Teens Liutova and Tu Among Qualifiers at USTA Pro Circuit Events in Lincoln and Miami; Osuigwe Defeats No. 2 Seed Maria at WTA 125 Midland; Monday's Streak Continues at Knoxville Challenger

The USTA Pro Circuit events this week include a W35 in Miami and a rare W15 in Lincoln Nebraska, both for women. This is only the second W15 on the USTA Pro Circuit since the SoCal Pro Series in July, and that's where many of the youngest players get their initial opportunities to compete on the Pro Circuit.  

A case in point is 14-year-old Kristina Liutova, who has lived in the United States for years, but is currently, as a former resident of Russia, unaffiliated. Liutova, who played only one ITF junior event since this spring, qualifying and reaching the third round of the ITF J300 in College Park, lost in the second round of qualifying at September's W35 in San Rafael California, her first Pro Circuit event. But last month she won the prestigious KPSF money tournament in San Francisco, beating WTA No. 429 Urszula Radwanska in the semifinals and WTA No. 249 Iryna Shymanovich in the final. With the qualifying fields in a W15 not containing players of that level, Liutova had no trouble getting to the main draw in Lincoln, beating seeded players with the loss of just four games in each match. She will look for her first pro circuit win Wednesday when she takes on No. 5 seed Carolyn Campana(Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, Pepperdine).

Other notable qualifiers are 16-year-old blue chip Rachael Smith, Pepperdine senior Savannah Broadus, 17-year-old blue chip Claire Hill and recent UC-Santa Barbara graduate Camille Kiss.

The wild cards all went to University of Nebraska sophomores: Reya Coe, Emma Rizzetto, Tiziana Rossini and Maria Taranova.  The two junior reserved spots the ITF offers for W15s went to NC State freshman Gabia Paskauskas and 16-year-old blue chip Capucine Jauffret.

All 16 main draw matches in Lincoln are on Wednesday's schedule.

Fifteen-year-old Anita Tu is among the qualifiers in Miami, with the Floridian defeating No. 4 qualifying seed Emma Burgic(Baylor), who at 32 is more than twice Tu's age, 6-3, 7-5 in today's final round of qualifying. Tu, who made her debut on the Pro Circuit last fall, winning a round at the W15 in Jackson Tennessee, will play in her second main draw tomorrow against No. 6 seed Allie Kiick. 

Four other Americans qualified: Jenna Dean, Texas A&M freshman Lexington Reed, recent Virginia graduate Hibah Shaikh and local 18-year-old five-star recruit Paola Lopez. Lopez defeated Miami freshman Maria Paula Vargas of Colombia 6-1 ,6-3 in today's final round of qualifying.

In all, five of the six players on the University of Miami roster received wild cards into either the qualifying or main draw. Two played in the first round of the main draw today, with Oklahoma State transfer Raquel Gonzalez defeating fellow Miami junior Xinyi Nong 6-3, 1-6, 6-3. Hurricane freshman Aely Arai of Japan, who received a main draw wild card, lost to Central Florida sophomore Olivia Lincer of Poland 6-3, 6-0 in the first round today. The fourth wild card went to Katya Townsend(Texas A&M, Utah), who plays No. 8 seed Dasha Vidmanova, the University of Georgia senior from the Czech Republic in the first round Wednesday.

Top seed Liv Hovde won her first round match and will play Lincer Thursday. Kayla Cross of Canada, the No. 2 seed, plays her first round match Wednesday.

At the two bigger events in the US this week, the WTA 125 Dow Tennis Classic in Midland and the ATP Challenger 75 in Knoxville, seeds had mixed results in the first round Tuesday. 

The Dow Tennis Classic, which had already lost its top seed Renata Zarazua of Mexico via withdrawal, lost No. 2 seed and two-time champion Tatjana Maria of Germany today, with qualifier Whitney Osuigwe beating Maria 6-3, 6-3. Alina Korneeva of Russia, the 2023 Australian and Roland Garros girls champion, defeated No. 4 seed Maya Joint(Texas) 7-5, 7-6(4) and Vavara Lepchenko beat No. 7 seed Marina Stakusic of Canada 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-6(3). No. 6 seed Rebecca Marino of Canada, who beat qualifier Robin Anderson(UCLA) 6-2, 7-6(4), was the only seed to pick up a win today. No. 5 seed Ann Li and No. 9 seed Polina Kudermetova of Russia play their first round matches Wednesday.

