Gorzny and Brantmeier Earn US Open Wild Cards at Collegiate Playoffs; Carpico and Filin Claim USO Men's Doubles Wild Card; ITA Men's Kickoff Weekend Draft Complete; Semifinals Set at ITF J200 in Mason Ohio

Texas's Sebastian Gorzny and North Carolina's Reese Brantmeier have earned the first wild cards of the 2026 US Open, with the two recent graduates posting victories Thursday night in the finals of the USTA's American Collegiate US Open Wild Card Playoffs at the National Campus in Orlando.

Gornzy, the No. 2 seed, was on the brink of victory when lightning and rain arrived, serving for the match against top seed Trevor Svajda of SMU at 6-2, 5-4 deuce. Although that could have been a frustrating delay, Gorzny didn't view it that way.

"I think honestly it was a good thing that it happened when it did," said the 22-year-old from Texas, who went on to close out the 6-2, 6-4 victory. "The wind picked up, and I was getting nervy there, trying to hold that last game. It gave me some time to get my mind off it, get back, think of how I wanted to play, visualize it and really go after it. I obviously would have liked to finish it before, hit two aces, but that's not how life goes, and I'm happy to get the win and play how I wanted to play."

Gorzny was committed to playing more aggressively during this event, and when he returned from the 95-minute delay, his resolve strengthened. He didn't convert his first match point, with a net cord going wide, but on his second one, he swung out on his forehand, then charged the net, hitting a two-volley combination to secure his place in New York.

"I was playing aggressive the whole match, coming forward and being aggressive with my forehand," Gorzny said. "Everyone keeps telling me, with my size and my game, that's what I need to do. My volleys are good and I have a big wingspan at the net; that's definitely a strength of mine that I need to bring out more. So I said, I'm going to play on my terms, and if he passes me, I lose, I can live with that, but I'm not going to live with pushing from the baseline, waiting for him to come in. I'm happy with how I played that, even if I ended up losing that."

Brantmeier, the top seed, had taken a 6-4 first set from No. 2 seed Katrina Scott of Tennessee, converting the only break point she had at 4-all, while not facing one herself and serving it out. The 2025 NCAA singles champion went up a break at 2-1 in the second set, but gave it back in her next service game. Those were the only two breaks of the second set, which was at 3-all deuce when the weather caused the lengthy interruption.

Scott saved a break point serving in that 3-all game, but that was the only opportunity for either to gain an edge, and a tiebreaker would decide the set. With Brantmeier still scheduled to play the doubles final after singles, the prospect of a very late night loomed if they split sets, and Scott had a set point serving at 6-5 in the tiebreaker. But a Brantmeier forehand forced an error from Scott and, although she didn't convert her first match point at 7-6, netting a forehand, she converted her second for a 6-4, 7-6(7) victory and a first appearance in the US Open women's singles main draw.

Top seeds Brantmeier and Alanis Hamilton, who had won the doubles wild card at this event last year, took the court against Auburn's DJ Bennett and Ava Esposito, the No. 2 seeds after 10:00 p.m., so I will update that score later and will be providing a detailed recap of all four finals for an upcoming article for the Tennis Recruiting Network.

Bennett and Esposito came from behind to defeat Brantmeier and Hamilton 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the women's doubles final, which finished at 12:37 a.m.  Bennett had lost in the final to Hamilton and Brantmeier in a third-set tiebreaker at this event last year after having served for the match.

The men's doubles final was also on the cusp of conclusion when the weather intervened, with Ohio State's Brandon Carpico serving at 6-2, 5-1 30-0. Carpico and partner Nikita Filin, the No. 1 seeds, were all business against Indiana's Michael Andre and Matteo Antonescu, who had beaten them 6-3 during Big Ten play, one of their three losses, against 22 wins of the dual match season. That was a one-set no-ad format, and there was also another motivation for the Buckeyes, who were determined to erase the memory of their loss in the NCAA doubles final on the same courts last November to Virginia's Dylan Dietrich and Mans Dahlberg.

"The loss in the fall, it sucked," said Carpico, a redshirt sophomore, who finished off the 6-2, 6-1 victory four points later. "I don't think either of us played particularly great in the final, so to come back to where it all kind of went wrong and to come out on top is super poetic, in a way. We're definitely happy to have erased those demons....and it definitely gives us confidence heading into the summer."

