A Dozen Seeds Fall on Opening Day of NCAA Division I Singles Championships, but No. 1s and Defending Champions Advance; Team Champions Continue Winning Ways
©Colette Lewis 2022--
Champaign IL--
©Colette Lewis 2022--
Champaign IL--
©Colette Lewis 2022--
Champaign IL--
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2022 National Champions University of Virginia |
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2022 National Champions University of Texas |
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Labels: College Tennis, International Tournaments, ITF, ITF Grade A Tournaments, Pro Circuit, USTA, World Tennis Tour
For the second consecutive match, Kentucky dropped the doubles point, but the Wildcats roared back to beat No. 4 seed Ohio State 4-1, sweeping the top four lines in singles to earn the program's first berth in the NCAA Team Championships final.
Ohio State took the doubles point in 30 minutes or less, but the Buckeyes couldn't carry over any momentum that may have provided. Kentucky had won the top four spots in singles against top seed TCU in the quarterfinals after losing the doubles point, so the Wildcats knew they could rebound, and that was demonstrated early, when Gabriel Diallo defeated Ohio State's Matej Vocel at line 2 by a dominating 6-3, 6-2 score.
The teams had split first sets, meaning Kentucky needed to win at least one three-set match; the problem for Ohio State was their inability to close out any of the three matches where they had taken the first set. Kentucky's Liam Draxl at 1, Joshua Lapadat at 5 and JJ Mercer at 6 all forced third sets, while their teammates Millen Hurrion and Francois Musitelli closed out their matches at lines 3 and 4 in straight sets. Hurrion's 6-1, 6-2 victory at line 3 over JJ Tracy, who hadn't lost a match all year, was a particularly disheartening result for the Buckeyes.
By the time Musitelli and Draxl closed out their wins over Van Emburgh at line 4 and Kingsley at line 1, Kentucky led in the other two singles matches still in progress, putting an exclamation point on their singles domination.
After losing 4-0 to Ohio State in Columbus, a contest in which they won just one set in nine matches, Kentucky had its revenge on the biggest stage any of the Wildcats had performed on.
For more on the match, see this article from the Univeristy of Kentucky website.
NCAA D-I Men's Team Semifinals:With the NCAA Division I semifinals again expected to continue well into the night in Champaign, I'm again going to do a separate post about college tennis later tonight.
But there's much to report on the ITF Junior Circuit today, and on the USTA Pro Circuit, so let's look at those results now.
For the first time that I can remember (and I can't find full draws before 2008), two Americans have advanced to the singles finals of the ITF Grade A Trofeo Bonfiglio in Milan Italy. Actually I do remember the 2010 girls final between Beatrice Capra and Lauren Davis, but this is a finalist in both the girls and boys singles championship matches.
No. 5 seed Liv Hovde defeated No. 4 seed Lucie Havlickova of the Czech Republic 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 to advance to her first Grade A final. She will face No. 7 seed Celine Naef of Switzerland, who defeated No. 3 seed Ksenia Zaytseva of Russia 7-5, 6-2. Nael hasn't lost a set this week, while Hovde has needed to come back from a set down in her last two matches. Tommy Hemp has more on Hovde's win today at TennisUnderWorld.
No. 10 seed Nishesh Basavareddy defeated No. 8 seed Martin Landaluce of Spain, also coming from a set down for the second straight day, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. Basavareddy will play top seed Daniel Vallejo of Paraguay, the reigning Orange Bowl champion, who beat unseeded Learner Tien 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Basavareddy and Aidan Kim, who were unseeded this week, won the boys doubles title, defeating the unseeded team of Mika Brunold of Switzerland and Liam Gavrielides of Germany 6-2, 6-4 in today's final. They didn't drop a set in any of their five victories this week.
The girls doubles title went to No. 2 seeds Lucija Ciric Bagaric of Croatia and Sofia Costoulas of Belgium. They defeated the fifth-seeded Slovakian team of Irina Balus and Nikola Daubnerova 6-4, 7-5 in today's final.
In other ITF Junior Circuit action this week, Marko Mesarovic won his second consecutive Grade 3 title in the Dominican Republic, again as the top seed. The 17-year-old from Texas, who has verbally committed to Clemson, defeated No. 2 seed Hoyoung Roh of Korea 6-1, 6-3 in today's final. Mesarovic also defeated Roh in last week's final.
