Goode Ousts No. 1 Seed in Orlando; Both Top Seeds Lose at Champaign Challenger; Buckeyes Make Up More Than 1/3 of Field in Columbus M25; Mandlik and Kypson Earn Australian Open Wild Cards

With six USTA Pro Circuit tournaments this week, there's a lot to cover, and I'll start with the No. 1 seeds losing in the first round at the M15 in Orlando and the ATP Challenger 75 in Champaign Illinois.

Seventeen-year-old Gavin Goode defeated No. 1 seed Toby Kodat 2-6, 7-6(4), 6-1 in the first round today at the USTA National Campus. The left-hander from Raleigh North Carolina, currently No. 40 in the ITF junior rankings, had already collected his first four ATP points in September when he qualified for the Winston-Salem Challenger 75 as a wild card, and he made the main draw this week on his own ATP ranking. Seventeen-year-old Jack Kennedy, who also got in on his own ATP ranking, beat No. 7 seed Evan Bynoe 6-3, 7-6(5) in the first round. 

As I mentioned Monday, three wild cards in Orlando went to Michael Antonius, Andrew Johnson(who were initially on Tuesday's schedule, but are now playing Wednesday instead), and Jordan Lee, the winning team at last week's ITF Junior Davis Cup. Matisse Farzam, a freshman at Clemson, received the fourth wild card. 

Sixteen-year-old Jerrid Gaines Jr will be making his main draw debut this week after beating UNC recruit Lachlan Gaskell 6-1, 5-7, 10-8 in today's final round of qualifying. Georgia freshman Noah Johnston and LSU recruit Nikolas Stoot also qualified for the main draw. Other juniors in the main draw are Keaton Hance, Max Exsted, Reda Bennani[5] of Morocco and Benjamin Willwerth. Willwerth lost to No. 3 seed Blu Baker of Great Britain 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the first round today. 

No. 2 seed Felix Corwin(Minnesota) won his first round match over Andreas Timini of Cyprus, a freshman at Florida, 7-5, 6-1 today.

In Champaign, top seed Nicolas Meija of Colombia lost to unseeded Cedrik-Marcel Stebe of Germany 7-6(5), 6-3, with Steve set to play Arizona senior Jay Friend Wednesday. Friend defeated Alfredo Perez(Florida) 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 in first round action Monday. No. 2 seed Johannus Monday(Tennessee) of Great Britain lost today to former Texas All-American Micah Braswell 7-6(8), 6-4. Braswell will play Kenta Miyoshi of Japan, the Illinois senior, who beat lucky loser Quinn Vandecasteele(Oregon) 6-3, 7-5 this evening. 

Other Americans advancing to the second round are Stefan Kozlov, No. 8 seed Tyler Zink(Georgia, Oklahoma State), Adhithya Ganesan(Florida), No. 4 seed Murphy Cassone(Arizona State) and No. 6 seed Andres Martin. Darwin Blanch and No. 3 seed Mitchell Krueger, who played in the Knoxville Challenger final Sunday, meet Wednesday in the only first round match left to be completed. 

At the women's W50 in Austin, two Americans advanced to the main draw via qualifying: University of Texas freshman Christasha McNeil and former Pepperdine All-American Savannah Broadus. Fifteen-year-old Kristina Liutova of Russia, who lives in the Seattle area, also reached the main draw, defeating 2023 US Open girls champion Katherine Hui(Stanford) 6-3, 6-3.

Wild cards were awarded to Texas sophomore Eszter Meri of Slovakia, Stanford freshman Alyssa Ahn, Mary Lewis(Arizona, Michigan State) and Jennifer Jackson. Ahn lost to No. 7 seed Mary Stoiana 6-2, 6-0 today in the first round; Jackson was beaten by Auburn senior Ekaterina Khayrutdinova of Russia 7-5, 6-2.

The top seed is Anastasia Gaznova of Russia, who beat Vivian Wolff(Georgia, UCLA) 7-6(7), 1-6, 6-1 in first round action today. 2025 Australian Open girls champion Wakana Sonobe of Japan is the No. 2 seed, and will play McNeil in the first round Wednesday.

In another week with the men and women both playing at the National Campus in Orlando, the women have another W35, with last week's champion Eva Vedder of the Netherlands the top seed, set to face 17-year-old Alexis Nguyen.

Three Americans qualified for the main draw with wins today: Kylie Collins(Texas, LSU, Oklahoma State), Adriana Reami(NC State) and Maribella Zamarripa(Texas).

Kristina and Annika Penickova, fresh off their Junior Billie Jean King Cup title last week in Chile, are in the draw, Kristina as a Junior Exempt and Annika as a wild card. Annika will play 14-year-old Carol Shao, a wild card in the first round Wednesday. Fifteen-year-old Welles Newman, a quarterfinalist last week, received a wild card, as did Nancy Lee. Lee lost 6-1, 7-5 today to Auburn senior Angella Okutoyi.

