Easter Bowl 18s Finals Videos; 15-year-old Combs Reaches W15 Final; Urhobo Earns More Points in Roland Garros Wild Card Race; Kennedy Drops Three-Setter in Tallahassee Challenger Semis; TCU Men Claim Big 12 Conference Title

Below are the videos of the 18s finals at last month's Easter Bowl, which wraps up my YouTube content from my March trip out West. All those videos can be seen at the tenniskalamazoo YouTube Channel. The most popular of all those videos, with nearly 5000 views, is the boys final at the ITF J300 in San Diego, and I can understand why, with the quality of that match way above average for a junior final. I have one more task to complete from that trip, a Tennis Recruiting Network photo gallery from the Easter Bowl.

Two of the American teenagers in action today on the USTA Pro Circuit are through to Sunday's finals: 15-year-old Emery Combs and 19-year-old Akasha Urhobo.

Wild card Combs, playing in just her second pro event, defeated 18-year-old University of Florida recruit Capucine Jauffret, a qualifier 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in today's semifinals at the W15 in Orlando. She will play another qualifier in the final, 24-year-old Margaux Maquet of Belgium, who squandered a 5-0 lead in the third set, but went on to beat 14-year-old Sofiia Bielinska of Ukraine 6-2, 3-6, 7-5. 

In the doubles final, unseeded 23-year-olds Kailey Evans(Texas Tech, San Diego) and Ellie Coleman(Duke) defeated unseeded Anastasia Bertacchi of Italy and Carolina Bohrer Martins of Brazil 6-3, 7-5. The pair did not drop a set all week. It was the second Pro Circuit title for Coleman and the third for Evans.

At the W35 in Zephyrhills Florida, No. 3 seed Urhobo advanced to the final when unseeded Lea Ma(Georgia) retired after dropping the first set 6-2. Urhobo, currently leading the USTA's annual Roland Garros wild card race in this the third of the five week window for accumulating points, has earned points in all three weeks. She will face No. 5 seed Angela Fita Boluda of Spain, who beat compatriot Alicia Herrero Linana(Baylor) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

Former Pepperdine All-American Savannah Broadus won her second straight W35 doubles title on Florida's green clay, this week with former Virginia standout Hibah Shaikh. The unseeded pair defeated unseeded Daria Egorova and Anastasia Tikhonova of Russia 6-3, 5-7, 10-5 in the final. It's the 10th title for the 23-year-old Broadus, the third for Shaikh, and their second as a team.

At the M15 in Orlando, Michael Antonius, the No. 8 seed, lost to qualifier Justin Roberts(USF, Arizona State) of the Bahamas 6-4, 6-1. Roberts will face top seed Corentin Denolly of France, who ended the run of qualifier Adam Lynch(Barry) with a 6-1, 6-4 win today. Antonius has received a main draw wild card into the ATP Challenger 75 in Savannah Georgia next week.

2024 Kalamazoo 16s doubles champions Ryan Cozad and Yannik Alvarez won their first Pro Circuit doubles title today, with the 17-year-old wild cards beating No. 2 seeds Benjamin Thomas George(Western Michigan) of Canada and Christopher Li(UNC, Tennessee, Ohio State) of Peru 6-2, 6-4 in today's final. They defeated the 4, 1 and 2 seeds this week, dropping only one set.

In the semifinals of the ATP Challenger 75 in Tallahassee, 17-year-old Jack Kennedy lost to Joao Reis Da Silva of Brazil 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 after serving at 4-3 40-0 in the third set. Reis Da Silva will play No. 5 seed Clement Tabur of France in the final, after Tabur beat Michael Mmoh 6-4, 6-2. Kennedy is also in the main draw of the Savannah Challenger via the ITF/ATP Accelerator program.

Unseeded Stefan Dostanic(USC, Wake Forest) and Alex Rybakov(TCU) won their first Challenger doubles title, beating top seeds David Stevenson(Memphis) of Great Britain and Cleeve Harper(Texas) of Canada 6-4, 6-2 in today's final.

The finals are set for the SEC and ACC Conference championships Sunday, with a lot of 1, 2 and 3 seeds in the hunt, as well as No. 9 seeded LSU women. The Tigers defeated top-ranked, but fourth-seeded Georgia 4-1 this evening in Norman Oklahoma, getting the doubles point and wins from Cadence Brace at line 1, Ella McDonald at line 3 and Addison Lanton at line 4.

LSU will face No. 3 seed Auburn, who beat No. 2 seed Texas A&M 4-1 in the early semifinal. Auburn defeated LSU 4-2 in Baton Rouge in conference play early last month.

The men's final in the SEC will feature No. 1 Texas and No. 2 Mississippi State. Top-ranked Texas needed come-from-behind three-set wins from Abel Forger at line 5 and Sebastian Gorzny at line 1 to beat No. 5 seed Texas A&M 4-2, after the Longhorns had taken the doubles point and Jonah Braswell posted a straight-sets win at line 6.  Mississippi State, playing without their No. 2 Petar Jovanovic, defeated No. 3 seed LSU 4-2, getting straight-sets wins from Mario Martinez Serrano at 3, Raphael Vaksmann at 4 and Bryan Hernandez Cortes at 5 to add to their doubles point.

Texas, who won the regular season conference title outright, will go for the sweep tomorrow in College Station. They defeated Mississippi State 4-3 in Starkville in February, shortly after winning their first Team Indoor title.

Wake Forest and Virginia were co-champions of the regular season in the ACC, but only one can win the conference title when they meet for the second time this season. Top seed Wake Forest, who beat Virginia 4-2 last month in Winston-Salem, avenged the loss that cost them the outright conference title, beating No. 4 seed Stanford today 4-0 in Cary North Carolina. Wake took the doubles points and got straight-sets wins from Charlie Robertson at line 4, Joaquin Guilleme at line 5 and Kacper Szymkowiak at line 6 to blank last year's tournament champions. 

No. 2 seed Virginia dropped the doubles point to No. 3 seed Notre Dame, but got straight-sets wins from Dylan Dietrich at line 1, Andres Santamarta at line 3, Jangjun Kim at line 4 and Mans Dahlberg at line 6 to advance.

The top-seeded Virginia women defeated Duke 4-2 to give themselves an opportunity to sweep the conference titles. The Cavaliers took the doubles point and got straight-sets wins from Annabelle Xu at line 2, Katie Rolls at line 3 and Isabelle Lacy at line 4. 

Virginia will play No. 3 seed NC State, who beat No. 2 seed North Carolina 4-2, with four of the six singles matches going to three sets. NC State took the doubles point, and got the only two straight-sets wins from Gabby Broadfoot at line 3 and Lavinia Tanasie at line 4. The Wolfpack's fourth point came at line 1, with Mia Slama beating Reese Brantmeier 4-6, 7-6(7), 7-5.

Virginia and NC State played last Sunday, in Charlottesville, with Virginia winning that match 4-2 to clinch their first outright regular season conference title.

The Big 12 finals were today in Lake Nona, with No. 2 seed TCU breezing past top seed Arizona 4-0. The doubles point was close, with TCU taking line 3 7-5 after dropping line 1, but taking line 2 6-0 in 21 minutes. 

TCU, who had been shut out by Arizona last month, grabbed all six first sets in singles, with Duncan Chan at line 1, Oliver Bonding at line 4 and Roger Pascual at line 6 closing out their matches in straight sets to deliver another conference title to the Horned Frogs.

For more on the final, and the box score, see this article from gofrogs.com.

The top-seeded UCF team is taking on No. 3 seed TCU in the women's final tonight in Lake Nona. Live scoring of that match is here.