Unseeded Redshirt Freshmen Reach USTA Pro Circuit Semifinals; Vidmanova's ITF Win Streak Ends in Granby W75; Spizzirri and Holmgren Meet in Granby Challenger Semifinals; Leach Withdraws from Kalamazoo

The run of 15-year-old Michael Antonius ended today at USTA M15 in Rochester New York, with last week's USTA Clay Courts 18s champion losing to Ohio State rising senior Alexander Bernard, the No. 5 seed, 6-4, 6-3.

Rhiannon Potkey spoke to Antonius for the Tennis Recruiting Network article about the boys 18s Clays final, and he reiterated that he was playing the 16s in Kalamazoo next month, although that was before he had become the first boy born in 2010 to earn an ATP point this week. The girls 18s Clays article, featuring comments from champion Nicole Weng, is here. Links to the 12s, 14s and 16s recaps are here.

In Rochester, Bernard will face No. 3 seed Blu Baker of Great Britain in the top half semifinal Saturday, with Baker beating No. 6 seed Benjamin George(Western Michigan) of Canada 6-4, 1-6, 6-3. Unseeded Ryan Dickerson(Duke, Baylor) defeated wild card Alexander Razeghi(Stanford) 6-2, 6-4 to set up the bottom half semifinal against Andrew Delgado. Wild card Delgado, a redshirt freshman at Wake Forest last year, defeated Liam Krall(SMU) 6-2, 6-1.

The 20-year-old Delgado had never won more than one match in a Pro Circuit event until this week. Dickerson, 28, is competing in his second Pro Circuit semifinal, with the first coming a few months ago in Vero Beach. 

Another redshirt freshman, Hoyoung Roh of Korea, through to the semifinals of the M25 in Louisville Kentucky. The unseeded 19-year-old, who did not play at Vanderbilt last season, defeated No. 3 seed Aidan McHugh of Great Britain 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-2 in today's quarterfinals. He will play unseeded Matthew Thomson(Wake Forest), who beat qualifier Kelly Giese(Lubbock Christian) 6-3, 6-0. 

Columbia rising senior Nicolas Kotzen is through to his second Pro Circuit semifinal after defeating No. 4 seed Bruno Kuzuhara 6-3, 7-6(4) today. Kotzen faces qualifier Vignesh Gogineni, a Yale rising senior, who ended the winning streak of Stanford's Samir Banerjee with a 1-6, 6-4, 7-6(1) upset.

It's rare for an M25 not to have any seeds in the singles semifinals, but that's the case for Louisville this week. Kotzen is also through to the doubles semifinals, with partner DK Suresh of Wake Forest. Both the doubles semifinals and finals are scheduled for Saturday.

While seeds went out early in Louisville, they have thrived at the ATP Challenger 75 in Granby Canada, with Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 6 advancing to the semifinals with wins today.

Top seed Eliot Spizzirri(Texas) defeated No. 7 seed James Trotter(Ohio State) of Japan 6-4, 6-0 to reach the ninth Challenger semifinal of his pro career, which began 14 months ago. 

He will play No. 6 seed August Holmgren of Denmark, the 2022 NCAA singles finalist while at San Diego, who reached the third round of Wimbledon two weeks ago as a qualifier. Holmgren defeated Yuta Shimizu of Japan 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinals.

The bottom half semifinal is a rematch of the Calgary Challenger 75 final last week, with No. 3 seed and Winnipeg champion Liam Draxl(Kentucky) of Canada facing No. 2 seed Alexander Blockx of Belgium. Draxl beat Alexis Galarneau of Canada 6-1, 4-6, 6-1, while Blockx eliminated No. 5 seed Sho Shimabukuro of Japan 6-2, 6-3. 

The women are also in Granby, for a ITF women's World Tennis Tour W75. One of Saturday's semifinals will feature two qualifiers, Fiona Crawley(North Carolina) and Haley Giavara(Cal). 

Crawley, who beat No. 3 seed Clervie Ngounoue in the first round, defeated qualifier Alexandra Vagramov(UCLA) of Canada 6-3, 6-1 in the quarterfinals. Vagramov had ended the ITF women's winning streak of 2024 NCAA champion Dasha Vidmanova of the Czech Republic in the second round, beating the recent Georgia graduate 7-5, 7-6(6) last night. Vidmanova, who won a W35, and W75 and a W100 since the end of May, lost to eventual champion Caty McNally in the first round of the WTA 125 in Newport last week, but had a 16-match winning streak on the ITF Circuit before the Vagramov loss.

Top seed Talia Gibson of Australia will face the winner of tonight's match between Cadence Brace(LSU) of Canada and Katrina Scott. 

The first significant withdrawal from the USTA National 18s in Kalamazoo came today, with Jagger Leach unable to play here, for the second year in a row, due to injury. Leach reached the semifinals of the 16s in 2023, but that is the only memory of Kalamazoo he will have.