Hometown Favorite King Beats Dimitrov in Atlanta; Recaps of Basavareddy, Smejkal 14s Clay Court Titles; Mandlik Defeats Kratzer in Evansville $25K; USA's Team for Pan American Games

Former Georgia Tech All-American Kevin King earned the biggest win of his career last night, beating wild card Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 7-5, 6-4 in the first round of the BB&T Atlanta Open. The 28-year-old King reached a career-high of 162 last year, having qualified for the Australian Open, but this year he was 6-15 in Challengers, and needed a wild card into the Atlanta qualifying, where he beat No. 2 seed Guido Andreozzi of Argentina and Ryan Harrison to advance to the main draw. King, who graduated with a mechanical engineering degree in 2012, returned to serve as volunteer coach for the Yellow Jackets in 2016 as he recovered from hip surgery, so his many connections with the area were bound to make him the crowd favorite. King had played only four main draw ATP matches before last night, but one was in Atlanta, where he qualified in 2013, losing to No. 5 seed Rendy Lu of Taiwan.

Next up for King on Thursday is No. 2 seed Taylor Fritz, with Fritz holding a 1-0 head-to-head with King after beating him early last year in the Noumea Challenger 7-6(4), 5-7, 6-4.

For more on King's win, see this article from the ATP website.

The Tennis Recruiting Network wrap-ups of the USTA 14s Clay Court finals are out today, so check out those articles for more on champions Nishesh Basavareddy and Lara Smejkal. Harvey Fialkov, who wrote both articles, shares the news that both Amanda Anisimova and Coco Gauff were in Plantation, site of the Girls 14s tournament, last week to work with Nick Saviano, who has his academy there.

At the two women's Pro Circuit tournaments in the US, both No. 2 seeds were eliminated today in first round action. At the $60,000 event in Ashland Kentucky, qualifier Alexa Glatch defeated Anna Kalinskaya of Russia 6-4, 6-4. At the $25,000 tournament in Evansville Indiana, Elli Mandlik took out 2017 USTA Girls 18s National Champion Ashley Kratzer by the same score.  Other juniors reaching the second round in Evansville, all expected to play the Nationals in San Diego, are qualifier Katrina Scott, Natasha Subhash and Clay Court 18s champion Gabby Price.

At the $25,000 men's tournament in Champaign-Urbana Illinois, Jenson Brooksby, the No. 3 seed, took the court in Pro Circuit competition for the first time since April, beating qualifier Pierce Rollins 6-1, 6-1. Brooksby, the defending champion, will not be defending his Kalamazoo 18s title, having withdrawn earlier this week. Govind Nanda, who is playing Kalamazoo, is Brooksby's second round opponent. No. 7 seed Cannon Kingsley, also entered in Kalamazoo, won his opening round match on Tuesday.

While I was covering Wimbledon, the USTA announced the players who would be representing the United States in next week's Pan American Games in Peru. I tweeted the link, but wanted to make sure I mentioned it here too. Two current collegians, North Carolina rising senior Alexa Graham and Florida rising sophomore Sam Riffice, are on the team, along with former collegians Kevin King and Michael Redlicki. Usue Arconada and Caroline Dolehide are the other two women named to the team. USTA national coaches Adam Peterson (women) and Eric Nunez (men) will travel with the teams. Two former American collegians have won the Pan American Games singles titles: Stanford's Paul Goldstein in 1999 and Georgia Tech's Irina Falconi in 2011.

Recaps of Clay Court 12s Titles for Thorat and Payne; Korda Leads US Open Wild Card Challenge; ITA Collegiate All Star Team Announced

The Tennis Recruiting Network is providing articles on all of last week's USTA Clay Court Championships, with the two published today looking back on the 12s division. Abhishek Thorat won the boys singles title in Orlando and Bella Payne won the girls singles title in Boca Raton. Tomorrow the coverage will move on to the 14s, followed by the 16s on Thursday and the 18s on Friday. I have not been able to attend the Clay Courts since Wimbledon was pushed back a week, so I appreciate the coverage that TRN provides and encourage everyone to read it.