Filin will be returning to the main draw of the US Open in men's doubles after winning a wild card in 2024 as the USTA Kalamazoo 18s champions, with Stanford's Alex Razeghi.

The ITA Men's Division I 2027 Kickoff Weekend draft was held today, with 14 hosts each welcoming three teams January 22-24 to determine who will advance to February's ITA Men's Team Indoor Championships. Men's co-host South Carolina finished 15th, but of course did not need to select a site; at No. 30, Clemson also did not need to play their way into the event. So the first team to select their travel destination was 16th-ranked Stanford, who chose to go to No. 14 Illinois.

The site filling up first was No. 12 Georgia, the only site to have four Top 30 teams: UGA, No. 21 Pepperdine, No. 27 Columbia and No. 28 NC State. After Georgia, the next sites to fill were, in order, No. 10 Baylor, No. 9 Oklahoma and Illinois.

No. 1 Virginia, No. 4 TCU, No. 5 Ohio State, No. 8 LSU and No. 11 Texas A&M did not attract any Top 40 teams; many of the teams in that section of the rankings passed: Wisconsin[34], UC-Santa Barbara[36], Penn[44], Yale[45], Oklahoma State[46], Harvard[47] and Middle Tennessee[48].

The last team in was No. 81 Brigham Young, with a total of 15 teams passing on their opportunity to participate in the Team Indoor qualifying.

The complete draft can be viewed here. The women's draft, held on Wednesday, can be viewed here.

At this week's ITF J200 in Mason Ohio, several new faces have broken through this week, including qualifier Kahven Singh, who defeated top seed Agassi Rusher 6-4, 6-4 in today's quarterfinals. Singh, a 16-year-old from Maryland, made the quarterfinals in the Orange Bowl 16s in December, but he has not played many ITF Junior Circuit events, hence the need to qualify. He will play No. 12 seed Mason Vaughan, who beat No. 4 seed Izyan Ahmad 6-2, 6-0.  In the bottom half, Teodor Davidov, the No. 13 seed, will have No. 16 seed Kayden Colombo, after Davidov beat No. 7 seed and last week's J100 champion Jerrid Gaines Jr. 6-3, 7-6(0) and Colombo took out unseeded Ryan Bedwick 6-2, 7-6(5).

While the boys quarterfinals were all-USA, two Canadians have advanced to the girls semifinals.

2026 ITF J300 San Diego finalist Avery Alexander of Canada, seeded No. 4, defeated No. 9 seed Allison Wang 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 and will play unseeded Reiley Rhodes, who beat top seed Olivia Traynor 7-6(1), 6-2. No. 15 seed Clemence Mercier of Canada beat No. 8 seed Isabelle DeLuccia 6-1, 6-1 and will face unseeded Anastasia Pleskun, who beat No. 2 seed Maggie Sohns 7-6(2), 6-3. The 16-year-old Pleskun, who had lost twice to Sohns in the past year, beat Mercier en route to a J100 title in Canada last September.

Top Doubles Seeds Advance to USTA US Open Collegiate Wild Card Finals; Southern California Popular Choice in ITA D-I Women's Kickoff Draft; ITA Announces All Player of Year Awards; Lumpkin Robinson Tapped to Lead Illinois; Top Seeds Out in Irvine $15Ks

Doubles competition took center stage today at the USTA's American Collegiate US Open Wild Card Playoffs at the National Campus in Lake Nona, with the two favorites posting impressive straight-sets victories. There was again a delay in the start due to rain, but it was less than an hour in duration.

Defending champions Reese Brantmeier and Alanis Hamilton of North Carolina defeated Vanderbilt's Valeria Ray and Bridget Stammel 6-3, 6-2 to return to the final. A familiar face will be across the net Thursday evening in Auburn's DJ Bennett, who reached the doubles final in last year's playoff with Ava Hrastar. This year Bennett is playing with Ava Esposito, and the No. 2 seeds reached the final with a nearly three-hour, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(5) victory over Michigan's Jessica Bernales and Lily Jones.  Last year's final was even longer, with Brantmeier and Hamilton coming away with a 4-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(5) victory over Bennett and Hrastar in three-hours and 35-minutes.