Caty McNally, a two-time Dow Tennis Classic champion, won the first match she's played since February, beating lucky loser Leonie Kung of Switzerland 6-0, 6-4. McNally, who has played only four tournaments since July of 2023 due to injuries, won the Dow title in 2019 and 2022. Wild card Kari Miller, a recent Michigan graduate, won her first pro match above the W75 level, saving two match points in her 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-1 win over lucky loser Jamie Loeb(North Carolina). 

Seeds held up better on the second day of play in Knoxville, with No. 2 seed Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech) defeating recent ITF junior No. 1 Joel Schwaerzler of Austria 6-4, 6-1; No. 3 seed Learner Tien(USC) beating qualifier Max Wiskandt of Germany 6-4, 6-2 and No. 6 seed Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M) saving three match points in his 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(7) win over qualifier Alex Kotzen(Columbia, Tennessee). Kypson will play Johannus Monday of Great Britain, who had great crowd support as a recent Tennessee Volunteer in his 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over Nicolas Mejia of Colombia. Monday, who won three straight $25Ks on the USTA Pro Circuit last month, has now won 16 consecutive matches.

Eliot Spizzirri(Texas) defeated No. 7 seed Juan Pablo Ficovich of Argentina 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.  Spizzirri's former teammate Micah Braswell, a qualifier, defeated Beibit Zhukayev of Kazakhstan 7-5, 6-4 and will play Tien next. 

Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) avenged his NCAA round of 16 loss to wild card Colton Smith(Arizona) 6-2, 6-4, putting a dent in Smith's prospects in the Australian Open Wild Card Challenge. Wild card Murphy Cassone(Arizona State), after taking a week off, advanced to a second round meeting with Eubanks. They met in the quarterfinals of the Sioux Falls Challenger two weeks ago, with Cassone winning 7-5 in the third.

Three Sweeps for American Juniors on ITF Junior Circuit; Two-Time Finalist Anderson Qualifies for WTA 125 Dow Tennis Classic; Holt Ousts Top Seed in Knoxville Challenger; Men's AO Wild Card Race Standings

There were no ITF junior circuit events above the J100 level last week, but Americans had success on that level and the J60 level, earning singles and doubles sweeps in Canada and El Salvador.

At the J60 in Boca Raton Florida, 17-year-old blue chip Benjamin Saltman won his first ITF junior circuit title, winning nine matches in eight days, while dropping just one set along the way. The Floridian lost only six games in his three qualifying wins, and defeated four seeds in the main draw, the last of which was No. 16 seed Bullion Sharp. Saltman defeated Sharp, who had beaten No. 2 seed Jordan Lee 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(3) in the semifinals, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in the final. 

Lee and Gavin Goode, the top seeds, took the boys doubles title, defeating No. 8 seeds Maksim Nekrasov and Navneet Raghuram  6-3, 6-2 in the final. 

No. 3 seed Sofia Bielinska of Ukraine won the girls singles title, beating No. 11 seed Nicole Okhtenberg 6-1, 6-2 in the final. Unseeded Madison McLeod and Emily Morgan won the girls doubles title, beating No. 3 seeds Aishi Bisht of India and Francesca Saroli of Switzerland 6-2, 6-3 in the final.

At the J100 in Woodbridge Canada, Kaya Moe swept the titles. The 16-year-old blue chip from Connecticut, seeded No. 7, won her second ITF junior singles title of her career, with the first also a J100 in Canada this fall, defeating unseeded 15-year-old New York Anastasia Pleskun 6-2, 6-2 in the final.  Moe partnered with Karlin Schock for the doubles title, with the unseeded pair defeating No. 3 seeds  Zoya Chulak and Anastasia Malysheva of Canada 6-2, 7-5 in the final.  Moe now has four ITF junior circuit doubles titles, all coming this year.

Fourteen-year-old Michael Antonius reached the boys singles final in Woodbridge, with the No. 7 seed losing to qualifier Andrei Caragea of Canada 6-2, 1-6, 6-3. Antonius also lost in the doubles final, with No. 2 seeds Mark Krupkin and Canadian Volodymyr Gurenko beating No. 4 seeds Antonius and his partner Aidan Lam Meng Bart 6-4, 6-2 in the final. 