The USTA sent out a release today on the Clay Court Championships, which can be found here. It includes a rundown of the wild cards awarded to those competing in the 14s, 16s and 18s divisions.

I am still waiting for the list of wild cards for the Nationals, but I did notice that both Hailey Baptiste and Hurricane Tyra Black are now among the competitors in the Girls 18s in San Diego; they were not among the original acceptances. Tennis Channel will again be broadcasting the 16s and 18s singles finals in San Diego, and new this year, the tournament will provide live streaming on Stadium Court throughout the tournament on the tournament website ustagirlsnationals.com. Kalamazoo expects to have live streaming back for this year, although possibly not until the quarterfinals.

Three weeks remain in the USTA's US Open Wild Card Challenge, with Usue Arconada retaining the lead she had from winning the Week 1 $80K in Hawaii, while adding 8 points from Week 2 in Berkeley.  The American men got off to a slow start in Week 1, but 19-year-old Sebastian Korda took the lead in Week 2 after reaching the final of the WTA Challenger 110 in Kazakhstan. Although he lost to top seed Evgeny Donskoy of Russia 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-4, Korda collected 65 ATP points for his effort. The next three weeks will provide a big increase in points opportunities, with the US Open Series ATP and WTA tournaments all counting, as well as the Challengers and $60Ks.  The current standings can be found here.

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association revealed its 2019 Collegiate All- Star team last week, with 30 players from all divisions receiving recognition for their performances in the 2018-19 season. In the past, members of the All-Star team were honored with a luncheon at the start of the US Open and some participated in Arthur Ashe Kids Day, but I don't think that is still happening. At any rate, it's a good opportunity to see a list of all the major champions, although it does not include the ITA All-American tournament champions, which I've always thought odd.

Brengle Sweeps Titles at Berkeley $60K; Four USTA Pro Circuit Events This Week; European Championships Underway; Brooksby Withdraws from Kalamazoo Nats; Gauff's Options for US Open Include Main Draw Wild Card

The singles final at the $60,000 ITF World Tennis Tour in Berkeley finished after I posted Sunday, with top seed Madison Brengle adding the singles title to the doubles title she won on Saturday. Brengle, 29, defeated unseeded Mayo Hibi of Japan 7-5, 6-4 to claim her first singles title of the year and the 14th of her career. Brengle partnered with Sachia Vickery for the doubles title, with unseeded pair beating Francesca Di Lorenzo and Great Britain's Katie Swan 6-3, 7-5 in the final.

Both the women and the men have two events in the United States this week, with the women's tournaments a $25,000 in Evansville Indiana and a $60,000 in Ashland Kentucky. The men have a $25,000 tournament in Champaign Illinois and the ATP 80 Challenger in Binghamton New York. There is also an $80,000 ITF World Tennis Tour women's tournament in Granby Canada which has four Americans in the main draw, including No. 3 seed Di Lorenzo, and a men's ATP 90 Challenger in Granby with seven Americans, none of whom are seeded.

Brengle and Anna Kalinskaya of Russia are the top seeds in Kentucky, with wild cards given to Peyton Stearns, Vicky Duval, Hayley Carter and Jennifer Elie. Marcel Granollers of Spain was the No. 1 seed in Binghamton, but he withdrew late last night, and was replaced at the top of the draw by alternate John Paul Fruttero, a doubles specialist and one of five places in the main draw available to an alternate. Ramkumar Ramanathan of India is the No. 2 seed.

There are no WTA events in the United States this week, but the ATP is in Georgia for the BB&T Atlanta Open, with John Isner and Taylor Fritz the top two seeds. Georgia Tech rising sophomore Cole Gromley received a main draw wild card and will play Tuesday night against No. 8 seed Ugo Humbert of France. Kevin King, a former Georgia Tech star, qualified into the main draw and will face wild card Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria. For more on the Georgia Tech representatives, see this article on the Georgia Tech website. Jack Sock is also scheduled to return to competition in Atlanta after an injury has kept him off the tour since the Australian Open.

