Smith Defends Cleveland Challenger Title; Day Wins W50 in Orlando; USA Shuts Out Hungary to Advance in Davis Cup; Zheng and Svajda Receive Dallas Open Wild Cards, TCU Pair Claim Doubles WC

Colton Smith returned to the scene of his first ATP Challenger title one year ago and emerged with his second Cleveland Open Challenger 75 title today. The 22-year-old former All-American was a senior at Arizona when he defeated Eliot Spizzirri(Texas) 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-3 in the 2025 final; now beginning his first full season as a professional, the No. 2 seed defeated former Wake Forest All-American Borna Gojo of Croatia 6-4, 7-5 in today's final, avenging his loss to Gojo in the Sioux Falls Challenger in October of 2024.

Smith, who saved a match point in his first round against Cannon Kingsley(Ohio State), moves up to 142 in the live rankings; his career high is 133.

At the USTA Pro Circuit W50 in Orlando, unseeded Kayla Day won her second title of the year, beating wild card Katrina Scott  6-4, 6-2 in today's final. Day, the 2016 USTA National 18s champion, is back into the WTA Top 200 with this title.

Ryan Colby(USC, Georgia) fell in the final of the M15 in Palm Coast Florida, with No. 2 seed Tommaso Compagnucci of Italy defeating Colby 6-3, 7-6(3).

At the W50 in Portugal, former North Carolina All-American Fiona Crawley won the biggest title of her career, with the No. 7 seed beating 18-year-old Elizara Yaneva of Bulgaria 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-4 in the final. Crawley is up to a career-high 202 in the WTA rankings.

The United States Davis Cup Team clinched a spot in September's second round of qualifying today in Hungary, with Christian Harrison and Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M) beating Zsombor Piros and Fabian Marozsan 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the doubles to give the US the 3-0 win. Emilio Nava won the dead rubber over Matyas Fuel 6-2, 6-3 to make the final score 4-0.

The United States will play an away tie in the Czech Republic in September, after losing 3-2 to the Czech team in the second round of qualifying last September in Delray Beach.

The ATP 500 Nexo Dallas Open begins Monday, with four of the five players on the US Davis Cup team making the trip back from Europe to compete.

Christian Harrison, who won the Dallas title last year with Evan King, is playing with Neal Skupski(LSU) of Great Britain and the Australian Open doubles champions are the No. 2 seeds. Austin Krajicek is playing with Nikola Mektic of Croatia and they have drawn No. 1 seeds Marcel Granollers of Spain and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina. 

Tommy Paul, the No. 5 seed, plays Jenson Brooksby in the first round, while Ethan Quinn(Georgia) will play wild card Trevor Svajda.

Svajda, the 19-year-old junior at SMU, also received a Dallas Open wild card last year and played Quinn in the first round, falling 6-4, 6-2.

Another interesting rematch features wild card Michael Zheng,  the Columbia senior and two-time NCAA champion, and Sebastian Korda. Last month Zheng beat Korda in the first round of the Australian Open after getting through qualifying.

The third wild card went to Eliot Spizzirri, the former Texas star, whose profile was raised considerably after his second round loss to Jannik Sinner in Australia last month. Spizzirri will play James Duckworth of Australia in the first round.

The qualifying concluded today with Zachary Svajda, Rafael Jodar(Virginia) of Spain, Jack Pinnington Jones(TCU) of Great Britain and Sho Shimabukuro of Japan reaching the main draw. 

Svajda faces No. 3 seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain; Jodar plays defending champion Denis Shapovalov of Canada, the No. 7; Pinnington Jones faces No. 4 seed Flavio Cobolli of Italy and Shimabukuro plays Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia.

TCU's Duncan Chan and Cosme Rolland De Ravel won the Collegiate Doubles Wild Card Playoff and will compete in the main draw. They will face Constantin Frantzen(Baylor) of Germany and Robin Haase of the Netherlands in the first round.

I plan to be at the Dallas Open on Wednesday, as I am heading to that city for the ITA Men's Division I Team Indoor Championships, which begin Friday.

The four semifinalists at th ITA Women's Division I Team Indoor had the day off today as the Champaign semifinalists Ohio State and Texas A&M travel north to Northwestern. Georgia and Auburn will play at 3:30 pm Central time, followed by Ohio State and Texas A&M, not before 6:30 pm.

Cracked Racquets will be providing coverage on their YouTube channel.