Division I Regional Semifinals Missing Host of Top Players; Sharma Goes Back-to-Back with Title at W50 in South Carolina; Qualifier Kamper Wins W35 in Las Vegas

We're deep into the first wave of ITA Division I regionals, which serve as a qualifier for the NCAAs next month in Athens. Eight of the 13 men's regionals are winding down, with the remaining five coming up this weekend, while seven of the women's 13 regionals will finish in the next two days, with the remaining six starting later in the week.

Most of the regionals have determined their singles semifinalists, with two of the men's regionals now complete, with NCAA qualifiers decided. (Chris Halioris of collegetennisranks.com is updating the men's qualifiers here and the women's qualifiers here, and is also including in those documents the sectional tournament priority for players who don't qualify at regionals and will need to get into the sectionals for a final shot at the NCAAs). 

The focus will be on the qualifiers of course, but quite a few top players are already will be looking to the sectional tournaments November 5-8 to qualify.

From the women's regionals, some notable names failing to reach the semifinals are Monika Ektstrand of Stanford, No. 1 seed in the Northwest; Jana Hossam and Valery Gynina of Florida, the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the Southeast; Rinon Okuwaki of Tennessee, the No. 2 seed in the Ohio Valley; and Ava Esposito of Auburn, the No. 2 seed in the Southern. In Texas, top seed Sophie Llewllyn of SMU lost in the quarterfinals, and No. 2 seed Zuzanna Kubacha of Baylor withdrew with an injury in the quarterfinals. New England's top seed, Gian Octa of Boston College, who transfered from Missouri, lost in the first round.

From the men's regionals: the Carolina top seed Romain Gales of Clemson and No. 2 seed Paul Barbier Gazeu of South Carolina both lost in the first round.  In the Texas region, top seed Devin Badenhorst of Baylor lost in the second round and No. 2 seed Amirkhamza Nasridinov of Texas A&M lost in the quarterfinals. In the Ohio Valley, top seed Eli Stephenson of Kentucky lost in the quarterfinals, with No. 2 seed Orel Kimhi of Tennessee out in the second round. At Southern, top seed Vit Kalina of Alabama fell in the second round; at Mountain, the top two seeds, Marko Maksimovic of UNLV and Filip Soderqvist of Boise State, lost in the quarterfinals.

Two of the men's regionals had semifinalists who were all from the same school: Virginia and Oklahoma. 

I'll post all results from this first set of regionals, including doubles finals, when all 15 are complete. The finals are not played, with winners of semifinals qualifying for NCAAs in singles; only the doubles winners earn NCAA berths.

Men's Regionals:

ATLANTIC:

Andres Santamarta Roig[1](Virginia) v Stiles Brockett[5](Virginia)

Luca Preda[3](Virginia) v Jangjun Kim[2](Virginia)

CAROLINA:

Charlie Robertson[9](South Carolina) v Chris Xu(North Carolina)

Bruno Kuzuhara[8](Clemson) v Ian Mayew[9](North Carolina)

CENTRAL:

NCAA qualifiers:

Johan Rodriguez[1](Oklahoma)

Lucian Abrogi[2](Oklahoma)

MOUNTAIN:

NCAA qualifiers:

Dylan Davies(Denver)

Xavier Calvelo[4](Utah State)

NEW ENGLAND:

Rodrigo Fernandes[1](Cornell) v Eric Verdes[9](Cornell)

Cezar Papoe[4](Cornell) v Rohan Murali[2](Harvard)

OHIO VALLEY:

Nour Fathalla[5](Purdue) v Lorenzo Balducci(Purdue)

Aryan Saleh(Middle Tenn St) v Kyle McNally[9](Dayton)

SOUTHERN:

Igor Kudriashov[5](Ole Miss) v Vlado Jankanj[7](Ole Miss)

Manel Lazaro[8](Auburn) v Niccola Baroni[2](Ole Miss)

TEXAS:

Niksa Arsic(Texas Tech) v Tomasz Berkieta[9](Texas)

Ilia Snitari[9](Texas A&M) v Erik Schiessl[9](Baylor)

Women's Regionals:

MIDWEST:

Piper Charney[1](Michigan) v Ariel Madatali(Illinois)

Olivia Traynor[6](Michigan) v Ekaterina Ivanova[2](Wisconsin)

NEW ENGLAND:

Lauren Kettlewell[9](Boston U) v Kavya Karra[9](Harvard)

Monika Wojcik(Syracuse) v Stephanie Yakoff[2](Harvard)

NORTHWEST:

Sofia Daryaie(Saint Mary's) v Anna-Marie Weissheim[6](Washington)

Jermine Sherif[9](Washington) v Alyssa Ahn[2](Stanford)

OHIO VALLEY:

(quarterfinals Monday)

Valeria Ray[1](Vanderbilt) v Mariia Dolzhenko(Lipscomb)

Julia Zhu[3](Kentucky) v Deborah Dominguez Collado(Lipscomb)

Lisa Kamigata(Tennessee) v Asuncion Jadue(Kentucky)

Sophia Webster[5](Vanderbilt) v Donna Le Roux[9](Kentucky)

SOUTHEAST:

Malwina Rowinska(Florida Atlantic) v Bella Payne[9](Georgia)

Emma Dong[6](Georgia) v Patricija Paukstyte[9](Georgia)

SOUTHERN:

Ashton Bowers[1](Auburn) v Addison Lanton[3](LSU)

Tegan Bush[9](LSU) v Alice Battesti(Ole Miss)

TEXAS:

Alian Zack[5](Baylor) v Divna Ratkovic[3](Rice)

Kori Montoya(Texas A&M) v Sofiia Mykhailets[6](TCU)

With preseason No. 1s Dylan Dietrich of Virginia and Lucciana Perez of Texas A&M not playing their regionals, it's unlikely we'll see them at the NCAAs, which is no surprise for Perez, who didn't play the fall last year. But I had expected to see Dietrich, if only because he has a chance to win all three NCAA titles in his career, having won the NCAA doubles title last fall and the NCAA team title this spring.

Another top player who may be taking the fall off is Emma Kamper, the senior at Auburn who transferred from Utah at the end of last season. The 22-year-old from Denmark won her first women's World Tennis pro singles title today at the W35 in Las Vegas. Kamper, who won seven matches, including two in qualifying, defeated No. 2 seed Francesca Pace of Italy 7-5, 6-2.

Astra Sharma won her 12th match in 12 days today in Lexington South Carolina, with the 31-year-old from Australia claiming the USTA Pro Circuit W50 a week after she had captured the W15 in Nashville. The former Vanderbilt All-American defeated wild card Kaitlyn Carnicella, a senior at South Carolina, 6-2, 6-1 in just over an hour. I was surprised to see the match time for today's final 12:30 p.m., because Carnicella played until nearly 10 p.m. in her match-point saving win over No. 7 seed Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands. In any case, Sharma proved her stamina in that 12-day stretch, and although she still has a long climb ahead to return to the WTA top 100, she has shown that level these past two weeks.