The European Championships are underway in three countries, with the 14s in the Czech Republic, the 16s in Moscow, and the 18s, an ITF Grade B1 tournament, in Switzerland. Gauthier Onclin of Belgium is the top seed in the boys 18s, with Alina Chareva of Russia the top seed in the girls 18s. There is live streaming of two courts for the 18s, available here.

Defending champion Jenson Brooksby has withdrawn from the USTA 18s Nationals in Kalamazoo. I don't know the reason, but the Baylor rising freshman has not played since April.

Last week the New York Post published an article discussing the options for Coco Gauff playing at the US Open. Apparently the slams do not have to follow the WTA age eligibility restrictions and the USTA is prepared to offer her a main draw wild card, but it's my understanding she will not earn WTA points if she accepts it. Her ranking now after her run to the fourth round at Wimbledon puts her in the US Open qualifying and if she chooses to go that route, she would be eligible for WTA points earned. I don't see any way around the restrictions for next week's WTA event in Washington D.C., but it sounds like she will play qualifying if she manages to get in it, although currently more than a dozen players are ahead of her on the alternate list.  If not, she will be there for practice matches and Kid's Day.

Price, Allen Win USTA Clay Courts 18s Championships; Rybakov Outlasts McNally to Earn Iowa City $25K Title; Isner Claims Another ATP Title in Newport

The USTA Clay Court Championships concluded today, with the Boys 18s and 16s titles both decided in third-set tiebreakers. Top 18s seed Leighton Allen defeated No. 2 seed Logan Zapp 6-4, 6-7, 7-6 to earn the gold ball and a wild card into the US Open Junior Championships, but in the 16s, it was No. 2 over No. 1, with Luke Casper taking out Samir Banerjee 3-6, 7-6, 7-6. (I really wish the tournament would provide tiebreak scores; it does tell you something about the match if  a tiebreak score is 7-0 or 12-10).

The girls 18s title and the WTA Volvo Open main draw wild card went to Gabby Price, with the 16-year-old defeating Karina Miller 6-0, 7-5 in the final. Price will also receive a US Open Junior Championships wild card.

Unseeded Nishesh Basavareddy, one of the top players in the 12s, returned to competition last month after more than a year's absence due to injury, and won the Midwest Closed in the 16s, after winning the qualifier there. After eight wins in Ft. Lauderdale, one more than any seeded player needed to win, he is now 21-0 since his return.

Below are the results from the singles and doubles finals for the 14s, 16s and 18s. The headers are links to the Tennis Link sites. The results from the 12s can be found in Saturday's post.

G14s:
Singles final:
Lara Smejka[15] d. Stephanie Yakoff[1] 6-2, 3-6, 6-4

Doubles final:
Alexis Blokhina and Natalia Perez[9] d. Madison Smith and Valeria Ray[9] 7-5, 6-0

G16s:
Singles final:
Aubrey Nisbet[13] d. Carrie Beckman[3] 6-0, 6-4

Doubles final:
Sonia Maheshwari and Lina Mohamed[4] d. Nadejda Maslova and Nastasya Semenovski[1] 6-3, 6-4

G18s
Singles final:
Gabby Price[17] d. Karina Miller[7] 6-0, 7-5

Doubles final:
Lauren Stein and Reilly Tran[13] d. Maxi Duncan and Jamilah Snells 6-1, 6-0

B14s:
Singles final:
Nishesh Basavareddy d. Dylan Tsoi[6] 6-1, 6-0

Doubles final:
Nicolas Godsick and Joseph Phillips[1] d. Nishesh Basavareddy and Learner Tien 6-1, 1-6, 6-4

B16s:
Singles final:
Luke Casper[2] d. Samir Banerjee[1] 3-6, 7-6(1), 7-6(6)

Doubles final:
Ben Shelton and Maxwell Smith[2] d. Gianluca Brunkow and Sebastian Gorzny 7-5, 5-7, 6-4

B18s:
Singles final:
Leighton Allen[1] d. Logan Zapp[2] 6-4, 6-7, 7-6

Doubles final:
Aryan Chaudhary and Logan Zapp[17] d. Luke Vandecasteele and Quinn Vandecasteele[8] 6-4, 6-2