At the J60 in El Salvador, Zizou Ahmad and Chukwumelije Clarke swept the singles and doubles titles. The 14-year-old Ahmad picked up his fourth singles title of his career, all this year, but this was the first above the J30 level. Seeded No. 2, Ahmad defeated top seed Agassi Rusher 6-1, 6-1 in the singles final, while also getting the better of him in the doubles final. Ahmad and Andres Rendon of El Salvador, the No. 1 seeds, defeated Rusher and Juan Beltran of Colombia, the No. 2 seeds, 6-3, 6-4 in the final.

The 15-year-old Clarke won her sixth ITF junior circuit singles title, with the top-seeded Texan defeating unseeded Sofia Quevedo of Spain 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in the singles final. Unseeded in doubles, Clarke and Tayler Conway took out top seeds Ana Avramovic and Sasha Miroshnichenko 6-2, 6-7(5), 11-9 in the final.

The final ITF Junior Circuit title last week was at the J100 in Botswana, where Dillon Beckles and Czech partner Sebastian Chodura collected their second straight doubles championship after taking the J60 title two weeks ago. Beckles and Chodura, the No. 2 seeds, beat No. 3 seeds Luca Santiago De Sousa Figueiredo of Mozambique and Ntungamili Raguin of Botswana 7-6(2), 6-3 in the final. 

My brief visit to the WTA 125 Dow Tennis Classic in Midland is over, but I was able to watch all four final round qualifying matches today at the Greater Midland Tennis Center. Two Americans have advanced to the main draw: Whitney Osuigwe and Robin Anderson.

Osuigwe defeated Jamie Loeb 6-3, 7-6(7), while Anderson also took out a compatriot, beating 16-year-old wild card Anna Frey 6-2, 6-4.  Anderson, a former UCLA All-American, has always thrived on the indoor hard courts of Midland, reaching the finals in 2016, when it was a $100,000 ITF event, and again in 2021, the tournament's first year as a WTA 125 event. Although the score looks routine, there was little to separate the 31-year-old Anderson and Frey except perhaps their ages. Anderson's defense may have been slightly better, but Frey still hit plenty of winners and moved just as well as Anderson, which is hard to do. Frey was up a break twice in the second set, at 2-1 and 4-3, but she let up a bit in each of those attempts to consolidate. Serving at 4-5, Frey saved three match points with aggressive play, but couldn't convert either of her game points, and a double fault at the final deuce was too much for her to overcome.

Osuigwe will face No. 2 seed and two-time Dow champion Tatjana Maria of Germany in the first round, while Anderson will take on No. 6 seed Rebecca Marino of Canada. Loeb got in as one of two lucky losers, after the withdrawal of WTA Merida 250 champion Zeynep Sonmez of Turkey, while the other lucky loser, Leonie Kung of Switzerland, is in for Renata Zarazua of Mexico, who was the top seed. Polina Kudermetova of Russia moved to the top of the draw, as the No. 9 seed, replacing Zarazua in that position.

Five main draw matches were played this afternoon and evening, with wild card Lauren Davis and No. 3 seed Alycia Parks both advancing to the second round.

The ATP Challenger 75 in Knoxville Tennessee began today and the top seed has already been eliminated. Former Tennessee Volunteer Adam Walton of Australia, No. 92 in the ATP rankings, was beaten this evening by former USC All-American Brandon Holt 6-4, 6-3.  

Other Americans advancing to the second round are No. 5 seed Zachary Svajda, who beat Ethan Quinn(Georgia) 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 and No. 4 seed Mitchell Krueger, who beat Denis Kudla 6-4, 1-0, ret.

Four of the six qualifiers are Americans: Stefan Dostanic(USC, Wake Forest), Alex Kotzen(Columbia, Tennessee), Micah Braswell(Texas) and Toby Kodat.

Wild cards were given to Murphy Cassone(Arizona State), Colton Smith(Arizona) and University of Tennessee senior Shunsuke Mitsui of Japan.

The USTA men's Australian Open wild card race is at its midpoint, with this week and next week the final two opportunities to earn the ATP points that will determine its winner. The current standings:

University of Arizona senior Colton Smith and Stanford junior Nishesh Basavareddy are the current front-runners in the Men's Australian Open Wild Card Challenge as it crosses its halfway point. Smith holds the lead for the second consecutive week, while Basavareddy's run to the final at the USTA Pro Circuit Challenger 75 in Charlottesville, Va., last week puts him in contention as many of the Challenge contenders play the USTA Pro Circuit Challenger in Knoxville, Tenn., this week. 