Seventeen-year-old Olivia Lincer, who recently changed from representing the United States to representing Poland, matched Mesarovic's feat almost exactly. Seeded No. 1, Lincer defeated No. 2 seed Monika Stankiewicz of Poland 6-3, 6-4 in today's final, having also beaten Stankiewicz to win the previous week's tournament. Lincer has verbally committed to Central Florida.
Mesarovic also won the doubles title, with Russian Daniil Sarksian. The top seeds defeated the unseeded team of Rafael Botran Neutze of Guatemala and Mason Dace of Great Britain 6-1, 6-1 in the final.
Vessa Turley also went back-to-back in the past two weeks at Grade 5s in the US Virgin Islands. The 15-year-old from Arizona, seeded No. 2, defeated Sophia Cisse-Ignatiev 6-1, 6-2 in the all-American girls singles final. Turley also won the doubles title for the second straight week, with the same partner, Kayla Brianne Moore. The top seeds defeated the unseeded team of Cisse-Ignatiev and Olivia Bustos, also of the United States, 6-4, 7-5 in the final.
Playing in his first ITF Junior Circuit tournament, Alexander Sterin won the boys singles title, with the 17-year-old from Pennsylvania claiming it when qualifier Penghan Zhang of China retired trailing 6-4, 3-3.
Sixteen-year-old Luca Benaibbouche won his second straight boys doubles title in the Virgin Islands, this time with Nicholas Steden of Mexico. The No. 3 seeds received a walkover from Zhang and his partner, Antonio Jose Chavez of Honduras in the final.
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Labels: International Tournaments, ITF, ITF Grade A Tournaments, Pro Circuit, USTA, World Tennis Tour
The men delivered in Thursday's quarterfinals, with three underdogs claiming victories in tense battles, both outdoors and indoors. Not to be outdone, the women also played nothing but compelling matches Friday, and although the favorites won them all, the margins were razor thin.
Top seed North Carolina defeated No. 8 seed Pepperdine 4-3, with the Waves nearly overcoming some of the worse luck of the tournament. Taisiya Pachkalev suffered a serious knee injury in the doubles and had to retire, which gave the Tar Heels the point, and because she was unable to play at her line 4 singles spot, the three players below her moved up a spot.
But Pepperdine came out strong in singles, taking four first sets to put the pressure squarely on North Carolina. A quick win at line 1 for Janice Tjen and another fast one by Lisa Zaar at line three gave Pepperdine the lead for the first time, but Elizabeth Scotty drew North Carolina even with a victory at line 2.
So both teams needed two of the bottom three spots, all of which were now early in the third sets, as North Carolina's Carson Tanguilig and Anika Yarlagadda had come back at lines 5 and 6, and Pepperdine's Savannah Broadus had forced a third at 4.
Tanguilig made it 3-2 with a win over Vicky Flores, Broadus handed Fiona Crawley a rare loss, so the match came down to line 6: Yarlagadda and Nikki Redelijk. Redelijk, who had not played in the Waves three previous NCAA wins with Pachkaleva in the lineup, fell behind early in the third and couldn't find a path to a comeback, with Yarlagadda taking the match 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.
North Carolina had lost to Pepperdine 4-3 in last year's semifinals.
NCAA D-I Women's Team QuarterfinalsBecause the NCAA women's quarterfinals are expected to go late, as the men's did last night, I'm doing two posts today, with this one on all the other news, significant as it is.
The ATP, WTA and ITF announced today that they would be withholding ranking points from Wimbledon this year, due to the tournament's decision to ban players from Belarus and Russia from competing. In the case of the ITF, that means that the Junior Championships, scheduled to take place from July 2-July 10, will not award points for the singles and doubles competitions.
The entries for the Junior Championships don't close until June 7, so it remains to be seen if this will keep players from signing up, or ultimately participating; those in their final year of juniors who have not played it before may still want the experience, while those that competed last year may decide to compete in lower level tournaments closer to home that do offer ATP and WTA points. As of now, the tournament still appears on the ITF Junior Circuit calendar, but I'm not sure it will remain there.
Wimbledon's response to the announcement from these three entities can be found here.
In more positive junior news, three Americans have advanced to the semifinals of the ITF Grade A in Milan, with Liv Hovde and Nishesh Basavareddy both taking out the No. 2 seeds.
Hovde, the No. 5 seed, defeated Diana Shnaider of Russia 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. Tommy Hemp has a detailed report on the match at TennisUnderworld. Hovde's opponent in the semifinals is No. 4 seed Lucie Havlickova of the Czech Republic. The top half semifinal will feature No. 7 seed Celine Naef of Switzerland and No. 3 seed Ksenia Zaytseva of Russia.