With Brantmeier also playing in the singles final, the schedule has been adjusted, with the women's singles final, men's singles final and men's doubles final all at 5:30 p.m. Brantmeier and Hamilton will then play the women's doubles final, not before 6:30 p.m., and most likely, significantly later than that.

2025 NCAA doubles finalists Brandon Carpico and Nikita Filin of Ohio State, the top seeds, defeated Northwestern's Greyson Casey and Carter Pate 6-3, 6-2 to advance to the men's doubles final. They will face another Big Ten team in Indiana's Michael Andre and Matteo Antonescu, who defeated No. 2 seeds Alex Chang and Alexander Razeghi 7-6(4), 6-4. 

Filin, the 2024 Kalamazoo 18s champion (with Razeghi), will be looking to return to New York with another wild card into men's doubles, while Brantmeier will be aiming for her third main draw appearance in women's doubles, after winning the 2022 San Diego 18s title and last year's playoff.

Thursday's schedule:
5:30 p.m.
Women's singles final:
Reese Brantmeier[1](UNC) v Katrina Scott[2](Tennessee)

Men's singles final:

Trevor Svajda[1](SMU) v Sebastian Gorzny[2](Texas)

Men's doubles final:

Brandon Carpico and Nikita Filin[1](Ohio State) v Michael Andre and Matteo Antonescu(Indiana)

Not before 6:30 p.m:

Women's doubles final:

Reese Brantmeier and Alanis Hamilton[1](UNC) v DJ Bennett and Ava Esposito[2](Auburn)

Cracked Racquets is providing streaming at their YouTube channel.

The ITA Women's Division I Kickoff Draft was held today, with teams ranked 17-84 at the recent season's end deciding which of the 14 host sites they would like to travel to as they look to earn a spot in the 2027 ITA Team Indoor Championships in February.

Because hosts Michigan and Ohio State finished the year inside the Top 16, neither host needed the automatic qualification, giving No. 17 Arizona State the first choice among the 14 sites. The Sun Devils chose the University of Southern California, as did No. 18 Florida, with No. 25 Clemson the fourth team traveling to Los Angeles. Despite that formidable quartet of teams, USC, which finished the season ranked 13, was not the first host site to fill up. That honor belongs to crosstown rival UCLA, ranked 15th, who had No. 20 UCF, No. 21 TCU and No. 22 Cal elect to head to Westwood. 

No. 16 Vanderbilt will also host three Top 35 teams, with No. 19 Tennessee, No. 28 Stanford and No. 33 Arizona heading to Nashville.

Three Top 50 seeds passed, electing not to participate in the Kickoff Weekend and therefore not eligible to play the Team Indoor Championships: No. 31 Notre Dame, No. 43 Ole Miss and No. 47 Iowa.

Top teams who were not attractive to those in draft postitions were NC State(No. 8), Pepperdine(No. 9) and Auburn (No. 2), and many teams passed rather than go as a No. 4 seed to a top team, with No. 84 North Alabama the last participant, as the No. 4 seed at North Carolina.

The complete list of women's teams that will be competing at the 16 sites January 22-24, 2027, can be found here.

The men's draft begins Thursday at noon, and can be followed here.

The Division I ITA Player of Year Awards, which weren't included in yesterday's announcement, were confirmed today in the ITA's release of its POY winners in all divisions: wheelchair, community college, California community college, NAIA, Division III, Division II and Division I. The complete list can be found here.

One of the few Division I head coaching positions open this spring has been filled, with the University of Illinois announcing Elizabeth Lumpkin Robinson as the new leader of the women's program in Champaign Urbana. Lumpkin Robinson, who played at UCLA, spent the past three years as head coach at University of Illinois-Chicago; before that she was an assistant/associate head coach at Oregon. 

Both top seeds were upset today in Irvine California, the fourth stop on the seven-week SoCal Pro Series joint $15K tournaments.

Kaylan Bigun(UCLA), who won the M15 titles in Week One in Lakewood and Week Three in Los Angeles, was beaten in the first round today by recent Yale graduate Vignesh Gogineni 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.

In the first round of the W15, Sofia Shapatava of Georgia, who was also the top seed last week and also lost in the first round in Los Angeles, dropped a 7-5, 6-1 decision to 18-year-old Isabella Marton of Canada today.

