My Article on Cozad's Commitment; USA Teams Advance to Semis at Junior Davis and BJK Cups; Blanch Reaches Challenger Semis; Teens Urhobo, Hance and Johnston Move On in Orlando; Tien Makes Second ATP Final; Zheng Will Defend NCAA Title After Qualifying Today

Ryan Cozad, who turned 17 a few weeks ago, is No. 1 in Tennis Recruiting Network's Class of 2027 rankings and after visiting TCU, Georgia, Texas and Virginia, he made his decision to commit to the Cavaliers late last month. I spoke to Ryan and his father Matt about the whirlwind of the past four months which began with Ryan speaking with college coaches in June, narrowing his search to the schools he wanted to visit, and finding the best fit with Andres Pedroso and the Cavaliers, for today's article at the Tennis Recruiting Network.

After a day off Thursday, the ITF Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup resumed today in Santiago Chile with quarterfinals matches. Both top-seeded teams from the United States, both defending champions, again posted 3-0 victories, with the girls beating unseeded Japan and the boys defeating unseeded Spain.

Captain Georgi Rumenov has not made any changes to his No. 1 and No. 2 singles lineups, with ITF World Junior No. 1 Kristina Penickova at No. 2 singles and Julieta Pareja, WTA No. 347, at the No. 1 spot. Neither has lost a set, and that continued today, with Penickova beating Miyu Nishiwaki 6-1, 6-2 and Pareja defeating Yui Komada 6-2, 6-4. Because it's the knockout stage, the doubles matches often aren't played after clinch, but Kristinia and Annika Penikcova played a short-sets match with Aoi Watanabe and Nishiwaki, winning it 4-2, 4-0.

The girls will face No. 4 seed Czech Republic in Saturday's semifinals, after the Czech Republic beat No. 7 seed Great Britain 2-0. The other girls semifinal will feature No. 6 seed Poland, who beat No. 2 seed Romania 2-1 and No. 3 seed France, who defeated No. 8 seed Taiwan 3-0.

The US boys have lost two sets in singles, with one coming in today's win over Spain. Jordan Lee dropped the opening set to Adolfo Abascal 7-5, but rebounded to take the second and third sets 6-3, 6-2. Andrew Johnson, playing No. 1 singles for the first time this week, defeated Alberto Pulido Moreno 6-0, 6-4 to clinch the tie. Johnson and Michael Antonius won the doubles match 6-2, 6-3.

The boys will play No. 8 seed Turkey, who beat No. 7 seed Korea 2-1. The surprise of the day was unseeded Germany's 2-1 win over No. 2 seed France, with Eric Dylan Mueller beating France's No. 1 Daniel Jade 5-2, 5-7, 6-3 to even the match, then partnering with Jannik Soetebier for a 6-4, 6-1 win in the deciding doubles over Jade and Amaury Abbas. Germany faces No. 4 seed Japan, who beat No. 3 seed Czech Republic 2-1.

Links to streaming(subscription) and live scoring can be found at the ITF Junior Circuit site. Selected replays are available without a subscription at the MEGA YouTube channel. Today's US boys match with Spain is here. 

Kalamazoo 18s champion Darwin Blanch continued his run at the Knoxville Challenger 50, reaching his first Challenger semifinal with a 6-3, 7-6(5) win this afternoon over No. 2 seed Jay Clarke of Great Britain. Blanch will play No. 6 seed Daniil Glinka of Estonia, who beat qualifier Shunsuke Mitsui(Tennessee) 7-5, 6-3. In the top half, No. 5 seed Mitchell Krueger defeated Inaki Montes(Virginia) of Spain 7-5, 6-4 and will face unseeded Cedrik-Marcel Stebe of Germany, who beat qualifier Murphy Cassone(Arizona State) 7-6(13), 6-3.

Seventeen-year-olds Keaton Hance and Noah Johnston reached their first USTA Pro Circuit semifinals today, with Hance following up his win over top seed Tristan McCormick Thursday with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Christopher Li(UNC, Tennessee, Ohio State) in today's quarterfinals at the Orlando M15. He will play qualifier Ryan Colby(USC, Georgia), who reached his first Pro Circuit semifinal with a 6-4, 6-4 win over No. 3 seed Felix Corwin(Minnesota).

Johnston posted his third win in the past four months today over fellow left-handed junior Nikolas Stoot, taking a 7-6(5), 6-1 decision. Johnston will face unseeded Aleksa Ciric(Georgia Gwinnett) of Serbia, who beat No. 5 seed Ryan Fishback(Virginia Tech) 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.

Eighteen-year-old Max Exsted will play for the third Pro Circuit doubles title of his career Saturday in Orlando when he and William Nolan(Auburn), the top seeds, face the unseeded team of Colby and Noah Zamora(UC-Irvine).

