Blanch Beats Zheng to Reach Second Challenger Final; Reyniak Wins First Pro Title in Doubles; First Round of All-American Pre-Qualifying Complete; US Davis Cup Team Falls to Czechia; Jovic Defends WTA 500 Title

Darwin Blanch was on a six-match losing streak prior to this week's ATP Challenger 125 in Tiburon California, but the 2025 Kalamazoo 18 champion has now won four straight matches, including this evening's 7-6(5), 7-6(9) win over top seed and defending champion Michael Zheng(Columbia).

The unseeded Blanch, who saved five match points in his 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(10) first round win over Stefan Kozlov, hasn't dropped a set since, although Zheng had seven set points in the second set tonight. Blanch, who will turn 19 later this month, reached his first Challenger final last November, falling to Mitchell Krueger; this is his second career final. He will play the winner of tonight's match between No. 4 seed Michael Mmoh and wild card JJ Wolf(Ohio State).

Seventeen-year-old New Yorker Matias Reyniak, who has played only four tournaments in the United States, including the US Open Juniors as a wild card, is back to competing in his training base of Spain. Today he won his first WT men's title, with 22-year-old Carles Rojas of Spain, at the M15 in Melilla. The unseeded pair defeated No. 2 seeds Victor Paganetti of France and Leonid Sheyngezikht of Bulgaria 6-1, 6-1 in the final. They did not come close to losing a set in their run to the title.

The ITA All-American Championships began today, with pre-qualifying for the women in Cary North Carolina and the men in Tulsa Oklahoma.

One round of pre-qualifying was played, with two round scheduled for Sunday, with 20 players advancing to Monday's first round of qualifying with two victories tomorrow.

The men's top eight seeds, with the exception of the No. 2 seed, who apparently withdrew, have reached the second round: Niels Ratiu of North Carolina[1], Marko Maksimovic of UNLV[3], Vlado Jankanj of Ole Miss[4], Ian Mayew of North Carolina[5], Mattieu Chambonniere of TCU[6], Glib Sekachov of Arizona[7] and Kriish Tyagi[8] of Texas A&M.

The men's pre-qualifying draw and results can be found here.

In contrast, half of the top eight seeds in the women's pre-qualifying draw lost today: No. 2 Eleana Yu of Duke, to Marianne Angel of UC-Santa Barbara; No. 6 seed Sara Suchankova of Clemson to Sophie Holod of Notre Dame; No. 7 seed Sarah Mildren of Tennessee to Georgia Cranford of NC State; and Francesca Maguina Bunikowska of Rice to Sophia Webster of Vanderbilt.

The top eight seeds advancing are No. 1 Arina Malygina of Oklahoma State, Capucine Jauffret[3] of Florida, Anna Frey[4] of North Carolina and Bella Payne[5] of Georgia.

The women's pre-qualifying draw and results can be viewed here.

There is a new live scoring system for ITA events, and it is apparently functioning now in Cary; the men's link on the tournament page indicates their live scoring will begin with Monday's qualifying. 

For the second year in a row, the USA Davis Cup team fell to Czechia, this time in Prague, after holding a 2-1 lead. Thanks to the heroics of Austin Krajicek and Christian Harrison, who saved four match points in their nearly three-hour 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(8) doubles victory over Patrik Rikl and Adam Pavlasek in doubles, the US team had two chances to get the third point in singles. But Ben Shelton lost to Jakub Mensik 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 and Learner Tien fell to Jiri Lehecka 6-3, 7-5 to send the home team through to the final eight in November.

Seventeen-year-old Kayden Colombo, who is scheduled to compete in the Pan Am Closed J300 in Houston at the end of the month, was the hitting partner for the team, with the Georgia resident seen cheering from the bench throughout the five matches.

For more on today's loss, see this article from the USTA's Inside American Tennis Substack.

There was an all-American final tonight at the WTA 500 in Guadalajara Mexico, with 18-year-old Iva Jovic defending her title with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Peyton Stearns(Texas). Jovic, the No. 2 seed, didn't drop a set during her title defense, and will move to a new career-high WTA ranking of 13 with the title. Stearns, the 2022 NCAA singles champion, will move back into the WTA Top 40 with her first 500-level final.