Johnston Sweeps Titles at ITF J300 in Brazil; Blanch, Bonding Earn First ITF Men's Singles Titles; Corwin Claims Naples $15K; Texas A&M Women Come From 3-0 Down to Beat Texas

Noah Johnston added his first ITF singles title at the J300 level today in Porto Alegre Brazil, with the 17-year-old left-hander from South Carolina coming back to defeat qualifier Ivan Ivanov of Bulgaria  6-7(3), 7-6(5), 6-1 in his first appearance in a J300 final. Johnston's sweep should  move him back up the ITF Junior rankings, so he should not have to worry about making Roland Garros Junior Championships main draw. Johnston is the No. 11 seed in next week's J500 Banana Bowl in Gaspar Brazil.

Thea Frodin, the No. 4 seed, dropped her third ITF J300 final in three appearances, losing to last week's Asuncion Bowl champion, unseeded Laima Vladson of Lithuania 2-6, 6-2, 6-2. Frodin is also the No. 11 seed in Gaspar next week.

Seventeen-year-old Darwin Blanch, whose only junior tournament last year was Kalamazoo, won his first ITF men's World Tennis Tour title at a M15 today in Spain. The unseeded Blanch, who lost to now Ohio State freshman Nikita Filin in the B18s round of 32 as the No. 2 seed last August, came from a set down for the third time in his five victories, beating No. 2 seed and former Florida All-American Oliver Crawford of Great Britain 1-6, 7-5, 7-5. Blanch, the 2022 Kalamazoo 16s champion, had reached two M15 finals last year.

Blanch was one of three Americans to win M15s this week, with Martin Damm, the 2018 Kalamazoo 16s champion claiming the title in Egypt with the No. 2 seed taking a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 decision from No. 7 seed Alexandr Binda of Italy.

And closer to home, but still connected to Kalamazoo, Felix Corwin(Minnesota) won his third M15 title in Naples Florida, beating qualifier Daniel Paty in a nearly three-hour final 6-4, 6-7(7), 7-6(6). Paty saved two match points in the second set, while No. 7 seed Corwin, the son of former Kalamazoo Nationals tournament director Timon Corwin, trailed 6-4 in the final set tiebreaker before taking the last four points of the match.

Also of note on the 15K level, 17-year-old Oliver Bonding of Great Britain earned his first ITF men's singles title in Lannion France, using an ITF junior reserved spot based on his ITF junior ranking to gain entry in the main draw. Bonding played a tiebreaker in each of his straight-sets wins, going 5-0, including his 6-3, 7-6(9) win over No. 8 seed Axel Garcian of France.

They finally played a match today at the women's W50 in Spring Texas, but that second round match didn't start until late afternoon and apparently only one court was playable. Maria Mateas(Duke) defeated Elli Mandlik 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals; three more second round matches need to be played and I don't know if the tournament will finish or not. 

In Austin Texas, less than three hours away, they have been playing qualifying for the WTA 250 ATX Open there all day, with both first and second rounds of qualifying scheduled. Victoria Hu(Princeton) and Hina Ioune are the only two Americans to reach the second round of qualifying. Former University of Texas standout Malaika Rapolu, who is up to 549 in the WTA rankings after playing the Pro Circuit post-graduation last May, received a main draw wild card.

Texas A&M's No. 1 Mary Stoiana was on the schedule all day at the Spring W50 event, and even though her opponent had not been determined by match time, she was unable to compete for the sixth-ranked Aggies in their SEC opener with rival Texas, ranked 11th. That moved everyone in the lineup up a spot and required shuffling their doubles, and they lost the doubles point and singles at lines 1 and 6. Trailing 3-0, Texas A&M had the consolation of having won the first set in the remaining four matches, but they had no margin of error. Mia Kupres and Lexington Reed closed out their matches in straight sets at 2 and 5, but Daria Smetannikov dropped her second set to Texas's Carmen Herea at line 5, Longhorn Ashton Bowers served for her second set at line 3 against Lucciana Perez. Bowers couldn't hold, but had a set point in the tiebreaker, only to be overtaken by Perez, who earned the Aggies' third point 7-6(6), 7-6(7). Smetannikov had led 3-1 in third over Herea, but wasn't able to hold serve after that, assisted only in by the fact that Herea was also unable to hold. Six breaks later, Smetannikov got the final break, clinching for the Aggies with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 decision.

For more on the match, see this article from the Texas A&M website.