October Aces; Frodin Reaches First Pro Circuit Semifinal in Sumter W15; Jodar Advances to Eighth Challenger Semi in Charlottesville; Velcz Beats Top Seed in M25 Harlingen; ITA Video Follows Arizona's Jay Friend to All-American Title

From ATP Masters 1000s to W15s titles and everything in between, the top 20 performances by current and former collegians and juniors in October are highlighted in my monthly Aces column at the Tennis Recruiting Network. As has been the case for years now, I've found it impossible to cover all the titles won by former collegians, or even top juniors, so I apologize if one of your favorites isn't included. But just tracking all of them each month keeps me dialed in and aware of who is working their way up the professional tennis food chain.

I do keep an especially close eye on the USTA Pro Circuit, of course, and the W15s this past two weeks in South Carolina have certainly produced some notable results.

Last week in Hilton Head, three US juniors reached the semifinals, and 16-year-old Kennedy Drenser-Hagmann, who is featured in the Aces column, won the title. This week in Sumter, there are two US juniors in the semifinals, with 15-year-old wild card Janae Preston reaching the final four again this week. Today she defeated qualifier Jade Groen of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-4 and will play another qualifier Saturday in recent North Carolina graduate Carson Tanguilig. Tanguilig defeated 17-year-old Capucine Jauffret 6-4, 6-3 to advance to her first Pro Circuit semifinal.

The other US junior in the semifinals is 16-year-old Thea Frodin, who defeated qualifier Bella Bergqvist Larsson of Sweden, a sophomore at South Carolina, 6-4, 6-4 today to reach her first Pro Circuit semifinal. She will play No. 5 seed Rose Marie Nijkamp of the Netherlands, a sophomore at Oklahoma State Saturday, with Nijkamp defeating No. 2 seed Maria Fernanda Navarro of Mexico 6-2, 6-2 today.

Three of the four semifinalists have been determined at the ATP Challenger 75 in Charlottesville, with University of Virginia sophomore Rafael Jodar of Spain continuing his excellent form this summer and fall on the Challenger circuit, reaching an eighth semifinal with his 7-5, 6-3 win over teammate Dylan Dietrich of Switzerland, a wild card. Jodar, seeded seventh, will face last week's Sioux Falls finalist Johannus Monday(Tennessee) of Great Britain, with the No. 8 seed beating Mitchell Krueger 6-4, 6-4 today. 

Qualifier Mats Rosenkranz, a 27-year-old German, advanced to his second Challenger semifinal in as many weeks with a 6-1, 6-0 win over San Diego senior Oliver Tarvet of Great Britain.

Rosenkranz will face the winner of the night quarterfinals between No. 6 seed Martin Damm and unseeded Daniil Glinka of Estonia.

At the M25 in Harlingen Texas, Baylor senior Zsombor Velcz of Hungary, a qualifier, defeated former Baylor All-American and top seed Adrian Boitan of Romania 6-4, 6-7(6), 7-6(4) in a quarterfinal match that took three hours and 34 minutes to reach a conclusion. Velcz, who has qualified for the NCAAs in doubles, but has yet to qualify in singles, will play No. 6 seed Aidan McHugh of Great Britain, who stopped the 17-match winning streak of No. 3 seed Raphael Perot(Texas A&M) of France 6-2, 2-0 retired.

No. 7 seed Aidan Kim, a junior at Ohio State, lost to No. 2 seed Henry Searle of Great Britain 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3. Searle will play No. 8 seed Alex Martinez(Oklahoma) of Spain, who beat qualifier Andreja Petrovic(Florida State, Duke) 6-1, 6-3.

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association followed University of Arizona senior Jay Friend throughout his run to last month's title at the ITA All-American Championships and produced this documentary about the 21-year-old from Japan, who went on to capture his first ATP Challenger title the following week in Fairfield California(details on that in the October Aces).

With Friend not being a highly ranked junior--he didn't reach the ITF Top 100--I wasn't familiar with his tennis before he joined Arizona, so I was especially interested in his development and how he came to the attention of the Wildcats head coach Clancy Shields. He mentions that the run he had on the ITF Junior Circuit in 2021, winning three tournaments that summer and reaching the semifinals of two more, but it sounds as if Shields had already identified Friend as a player he wanted before that, which Friend says was a factor even when he began to get more attention from other coaches.

No matter what your stake in junior and college tennis, the documentary will have something of interest to you, and the deep dive into the coaching relationship between Friend and Shields is particularly illuminating. I hope this is just the first of many ITA productions in this vein, with each player, whether a major champion or not, having a compelling story to tell.