While the elapsed times for the boys Clay Court marathons in Delray Beach are not available, there's no doubting how grueling the final of the men's USTA Pro Circuit tournament in $25,000 Iowa City was. No. 3 seed Alex Rybakov and No. 4 seed John McNally battled for 3 hours and 15 minutes before Rybakov claimed a 7-6(5), 5-7, 7-6(3) victory. It's the fourth Pro Circuit title for the 22-year-old left-hander, a recent TCU graduate, but the first at the $25,000 level. For McNally, a rising junior at Ohio State, advancing to his first Pro Circuit final made it a memorable week for him as well. For more on the final, see the tournament website.

In Cancun, North Carolina State rising senior Adriana Reami won her second straight $15K singles title at the Mexican resort. The 21-year-old Floridian is now 12-0 the past two weeks (she won two qualifying matches before going on to win the title two weeks ago) and has not lost a set. Today she defeated No. 3 seed Thaisa Pedretti of Brazil 7-6(2), 7-6(5) in the final. She also won the doubles title this week, with teammate Anna Rogers.

John Isner's first tournament back from his injury sustained in the Miami final was Wimbledon, where he lost in the second round. This week, as the top seed at the ATP 250 in Newport Rhode Island, the former University of Georgia star won his 15th ATP title, beating No. 7 seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan 7-6(2), 6-3 in the final. He is also the only player to have won the Hall of Fame title four times. For more on Isner's win, see this article from the ATP website.

Payne, Thorat Win USTA Clay Court 12s Titles, Finals Sunday for 14s, 16, 18s; Mayo and Evans Claim ITF Grade 3 Titles in Dominican Republic; McNally and Rybakov Meet for Iowa City $25K Title

The USTA Clay Court Championships for the 12s wrapped up today in Florida, with Bella Payne winning the girls title in Boca Raton and Abhishek Thorat, this year's Easter Bowl 12s champion, claiming the boys title in Orlando.

G12s singles final:
Bella Payne[2] d. Emily Deming[1] 6-4, 6-2

G12s doubles final: Claire An and Caitlin Bui[3] d. Alyssa Ahn and Emily Deming[4] 6-3, 6-4

B12s singles final:
Abhishek Thorat[3] d. Maximus Dussault[12] 6-4, 7-5

B12s doubles final: Maxwell Exsted and Cooper Woestendick[1] d. Abhinav and Parthinav Chunduru[2] 7-6(5), 1-6, 6-1

The finals are set for the other three age divisions, and in the 18s, US Open Junior wild cards are on the line, with none of the finalists qualifying for entry based on their ITF rankings. The girls 18s singles champion will receive a main draw wild card into the next spring's WTA Volvo Open in Charleston South Carolina. It's good to see Nishesh Basavareddy back in the mix after over a year out with injury.

G14s:
Semifinals:
Stephanie Yakoff[1] d. Daniela Livson[17] 6-1, 6-3
Lara Smejkal[15] d. Alexis Blokhina[3] 6-2, 3-6, 6-4

G16s:
Semifinals:
Aubrey Nisbet[13] d. Qavia Lopez[8] 6-2, 6-2
Carrie Beckman[3] d. Grace Levelston[33] walkover, inj.

G18s:
Semifinals:
Karina Miller[7] d. Hadley Doyle[6] 3-6, 6-1, 6-1
Gabby Price[17] d. Jaedan Brown[17] 6-3, 7-5

B14s:
Semifinals:
Dylan Tsoi[6] d. Nicholas Godsick[4] 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
Nishesh Basavareddy d. Learner Tien[3] 6-2, 6-3

B16s:
Semifinals:
Samir Banerjee[1] d. Jack Anthrop[7] 6-3, ret. inj.
Luke Casper[2] d. Braden Shick[9] 6-3, 6-0

B18s:
Semifinals:
Leighton Allen[1] d. Aryan Chaudhary[15] 6-4, 4-6, 6-3
Logan Zapp[2] d. Evin McDonald[3] 6-0, 6-2

Sixteen-year-old Americans swept the singles titles at this week's ITF Grade 3 in the Dominican Republic, with wins by Aidan Mayo and Kailey Evans.