 

Men's Standings -- Week 2

(Player's current ranking in parenthesis)

 

1. Colton Smith (362) -- 56
2. Nishesh Basavareddy (170) -- 44
3. Mackenzie McDonald (128) -- 24
T4. Murphy Cassone (325) -- 22
T4. Learner Tien (121) -- 22

 

The men's wild card will be awarded to the American with the most ranking points earned from a maximum of three events during a four-week window that runs through the week of November 11. All indoor and outdoor hard-court and carpet events at the M25 level and above, including ATP Tour and Challenger events, will be included in the Challenge.

TikTok Star Frey Advances to Final Round of Qualifying at WTA 125 Dow Tennis Classic; USTA Pro Circuit Titles for Trotter and Rogers; Shnaider Claims Fourth WTA Title of 2024; Chirico Wins W75 in Toronto

©Colette Lewis 2024--

Midland MI--

Anna Frey, who turns 17 Tuesday, is not a well-known tennis player. Although she is a blue chip ranked No. 6 in the Tennis Recruiting Class of 2026 and she has a win this summer over WTA No. 106 Tamara Korpatsch of Germany, the Farmington Utah resident, her tennis career is overshadowed by her social media presence. Yet Frey is determined to change that in the next few years, and she took another step forward in that quest with a 6-4, 6-2 win over No. 8 seed Gabriela Lee(Texas Tech) of Romania in the first round of qualifying at the WTA 125 Dow Tennis Classic Sunday.

Frey received a wild card into this event, as she did for the WTA 250 in Cleveland in August, where she picked up her qualifying win over Korpatsch. She knows that her 2.1 million followers on TikTok and her 750,000 followers on Instagram plays a role in getting opportunities like that.

"I'm pretty popular on social media, so I think a lot of people recognize me," said Frey. "My team works at Topnotch(who manages the Midland tournament), so they helped me get a wild card, but I also think I get people to come watch me play tennis because they follow me on Instagram and TikTok."

Like most people, Frey isn't exactly sure what elevated her social media presence far above that of a normal teenager.

"It's a bunch of different things," said Frey, whose imitation of a goat became one of her first viral moments, which was followed by a post remarking on her facial resemblance to San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy. "My friend at high school did some interviews and I was in them, so that kind of blew up, and then the Brock Purdy thing, but tennis plays a big part of it."

Developing into a top player while living and training in Utah is also sets her apart from her peers, and now that her brother Charles has left to play college tennis at Utah, she has lost her best training partner.

"It's tough," said Frey, who has worked with former Brigham Young player Georgy Batrakov for eight years. "My competition used to be with my older brother a lot, he would pound on me and that would help me get better, now, it's just my dad and my coach."

With Utah weather keeping her indoors seven months of the year, Frey looked very comfortable on the Greater Midland Tennis Center indoor courts, outlasting the 29-year-old Lee in the majority of the rallies, although she did need to make a few adjustments early. 

"I played well today," Frey said. "She was tricky with her slice, had a really good lefty slice serve also, so I had to be careful and be willing to grind. Indoor is probably an advantage for me, this feels pretty normal."

Frey, who plays few junior events and will continue to compete mostly on the USTA Pro Circuit, faces No. 4 seed Robin Anderson(UCLA) for a place in the main draw. Anderson, a two-time Dow Tennis Classic finalist, defeated Urszula Radwanska of Poland 6-3, 6-4.

Top qualifying seed Maria Mateas(Duke) was beaten by former NC State All-American Alana Smith 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-4. Smith will play Emily Appleton of Great Britain, after Appleton defeated No. 5 seed Victoria Hu 6-4, 6-2.

Jamie Loeb, who won the W75 doubles title in Toronto Saturday, had no time to celebrate that, with a five-hour drive to Midland last night, but she got through her first round qualifying match, which began at 2 p.m., beating No. 7 seed Katherine Sebov of Canada 6-2, 5-7, 4-1, ret. Loeb will face Whitney Osuigwe, who defeated No. 3 seed Katarzyna Kawa of Poland 6-3, 6-0.

No. 2 seed Leonie Kung of Switzerland defeated Duke senior Ellie Coleman, a wild card, 6-4, 6-3, with the Midland native competitive in every game and rally, but unable to win quite as many key points as Kung.  Kung wil face No. 6  seed Haruka Kaji of Japan, who defeated Tara Moore of Great Britain 6-0, 6-2.

