Ohio State's Perry Defeats Top Seed Stephens at Orlando W35; Hance Tops Lee at Harlingen M25; Four Teenagers Reach Quarterfinals at Hilton Head W15; Goode Advances at Hilton Head M15; Rapolu Feature

ITA All-American champion Luciana Perry of Ohio State is warming up for the NCAAs in Athens Georgia in two weeks by competing at the W35 in Orlando Florida as a wild card. After a come-from-behind win over Ema Burgic(Baylor) in Wednesday's first round, the 22-year-old senior claimed the best win of her career today, beating top seed and 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens 6-4, 5-7, 6-3. Stephens is currently 113 in the WTA rankings, Perry is outside the Top 1000.

Perry, who has only played a dozen USTA Pro Circuit tournaments, focusing instead on college events, will face unseeded 16-year-old Janae Preston, who beat Florida sophomore Brooke Black of Great Britain, a qualifier, 6-0, 6-3.

An American is guaranteed to reach the final in the top half, with the second quarterfinal featuring Vivian Wolff(Georgia, UCLA) and wild card Ashton Bowers, a junior at Auburn. No. 3 seed Whitney Osuigwe is the fifth American in the quarterfinals; she will face Auburn freshman Yara Bartashevich of France Friday.

Keaton Hance won the battle of American teens in the second round of the Harlingen Texas M25. The 2026 Australian Open boys finalist defeated the 2026 Wimbledon boys champion 5-7, 7-6(4), 6-1 in their first meeting in junior or pro circuit competition. Hance will face No. 4 seed Aidan McHugh of Great Britain in the quarterfinals Friday, with McHugh saving three match points in his 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-3 win over Noah Zamora(UC-Irvine) today.

Other Americans in the quarterfinals are Hunter Heck(Illinois), wild card Bryce Nakashima(Ohio State) and No. 7 seed Kaylan Bigun(UCLA), who play each other, and Samir Banerjee (Stanford).

As was the case last week, four of the eight quarterfinalists at a W15 in South Carolina are American teenagers, with three of them making the Hilton Head quarterfinals after advancing to the quarterfinals in Sumter.

Sumter champion Emery Combs, 15, extended her winning streak in her home state to seven with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over 17-year-old Yael Saffar and will play top seed Kalista Liu(Maryland) of Hong Kong next.

Fifteen-year-old Lani Chang, a Sumter semifinalist, defeated Dia Evtimova of Bulgaria 6-4, 6-2 and will play No. 3 seed Ashley Lahey(Pepperdine) Friday.

Sixteen-year-old Scarlett Fagan, a quarterfinalist in Sumter, beat 15-year-old qualifier Abigail Haile 6-4, 6-0 and will play No. 8 seed Jantje Tilbuerger(UCF) of Germany.

The fourth American teenager in the quarterfinals is Juliana Singeorzan, who lost in the first round (to Liu) in Sumter. Singeorzan defeated No. 4 seed Anita Sahdiieva(Baylor, LSU) of Ukraine 6-4, 7-6(3) to reach her first women's World Tennis quarterfinal. She will play Aya El Aouni(UCF, LSU) of Morocco next.

At the M15 in Hilton Head, wild card Gavin Goode is through to his third USTA Pro Circuit quarterfinal. The 18-year-old from Raleigh NC defeated No. 5 seed Johan Rodriguez(Oklahoma) of Colombia 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 to set up a meeting with top seed Ryan Colby(USC, Georgia). They played in the qualifying of the M25 in Winston-Salem back in January, with Colby winning 4-6, 6-4, 10-3.

Qualifier Anuj Watane(North Carolina) will face No. 3 seed Dragos Cazacu(Tennessee, Oklahoma) of Romania, with the fourth and fifth Americans remaining, No. 6 seed Felix Corwin(Minnesota) and qualifier Max Sheldon(Michigan State) playing each other.

The ATP Challenger 75 in Charlottesville Virginia has four Americans advancing to Friday's quarterfinals: top seed Marcos Giron(UCLA), Stefan Kozlov and Braden Shick(NC State), who play each other, and qualifier Aidan Mayo.

Sixteen-year-old Michael Antonius came close to making it five Americans, but he was unable to convert three break points at 4-4 and 5-5 in the third set, with Maks Kasnikowski of Poland getting the only break of the final set to record a 6-2, 1-6, 7-5 victory.

I wrote last Sunday about the W50 title in Mexico for Malaika Rapolu, the former University of Texas All-American, but for an in-depth look about the 23-year-old Texan's introduction to tennis, her college career and her recent rise to the WTA Top 300, see this feature from World Tennis magazine.