Svajda and Gorzny, Brantmeier and Scott Advance to USTA's Collegiate US Open Wild Card Finals; Wimbledon Wild Cards; ITA D-I National Awards; Qualifying Complete at M25 Tulsa, SoCal Pro Series in Irvine

After a 90-minute delay for rain and lightning, the USTA American Collegiate Player US Open Wild Card Playoffs got underway under the lights at the National Campus in Lake Nona. All four semifinals, played concurrently, had their twists and turns except perhaps No. 2 seed Sebastian Gornzy's 6-4, 6-2 win over Matt Forbes of Ohio State.

Gorzny got the only break of the first set at 4-all and held for the first set, then extended his streak of games to seven by taking a 4-0 lead in the second set. The recent Texas graduate, who reached Sunday's final at the M25 in Wichita, told Cracked Racquets Alex Gruskin that he slept in the Atlanta airport Sunday night, but he did get to Orlando Monday and said he got plenty of rest Monday night prior to the match. 

Gorzny will play top seed Trevor Svajda of SMU, who came back to defeat Aidan Kim of Ohio State 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(3). Svajda lost his break in the third set, but took control in the tiebreaker, which, like the US Open, was to ten points, not seven.

Top seed Reese Brantmeier needed 80 minutes to take the first set from Michigan's Piper Charney, but the recent North Carolina graduate found her form in the second set to post a 7-5, 6-2 victory. The 2025 NCAA singles champion, who, like Gorzny has had notable success in her first events this month as a pro, will face No. 2 seed Katrina Scott of Tennessee. Scott trailed Ohio State's Luciana Perry 4-2 in the third set, but won the final four games for a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 victory.

All four winners have earned a trip to New York, with Thursday's finalists receiving qualifying wild cards; the winners, of course, are given main draw wild cards.

The doubles semifinals are Wednesday, with all four scheduled for 6 p.m. Reese Brantmeier will be back in action, with Alanis Hamilton, as the defending champions.

Men's Doubles Semifinals:
[1] Brandon Carpico/Nikita Filin (Ohio State) vs. [4] Greyson Casey/Carter Pate (Northwestern)

[3] Michael Andre/Matteo Antonescu (Indiana) vs. [2] Alex Chang/Alex Razeghi (Stanford)

Women's Doubles Semifinals:
[1] Reese Brantmeier/Alanis Hamilton (North Carolina) vs. [3] Valeria Ray/Bridget Stammel (Vanderbilt)

[4] Jessica Bernales/Lily Jones (Michigan) vs. [2] DJ Bennett/Ava Esposito (Auburn)

Cracked Racquets will have coverage of the doubles semifinals on their YouTube Channel.

Wimbledon announced its first batch of wild cards, with qualifying beginning next Monday at Roehampton.

Men's main draw:

Grigor Dimitrov(BUL)
Stan Wawrinka(SUI)
Jacob Fearnley[TCU](GBR)
Arthur Fery[Stanford](GBR)
Jack Pinnington Jones[TCU](GBR)
Toby Samuel[South Carolina](GBR)

TBA

TBA

Women's main draw:

Maja Chwalinska(POL)

Harriet Dart(GBR)

Katie Swan(GBR)

Alicia Dudeney[Florida](GBR)

Hannah Klugman(GBR)

Mimi Xu(GBR)

Mika Stojsavljevic(GBR)

TBA

As you can see, all four of the British main draw wild cards for men were given to former collegians, while Dudeney is the only former collegian receiving a main draw women's wild card. Hannah Klugman and Mika Stojsavljevic, who are still eligible for ITF junior competition, received main draw wild cards for the second straight year; Stojsavljevic is also entered in the Wimbledon Junior Championships.

Men's qualifying:

Mark Ceban(GBR)

Ivan Ivanov(BUL)

Henry Searle(GBR)

Oliver Tarvet[San Diego](GBR)

Johannus Monday[Tennessee](GBR)

TBA

TBA

WC Playoff

WC Playoff

Women's qualifying:

Daniella Britton(GBR)

Jodie Burrage(GBR)

Lily Miyazaki[Oklahoma)(GBR)

Mia Pohankova(SVK)

TBA

WC Playoff

WC Playoff

WC Playoff

WC Playoff

Ceban and Britton earned their qualifying wild cards by winning the British National 18s titles; Ivanov and Pohankova received qualifying wild cards as the 2025 Wimbledon Junior champions.