At the ATP Challenger 75 in Charlottesville Virginia, James Trotter of Japan earned his second career Challenger title, defeating Stanford junior Nishesh Basavareddy 6-3, 6-4. Trotter, the 2023 NCAA doubles champion at Ohio State, had 16 aces and saved all three break point he faced in the final. The 25-year-old is now into the ATP Top 200, securing a spot in the Australian Open qualifying.

Anna Rogers, the former NC State All-American, has 15 Pro Circuit doubles title, but the 26-year-old from Connecticut had only one W15 title in singles until today. Rogers, the No. 3 seed, ended the run of 18-year-old qualifier and Old Dominion sophmore Kira Matushkina of Russia with a 6-4, 6-3 victory in the final of the W35 in Norman Oklahoma. Rogers did not drop a set in her five victories.

Rogers was not the only former NC State star to collect a title today. At the WTA 250 in Hong Kong, 2023 All-American Diana Schnaider of Russia won her fourth WTA title of the season, defeating Katie Boulter of Great Britain 6-1, 6-2 in the final.  For more on the performance of the 20-year-old left-hander, now at a career-high of 12 in the WTA rankings, see this article from the WTA website.

Louisa Chirico captured her second W75 title of the year in Toronto Canada, with the No. 5 seed beating unseeded Kayla Cross of Canada 7-6(5), 6-3.  This is just the second of Chirico's seven ITF Pro Circuit titles to come on hard courts, with the other five, including this year's W75 in Charlotteville, on clay. Chirico, now up to 186 in the WTA rankings, is competing in Midland this week.

Ann Li lost in the final of the rain-plagued WTA 250 in Merida Mexico tonight, after winning her semifinal match earlier in the day. Zeynep Sonmez of Turkey defeated Li 6-2, 6-1. Li and Sonmez are both in the Midland singles draw.

Basavareddy and Trotter Reach Charlottesville Challenger Final, Cash and Tracy Win Doubles; Rogers and Chirico Advance to Norman and Toronto Finals; Grant Claims W50 Doubles Title in France; WTA 125 Dow Tennis Classic Qualifying Begins Sunday

Nishesh Basavareddy and James Trotter advanced to Sunday's final at the ATP Challenger 75 in Charlottesville Virginia, with the 19-year-old Stanford junior and the 25-year-old Ohio State alumnus from Japan both seeking the second Challenger titles of their careers.

Basavareddy defeated unseeded Alexis Galarneau(NC State) of Canada 6-4, 6-2 to reach his fifth Challenger final, all in the past 13 months, while Trotter took down the only seed who reached the quarterfinals this week in Charlottesville, No. 2 Learner Tien(USC), 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

The Buckeyes have already collected one title in Charlottesville, with 2024 NCAA doubles champions Robert Cash and JJ Tracy taking the doubles title today, saving four match points in their 4-6, 7-6(7), 10-7 win over University of Virginia alumni William Woodall and Luxembourg's Chris Rodesch, a wild card entry.

Serving down 4-5, 15-40 in the second set, Cash and Tracy won the next three points, while also saving a match point at 6-7 in the tiebreaker. Rodesch and Woodall saved three match points after trailing 9-4 in the tiebreaker, but their comeback attempt ended on the fourth. Cash and Tracy now have two Challenger titles as a team, with their first coming this summer in Lincoln Nebraska.

No. 3 seed Anna Rogers and qualifier Kira Matushkina of Russia have reached the final at the USTA Pro Circuit W35 in Norman Oklahoma, with both recording straight set victories today. Rogers, a former NC State All-American, defeated Central Florida sophomore Olivia Lincer of Poland 6-3, 7-5 to reach her second final in the past three weeks.  Matushkina, an 18-year-old sophomore at Old Dominion, will be playing in her first professional circuit final after defeated No. 2 seed Sohyun Park of Korea 6-3, 6-3.

Top seeds Jessica Failla(USC, Pepperdine) and Maribella Zamarripa(Texas) won the doubles title in Norman, defeating No. 3 seeds Makenna Jones(UNC) and Park 3-6, 6-2, 10-5 in the final.

Louisa Chirico will play for her second W75 title of the year tomorrow in Toronto, with the No. 5 seed facing unseeded 19-year-old Canadian Kayla Cross. Chirico defeated qualifier Julie Belgraver of France 7-6(7), 6-3, while Cross beat unseeded Viktoria Hruncakova of Slovakia 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-3. 

