Top Seed Friend, No. 3 Seed Kim Upset on All-American Day at NCAA Division I Championships; Payne Defeats Top Seed Blokhina at W35 Boca Raton; Three Americans Reach Zapopan ITF J300 Quarterfinals

After the second round, the singles draws at the NCAA Division I Championships in Orlando bear no resemblance to the seeding projections, and that will continue throughout the rest of the tournament with two more Top 4 upsets today in the men's draw and just three Top 8 seeds remaining in the women's draw.

Top seed and ITA All-American champion Jay Friend of Arizona followed the off ramp taken by women's top seed and ITA All-American Valerie Glozman Tuesday, losing to Keegan Rice of Virginia 7-6(4), 6-4. Friend was not at his best today, and was unable to take advantage of his opportunities against Rice, failing to break the Cavalier sophomore, who is not known for his big serve. Rice held from 0-40 down at 5-all in the first set, and again when serving at 2-1 in second, with Friend unable to convert any of the at least ten break points he had. Friend couldn't rattle Rice, who stayed composed throughout the match and it was Friend who made the unforced errors at 30-all with Rice serving for the match. Rice will face Petar Jovanovic of Mississippi State, a 9-16 seed, who beat Sebastian Gorzny of Texas 6-3, 0-6, 6-3.

No. 3 seed Aidan Kim of Ohio State, the ITA All-American finalist, was beaten by former teammate Will Jansen 7-5, 6-2. Jansen played last year at Ohio State before transferring to North Carolina.

The other men's match I watched closely on ESPN select was Wake Forest senior DK Suresh's 7-6(4), 6-4 win over No. 5 seed Devin Badenhorst of Baylor. Badenhorst was one of the draw losers, with Suresh obviously one of the strongest players in the field; Suresh was No. 3 in the preseason rankings, behind Michael Zheng and Rafael Jodar, and he had done nothing this fall to tarnish that lustre. But because he withdrew after qualifying for the NCAAs by making the All-American quarterfinals and didn't play a college match after that, he wasn't seeded this week.

The points were generally longer than I had anticipated in this match, with the first set decided by the smallest of margins. Suresh got a mini break to take a 4-2 lead at the change of ends, and that was the difference.

The second set started off with 2-0 and 3-1 leads for Suresh, but Badenhorst got the break back and held for 3-all. But the Baylor junior succumbed to the pressure of serving down 4-5 and Suresh, the 2024 NCAA semifinalist, broke for the win.

Of the four Top 8 seeds remaining in the men's draw, two are from Michigan State, with No. 4 seed Matt Forbes and No. 8 seed Ozan Baris winning in straight sets today.

There are six seeds remaining in the men's draw, but none of the eight third round matches will feature more than one seed. An unseeded quarterfinalist is guaranteed, with Suresh playing Martin Borisiouk of NC State, who had his seed revoked when Jack Loutit of Kentucky got in as an alternate, and Zheng of Columbia facing Romain Gales of Clemson, who beat No. 2 seed Duncan Chan of TCU in the first round.

The women's third round will feature one match that was projected by the seeding, with No. 2 seed Carmen Herea of Texas facing Ohio State's Luciana Perry, a 9-16 seed. Herea defeated Eva Shaw of Florida State 6-3, 7-5 and Perry got past Ni Xi of UNC-Charlotte 6-0, 1-6, 6-1.

Four of the women's quarterfinalists will be unseeded after four more seeds lost today. Ava Esposito of Auburn eliminated No. 6 seed Anastasiia Grechkina of Pepperdine 6-4, 6-3 and will face North Carolina's Reese Brantmeier, a 9-16 seed. Brantmeier was again taken to three sets, but defeated Sophie Llewellyn of SMU 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.

Three pairs of sisters were in his year's field, but only the Charneys remain after today. No. 3 seed Piper of Michigan defeated Zuzanna Kubacha of Baylor 6-4, 7-6(5) and older sister Emma of Southern Cal defeated 9-16 seed Anastasiia Gureva of Georgia 6-3, 7-5.

All players who won their second round singles matches today have earned All-American status. A top 20 ITA ranking at the end of the dual match season is now the only remaining option for becoming an All-American, with ITA All-American champions Glozman and Friend already receiving the honor when they claimed those titles.

In doubles, the women's draw lost its top-seeded team, with Mississippi State's Charlotte Kempenaers-Pocz and Gianna Oboniye defeating Wisconsin's Maria Shokolova and Lucie Urbanova, the ITA All-American champions, 4-6, 7-6(2), 10-4.

Men's top seeds and ITA All-American champions Benito Sanchez Martinez and Petar Jovanovic of Mississippi State advanced to the second round with a 6-4, 6-4 win over UCLA's Rudy Quan and Aadarsh Tripathi. 