The official list of the wild cards, including doubles wild cards, is here.

The ITA announced its Division I National Award winners today, which are shown below. For some reason, the National Player of the Year awards are not included in these releases, but that award is always given to the player ranked No. 1 at year-end, so it will go to Lucciana Perez of Texas A&M and Dylan Dietrich of Virginia.

ITA Division I Women's National Awards:

ITA/Dunlop Coach of the Year:

Mark Weaver, Texas A&M

ITA Assistant Coach of the Year:

David Secker, NC State

ITA Arthur Ashe Leadership & Sportsmanship:

Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina

ITA Cissie Leary Sportsmanship:

Sarah Millard, Arkansas State

ITA Rookie of the Year:

Victoria Osuigwe, NC State

ITA Most Improved Player:

Savannah Dada-Mascoll, Appalachian State

ITA Player to Watch:

Lucciana Perez, Texas A&M

ITA Senior Player of the Year:

Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina

ITA Division I Men's National Awards:

ITA/Dunlop Coach of the Year:

Andres Pedroso, Virginia

ITA Assistant Coach of the Year:

Benjamin Becker, Texas

ITA Arthur Ashe Leadership & Sportsmanship:

Phillip Deaton, Air Force

ITA Rafael Osuna Sportsmanship:

Sebastian Dominko, Notre Dame

ITA Rookie of the Year:

Max Dahlin, Michigan

ITA Most Improved Player:

Duncan Chan, TCU

ITA Player to Watch:

Trevor Svajda, SMU

ITA Senior Player of the Year:

Sebastian Gorzny, Texas

The three USTA Pro Circuit tournaments this week are an M25 in Tulsa Oklahoma and the M15 and W15 SoCal Pro Series events in Irvine.

Americans who qualified today in Tulsa are Will Manning(NC State), Ilyas Fahim(Virginia Tech), Maximus Dussault(TCU) and Jonah Braswell(Florida, Texas).

Wild cards were given to Matisse Farzam(Clemson), Axel Nefve(Notre Dame, Florida), JJ Wolf(Ohio State) and Alejandro Jacome Jaramillo(Wichita State). Wolf defeated Nefve 7-6(5), 6-4 in first round action today.

The top seeds are Andres Martin(Georgia Tech), who beat Farzam 6-7(2), 6-2, 6-1, and Braden Shick(NC State). Schick will play his former teammate Manning in the first round Wednesday.

Last week's champion in Wichita as a wild card, Ozan Baris(Michigan State), received a special exemption into the main draw this week.

At the men's tournament in Irvine, Americans who qualified today are Aardash Tripathi(UCLA), Karl Lee(UCLA, USC) and Nathan Cox(Vanderbilt).

Wild cards were awarded to Bryce Nakashima Ohio State, 

Alexander Guajardo UC Irvine, William Kleege San Diego State

and Kelly Giese(Lubbock Christian, Nebraska).

Three juniors received entry via the ITF Junior Reserved program: Marcel Latak, Tanishk Konduri and Felipe Vazquez of Uruguay. 2025 Kalamazoo 18s finalist Jack Satterfield, a rising sophomore at Vanderbilt, received an ITF junior reserved entry, available to him after finishing 2025 in the Top 30 of the ITF junior rankings. He defeated No. 7 seed Tristan Stringer 6-2, 6-4 in first round action today.

Last week's champion Kaylan Bigun(UCLA), playing his fourth straight SoCal Pro Series tournament, is the No. 1 seed; Strong Kirchheimer(Northwestern) is the No. 2 seed.

In the women's event in Irvine, seven of the eight qualifying are Americans: Maria Aytoyan, Tatum Evans(UNC), Thea Rabman(UNC), 16-year-old Yilin Chen, Kaia Giribalan, Bianca Molnar(Notre Dame) and Simone Kay(USC).

Wild cards were given to Sophia Webster(Vanderbilt), 14-year-old Tanvi Pandey, Camille Allegre and Olivia Center(UCLA). 