No. 2 seeds Jamie Loeb(UNC) and Lithuania's Justine Mikulskyte(Kentucky) took the doubles title in Toronto, defeating unseeded Belgraver and Jasmijn Gimbrere of the Netherlands 6-2, 6-1 in the final. 

At the ITF women's World Tennis Tour W50 this week in France, 16-year-old Tyra Grant won her second career pro doubles title, with partner Camillo Rosatello of Italy. The unseeded pair defeated top seeds Sada Nahimana of Burundi and Diana Marcinkevica of Latvia 6-2, 6-1. Grant, whose previous pro doubles title came at a W15 in Turkey this spring, won the Australian and Wimbledon girls doubles titles this year with Iva Jovic. 

I'll be at the WTA 125 Dow Tennis Classic in Midland Michigan tomorrow for the first round of qualifying. Here are the eight matches on the schedule:

Maria Mateas[1](USA) v Alana Smith(USA)

Emily Appleton(GBR) v Victoria Hu[5](USA)

Leonie Kung[2]SUI) v Ellie Coleman[WC](USA)

Tara Moore(GBR) v Haruka Kaji[6](JPN)

Katarzyna Kawa[3](POL) v Whitney Osuigwe(USA)

Jamie Loeb(USA) v Katherine Sebov[7](CAN)

Robin Anderson[4](USA) v Urszula Radwanska(POL)

Anna Frey[WC](USA) v Gabriela Lee[8](ROU)

The final main draw wild cards went to Lauren Davis and Katrina Scott, joining Caty McNally and Kari Miller(Michigan), whose wild cards were announced last month.

The seeds:

1. Renata Zarazua(MEX)

2. Tatjana Maria(GER)

3. Alycia Parks(USA)

4. Maya Joint(AUS)

5. Ann Li(USA)

6. Rebecca Marino(CAN)

7. Marina Stakusic(CAN)

8. Lesia Tsurenko(UKR)

October Aces; Basavareddy and Tien Reach Charlottesville Challenger Semifinals, Rothenberg Contrasts Actual Challenger with Movie; Rogers, Two Teens Advance at W35 in Norman

My monthly Tennis Recruiting Network column on notable junior and college accomplishments is out today, looking back on Octobers best performances.  Current collegians had great success despite going back and forth between fall college events and the USTA Pro Circuit, and former collegians continue to climb up the rankings once they devote themselves full-time to professional tennis. The champions of the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals played last month are featured, and girls winner Emerson Jones of Australia is building on that title. The 16-year-old has reached the semifinals of the W75 in Sydney as an unseeded wild card, her best finish in a pro tournament above the W35 level.

In addition to Jones, two other players featured in the October Aces article have advanced to the semifinals of the ATP Challenger 75 in Charlottesville: Learner Tien(USC), who won the Fairfield Challenger last month and Nishesh Basavareddy (Stanford), who won the Tiburon Challenger the week prior to Tien's title. Tien, the No. 2 seed and sole seed in the quarterfinals, came back to defeat Mark Lajal of Estonia 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. He will face James Trotter(Ohio State) of Japan, who beat Colton Smith(Arizona) 7-6(4), 2-6, 7-6(4). Smith was serving up 4-3 in the tiebreaker, but Trotter won the last four points to reach his fourth Challenger final since graduating in 2023.

Like Trotter, Basavareddy was forced into a third set tiebreaker by lucky loser Chris Rodesch of Luxembourg, the recent University of Virginia graduate playing on his former home courts, before escaping with a 6-4, 6-7(6), 7-6(5) victory. After Basavareddy netted a forehand to at 4-all in the third set tiebreaker, Rodesch had the match on his racquet, but he didn't make a first serve on either point. Basavareddy hit a perfect backhand drop volley to make it 5-all and on the next point returned Rodesch's second serve deep up the middle, with Rodesch hitting his forehand reply long. Basavareddy did get his first serve in on match point and Rodesch netted his return.

Basavareddy will play Alexis Galarneau(NC State) of Canada, who defeated Ethan Quinn(Georgia) in the only quarterfinal decided by straight sets, 6-3, 6-2.

