Langmo Ousts Top Seed, Blanch Advances at Winston-Salem Challenger; Acceptances for ITF J200 Corpus Christi; Pisarcyzk Sweeps J60 Titles in Colombia; Michalicka Takes Over Wisconsin's Women's Program

The first round of the Winston-Salem ATP Challenger 75 concluded today, with former Miami University standout Christian Langmo defeating top seed Juan Pablo Ficovich of Argentina today, and wild card Luca Pow, a junior at Wake Forest, beating No. 8 seed Patrica Maloney(Michigan) 6-2, 6-3 late last night.

Langmo's 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win is the second-best of his career by ATP ranking, with Ficovich at 132; the 29-year-old from Florida beat ATP No. 123 Michael Mmoh two years ago at the Tyler Texas Challenger. 

Langmo will face Kalamazoo 18s Darwin Blanch, who is returning to Winston-Salem after winning his first ATP main draw match there at the 250 last month. 

Pow, a 20-year-old from Great Britain, earned his best career win in taking down No. 324 Maloney. His previous best win was over ATP No. 714 this summer at an M15 in Tunisia.

There are 10 Americans through to the second round; in addition to Langmo and Blanch are Martin Damm, qualifier Quinn Vandecasteele(Oregon), Ohio State junior Aidan Kim, Alfredo Perez(Florida), No. 3 seed Mitchell Krueger, No. 7 seed Alex Rybakov, SMU junior Trevor Svajda and No. 2 seed Murphy Cassone. 

Gavin Goode, the 17-year-old qualifying wild card who advanced to the main draw, lost today to Virginia sophomore Rafael Jodar of Spain 7-5, 6-1. Jodar will play Pow in the only second round match that doesn't feature an American.

Acceptances are out for the newly upgraded J200 in Corpus Christi Texas, which begins September 29th and runs through October 4th.  Formerly a J60, this tournament is still the week before the ITF J300 Pan American Closed in Houston, but this upgrade, in addition to the points and some hospitality, allows special exempts for Houston if needed.

The boys field is led by TCU freshman Maximus Dussault, with  Gavin Goode, Ryan Cozad, Michael Antonius, Andrew Johnson, Simon Caldwell and Roshan Santhosh the Americans in the Top 100 who have entered.

Mariella Thamm of Germany is the top-ranked girl who entered, and unless I am missing something, she is not eligible for the Pan Am Closed, so I don't know her motive for entering this event; she's played only in Europe since January.

It's good to see both Annika Penickova and Zaire Clarke, who have been out with injuries, entered. The US Top 100 ITF girls entered are Penickova, Capucine Jauffret, Nancy Lee, Ishika Ashar and Kori Montoya.  Kristina Liutova, the ITF J300 College Park champion, has entered and will be one of the favorites.

Isabella Pisarczyk is entered in Corpus Christi, and is in qualifying as of now; last week the 17-year-old from Florida swept the titles at the J60 in Cartagena Colombia. Seeded No. 6, Pisarczyk didn't drop a set in singles, defeating No. 8 seed Mariana Pinzon Sampedro of Colombia 6-1, 6-0 in the final.

In doubles, No. 3 seeds Pisarczyk and Anabelle Janczyk received a walkover from top seeds Marcella Roversi and Sarah Stoyanov in the all-USA final.

In college tennis news that I completely missed during the US Open, former Wisconsin men's standout Marek Michalicka has been named to succeed Kelsey McKenna as the women's head coach at his alma mater. McKenna left Wisconsin to take the women's head coaching position at SMU last month. Michalicka was McKenna's assistant the past two years. The release, from August 27th, is here.