USA Advances in Davis Cup; No. 1 Georgia, No. 3 Oklahoma State and No. 5 Virginia Fall, Wake Forest Men Survive; Spizzirri or Smith Will Claim First Challenger Title Sunday; Grant Advances to W50 Final in Portugal; Johns Reaches $15K Final in Florida

photo courtesy USTA

The United States lost the coin flip when they were drawn to play Taiwan in the first round of the World Group Qualification this weekend, but playing on the road wasn't a problem, with Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M) and Rajeev Ram(Illinois) winning the third point Saturday in Taipei City to clinch a meeting in September against the Czech Republic here in the United States.

Krajicek and Ram defeated Ray Ho and Tony Wu 6-4, 7-6(4) to clinch; Mackenzie McDonald then played the dead rubber in singles, beating Tsung-Hao Huang 6-2, 6-3 to make the final score 4-0.

Quotes from the US players and captain Bob Bryan can be found here.

Today's Division I college tennis action brought the drama today, and the upsets, with three of the top 5 women's teams losing, albeit to fellow Top 10 opponents, and the No. 4 men's team squeaking out a win thanks to a freshman's comeback in his collegiate debut.

It started with No. 7 Michigan beating No. 5 Virginia in Charlottesville, despite the loss of the doubles point. The Cavaliers took doubles at lines 2 and 3, but Annabelle Xu, who had played doubles, was not in the singles lineup, where she usually holds down the top spot for Virginia. Michigan took four first sets in singles, and get straight-sets wins from Julia Fliegner at line 2, Reese Miller at line 5, and freshman Jessica Bernales at line 6. Sara Ziodato got Virginia's lone singles point at line 3, but Emilly Sartz-Lunde of Michigan won the battle of freshman at line 4, beating Isabelle Lacy 6-2, 0-6, 6-2 to clinch the 4-2 win. The full recap can be found here.

No. 3 Oklahoma State went to No. 10 Auburn today, and the Tigers demonstrated that their individual fall success was carrying over into the dual match season, claiming a 4-0 victory. Auburn took the doubles points with wins at lines 3 and 2, but each team claimed three first sets in singles. The only match that finished in straight sets, was freshman Alice Battesti's 6-4, 6-1 win over Alian Zack of Oklahoma State at line 6; the rest of the matches were deep in the second set or in a third. Auburn made it 3-0 with Ava Esposito's 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 win over Marcela Lopez at line 5 and Angella Okutoyi ended any hopes of an Oklahoma State comeback with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Gracie Epps at line 3. The full recap can be found here.

Consensus No. 1 Georgia was definitely the favorite today, even against perennial NCAA title contender North Carolina, who came into Athens ranked No. 8.  The Tar Heels have two freshman and two sophomores in their singles lineup, but their biggest addition for this dual match season is the return of Reese Brantmeier, who had been out since last February recovering from a serious knee injury. 

North Carolina took the doubles point with ease: the ITA No .1 team of Carson Tanguilig and Susanna Maltby blanked Guillermina Grant and Sofia Rojas at line 2, and Brantmeir and Alanis Hamilton defeated NCAA spring doubles champion Aysegul Mert and Dasha Vidmanova 6-1 at line 1.

North Carolina took four first sets and closed out two of those matches, with Tanguilig beating Mell Reasco 6-3, 6-2 at line 4 and Thea Rabman beating Alexandra Vecic 6-3, 6-2 at line 2. With a 3-0 lead, the Tar Heels needed just one of the four singles matches remaining, but that proved elusive. Mert defeated Tatum Evans 7-5, 7-6(6) at line 5 to start the Bulldogs' comeback, with 2024 NCAA spring singles finalist Anastasiia Lopata coming back for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Hamilton at line 3. Grant made it 3-all with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win over Claire Hill at line 6, meaning that Brantmeier and Vidmanova would decide the match at line 1.

Vidmanova, No. 1 in the rankings after her NCAA title in November, had forced a third set with a 6-3 second set after Brantmeier had taken the first 7-5. Vidmanova had the misfortune of serving from behind in the third set and at 3-4 was taken to a deciding point, which she won with an excellent first serve. Brantmeier also had to win a deciding point in her service game, crunching a forehand winner to go up 5-4. It was Vidmanova who blinked at 4-5, with Brantmeier returning well, her serve didn't bail her out, and two unforced errors, one on the forehand and one on the backhand gave Brantmeier three match points. She only needed one, maneuvering into a short ball to hit a forehand winner that gave North Carolina a huge win and a surge of confidence heading into the National Team Indoor Championships next Friday in Chicago.