For Evans, the No. 2 seed, it was a third ITF singles title; she won a Grade 4 title in May and a Grade 3 title last year, both in Costa Rica. Evans defeated unseeded 14-year-old Lan Mi of China 6-1, 1-6, 7-6(2) in the final. Mi, who trains in the US, also plays USTA events and reached the final of the 18s Level 2 earlier this month in Chattanooga.

Mayo, seeded No. 15 this week, claimed his first ITF singles title when last week's Vancouver Grade 3 champion Micah Braswell, the No. 14 seed, retired in the final trailing 4-6, 6-1, 4-0. 

The other ITF Junior Circuit title for an American came at the Grade 5 in Colombia, where Thomas Navarro won the doubles title. Navarro and his partner William Ribero Duarte of Colombia, the No. 3 seeds, defeated top seeds Valentino De Pellegrin and Victorio Marquiselli of Argentina 7-5, 6-7(4), 10-4 in the final.

At the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Iowa City, 20-year-old John McNally, a rising Ohio State junior, will face 22-year-old Alex Rybakov, a recent TCU graduate, with the winner getting his first title at that level. Rybakov, the No. 3 seed, defeated No. 5 seed Aziz Dougaz(Florida State) of Tunisia 7-6(4), 6-3 in the semifinals and No. 4 seed McNally, who was playing in his first Pro Circuit semifinal, defeated Stanford rising junior Axel Geller of Argentina, the No. 6 seed, 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-2.

Top seeds Lloyd Glasspool(Texas) of Great Britain and Alejandro Gonzalez of Colombia won the doubles title, beating unseeded Jack Findel-Hawkins(North Florida) and Mark Whitehouse of Great Britain 6-2, 6-1 in the final.

Sebastian Korda advanced to the final of the ATP 110 Challenger in Kazakhstan, defeating No. 14 seed Aleks Vukic(Illinois) 7-6(3), 6-3 in today's semifinal. The 19-year-old Floridian will face top seed Evgeny Donskoy of Russia for the title, and will move up to around 270 in the ATP rankings should he win Sunday. He'll still be at a career-high just outside the Top 300 if he loses.

My Wimbledon Juniors Recap; USC's Peter Smith Resigns; Semis Set in Iowa City, Berkeley Pro Circuit Events; USTA Clay Courts Results

My recap of the Wimbledon Junior Championships is available today at the Tennis Recruiting Network, with coverage of all four finals, including Shintaro Mochizuki's run to the boys singles title, a first for a Japanese boy at a junior slam. The US has had a girls doubles team in the final for four consecutive years now, with unseeded Savannah Broadus and Abigail Forbes winning the second title for Americans in that span. Unseeded Daria Snigur of Ukraine added the girls singles title to her championship the previous week in Roehampton, beating American Alexa Noel in the final. The only top seeds to win a title were the Czech pairing of Jiri Lehecka and Jonas Forejtek, who beat American Govind Nanda and Canadian Liam Draxl in the boys doubles final.

The big news in college tennis today is the shocking announcement that University of Southern California's Peter Smith is resigning after leading the men's program for 17 years. Smith, who won five NCAA titles, including four in a row from 2009-2012, is resigning August 1, "to pursue opportunities outside of college coaching," according to the release sent out by USC Sports Information Director Tim Tessalone. The timing and bare-bones nature of the release are unusual for a coach of Smith's stature; but I don't know what other factors, if any, are behind his resignation. Associate coach Kris Kwinta will take over as interim head coach while a national search is conducted. USC had a Top 10 recruiting class this year, with Stefan Dostanic, Ryder Jackson and Smith's son Colter set to join the team this fall.

The semifinals are set at the two USTA Pro Circuit events this week, with two current collegians and two recent collegians making the final four at the men's $25,000 tournament in Iowa City and three Americans reaching the semifinals at the women's $60,000 tournament in Berkeley.

