Hazelitt and Johnson Claim ITF J200 Titles in Corpus Christi; Final Round Qualifying for Pan Am Closed Sunday; Zheng and Zink Meet in Tiburon Challenger Final; All-Australia Final at W50; Perez Advances at W35; Suresh Looks to Repeat at M15

Andrew Johnson and Jordyn Hazelitt picked up the biggest titles of their junior careers today at the ITF J200 in Corpus Christi Texas. 

Johnson, the No. 3 seed, added the singles title to the doubles title he won yesterday, beating No. 8 seed Tanishk Konduri 7-5, 7-5 for his fifth ITF Junior Circuit title. The 16-year-old from Southern California, a quarterfinalist at the US Open Junior Championships, has won two J100 titles in the past year, but this is his first above that level.

Hazelitt, the No. 8 seed, beat No. 4 seed Maggie Sohns 6-0, 6-3 to win her first J200 title, after reaching the final at a J200 in Mexico in June. The 15-year-old from Nevada will still be outside the ITF Top 100, but she is in the main draw of the ITF J300 Pan Am Closed next week in Houston, so she has another opportunity to pick up significant points there. 

The qualifying for the Pan Am Closed began today, and with neither draw full, most players will need to win only two matches, one today and one Sunday to reach the main draw. Top seed Colter Amey is one of 11 Americans in the final round of qualifying, with the only international player remaining Francisco Salmain of Argentina.

All 12 of the girls advancing to the final round of qualifying are from the United States, but top seed Lucy Oyebog Atang lost to Enya Hamilton 4-6, 6-2, 10-3. 

I'll be in Spring Texas for the tournament beginning Monday. 

Tyler Zink reached the first Challenger final of his pro career today, ending the winning streak of last week's Las Vegas Challenger champion Abdullah Shelbayh(Florida) of Jordan with a 6-3, 6-4 victory in the Challenger 75 semifinals in Tiburon California. Zink, who completed his eligibility at Oklahoma State in 2024, will break into the ATP Top 300 for the first time regardless of the result in the final.

Zink will need to stop an even longer winning streak in tomorrow's final, as he faces the red-hot Michael Zheng, who now has won 14 Challenger matches in a row after a 6-4, 7-5 semifinal victory over University of Virginia sophomore Rafael Jodar of Spain this evening. The Columbia senior, seeded No. 7, is now at 195 in the ATP live rankings, which secures his spot in the 2026 Australian Open qualifying.

In today's Tiburon doubles final, top seeds Finn Reynolds(Ole Miss) and James Watt(St. Mary's) of New Zealand avenged their loss in at the Las Vegas Challenger, beating wild cards Benjamin Kittay(UNC, Michigan) and Joshua Sheehy(Abilene Christian) 6-2, 6-3. Watt and Reynolds had lost to Kittay and Sheehy 7-5, 7-6(2) in last week's championship match.

At the ATP Challenger 75 in France, Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M) is through to the final. The unseeded 25-year-old from North Carolina defeated top seed and ATP No. 93 Raphael Collignon of Belgium 6-1, 6-7(2), 7-5 in today's semifinals and will play 2024 Wimbledon boys champion Nicolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway, the No. 7 seed. Budkov Kjaer will be playing in his fourth Challenger final, all this year.  Either Kypson or Budkov Kjaer will suffer their first loss in a Challenger final Sunday. Kypson is 5-0 in Challenger finals, with the 19-year-old Budkov Kjaer 3-0.

At the USTA Pro Circuit W50 in Rancho Santa Fe California, 17-year-old Emerson Jones of Australia will play for her third ITF women's Pro Circuit title Sunday after the No. 3 seed defeated No. 2 seed Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus 6-2, 6-2 in today's semifinals. It will be an all-Australian final, with unseeded Olivia Gadecki beating qualifier Katrina Scott 6-4, 6-2 in the other semifinal.

Texas A&M junior Lucciana Perez of Peru has won two W35 titles already this year, but if she claims the title at the USTA Pro Circuit W35 in San Rafael California tomorrow it will be the first of her four career titles not on clay. The unseeded 20-year-old advanced to the final when Johanne Svendsen of Denmark retired trailing 6-1, 2-0 in today's semifinals. Perez will face qualifier Madison Brengle, who beat top seed Lea Ma(Georgia) 6-2, 7-6(3). The 35-year-old Brengle, who has been as high as 35 in the WTA rankings, has played over 1000 matches in her career, while Perez has played less than 100, although that number doesn't include all the college matches she has played at Texas A&M.

Last October Wake Forest senior DK Suresh won his first singles title at the M15 in Winston-Salem North Carolina; tomorrow he will play for his second, again on his home courts, after the No. 2 seed posted a 7-6(6), 6-3 win over unseeded Martin Borisiouk, a senior at NC State. Suresh, a 25-year-old from India, had lost to Borisiouk, a 25-year-old from Belarus twice in dual matches last year, so this was obviously a big win for him today. 

In Sunday's final, he will play No. 8 seed Shunsuke Mitsui(Tennessee) of Japan, who prevented an all-Demon Deacon final with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over Wake Forest junior Luca Pow of Great Britain. 

Suresh and Wake Forest sophomore Andrew Delgado, who reached the ITA All-American Championships doubles final last week, won the Winston-Salem doubles title today. They defeated University of South Carolina teammates Lucas Andrade da Silva of Brazil and Paul Barbier Gazeu of France 6-7(3), 6-2, 10-6 in the final between unseeded teams.