Banerjee, Zheng and Damm Reach Columbus Challenger Semifinals; Smith Advances at M15 in Arkansas; Prequalifying Begins Saturday for ITA All-American Championships; Laver Cup Underway in San Francisco

Two qualifiers are among the last four competing for the title at the ATP Challenger 75 in Columbus Ohio: Stanford senior Samir Banerjee and Daniel Masur of Germany. 

ATP No. 529 Masur, 30, has a career-high ATP ranking of 176 and last made a Challenger semifinal over a year ago. He defeated University of Virginia sophomore Rafael Jodar 6-1, 7-5 in the quarterfinals today.

Banerjee, who turns 22 in two weeks, needed just 51 minutes to post a 6-3, 6-1 win over Tyler Zink(Georgia, Oklahoma State) to claim his first Challenger quarterfinal victory. 

Banerjee, currently 441 in the ATP rankings, will play No. 7 seed Martin Damm, who eliminated the last Buckeye in the field with a 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 win over No. 3 seed James Trotter of Japan.

Masur will face 2024 NCAA fall champion Michael Zheng, with the Columbia senior beating Alfredo Perez(Florida) 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. 

The doubles semifinal results and Saturday's order of play:

Columbus Challenger - Columbus, OH, United States
$100,000
14 - 21 September 2025

Men's Doubles - Semifinals
[2] George Goldhoff (USA)/Theodore Winegar (USA) d Benjamin Kittay (USA)/Joshua Sheehy (USA) 4-6, 6-3, 15-13 
Patrick Harper (AUS)/Johannus Monday (GBR) d Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta (IND)/Ryuki Matsuda (JPN) 6-2, 6-1 

Saturday
Court 1 - start 11:00
Doubles Final - Patrick Harper (AUS) / Johannus Monday (GBR) vs [2] George Goldhoff (USA) / Theodore Winegar (USA)
Michael Zheng (USA) vs [Q] Daniel Masur (GER)
[7] [Alt] Martin Damm (USA) vs [Q] Samir Banerjee (USA)

At the M15 in Fayetteville Arkansas, top seed Andrew Fenty(Michigan) lost in today's quarterfinals to No. 5 seed Rafael Perot(Texas A&M) of France 6-4, 6-1, leaving No. 3 seed Keegan Smith(UCLA) as the only American in the semifinals. Smith defeated Texas A&M junior Kholo Montsi of South Africa, a qualifier, 6-3, 7-6(4).

Qualifier Alex Kotzen(Columbia, Tennessee) came out on the short end of a three-hour and 47-minute match with Oklahoma senior and No. 4 seed Luis Alvarez of Mexico 1-6, 7-6(6), 7-5. Alvarez will face Perot in the semifinals.

Qualifier Sebastian Eriksson of Sweden, a sophomore at Texas, is through to the semifinals after beating TCU sophomore Albert Pedrico of Spain, the No. 8 seed, 6-4, 6-2.

The doubles final was played this evening, with Braden Shick(NC State) and James Hopper(Case Western, Virginia) winning their first title as a team. The No. 3 seeds defeated unseeded Alan Magadan(UTSA, Texas A&M) of Mexico and Ioan Alexandru Chirita(Baylor) 6-2, 3-6, 11-9 in the final.

Prequalifying begins Saturday for both men and women in Tulsa and Cary respectively for the 20 spots in the qualifying draw at the ITA All-American Championships. The men and women now have the same draws and schedules, with the 160 prequalifying fields, 64-player qualifying fields and 64-player main draw fields.

The link to the prequalifying draw for women is here. The prequalifying draw for men is here. Doubles prequalifying draws, with 32 teams competing for eight qualifying spots, are also available at the above links.

The Laver Cup, a men's event that features a team from Europe against a team from all other parts of the world, began today in San Francisco. Two Americans on the team, Reilly Opelka and Alex Michelsen were in action today, and both lost, with Opelka losing to Norway's Casper Ruud 6-4, 7-6(4) and Michelsen falling to Czech Jakub Mensik 6-1, 6-7(3), 10-8. The third singles match tonight features Flavio Cobolli of Italy against Joao Fonseca of Brazil, followed a doubles match between Michelsen and Taylor Fritz and Mensik and Spain's Carlos Alcaraz. Each match is worth one point today, but two points per win are awarded on Saturday and three points per win are awarded on Sunday, the final day of competition.