No. 5 seed Aziz Dougaz of Tunisia, a senior this past season at Florida State, will take on recent TCU graduate Alex Rybakov, the No. 3 seed, in one semifinal. In the other, Stanford rising junior Axel Geller[6] of Argentina will face Ohio State rising junior John McNally[4].

In California, top seeds Madison Brengle and Sachia Vickery are through to the semifinals, with Brengle taking on No. 6 seed Kristie Ahn(Stanford) and Vickery playing unseeded Mayo Hibi of Japan.

At the ATP Challenger 110 in Kazakhstan, 2018 Australian Open boys champion Sebastian Korda has advanced to his first Challenger semifinal, where he'll play former Illinois star Aleks Vukic of Australia. The unseeded 19-year-old, currently 385 in the ATP rankings, defeated No. 2 seed Lorenzo Giustino of Italy in the second round and No. 10 seed Matteo Viola of Italy in the quarterfinals today.

The results of the quarterfinal matches at the USTA Clay Courts are below; the girls 12s final Saturday will feature the No. 1 seed versus the No. 2 seed. Reigning Eddie Herr 12s champion Maximus Dussault has advanced to the boys 12s final, but there is no result posted from the other 12s semifinal (updated now, as of 8:30 am Saturday). Click on the headings to go to the TennisLink sites, where all draws and results are posted.

B18s:
Leighton Allen[1] d. Theo Winegar[17] 6-2, 6-2
Aryan Chaudhary[15] d. Welsh Hotard[9] 6-7, 6-4, 7-6
Evin McDonald[3] d. Alejandro Quiles[10] 6-1, 7-5
Logan Zapp[2] d. Jacob Bickersteth[17] 6-4, 6-0

B16s:
Samir Banerjee[1] d, Louis Cloud[5] 6-3, 3-6, 6-2
Jack Anthrop[7] d. Adit Sinha[12] 6-1, 6-2
Braden Shick[9] d. Ben Shelton[4] 6-7, 6-3, 6-1
Luke Casper[2] d. Ozan Colak[17] 6-3, 6-2

B14s:
Nishesh Basavareddy d. Yannik Rahman[1] 6-1, 4-6, 6-3
Learner Tien[3] d. Kaylan Bigun[34] 6-3, 7-5
Nicolas Godsick[4] d. Payton Young[24] 7-5, 6-3
Dylan Tsoi[6] d. Cooper Williams[2] 6-4, 4-6, 7-5

B12s:
Semifinals:
Maximus Dussault[12] d. Abhinav Chunduru[4] 6-2, 6-1
Abhishek Thorat[3] d. Roman Sancilio[8] 6-0, 6-3

G18s:
Jaedan Brown[17] d. Vivian Ovrootsky[33] 6-2, 6-1
Gabby Price[17] d. Emma Charney 4-6, 6-2, 7-5
Hadley Doyle[6] d. Sarah Hamner[12] 7-6(1), 3-6, 6-2
Karina Miller[7] d. Gianna Pielet[10] 3-6, 6-4, 6-3

G16s:
Grace Levelston[33] d. Kida Ferrari[17] 6-1, 7-5
Carrie Beckman[3] d. McKenna Schaefbauer[17] 6-2, 6-3
Qavia Lopez[8] d. Clervie Ngounoue[17] 7-6(5), 6-3
Aubrey Nisbet[13] d. Katie Codd[17] 6-2, 3-6, 6-4

G14s
Stephanie Yakoff[1] d. Brooke Schafer[17] 6-3, 6-3
Daniela Livson[17] d. Susanna Maltby[14] 7-5, 6-1
Alexis Blokhina[3] d. Natalie Block[11] 6-4, 4-6, 6-0
Lara Smejkal[15] d. Kate Kim[17] 6-0, 4-6, 6-4

G12s: 
Semifinals:
Emily Deming[1] d. Eva Oxford[3] 6-0, 6-2
Bella Payne[2] d. Brooke Wrigley[7] 6-3, 7-5