No. 10 seed Basavareddy had beaten No. 2 seed Gonzalo Bueno of Peru 6-0, 6-1 in the final of the Grade 1 in Brazil in February; today's match was not as straightforward, but Basavareddy earned the 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-1 victory to move into the semifinals against No. 8 seed Martin Landaluce of Spain.
Unseeded Learner Tien continued his impressive run this week on the Italian red clay, defeating No. 9 seed Lautaro Midon of Argentina 4-6, 6-3, 6-0. Tien will face top seed Daniel Vallejo of Paraguay in Saturday's semifinals.
Hemp also has an analysis of Tien's win, and as a bonus for college tennis fans, a glowing report on Oklahoma recruit Anastasiya Lopata of Ukraine, who lost today to Zaytseva.
Hovde and Qavia Lopez, the top seeds, lost in the girls doubles semifinals today; Basavareddy and Aidan Kim advanced to Saturday's boys doubles final with a 7-5, 6-0 win over Nicholas Godsick and Ethan Quinn. Basavareddy and Kim, who are unseeded, will face Mika Brunold of Switzerland and Liam Gavrielides of Germany, also unseeded, for the title.
Two of the 24 Americans who competed in the Roland Garros qualifying have advanced to the main draw: Bjorn Fratangelo and Hailey Baptiste. Fratangelo, who also qualified for the main draw in Paris last year, defeated Nino Serdarusic of Croatia 7-5, 6-4 in today's final round. He has been drawn against No. 11 seed Jannik Sinner of Italy in the first round.
Baptiste, the No. 17 seed in qualifying, defeated 2021 Wimbledon girls finalist Nastasja Schunk of Germany 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 in today's final round of qualifying. Baptiste, who also qualified last year, will play Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine in the first round. Christina McHale lost to Valentini Grammatikopoulou of Greece 6-3, 6-3.
The Roland Garros men's and women's singles draws feature 16 US women and 15 US men, which prompted this press release from the USTA:
American Tennis Leads All Nations with 31 Players Competing in French Open Singles Main Draws
Seven U.S. Men Seeded is Most for Any Nation at a Major Since 2015
Thirty-one Americans are set to compete in the singles main draws at the French Open beginning next week -- 16 women and 15 men -- leading all nations in total players and seeded players competing on both the men's and women's sides.
The 15 American men in the singles main draw this year is the most since 19 in 1995. This is the third consecutive year 13 or more American men are playing in the French Open singles main draw, the first time for those numbers over a three-year span since 1994-96.
The 16 women marks the eighth year in a row 16 or more Americans have featured in the women's main draw at Roland Garros.
Seven American men and five American women are seeded, both numbers that lead all nations.
The seven seeded men is the highest number of American seeds in the men's draw at Roland Garros since Grand Slams began seeding 32 players after the 2001 French Open. The previous high was four, set in 2003 and 2017. The last time the French Open actually had seven American men's seeds in singles was 1982, when Grand Slams had 16 seeds.
The seven American men seeded are also the most for any country at a Grand Slam event since seven Spaniards were seeded at 2015 Roland Garros.
This continues the consistent upward trend of American tennis, most recently on the men's side. As of the May 16 ATP rankings, the U.S. led all nations with 13 players ranked in the Top 100 and eight in the Top 50, ahead of Spain's seven. Eight of those Americans in the Top 100 are also age 25 or younger, ahead of Spain's five.
The U.S. continues to lead all nations in players ranked in the WTA Top 100, with 12.
Said USTA Player and Coach Development GM Martin Blackman:
"Over the last 13 years, the USTA's Player Development team has worked in a strong and coordinated three-way partnership with the private sector and the 17 USTA Sections. We realized at the beginning of this project back in 2008, that we could only be successful if we worked through this partnership to create a developmental pathway and a cultural unity in Team USA that recognized and respected the critical role that our great American private sector coaches play in junior development.
"In order to do that we relied on the knowledge, expertise and passion of Section staff for Player Development in all 17 Sections. Their leadership ensured that our pathway could be customized at the Sectional and Regional level, recognizing the fact that every city and state is different. It's been an amazing journey and the continuity over the last 13 years is bearing more and more fruit every year."
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Labels: International Tournaments, ITF, ITF Grade A Tournaments, Pro Events, USTA