Karabanova, Hotelier Capture Les Petits As Titles; Svajda, Kalieva, Andreescu and Grant Win Championships on USTA Pro Circuit; No. 1 Georgia Women, No. 1 Wake Forest Men Fall at UNC, Ohio State

There were two completely different finals at Les Petits As, the prestigious international tournament for 14-and-under players held annually in Tarbes France.

Girls champion Aleksandra Karabanova of Russia, the No. 10 seed, saved a match point in her 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-0 win over Elizaveta Anikina of Estonia in a final that spanned nearly three hours, while No. 16 seed Lyoma Hotelier of Japan breezed past qualifier Richard Mitchell of Switzerland 6-0, 6-1 in 45 minutes.

Aleksandra Karabanova
photo @Richard van Loon, TopTennis.photos

The drama in the Karabanova - Anikina match was persistent throughout, with Anikina looking for every opportunity to close the net, while Karabanova was able to counteract that by passing well and getting sure winners back in play.  

Although neither has a serve that produces free points, Anikina got only 36 percent of her first serves in, limiting her ability to be aggressive early in the point. Karabanova made only 50 percent of her first serves and had 14 double faults, but she kept her composure despite the frustration she must have felt. 

One of those double faults came at deuce with Karabanova serving at 5-6 in the second set, but Anikina sent a forehand long early in the rally and Karabanova held for the tiebreaker.

That tiebreaker featured two significant line calling controversies, both going against Anikina, which got me thinking that it was odd that the tournament, usually so innovative, didn't have electronic line calling. But then I recalled that the event is a major training ground for aspiring French chair umpires, so maybe that played a role.

In any case, the chair overruled the line judge on the far sideline to give Karabanova the point for 2-2 and then a Anikina ball that looked to be on the line was called wide at 5-all, with Anikina shanking her backhand on the next point to drop the set.

The third set was not as one-sided as it may have looked, but Anikina was making many more unforced errors, possibly due to fatigue. Karabanova went up 5-0 mostly by playing much more conservatively than she had in the first two sets, extending rallies until Anikina missed, and that strategy worked, with Anikina to play three good points in succession at any time in the final set.

Lyoma Hotelier
photo @Richard van Loon, TopTennis.photos

The boys final could not have been more different, with Mitchell obviously out of gas after winning seven matches prior to the final. Hotelier, who had won the Tennis Europe Category 1 title in Bolton England the previous week, has won 11 matches in the indoor hard fortnight, losing just two sets in that span.

The four tournaments on the USTA Pro Circuit concluded today in Florida and California, with three American singles champions crowned.

At the ATP Challenger 100, No. 4 seed Zachary Svajda, playing in his hometown of San Diego, defeated top seed Sebastian Korda 6-4, 7-6(5). The two-time Kalamazoo 18s champion, now 23 years old, played the cleaner match against the current ATP No. 53, hitting 22 winners and making just 14 unforced errors, while Korda had 26 winners and 40 unforced errors.

Svajda had only two aces in the match, but couldn't have picked a better time for his second. After Svajda took a 6-3 lead in the second set tiebreaker, Korda hit two winners on his two service points, but Svajda closed out his seventh Challenger title with an ace. He will move to 109 in the ATP rankings, just shy of his career-high of 102.

No. 3 seeds Mac Kiger(North Carolina) and Trey Hildebrand(UCF, Texas A&M) won the doubles title in San Diego, beating the unseeded team of Garrett Johns(Duke) and Karl Poling(Princeton, UNC) 6-3, 6-4 in the final. It's the seventh Challenger title for Kiger and his third with Hilderbrand, who has eight Challenger doubles titles.

At the W100 in San Diego, No. 5 seed Elvina Kalieva won her first title since 2023, beating No. 2 seed Elli Mandlik 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 in today's final. Kalieva had ended the comeback of Jennifer Brady(UCLA) with a 5-7, 7-6(2), 6-2 win in the semifinals, while Mandlik had beaten No. 6 seed Mary Stoiana 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals.

The 22-year-old Kalieva will rise to a career-high ranking of 154 with the title.

LSU sophomore Kayla Cross of Canada and Alana Smith(NC State) won the doubles title, with the No. 2 seeds beating unseeded Catherine Harrison(UCLA) and Dalayna Hewitt 6-2, 6-3 in the final. 

Bianca Andreescu of Canada continued her comeback in Florida, winning her second title in the past three weeks at the W75 in Vero Beach. The No. 6 seed, Andreescu defeated unseeded Xiaodi You of China 7-5, 6-1 in today's final, played in temperatures in the mid 40s. Andreescu is 13-1 to start the year, with her only loss in the semifinals of the W35 in Bradenton to Akasha Urhobo.

No. 3 seeds Allura and Maribella Zamarripa(Texas) won the doubles title when they were given a walkover by No. 2 seeds Anna Rogers(NC State) and Jazmin Ortenzi of Argentina in the final. 

The title at the M15 in Naples Florida went to No. 8 seed Will Grant(Florida), who beat former Gator teammate Durate Vale of Portugal, a qualifier, 6-2, 6-3 in the final. It's the first Pro Circuit singles title for the 24-year-old Grant. Vale, 27, has been in the ATP Top 500, but hadn't played in over a year, so started this week unranked.

Tristan McCormick(Notre Dame, Georgia) and 43-year-old Jesse Witten(Kentucky) won the doubles titles, with the unseeded pair beating former Illinois teammates Hunter Heck and Zeke Clark, who were also unseeded, 6-4, 1-6, 10-5 in the final.

With the ITA Team Indoor Championships looming in the next two weeks, teams are preparing by getting as many matches as possible against top teams. With so many new faces and only a few results as the new season begins, it's difficult to flag any outcome as an upset, but both teams who are No. 1 in the coaches poll due to their NCAA titles last year, the Georgia women and the Wake Forest men, lost today.

Georgia traveled to No. 3 North Carolina for their annual blockbuster, and the Tar Heels took care of a young Georgia team with the clinch coming at 4-1. The matches were played out, with the final score 5-2. NCAA champion Reese Brantmeier, who had clinched the Tar Heels 4-3 win over NC State Friday at line 1 singles, got the fourth point with her 7-6(5), 6-4 win over Anastasiia Lopata of Georgia.

Wake Forest played at No. 6 Ohio State, and the Buckeyes shut out the Demon Deacons, taking the doubles point and getting wins from Bryce Nakashima at 4, Preston Stearns at 2 and Nikita Filin at 6. Ohio State had beaten No. 5 Texas 4-1 on Friday, so they are looking to be a serious threat at the National Indoors in two weeks