Junior reserved entries went to Lani Chang and Emery Combs; Combs, 15, defeated No. 6 seed Ingrid Carolina Millan Acosta of Mexico 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in first round action today.

Last week's finalists in Los Angeles, Kaitlyn Carnicella(Auburn, South Carolina) and Russia's Alina Shcherbinina(Baylor, Oklahoma) received special exempt entries.

The top two seeds are Sofia Shapatava of Georgia, and Stanford rising sophomore Monika Ekstrand.

Minvielle Wins ITF J100 Title in Guatemala; Reddy Falls in J300 Final in Germany; US ITF Hard Court Swing Continues with J200 in Ohio; Kuzuhara Signs with Clemson

I covered the US singles titles won by Jerrid Gaines Jr. and Daniela Sales Friday at the J100 Bloomington Indiana, but there were three other titles in singles on the ITF Junior Circuit last week outside the United States, the biggest being Charles Minvielle's title at the J100 in Guatemala. 

The 17-year-old from Florida, seeded No. 3, defeated top seed Samim Filiz of Turkey 6-4, 6-1 in the semifinals and earned his third career ITF Junior Circuit title with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over No. 4 seed Harold Ronaldo Andre Cotom Hidalgo of Guatemala.

Unseeded 14-year-old Sofia Dvortsova reached the girls singles final, losing to No. 3 seed Sera Park of Korea 6-0, 6-3. Dvortsova, who beat two seeds to reach the final, won two J30 titles this spring, but collected the same amount of points for finishing as the runner-up at a J100 last week.

The unseeded team of Ireland's Laura Carvalho e Silva Kracke and Lely Kilgour won the girls doubles title, beating Alexandra Korneeva of Armenia and Sarah Stoyanov 7-6(3), 6-0 in the final.

The other two singles titles last week were at the ITF J30 in Ottawa Canada. 

No. 3 Alexander Totoian beat top seed Mathias Hamel-Van Dun of Canada 6-1, 6-3 in the final, after defeating No. 2 seed Tomas Giachero of Canada 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 in the semifinals. It's the first ITF Junior Circuit title for the 16-year-old from Oregon in his sixth ITF tournament. He also reached the doubles final, with Nirbhay Agarwal, with the unseeded pair falling to No. 4 seeds Ishaan Marla and Aayush Vartak 6-4, 6-7(5), 10-7.

Unseeded Samantha Govila won her first title on the ITF Junior Circuit, with the 15-year-old from Michigan defeating top seed Mariya Marinova of Canada 2-6, 6-1, 6-2. Govila was playing just her second ITF Junior tournament after failing to qualify for a J200 in Canada in April. Like Totoian, Govila also lost in the doubles final, with partner Karina Moe. The unseeded pair lost to top seeds Amaliya Bakumenko and Mariia Shybanova of Ukraine 6-0, 6-2.

Vihaan Reddy, who hadn't played in the past month, returned to action this week at the J300 in Bamberg Germany and reached the final as the No. 6 seed. The 16-year-old from Northern California lost to No. 8 seed Oliver Majdandzic of Germany 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(3) in the final. Reddy, who beat top seed Tito Chavez of Spain in the quarterfinals, moved his ITF ranking up to 55 by making the final; his career high is 42. He is in qualifying for the Roehampton J300 and Wimbledon Junior Championships.

The final stop of the late spring ITF hard court swing in the United States is in Mason Ohio this week, for one of the new J200s introduced this year.

Agassi Rusher and Olivia Traynor are the top seeds, with all seeds receiving byes in the 48-player draws.

Although there has been no official announcement yet from Wimbledon on who has been invited to the 14U tournament, the four finalists at last week's Tennis Europe Category 1 tournament in Raynes Park are assured of spots in the 16-player draws. (Isha Manchala, Anna Kapanadze and David Bender will be representing the United States in the Wimbledon U14 tournament, according to the USTA).

Top seed Emilia Henningsen of Denmark defeated Lyubov Pronenko of Russia 6-2, 6-2 in the girls singles final in Raynes Park, and unseeded Noah Honsberger of Switzerland beat No. 5 seed Oskar Laskowski of Great Britain 6-4, 6-7(2), 6-1 in the boys singles final. For more on the tournament, see this article from the Tennis Europe website.

