awarded to Makenna Jones(UNC), who lost to No. 3 seed Akasha Urhobo today 6-3, 6-4; NC State freshman Mia Slama, who lost to Jada Robinson 6-4, 6-2, and 15-year-old Canadian Selin Vakalapudi.
The fourth wild card went to Christina McHale, the former WTA No. 24, who retired from the WTA tour in 2022. The 32-year-old from New Jersey lost today to No. 5 seed Anna Rogers, the former NC State All-American, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
The top seed in Boca Raton is Carlota Martinez Cirez of Spain, with Despina Papmichail of Greece the No. 2 seed.
Wild cards were awarded to two Texas redshirt freshmen: Rahul Sachdev and Calvin Wang, Austin resident Jack Ingram, a freshman at Vanderbilt, and Brown senior Alex Finkelstein.
Toby Kodat and Duarte Vale(Florida) of Portugal are the top two seeds. Last week's Boca Raton $15K champion Stefan Dostanic(USC, Wake Forest) is the No. 6 seed.
In Tallahassee, the top seeds are Patrick Zahraj(UCLA) of Germany, who has been competing primarily in Challengers this summer and fall, and who reached the semifinals of the Drummondville 75 last week, and Tristan McCormick(Notre Dame, Georgia).
All wild cards were given to Florida State players: sophomores Justin Lyons, Azariah Rusher and Germany's Erik Schiessl, and senior Joshua Dous-Karpenschif of France. Dous-Karpenschif lost to 17-year-old Benjamin Willwerth, who was a ITF junior reserved entry, 6-2, 6-1. Willwerth had made his USTA Pro Circuit debut last week in Boca Raton and reached the semifinals. The other junior reserved entries this week are South Carolina freshman Atakan Karahan of Turkey, who lost to No. 6 seed Colin Altimirano(Virginia) 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 in first round action today. Alex Frusina, a freshman at Auburn, received the third junior reserved entry. Ohio State's Jack Anthrop, who did not qualify for the NCAAs, entered via an ITA Accelerator spot he earned as an NCAA quarterfinalist.
America qualifiers in Tallahassee are Mississippi State sophomore Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes, Illinois junior William Mroz, Harvard senior Daniel Milavsky and Jake Van Emburgh(Oklahoma, Ohio State).
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