In the quarterfinals of the women's W35 in Orlando, the veterans overcame the juniors, with the exception of 18-year-old Akasha Urhobo. Urhobo, the No. 8 seed, beat University of Georgia sophomore Anastasiia Gureva of Russia 6-4, 6-1 and will face No. 2 seed Eva Bedder of the Netherlands, who beat No. 6 seed Madison Sieg(USC) 6-1, 6-3. Top seed Viktoria Hruncakova of Slovakia defeated 15-year-old qualifier Welles Newmman 6-0, 6-2 and will face No. 3 seed Katarina Jokic(Georgia) in the semifinals. Jokic defeated 16-year-old wild card Thea Frodin 6-1, 2-6, 7-5.

Although they lost in singles, Frodin and Newman have advanced to the doubles final. They defeated Sophia Biolay(Central Florida) of France and Katerina Mandelikova(Florida International) of the Czech Republic 7-6(6), 6-4 and will face another unseeded team in Samantha Alicea(Arizona State, Nebraska) and Malkia Ngounoue(Kansas) Saturday.

At the M25 in East Lansing, Michigan State senior Ozan Baris and Yale senior Vignesh Gogineni continued their confidence-building runs prior to the NCAA championships by advancing to the semifinals. Gogineni defeated Gavin Young(Michigan) 7-5, 6-3 to reach his second semifinal in just his fourth Pro Circuit tournament played, all this year. The 22-year-old from Ohio will play LSU freshman Erik Arutiunian of Belarus, who beat No. 7 seed Maik Steiner(Western Michigan) of Germany 6-1, 6-4.

Baris, who had saved seven match points in his first round win over No. 2 seed Paul Jubb(South Carolina) of Great Britain, saved another one today in his second set tiebreaker with No. 5 seed Adhithya Ganesan(Florida).  Down 5-2 in the third set, Baris won the final five games of the match for a 3-6, 7-6(6), 7-5 win.

His opponent in the semifinal, No. 4 seed Aidan McHugh of Great Britain, prevented an all-Spartan semifinal with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Michigan State sophomore Matt Forbes. McHugh and Baris played last summer in the quarterfinals of the M25 in East Lansing, with McHugh winning 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.

At the W15 in Lincoln Nebraska, 18-year-old Anna Frey advanced to her second W15 semifinal, beating No. 4 seed Kristina Novak(Oklahoma State) of Slovenia 6-4, 6-1. The North Carolina recruit will face top seed and Oklahoma freshman Edda Mamedova of Russia, who beat Pepperdine freshman Sonja Zhiyenbayeva of Kazakhstan 6-2, 6-3. Duke sophomore Irina Balus of Slovakia, the No. 2 seed, will play unseeded Lucia Peyre(Oklahoma State) of Argentina in the other semifinal. Balus beat Duke recruit and No. 5 seed Aspen Schuman 6-2, 6-3 today.

At the WTA 125 in Austin Texas, both Mary Stoiana and Elli Mandlik lost today, so I believe that means Mandlik clinches the USTA's Australian Open wild card, although it will be Monday before the USTA is likely to confirm it. Top seed Iva Jovic beat Stoiana 6-0, 6-1 and No. 3 seed Renata Zarazua of Mexico defeated Mandlik 6-1, 6-3. Jovic will play unseeded Marina Stakusic of Canada in the semis; Zarazua's opponent is University of Texas sophomore Carmen Herea of Romania, who won the battle of the Longhorn wild cards with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Malaika Rapolu.

Learner Tien(USC) has reached his second ATP final, both this fall, with the 19-year-old beating lucky loser Vitaliy Sachko of Ukraine 6-1, 6-4 at the ATP 250 in Metz today. Tien hasn't had the toughest draw this week, beating a wild card and two lucky losers, but he did beat former ATP Top 10 player Matteo Berrettini of Italy 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinals Thursday. In Saturday's final, Tien will play No. 7 seed Cam Norrie(TCU) of Great Britain for the fourth time this year; Tien has won the past two meetings.

Eight more players have booked their spots in the D-I NCAA singles championships in Orlando, which begin in 11 days, after winning quarterfinal matches at the ITA Conference Masters today.

The women's semifinalists are Georgia's Aysegul Mert[1], UNC-Charlotte's Ni Xi[7], USC's Eugenia Zozaya Mendendez[8] and Cal's Mao Mushika[2]. Reigning men's NCAA champion Michael Zheng will return to defend his title, after surviving two set points in the opening set to beat No. 7 seed Veljko Krstic of Elong 7-6(5), 6-1.

NC State's Martin Borisiouk[4], Florida's Jeremy Jin[6] and Pepperdine's Edward Winter[2] are the other men's semifinalists advancing to Orlando.