My Article on College Tennis's Move to Electronic Line Calling; Kennedy, Frodin and Penickova Advance to ITF J500 Banana Bowl Semis; BNP Paribas Open Wild Cards Include Jovic, Basavareddy; Six Americans Reach Semis in California

I wrote an article for Tennis Recruiting Network back in 2021 about the implementation of Electronic Line Calling for the US Open Junior Championships that year, but the technology used at slams wasn't viable for less lucrative tennis tournaments. The hope was that the cost would drop, and although Hawkeye Live, used at most slams and ATP and WTA events, remains financially out of reach, other companies have made gains in finding less expensive alternatives.

One company, PlayReplay, has advanced through the shadow testing and pilots of its electronic line calling system, which has been used at four of the USTA Level 1 National Indoor Championships last fall, as well as at three Division I college events last fall. The most important test of their system was at this month's ITA Division I women's and men's Team Indoor Championships, giving me an opportunity to observe it in person at the men's Team Indoor in Dallas. The result is this article, which, like the US Open junior article, helped me understand the process of adopting this technology, which is now finding its way from tennis to other major sports. 

I appreciate everyone who agreed to be interviewed for this article, which provides perspectives from coaches, players, umpires, administrators and others as college tennis begins to adopt the popular and much-needed technology. With the USTA behind these efforts at automating line calling, down to the recreational level, expect to see more of these pilots the rest of this year.

Three Americans have advanced to the semifinals of the ITF J500 Banana Bowl in Brazil, with No. 2 seed Annika Penickova and No. 11 seed Thea Frodin reaching a J500 semifinal for the first time.

Frodin defeated top seed and defending champion Kaitlyn Rolls 6-2, 6-2, while Penickova beat No. 8 seed Victoria Luiza Barros of Brazil by the same score. Frodin will play No. 3 seed Luna Maria Cinalli of Argentina, while Penickova's opponent in the semifinals, also from Argentina, is No. 10 seed Sol Ailin Larraya Guidi. Penickova defeated Larraya Guidi 7-6(3), 6-1 in the quarterfinals of the J300 warmup last week in Porto Alegre; Frodin lost to Cinalli 7-5, 6-1 in the first round of the Bradenton J300 back in 2023.

No. 2 seed Jack Kennedy, who reached the semifinals of the last J500 he played, the Orange Bowl, is through to the final four again with a 6-3, 6-2 win over unseeded Ivan Ivanov of Bulgaria. That's very similar to the score of Ivanov's win over Kennedy in the Junior Orange Bowl 14s final in 2022, which was 6-2, 6-3 for Ivanov. 

Kennedy will play No. 8 seed Joao Pedro Didoni Bonini of Brazil, who beat unseeded compatriot Vicente Freda 6-2, 6-4. Top seed Andres Santamarta Roig, the Orange Bowl champion, cruised past No. 5 seed Rannick Theodor Alexandrescour of Romania 6-0, 6-1 and will face unseeded Brazilian Pedro Henrique Chabalgoity. In the only three-set boys quarterfinal, Chabalgoity beat No. 7 seed Keaton Hance 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. 

No. 8 seeds Ronit Karki and Jack Satterfield have reached the boys doubles final, after beating No. 5 seed Ryan Cozad and Jack Secord 6-1, 7-5 in today's semifinals. Karki and Satterfield will face No. 4 seed Alexandrescou and Ryo Tabata of Japan in the final. 

The BNP Paribas Open announced the bulk of the wild cards for the upcoming tournament, which begins Sunday with women's qualifying matches. 

Learner Tien(USC), who had been announced as a wild card, moved into the main draw on his own ranking; the replacement for his wild card has yet to be announced. One women's main draw wild card remains to be awarded.

Belinda Bencic, Sloane Stephens and, as previously announced, Petra Kvitova, have received main draw wild cards, as have Robin Montgomery, Alycia Parks, Bernarda Pera and Iva Jovic. Jovic, who lost in the first round of qualifying to Taylor Townsend at the BNP Paribas Open last year, had a quick turnaround after reaching the final of Spring Texas tournament last year; this year, the main draw wild card should relieve that pressure while she continues to compete at the W35 in Arcadia.

Women's qualifying wild cards have been awarded to Clervie Ngounoue, Julieta Pareja, Kristina Penickova, Whitney Osuigwe and Valerie Glozman, who received her qualifying wild card for winning the ITF J300 in Indian Wells last year. Twenty-year-old Hanne Vandewinkel of Belgium is the only non-American receiving a women's qualifying wild card. 

The men's main draw wild cards have been awarded to Reilly Opelka, Tristan Boyer(Stanford) and Nishesh Basavareddy. Next Gen champion Joao Fonseca of Brazil had been previously announced as a wild card. 

Four of the five qualifying wild cards were awarded to current or former college players, with the fifth still to be determined. Arizona senior Colton Smith, Texas A&M freshman Theo Papamalamis of France, former Texas All-American Eliot Spizzirri and UCLA freshman Rudy Quan. Quan received his qualifying wild card for winning the ITF J300 tournament in Indian Wells last year. 

In past years, a player from the John McEnroe Tennis Academy often received a qualifying wild card, but that did not happen this year.

Top seed Jovic is through to the semifinals of the USTA Pro Circuit Arcadia W35, after beating No. 5 seed Maria Mateas(Duke) 7-5, 6-4. She will play qualifier Kylie McKenzie, who beat No. 7 seed Despina Papamichail of Greece 6-0, 6-3.  

Wild card Fiona Crawley(UNC) defeated No. 2 seed Carson Branstine(Texas A&M) of Canada 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 and will face another Canadian, LSU freshman Kayla Cross, the No. 6 seed, in the semifinals. Cross defeated qualifier Stefania Rogozinska Dzik(Loyola Marymount) of Poland 6-1, 6-1.  Due to rain the forecast, the final is scheduled to play Saturday after the semifinals and the doubles final. Future NC State player Tori Osuigwe and former NC State star Alanis Smith will face Aldila Sutjiadi(Kentucky) and Janice Tjen(Oregon, Pepperdine) in the doubles final. 

Three Americans are through to the semifinals of the ATP Challenger 100 in San Diego: two former NCAA singles champions and a former ITA year-end No. 1. 

Former ITA Player of the Year Eliot Spizzirri(Texas), who has that BNP Paribas Open qualifying wild card coming right up, advanced to the semifinals with another comeback victory, beating No. 6 seed Taro Daniel of Japan 6-7(2), 6-0, 6-4. He will face No. 8 seed and 2023 NCAA singles champion Ethan Quinn(Georgia), who had another marathon win this evening, beating top seed Arthur Cazaux of France 7-5, 6-7(1), 6-4 in three-hours and 15 minutes. 

Former UCLA Bruin Mackenzie McDonald, the 2016 NCAA singles champion, defeated wild card and SMU sophomore Trevor Svajda 6-3, 6-4. McDonald, the fourth seed, will face No. 5 seed Kamil Majchrzak of Poland, after Majchrzak beat Alex Bolt of Australia 7-6(2), 1-1 ret.