My Article on Gowda's Michigan Commitment; Lee and Hance Reach Semifinals at Junior Finals; Brantmeier Claims WTA Top 100 Win at W75 in Canada; McDonald and Brengle Advance to W50 Final in Austin; Ma Ends Sharma's Winning Streak

While I was in Houston earlier this month for the World Tennis J300 Pan American Closed Championships, I had an opportunity to interview 17-year-old Thara Gowda about her decision to join the Michigan Wolverines next fall. As the No. 4 girl in the Class of 2027, Gowda obviously had her choice of schools, but the Rochester Hills resident decided to stay in Southeast Michigan, as so many of the area's top girls have done recently. My article today at Tennis Recruiting Network explains not only why she chose Michigan over other top schools, but why she came to the realization that college tennis was the next best step to reach her goal of professional tennis.

The semifinals for the World Tennis Junior Finals were determined with the completion of play Friday in Chengdu, with both Keaton Hance and Jordan Lee qualifying for the knockout round Saturday. 

Hance, the No. 3 seed, beat No. 2 seed Thilo Behrmann of Austria 6-4, 6-4 to finish second in Group B, at 2-1, behind No. 7 seed Vincent Reisach of Germany, who went 3-0.

Lee, the No. 4 seed, defeated top seed Jamie MacKenzie(TCU) of Germany 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 to finish second in his group, behind Australian Open boys champion Ziga Sesko of Slovenia, the No. 5 seed. Lee's only loss was to Sesko, who went 3-0 in Group A.

Hance will play Sesko and Lee will play Reisach in the semifinals, beginning tonight at 10:30 Eastern time.  Sesko beat Hance 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the Australian Open boys final in January; Lee beat Reisach 6-3, 6-2 in the Wimbledon boys semifinals in July.

The girls semifinals feature the top three seeds and No. 5 seed Mariia Makarova, with No. 1 Xinran Sun of China playing No. 2 seed Jana Kovackova of Czechia. Sun defeated Kovackova 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals of the J500 in Milan this spring.

Makarova, who, like Sun, was undefeated in her group, will play fellow Russian and No. 3 seed Anna Pushkarova. They have not played in either WT women's or junior events.

Janae Preston, who lost to Makarova 6-1, 6-2 went 0-3 in group play and will be playing in the 5-8 playoffs against Ksenia Efremova of France Friday.

Live streaming is available, with Cracked Racquets' Alex Gruskin providing commentary.  Live scoring can be found here.

2025 NCAA singles champion Reese Brantmeier posted her best win by WTA ranking today at the W75 in Saguenay Canada, with the recent North Carolina graduate defeating top seed and WTA No. 69 Tatjana Maria of Germany 7-6(7), 2-6, 6-3 in just under three hours to advance to the semifinals. Brantmeier will play unseeded Hiromi Abe of Japan, whom she beat in the second round of the W50 in Quebec last week 6-4, 7-6(0). 

There are no seeds remaining in the singles, with Yuki Naito of Japan facing Ariana Arseneault(Georgia, Auburn) of Canada in the semifinal in the bottom half. Arseneault beat Ayana Akli(Maryland, South Carolina) 7-5, 6-3 in the quarterfinals.

Brantmeier is also through to the doubles final, with former teammate and 2023 NCAA doubles champion Carson Tanguilig. Brantmeier has already won three WT women's doubles titles this year, including last week's title in Quebec, with Duke freshman Mimi Xu as her partner.

LSU junior Ella McDonald of Great Britain will go for a sweep of the titles at the W50 in Austin Texas Saturday, when the qualifier faces No. 5 seed Madison Brengle for the singles championship. The 21-year-old left-hander defeated Anastasia Tikhonova of Russia 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 to reach the biggest final of her career. 

Brengle, 36, beat No. 8 seed Elli Mandlik 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 and will be trying to earn a second W50 title this year. McDonald defeated Brengle in the quarterfinals of W50 in Berkeley California last month 6-3, 1-6, 6-2.

McDonald won her 16th women's WTT doubles title today, but her first with Kylie Collins(Texas, LSU, Oklahoma State). The No. 4 seeds beat unseeded Ashley Lahey(Pepperdine) and Canada's Alexandra Vagramov(UCLA) 6-0, 6-1 in today's 53-minute final.

When Connie Ma(Stanford) and Astra Sharma of Australian met in the quarterfinals of the W35 in Bakersfield California today, one of their winning streaks was going to end, and it was Sharma's, with wild card Ma posting the 6-2, 6-3 victory. Ma, last week's champion at the W35 in Redding, has now won eight straight matches, with her last loss coming to Janae Preston in her first tournament back in her return to competitive tennis since her All-American career at Stanford ended in 2025. 

Sharma, an All-American at Vanderbilt, had won 16 matches in a row(including qualifying) with titles at the W15 in Nashville and the W50 in Lexington South Carolina. 

Ma will face No. 3 seed Hanna Chang, who beat Jo-Yee Chan(Oregon, San Diego State) 4-6, 6-0, 6-4. No. 6 seed Lan Mi of China, a former Cal standout, will face the winner of tonight's match between wild card Jenna DeFalco and qualifier Jana Hossam of Egypt, a junior at Florida.