The doubles final Saturday will feature 2024 NCAA champions Robert Cash and JJ Tracy of Ohio State and Virginia alums Rodesch and William Woodall. Unseeded Cash and Tracy defeated unseeded Australian Pat Harper, the 2021 NCAA doubles champion while at Tennessee, and Finn Reynolds(Ole Miss) of New Zealand 6-4, 7-6(4). Wild cards Rodesch and Woodall beat Texas alums Eliot Spizzirri and Canadian Cleeve Harper, the later the 2022 NCAA doubles champion, 6-3, 6-4 in today's semifinals.

Tennis journalist and podcaster Ben Rothenberg has begun writing regularly on Substack, producing a newsletter called Bounces. While his primary focus is on the top players of the sport, he paid a visit to the Charlottesville Challenger this week, with this post the result. Contrasting an actual Challenger with how the circuit was portrayed in the recent film Challengers, Rothenberg notes that movie's notoriety has changed nothing for the players or the tournament in Charlottesville. I was particularly interested in his observation on the officiating, and surprised to hear that there were not enough officials to have more than two courts going at once.  

I know the Cary Challengers have had Electronic Line Calling pilots; it sounds as if that has to be the next enhancement to the ATP Challenger Circuit.

At the USTA Pro Circuit W35 in Norman Oklahoma, No. 3 seed Anna Rogers, a former All-American at North Carolina State, is the lone American in the semifinals. Rogers defeated Maribella Zamarripa(Texas) 7-6(4), 6-2 and will face unseeded Olivia Lincer(Central Florida) of Poland. Lincer, 19, ended the run of qualifier Kristina Paskauskas, a sophomore at NC State, with a 6-2, 6-4 win in today's quarterfinals. 

No. 2 seed Sohyun Park of Korea will play 18-year-old qualifier Kira Matushkina of Russia, a sophomore at Old Dominion. Park defeated No. 7 seed Thaisa Pedretti of Brazil 6-2, 6-0, while Matushkina won her fifth match since Monday, taking out No. 4 seed Jessica Failla(USC, Pepperdine), 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. 

Failla and Zamarripa may not have advanced in singles, but they will play for a doubles title Saturday. The top seeds will play No. 2 seeds Park and Makenna Jones(UNC).

Louisa Chirico[5] is through to the semifinals at the W75+H in Toronto, where she'll face qualifier Julie Belgraver of France.

Ann Li has advanced to her first WTA semifinal since January 2022 at this week's 250 tournament in Merida Mexico. Li is making a push for direct entry into the Australian Open, as she finished seventh, two spots behind Iva Jovic, in the USTA Wild Card Challenge. The four players above Jovic in the race are expected to receive direct entry.

Electronic Line Calling Coming to Select USTA National Indoor Junior Tournaments; ITA Conference Masters Entries; Paskauskas Ousts Top Seed in Norman W35; Quinn, Basavareddy, Rodesch Advance at Charlottesville Challenger

The USTA announced today that Electric Line Calling will be used for the first time at USTA Level 1 events at next month's National Indoor Championships. This rollout is for the 12s and 16s division only in four sites. Today's USTA release:

2024 Boys’ and Girls’ 16s and 12s National Indoors to Become Inaugural

USTA Junior National Championships to Feature ELC

 

ORLANDO, Fla., October 31, 2024 – The USTA today announced that the upcoming USTA Junior National Indoor Championships will utilize PlayReplay electronic line-calling in competition, marking the first time USTA national junior tournaments have formally featured ELC in play. The Boys’ and Girls’ 16s and 12s tournaments being played November 29-December 2 at four different indoor facilities will have the PlayReplay system available for challenges in all singles and doubles matches. 

 

PlayReplay’s ELC system utilizes a minimally intrusive camera solution that provides an unprecedented level of accuracy and precision for ELC systems priced for recreational competition. Players competing in the select National Indoor Championships will have access to courtside touchscreens to immediately access ball-tracking data, “challenge” a line call and receive a visual representation of where the ball landed and an in/out ruling within approximately 20 seconds.

 

The facilities hosting these events utilizing PlayReplay are the Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis (G16s); the Manchester Athletic Club in Manchester, Mass. (G12s); XS Tennis Village in Chicago (B16s); and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y. (B12s).

 

PlayReplay is a tennis technology company that was tabbed in the spring for the inaugural investment of USTA Ventures, the USTA’s strategic investment initiative focused on acquiring potential equity stakes in technologies and other companies that will help advance the USTA’s mission.