Parsa Nemati announced what had been rumored for several months today, with Clemson signing 22-year-old Bruno Kuzuhara for this 2026-27 season. Kuzuhara, who was considering college prior to winning the Australian Open boys singles and doubles titles in 2022, opted to turn pro instead, but has not been able to move his ATP ranking into Challenger-level main draw territory, with his career-high of 394 coming two years ago. Kuzuhara is expected to have just one year of eligibility, but with pre-enrollment prize money no longer an impediment to eligibility, he will not be the last of these one-and-done players, even with the five-in-five standard expected to be introduced this year.

Bruno Kuzuhara (UTR 13.65) of Florida has signed with @ClemsonMTennis and will join the Tigers for the fall of 2026. The 22-year-old former world number one junior won the 2022 #AusOpen singles and doubles titles & has ATP career-high rankings of #394 in singles/#561 in doubles. pic.twitter.com/M63jnchqNQ

— Parsa Bombs 💣 (@ParsaBombs) June 15, 2026

USTA Pro Circuit Titles for Baris, Ma, Bigun and Shcherbinina; Pro Grass Titles for Shelton, Montgomery and Krueger; Broadus Sweeps Titles at W50 in Portugal; Forbes Added to Brantmeier's NCAA Lawsuit

Former collegians took all four titles today on the USTA Pro Circuit, with Lea Ma, Ozan Baris, and Kaylan Bigun claiming their second career singles titles on the Pro Circuit, and Russia's Alina Shcherbinina earning her first title.

The third-seeded Ma, a 25-year-old who was an All-American at Georgia in 2023, defeated top seed Madison Brengle 6-3, 7-6(3) in the final of the W35 in Decatur Illinois. Ma won her first title in September of 2024 at an W35 in Redding California. She should move into the WTA Top 300 for the first time when the points are added.

Michigan State's Baris, who has had great success in his career in Wichita Kansas, swept the titles at the M25 this week, beating Sebastian Gorzny(TCU, Texas) 7-6(5), 6-4 in today's final between recent graduates entered as wild cards. The 22-year-old Baris, who was a doubles All-American in 2023 and a singles All-American in 2024, 2025 and 2026, won his first title at an M15 East Lansing in 2023. After winning the doubles title yesterday with Matt Shearer(William Carey, Nebraska), Baris has six Pro Circuit doubles titles, with half of them coming in Wichita.

Twenty-year-old Kaylan Bigun, who played for UCLA for one semester last year, picked up his second SoCal Pro Series singles titles in the past three weeks today at the M15 in Los Angeles. The top-seeded Bigun, who won the M15 in Lakewood in the opening week of seven-week swing in Southern California, defeated 16-year-old Andy Johnson 6-1, 7-5 in today's final. Johnson, playing at his home club with the crowd's support, overcame a slow start, coming back from 6-1, 2-0 down to take a 4-3 lead in the second set. But Bigun, the 2024 Roland Garros boys champion, kept the pressure on with his forehand, and although Johnson leveled the match by breaking Bigun serving for it at 5-4, he lost serve again at 5-all and Bigun closed out the title.

At the W15 in Los Angeles, Shcherbinina won the battle of the qualifiers, with the former standout at Baylor and Oklahoma defeating South Carolina rising senior Kaitlyn Carnicella 6-0, 6-7(4), 7-5 in a nearly three-hour final. The 22-year-old Russian failed to qualify for the Lakewood W15 in week one, but she now has her first pro title.

In the doubles final played Saturday night, No. 2 seeds Capucine Jauffret and Kristina Penickova defeated top seeds Salma Ewing(USC, Texas A&M) and Canada's Alexandra Vagramov(UCLA) 4-6, 6-2, 10-8 for the title. It's Penickova's first women's doubles title without her sister Annika as her partner; Jauffret won a W35 title with Annika in Florida last month.

Top seeds Reece Falck(Fresno St, UNC-Wilmington) of New Zealand and Billy Suarez(Tulane) won the men's doubles title, beating unseeded Christopher Papa(San Diego Christian, Pepperdine) and Germany's Lambert Ruland(San Diego) 7-5, 6-4 in the final. It's their second title as a team this year.

For more on the finals, see this recap from USTA SoCal press aide Steve Pratt.

