ITF J300 European Championships Quarterfinals Set; USA Team Reaches Billie Jean King Cup Semifinals; Five Americans, Two Seeds Advance to Columbus Challenger Quarterfinal; Eriksson Outlasts Braswell at M15 Fayetteville

The quarterfinals are set for this week's European Championships in Oberpullendorf Austria, an ITF J300 tournament which has moved from its traditional July spot on the schedule to September again this year. 

Top girls seeds Charo Esquiva Banuls of Spain and Nellie Taraba Wallberg of Sweden are through to the quarterfinals, as is boys No. 1 seed Yannick Alexandrescou of Romania, but No. 2 seed Oskari Paldanius of Finland lost  to unseeded Sergio Planella Hernandez of Spain 6-2, 6-1 in the third round. (The boys have a 128 draw, the girls draw is 64). There was rain earlier in the week, but the tournament is back on schedule with the quarterfinals set for Friday.  In both draws, two unseeded players are among the last eight in singles.

Charo Esquiva Banuls[1](ESP) v Amelie Hejtmanek[10](CZE)
Ophelie Boullay(FRA) v Linea Bajraliu[11](SWE)
Amy Sucha(CZE) v Sonja Zhenikhova[4](GER)
Ruby Cooling[12](GBR) v Nellie Taraba Wallberg[2](SWE)

Yannick Alexandrescou[1] v Johan Oscar Lien[11](NOR)
Ziga Sesko[4](SLO) v Oliver Majdandzik(GER)
William Rejchtman Vinciguerra[6](SWE) v Niels McDonald[3](GER)
Stefan Haita[8](ROU) v Odysseas Geladaris(GRE)

Links to draws, live streaming and live scoring can be found at the Tennis Europe tournament update site.

The European 16s Championships are next week in Parma, Italy.

I completely missed the European 14s Championships at the end of July. A recap of that tournament is here.

The Billie Jean King Cup is underway this week in China, which makes it difficult to follow for those of us in the Eastern time zone, but the United States women have advanced to the semifinals, for the first time since 2021, with a 2-1 win over Kazakhstan. Emma Navarro saved match points in her win over Yulia Putintseva, Jessica Pegula lost in singles to Elena Rybakina, with Pegula and Taylor Townsend providing the clinching point with doubles win over Putintseva and Rybakina.

Billie Jean King Cup Finals

September 16-21, 2025

Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre Arena

Shenzhen, China

 

RESULTS 

Quarterfinals

USA 2, KAZAKHSTAN 1

 

Thursday, September 18

Emma Navarro (USA) d. Yulia Putintseva (KAZ), 7-5, 2-6, 7-6(6)

Elena Rybakina (KAZ) d. Jessica Pegula (USA), 6-4, 6-1

Pegula/Taylor Townsend (USA) d. Rybakina/Putintseva, 6-2, 7-6(1)

The United States will play Great Britain in the semifinals on Saturday, with the other semifinal featuring Ukraine and Italy.

The four second round matches today at the ATP Challenger 75 in Columbus Ohio saw two more Americans join the three that had already reached the quarterfinals with wins on Wednesday. 

Stanford senior Samir Banerjee, who is competing in just his fourth career Challenger, is one of two qualifiers to advance to the quarterfinals. Banerjee defeated Kalamazoo 18s champion Darwin Blanch 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 to reach his first Challenger quarterfinal, where he'll meet Tyler Zink(Georgia, Oklahoma State). Zink reached his second Challenger quarterfinal with a 6-4, 7-6(6) win over Abdullah Shelbayh(Florida) of Jordan.

Qualifier Daniel Masur of Germany defeated No. 6 seed Andres Martin(Georgia Tech) 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 and will play University of Virginia sophomore Rafael Jodar of Spain, who beat Alex Rybakov(TCU) 6-3, 6-4. 

The only two seeds remaining face each other, with Martin Damm[7] playing James Trotter[3](Ohio State) of Japan.

Friday's schedule for the singles quarterfinals and doubles semifinals:

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

Court 1 - start 11:00
[7] [Alt] Martin Damm (USA) vs [3] James Trotter (JPN)
[Q] Samir Banerjee (USA) vs Tyler Zink (USA)
Benjamin Kittay (USA) / Joshua Sheehy (USA) vs [2] George Goldhoff (USA) / Theodore Winegar (USA)

Court 3 - start 11:00
Alfredo Perez (USA) vs Michael Zheng (USA)
Rafael Jodar (ESP) vs [Q] Daniel Masur (GER)
Patrick Harper (AUS) / Johannus Monday (GBR) vs Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta (IND) / Ryuki Matsuda (JPN)

At the M15 in Fayetteville Arkansas, top seed Andrew Fenty(Michigan) is through to the quarterfinals, but No. 2 seed and former Texas All-American Micah Braswell's comeback from injury was cut short by current Texas sophomore Sebastian Eriksson of Sweden. Eriksson defeated Braswell 6-7(3), 6-3, 7-6(2) in three hours and 31-minutes. 

Qualifier Alex Kotzen(Columbia, Tennessee) and No. 3 seed Keegan Smith(UCLA) are the other two Americans in the quarterfinals.