My Recap of USA's Junior Davis and Junior BJK Cup Titles; Kennedy Reaches Third M15 Semifinal in Orlando; Payne Makes W15 Clemson Semis; Stoiana Advances at Austin W50; What the NCAA Men's Seeds Should Be

As I mentioned in my post Sunday, there was more to say on the USA's Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup titles, and I wrote this recap on the historic back-to-back titles for both genders at Tennis Recruiting Network. With both teams seeded No. 1, the pressure was on and they came through with flying colors on the South American red clay.

Jack Kennedy, who was on the 2024 Junior Davis Cup team, which also rolled to the title without the loss of a point, has reached his third USTA Pro Circuit M15 semifinal this week in Orlando. The 17-year-old University of Virginia signee made his second semifinal at last month's M15 in Lexington Kentucky; today he defeated Exsted 6-4, 7-6(3) to set up a second straight meeting with an 18-year-old: No. 5 seed Reda Bennani of Morocco. Bennani defeated Gavin Goode 6-4, 6-1 in today's quarterfinals. 

In the bottom half, it will be No. 2 seed Felix Corwin(Minnesota) against Christopher Li(UNC, Tennessee, Ohio State), after Corwin beat No. 8 seed Stijn Paardekooper(St. Bonaventure, Utah State) of the Netherlands 6-1, 7-6(6) and Li defeated wild card Matisse Farzam(Clemson) 6-1, 7-5.

Top seeds Exsted and Corwin have reached the doubles final and will face ITF College Park and Spring J300s champions Ryan Cozad and Goode.

University of Georgia signee Bella Payne is through to the semifinals of the W15 in Clemson South Carolina, with the sixth-seeded left-hander defeating University of Virginia senior Annabelle Xu 6-1, 2-6, 6-4. Payne will play Clemson sophomore Amelie Smejkalova, a wild card, who beat Emma Charney(USC) 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.

In the bottom half's semifinal, 2024 NCAA singles finalist DJ Bennett of Auburn, who did not qualify for next week's NCAAs, will play Oklahoma State sophomore Rose Marie Nijkamp of the Netherlands. Bennett, seeded No. 7, beat Kylie McKenzie 3-6, 7-5, 7-5, while the second-seeded Nijkamp took out No. 8 seed Aspen Schuman, a Duke signee, 7-5, 3-6, 6-2.

Payne is also through to the doubles final with former North Carolina All-American Carson Tanguilig. The No. 3 seeds will play the unseeded Clemson team of Romana Cisovska of Slovakia and Candela Yecora of Spain.

At the W35 in Orlando, Victoria Hu(Princeton) is the sole American in the semifinals. After beating No. 7 seed Akasha Urhobo 6-3, 0-6, 7-5, Hu will face No. 6 seed Martha Matoula of Greece, who took out top seed and last week's Orlando W35 champion Eva Vedder of the Netherlands 1-6, 6-2, 7-6(7). 

Oklahoma State freshman Luca Udvardy of Hungary will play Auburn senior Angella Okutoyi of Kenya in the semifinal in the bottom half.

No. 7 seed Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) has reached the semifinals of the W50 in Austin Texas, beating No. 3 seed Fiona Crawley(North Carolina) 6-2, 6-1 today. She will play unseeded Auburn senior Ekaterina Khayrutdinova of Russia, who beat No. 5 seed Kayla Day 6-4, 6-4 today. No. 1 seed Anastasia Gasanova of Russia will face No. 4 seed Mai Hontama of Japan in the top-half semifinal.

As guaranteed before today's play, two Ohio State Buckeyes are through to the semifinals on their home courts at the M25 in Columbus. No. 3 seed Aidan Kim, who will playing in the NCAAs beginning Tuesday, defeated No. 5 seed Victor Lilov, who is joining Ohio State in January, 6-3, 6-4 in today's quartefinals. He will face No. 2 seed Henry Searle of Great Britain, who beat No. 6 seed Fryderyk Lechno-Wasiutynski(Cal) of Poland 6-1, 6-1. Kim lost to Searle late last month in the quarterfinals of the M25 in Harlingen Texas 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-3.

No. 7 seed Jack Anthrop came through the other all-Ohio State quarterfinal, beating wild card Preston Stearns 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. Anthrop, who has also qualified for the NCAAs next week, faces unseeded Gavin Young(Michigan), who beat wild card Loren Byers of Ohio State 7-6(8), 4-6, 6-3.

The Saturday doubles final features three players competing in the NCAAs, with Sebastian Gorzny(Texas) and Young playing Brandon Carpico and Nikita Filin(Ohio State). Gornzy is in the singles draw at the NCAAs, while Carpico and Filin qualified for doubles in last week's Sectionals.

Another NCAA participant still competing in a pro event is Illinois senior Kenta Miyoshi of Japan, who has made the semifinals of the Challenger 75 on his home courts for the second consecutive year. Miyoshi beat qualifier Taym Al Azmeh(Michigan State) 7-5, 6-2 today and will face No. 4 seed Murphy Cassone(Arizona State), who defeated No. 5 seed Mats Rosenkranz of Germany  7-6(4), 6-3. Unseeded Cedrik-Marcel Stebe of Germany will play the winner of tonight's quarterfinals between Darwin Blanch and Stefan Kozlov.

The problematic seeding in the NCAA men's singles tournament has generated a lot of conversation the past four days, and the college tennis experts with podcasts came up with their own versions of the Top 8, which I've collected in the table below. If I had to pick one of the four, I'd probably go with Adam Drucker's; but all four of them are vastly superior to what we're going to see in tomorrow's draws. All fingers are crossed that we don't get Zheng or Suresh versus a top 8 seed in the first round. Duncan Chan, the TCU junior who has had a breakout fall, and is the No. 2 seed at next week's NCAAs, is through to the semifinals of the ATP Challenger 75 in Drummondville Canada this week.