The full recap is here.

Saturday's men's schedule couldn't match the women's drama, at least not in upsets, but No. 4 Wake Forest was taken to the limit by unranked Georgia today in Winston-Salem before Charlie Robertson, playing in his first match, saved the Demon Deacons.

Wake Forest was up 3-0 after taking the doubles point at lines 1 and 3 and getting wins from Stefan Dostanic at line 1 and Luciano Tacchi at line 6. But Wake had lost the first set in the other four singles matches, so they had to force a third set somewhere. Georgia got on the board with Oscar Pinto Sansano's win at line 5, but couldn't close out any of the remaining three matches they led in straight sets. Georgia's Ryan Colby at line 2 and Miguel Perez Pena at line 3 both dropped 7-5 second sets, and Niels Ratiu of Georgia lost his second set in a tiebreaker to put three matches in third sets with Wake still leading 3-1.

Colby and Perez Pena did bounce back for 6-4 in the third wins, and Ratiu led Robertson, who finished 2024 as No. 8 in the ITF junior rankings, 5-2 in the third set. But Robertson won the next five games under that pressure-packed situation to post his first clinch in his first collegiate match. (No streaming of the match, so I can't say how he did it). The full recap is here.

Wake won't have much time to celebrate or recover emotionally however, with No. 3 Ohio State coming to town Sunday.

Either University of Arizona senior Colton Smith or recent Texas graduate Eliot Spizzirri will claim his first Challenger title Sunday when they meet in the final of the ATP Challenger 75 in Cleveland. 

Smith, who reached the final of the Sioux Falls Challenger last November, losing to Borna Gojo, advanced to his second Challenger final today with a 7-6(7), 6-1 win over No. 8 seed JJ Wolf(Ohio State).  

No. 6 seed Spizzirri, who reached the final of the Tiburon Challenger last October, losing to Nishesh Basavareddy, earned a spot in his second final with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Tyler Zink. Spizzirri has moved into the ATP Top 200 with this run, while Smith will be in the Top 300 for the first time.

2024 spring NCAA doubles champions Robert Cash and JJ Tracy won the doubles title today, with the top seeds defeating unseeded Juan Carlos Aguilar(Texas A&M, TCU) of Canada and Filip Pieczonka(Tennessee) of Poland 7-6(4), 6-1 for their fourth Challenger title since last August. The pair, who are zeroing in on the ATP Top 100, received a wild card into next week's ATP 500 Dallas Open.

Former University of Illinois All-American Aleks Kovacevic is through to his first ATP final, at the 250 in Montpellier France, after picking up his first career Top 10 win today over No. 1 seed Andrey Rublev 7-5, 6-4. Kovacevic, the first qualifier to ever reach the final at this event, will face No. 2 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, who is playing in his 17th ATP final.

Tyra Grant is through to the final of the ITF World Tennis Tour W50 this week in Portugal, after reaching the semifinals of the W75 there last week. The 16-year-old, who had to qualify, defeated top seed and WTA 140 Xinyu Gao of China in the quarterfinals for her best win by ranking before beating 31-year-old former WTA Top 50 player Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in today's semifinals. Grant, who won a W50 last November and is at 419 in the WTA live rankings now, faces former Kentucky standout Justina Mikulskyte of Lithuania, who is also unseeded, in Sunday's final. 

Garrett Johns, the former Duke All-American, is through to the final of the $15,000 men's USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Palm Coast Florida. The 24-year-old from Georgia, seeded No. 2, has avoided all the upsets this week, beating No. 6 seed Marlon Vankan of Germany 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 in today's semifinals. He will face No. 5 seed Sebastian Gima of Romania, who beat qualifier Aleksa Ciric(Georgia Gwinnett) of Serbia 6-3, 6-1.  

Vankan and Louis Van Herck of Luxembourg won the doubles title, with the unseeded pair defeating top seeds and former University of Illinois teammates Lucas Horve and Great Britain's Oliver Okonkwo 1-6, 6-4, 10-4 in the final.