Aytoyan, Pareja and Hance Reach ITF J300 Inka Bowl Semifinals; Five Americans Advance at Sunrise $15K; UTR Sports Announces College Event at Indian Wells; D-I Women's Indoor Begins Friday

The semifinals are set at the ITF J300 Inka Bowl in Lima Peru, with Julieta Pareja, Maria Aytoyan and Keaton Hance playing Friday for spots in the final.

Pareja, the No. 1 seed, and Hance, the No. 3 seed, are continuing their winning streaks in South America after both captured titles two weeks ago in Barranquilla Colombia. Pareja, who has not lost a set in her eight consecutive victories, defeated unseeded Carla Giambelli of Italy 6-2, 6-4. She will face No. 6 seed Allegra Korpanec Davies of Great Britain, her doubles partner, in the semifinals. The pair have also advanced to the doubles championship Friday.

The unseeded Aytoyan, who is playing in her first ITF tournament of the year, defeated No. 2 seed Capucine Jauffret 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-1 in an all-USA quarterfinal. This is the second J300 semifinal for the 16-year-old Californian, who reached the final four at the J300 in Zapopan Mexico in November. She will play No. 4 seed Giulia Popa of Romania, who defeated No. 7 seed Dune Vaissaud of France 7-6(3), 6-3.

Hance, who went from a qualifier in Barranquilla to the No. 3 seed in two weeks time, defeated qualifier Romeo Arcuschin of Argentina 6-3, 6-4 and will play No. 2 seed Joao Pedro Didoni Bonini of Brazil, who beat unseeded Sebastian Eie of Norway 6-3, 2-6, 7-5. 

In the top half, the other Top 4 seeds will meet, with No. 4 seed Victor Cunha Winheski de Lima of Brazil playing top seed Alejandro Arcila of Colombia. Arcila defeated unseeded Emilio Camacho of Ecuador 6-4, 6-4, while Cunha beat unseeded Vito Darderi of Italy 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. 

Two of the quarterfinal matches at the men's USTA Pro Circuit $15,000 tournament in Sunrise Florida will be all-USA contests, although neither of them will feature the American juniors who reached today's second round.  Noah Johnston lost to Andres Martin(Georgia Tech) 6-1, 7-5 and Jack Kennedy was beaten by No. 7 seed Lucas Bouquet of France 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(3).

Martin will play No. 8 seed Garrett Johns(Duke), last week's champion at the $15K in Palm Coast, after Johns took out Cannon Kingsley(Ohio State) 6-2, 6-1. The other all-American quarterfinal features No. 2 seed Patrick Maloney(Michigan) against No. 5 seed Tyler Zink(Georgia, Oklahoma State). Maloney defeated Alex Rybakov(TCU) 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3; Zink beat qualifier Joao Vitor Goncalves Ceolin of Brazil 6-2, 6-3.  

Unseeded Bruno Kuzuhara is the fifth American in the quarterfinals after he defeated No. 6 seed Juan Carlos Aguilar (Texas A&M, TCU) of Canada 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-2. Top seed Roberto Cid(South Florida) of the Dominican Republic retired from his match with Lorenzo Joaquin Rodriguez of Argentina, trailing 6-2, 4-2. 

UTR Sports announced today that they will be sponsoring a college tennis event on the final three days of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells California. The four Division I men's teams competing March 14-16 are Arizona State, Baylor, Pepperdine and Princeton. 

The $100,000 Hurd grants for collegians pursuing a professional career will be awarded during the tournament. The deadline for applying for the grants is tomorrow, Friday, February 7.  

For more information on the UTR Sports College Championships and a link to the grant application, see this release.

The ITA Division I Women's Team Indoor Championships begin Friday at two locations: the University of Illinois and Northwestern University. Play begins at 10:00 am eastern time. Cracked Racquets will have its CrossCourt coverage on YouTube. Links to individual courts live streaming and live scoring can be found at the ITA tournament page.