The M25 in Columbus Ohio features 11 current or future Ohio State Buckeyes in the main draw: wild cards Loren Byers, Preston Stearns, Ilija Palavestra and Nikita Filin, plus Bryce Nakashima, JP Day[Q], Jack Anthrop[7], Victor Lilov[5], Alex Bernard, Aidan Kim[3] and Alexander Okonkwo[Q].  With that many Ohio State players, it's no surprise there are first round encounters, with Anthrop playing Day and Bernard facing Kim.

Byers, Stearns and Lilov won their first round matches today.

In addition to Day, the other American qualifiers are Evan Burnett(Texas), Nathan Cox(Vanderbilt) and Marko Mesarovic(Clemson).

2019 NCAA champion Paul Jubb(South Carolina) is the top seed, with fellow Brit Henry Searle, the 2023 Wimbledon boys champion, the No. 2 seed. 

And finally, there is a W15 in Clemson South Carolina, with NC State freshman Lavinia Tanasie of Romania warming up for next week's NCAAs as the top seed in this event. Rose Marie Nijkamp(Oklahoma State) of the Netherlands in the No. 2 seed.

Wild cards were given to Clemson's Ria Bhakta, Amelie Smejkalova of the Czech Republic and Candela Yecora of Spain. Sixteen-year-old Carrie-Anne Hoo will be making her Pro Circuit debut via the ITF's Junior Reserved program, with Capucine Jauffret also entered as a JR. Oklahoma freshman Mika Buchnik entered via the ITF's Junior Exempt designation for girls ranked in the year-end Top 30.

The Americans qualifying for the main draw are Carson Tanguilig(North Carolina), Tatum Evans(North Carolina), Victoria Mulville and 15-year-old Serafima Elizarova.

The most intriguing of the 16 first round matches Wednesday is between No. 7 seed DJ Bennett, the Auburn senior, and qualifier Savannah Dada-Mascoll of Great Britain, a senior at Appalachian State. Dada-Mascoll stunned Bennett, the 2024 NCAA singles finalist, in the first round of the All-American Championships in September, and has gone on to have a breakout fall, earning a spot in the NCAA championships next week. Bennett failed in her subsequent attempts to qualify for this year's NCAA tournament.

The USTA made the official announcement of the recipients of the Australian Open wild cards, with Elli Mandlik and Patrick Kypson finishing in the top spots, even with a week still remaining in the men's race. The complete release is below:

Elizabeth Mandlik, Patrick Kypson Clinch Australian Open Wild Card Challenges

 

ORLANDO, Fla., November 11, 2025 – Elizabeth Mandlik and Patrick Kypson clinched main draw wild cards into the 2026 Australian Open by finishing first in the women's and men's Australian Open Wild Card Challenge. 

 

Mandlik, 24, won the women's Challenge with 166 points, earned from winning the W100 in Edmond, Okla. (100), reaching the semifinals at the W100 in Irapuato, Mexico (39) and the quarterfinals at the WTA 125 in Austin, Texas (27). Mandlik -- the daughter of four-time Grand Slam singles champion Hana Mandlikova, who won the Australian Open singles title in 1980 and 1987 -- previously played in the Australian Open singles main draw in 2023. She also made Grand slam main draw appearances at the 2022 US Open and the 2023 French Open. 

 

Kypson clinched the men's Challenge with one week still left to play. His 247 points -- earned in large part from winning Challenger singles titles at the 100 in Sioux Falls, S.D. (100), and at the 125 in Helsinki, Finland (125) -- give him an insurmountable lead. Former Challenge leader and second-place Eliot Spizzirri's ranking has risen to No. 87, which will qualify him for direct entry. Kypson, 26, previously won the Australian Open Wild Card Challenge two years ago to make his main draw debut in Melbourne in 2024, and also won the 2023 Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge. 

 

Should the player with the highest number of Challenge points earn direct entry into the Australian Open, the wild card will go to the next eligible American in the Challenge points standings. Americans who otherwise earn direct entry into the Australian Open are not eligible.

 

 

Women's Standings -- Final

(Player's current ranking in parentheses)

 

1. Elizabeth Mandlik (185) -- 166
2. Claire Liu (209) -- 138
3. Elvina Kalieva (204) -- 106

4. Mary Stoiana (297) -- 104

 

Men's Standings -- through Week 4 of 5

(Player's current ranking in parentheses)

 

1. Patrick Kypson (117) -- 247

2. Eliot Spizzirri (87) -- 167.

3. Martin Damm (174) -- 102

4. Mitchell Krueger (202) -- 62
5. Matthew Forbes (931) -- 25

 

The USTA and Tennis Australia have a reciprocal agreement in which main draw singles wild cards for the 2026 Australian Open and US Open will be exchanged.

 

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