 

The USTA has tested the PlayReplay system at lower-level junior tournaments throughout 2024, with a surveyed group of 64 players, parents, tournament staff and officials rating their ‘overall impression’ of the technology 9.4 out of 10, on average. 

The PlayReplay system is the same as the one used at last month's men's ITA All-American tournament in Tulsa, but a college tennis major is different from a junior event in that all matches have chair umpires, who can immediately call up the point in question and provide a ruling. (This is not the same system as at the US Open, where the calls are made by the system, not by the players themselves). In junior tennis events, even at Level 1, roving umpires are the rule until the very end of the tournament, which means the players will be checking the tablet themselves when a dispute arises. There is no limit on these "challenges," but the expectation is that they will take no more than 20 seconds total, and they will not be frequent.

I was a guest today on the Parenting Aces podcast with host Lisa Stone, and after a discussion on the new ITF decision to allow coaching at all levels, we delved into the ELC. Lisa had been at tournaments where a different system was used, and reported positive feedback from competitors in those tournaments.You can hear more of her impressions here, beginning at the 23-minute mark. I do think it would be helpful for the USTA to provide a webinar on the system and how it will be implemented at the four National Indoor Championships, or at the very least, provide a Frequently Asked Questions document to send to all players accepted into the tournament.

One of my questions was whether there would be any difference in implementation if there is a chair umpire, and I was told there would not, although the umpire could be the person calling up the shot in question, rather than a player.

I've been a fan of ELC from its introduction (for juniors) at the 2021 US Open, so it's encouraging to see it making its way to lower profile junior events in just three years. 

The next pilot for the PlayReplay system in a Division I college event is at the West Sectional at University of Southern California November 7-10. For more on the upcoming college events using it, see this ITA article.

The ITA Sectional Championships are one of the two remaining events that will determine the final 28 singles players and 15 doubles teams competing in next month's NCAAs, with the Conference Masters event the other. The fields for the Conference Masters have been posted, although there are not 32 players currently listed for either the men or women. It was up to conferences to decide how to select their representatives. I know some, but not all, had tournaments for that purpose.

The representatives of the Power 4 + Ivy conferences are:

ACC W: Katja Wiersholm, Cal

ACC M: Sebastian Dominko, Notre Dame

Big 12 W: Gracie Epps, Oklahoma State

Big 12 M: Zsombor Velcz, Baylor

Big Ten W: Fatima Gutierrez, Purdue

Big Ten M: Niels Hoffmann, Southern California

Ivy League W: Shyla Aggarwal, Yale

Ivy League M: Zhengqing Ji

Southeastern W: Carmen Andreea Herea, Texas

Southeastern M: Thomas Paulsell, Georgia

There was a big upset in second round action today at the USTA Pro Circuit women's W25 in Norman Oklahoma, with North Carolina State sophomore Kristina Paskauskas of Great Britain beating top seed Jaimee Fourlis of Australia 6-4, 7-6(6). The 20-year-old qualifier, who has had success in ITF women's World Tennis Tour W15s, had not won a match on the W35 level until this week. She will face unseeded Central Florida sophomore Olivia Lincer of Poland in the quarterfinals. 

Americans advancing to the quarterfinals are unseeded Maribella Zamarripa(Texas), No. 4 seed Jessica Failla(USC, Pepperdine) and No. 3 seed Anna Rogers(NC State), who faces Zamarripa in the quarterfinals.

At the ATP Challenger 75 in Charlottesville Virginia, unseeded Americans Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) and Ethan Quinn(Georgia) picked up wins today to join Colton Smith(Arizona) and Learner Tien[2](USC) in the quarterfinals. 2023 NCAA champion Quinn defeated No. 5 seed Maks Kasnikowski of Poland 7-5, 6-0 and Basavareddy rolled past qualifier Patrick Zahraj(UCLA) of Germany 6-2, 6-0. Zahraj had taken out top seed Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech) in the opening round. 

Basavareddy's opponent in the quarterfinals will be lucky loser Chris Rodesch of Luxembourg, the former Virginia All-American, who came from a set and 5-2 down to beat No. 8 seed and 2019 NCAA champion Paul Jubb(South Carolina) of Great Britain, 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-4. Quinn will face the winner of tonight's late match between Virginia sophomore Dylan Dietrich of Switzerland, a wild card, and Alexis Galarneau(NC State) of Canada.

Tien is the only seed to reach the quarterfinals.