NCAA second round singles results, in draw order. Links to draws, with times, in the headers.

MEN:

Keegan Rice, Virginia d. Jay Friend[1] Arizona 7-6(4), 6-4

Petar Jovanovic[9-16], Mississippi State d. Sebastian Gorzny, Texas 6-3, 0-6, 6-3

Kenta Miyoshi[6], Illinois d. Edward Winter, Pepperdine 7-6(2), 6-0

Trevor Svajda, SMU d. Amirkhamza Nasridinov, Auburn 6-3, 2-6, 6-0

Matt Forbes[4], Michigan State d. Cosme Rolland De Ravel, TCU 6-1, 6-4

Max Dahlin, Michigan d. Jack Loutit[9-16], Kentucky 6-4, 6-3

DK Suresh, Wake Forest d. Devin Badenhorst[5], Baylor 7-6(4), 6-4

Martin Borisiouk, NC State d. Filip Gustafsson, Arizona 6-4, 6-3

Luca Pow, Wake Forest d. Jakub Vrba[9-16], Arkansas 6-3, 6-3

Dylan Dietrich[7], Virginia d. Bryan Hernandez Cortes, Mississippi State 6-4, 6-4

Paul Inchauspe[9-16], Princeton d. Lucca Liu, UC-Santa Barbara 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-1

Will Jansen, Georgia d. Aidan Kim[3], Ohio State 7-5, 6-2

Ilia Snitari, UNLV d. Eli Stephenson[9-16], Kentucky 6-7(4), 6-2 6-3

Ozan Baris[8], Michigan State d. Roan Jones, North Carolina 6-2, 7-5

Michael Zheng, Columbia d. Sebastian Eriksson, Texas 6-3, 6-3

Romain Gales, Clemson d. Benito Sanchez Martinez, Mississippi State 6-3, 7-6(4)

WOMEN:

Gabriella Broadfoot, NC State d. Na Dong, Baylor 6-3, 7-5

Berta Passola Folch, Cal d. Mia Kupres, Texas A&M 6-3, 6-2

Irina Balus, Duke d. Reece Carter, Washington 6-4, 4-6, 6-1

Kyoka Kubo, Kansas d. Mia Yamakita[9-16], Vanderbilt 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-3

Savannah Dada-Mascoll[4], Appalachian State d. Ria Bhakta, Clemson 6-3, 6-0

Emma Charney, Southern Cal d. Anastasiia Gureva[9-16], Georgia 6-3, 7-5

Emily Welker, Mississippi d. Valeria Ray, Vanderbilt 2-6, 6-0, 6-3

Lily Jones, Michigan d. Stephanie Yakoff, Harvard 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(6)

Mia Slama, NC State d. Gabia Paskauskas[9-16], Florida 6-3, 6-1

Jana Hossam Salah, Southern Cal d. Oby Kajuru, North Carolina 6-3, 6-2

Carolina Gomez Alonso, Arkansas d. Erika Matsuda, Washington 6-4, 6-0

Piper Charney[3], Michigan d. Zuzanna Kubacha, Baylor 6-4, 7-6(5)

Reese Brantmeier[9-16] d. Sophie Llewellyn, SMU 6-2, 4-6, 6-2

Ava Esposito, Auburn d. Anastasiia Grechkina[6], Pepperdine 6-4, 6-3

Luciana Perry[9-16], Ohio State d. Ni Xi, UNC-Charlotte 6-0, 1-6, 6-1

Carmen Herea[2], Texas d. Eva Shaw, Florida State 6-3, 7-5

Live scoring is here; Thursday's schedule for ESPN Select coverage is here.

At the W35 in Boca Raton Florida, 18-year-old Bella Payne defeated top seed Alexis Blokhina(Stanford) 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 in first round action today. Georgia signee Payne, who received a special exempt entry after reaching the final of the W15 in Clemson last week, will play Jessica Bertoldo of Italy in the second round Thursday.

Three Americans have advanced to the quarterfinals of the ITF J300 this week in Zapopan Mexico: No. 4 seed Annika Penickova, Vihaan Reddy and Agassi Rusher.

Penickova defeated No. 16 seed Tea Kovacevic of Bosnia 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 and will play No. 6 seed Renee Alame of Australia in Thursday's quarterfinals.

Reddy, 15, defeated doubles partner Navneet Raghuram 7-6(1), 6-4 to reach his first J300 quarterfinal. The 17-year-old Rusher beat No. 9 seed Aaron Gabet of France 6-0, 6-2, also advancing to his first J300 quarterfinal.

Reddy and Raghuram reached the doubles quarterfinals with a 7-6(0), 6-1 win over the No. 2 seeds Rihards Neimanis of Latvia and Daniel Tazabekov of Kazakhstan.