Far away from the hard courts in the United States, three Americans claimed titles, with Ben Shelton earning his first title on grass, Robin Montgomery winning her first WTA title and Ashlyn Krueger claiming the WTA 125 in Ilkley England.

Shelton, the 2022 NCAA singles champion while a sophomore at Florida, defeated defending champion Taylor Fritz 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in today's final of the ATP 250 in Stuttgart Germany for his sixth ATP title overall and his third this year. Shelton won all four of his matches this week in straight sets and saved a total of three match points en route to the final. He remains at a career-high ATP ranking of No. 5.

Montgomery, the 2021 US Open girls champion, spent the second half of 2025 and the first three months of 2026 recovering from a wrist injury, so this was just her eighth tournament of the year. The 21-year-old from Washington DC had to qualify for the WTA 250 in 's-Hertogenbosch the Netherlands but did not have to play the final, with Barbora Krejcikova of Czechia unable to take the court due to illness. With her first WTA title, Montgomery moves back into the WTA Top 200.

The eighth-seeded Krueger, who won the 2021 USTA Nationals 18s and US Open girls doubles titles with Montgomery, won her second WTA 125 title on grass with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over qualifier Celine Naef of Switzerland in Ilkley. Krueger, who won a WTA 250 title back in 2023, had fallen out of the Top 100 prior to this title, and will have to play qualifying at Wimbledon.

Former Pepperdine All-American Savannah Broadus has won four of her 12 ITF women's World Tennis Tour doubles titles this year, but she had not won a singles title since her graduation in 2025 until today. Broadus qualified at the W50 in Portugal by beating her doubles partner Abigail Rencheli(NC State), then beat two seeds in reaching the final, where she took out a third, No. 5 Aliona Falei of Belarus, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4. Broadus, whose previous title was at a W15 in 2024, had already won the doubles title with Rencheli. The No. 4 seeds, who didn't drop a set all week, beat No. 2 seeds Viktoria Hruncakova and Katarina Kuzmova of Slovakia 6-3, 6-4 in the final.

Broadus is now up to a career-high 456 in the WTA live rankings with this title.

In more news on the Reese Brantmeier lawsuit with the NCAA, Matt Forbes, the 2024 Kalamazoo 18s champion, has been added as a plaintiff in the case. A judge's review of the settlement is expected next week, and Forbes was added to ensure an active NCAA student-athlete was included, now that Brantmeier has graduated. According to this article at the Carolina Journal:

To gain college eligibility, Forbes gave up $55,587 in prize money he won after competing in the 2024 United States Open. “His addition should address any concern the Court may have regarding standing and adequacy for the injunctive relief class,” Brantmeier’s lawyers wrote.

The prize money for the first round that year was $100,000, so Forbes came up with substantial expenses to get to that number down to $55,587, but even if he does get that amount reimbursed, Forbes may again be in the position of having to  forgo his US Open prize money if he wins his semifinal match against Sebastian Gorzny Tuesday at the USTA's American Collegiate USO Wild Card Playoff, which would guarantee him a spot in the men's qualifying. The terms of the settlement allow prize money to be accepted prior to enrollment, but not as a student-athlete. 

All-USA Men's Finals in Wichita, Los Angeles and Stuttgart; Brengle and Ma Meet for W35 Decatur Title; Two Qualifiers Reach W15 Final in LA

The finals are set for this week's four USTA Pro Circuit tournaments, with Americans assured of at least three singles titles, while on European grass, two more Americans will play for an ATP 250 title in Germany.

At the M25 in Wichita, wild cards Sebastian Gorzny(Texas) and Ozan Baris(Michigan State), who both completed their collegiate careers last month will meet for the title after three-set victories today. Gorzny defeated Enzo Aguiard(Alabama) of Australia 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 today, with Baris playing the same number of games in his 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 win over No. 5 seed Andrew Fenty(Michigan) 

The 22-year-olds have already met twice in Wichita, with Baris winning in the semifinals in 2023 and Gornzy getting a first round victory in 2024. Baris has now played the tournament four years in a row, with his 2023 final his best showing; Gornzy did not play it last year, but had reached the semifinals in both of his previous appearances there. Gorzny, who is competing in the USTA US Open Collegiate Wild Card Playoffs beginning Tuesday in Lake Nona is seeking his first pro singles title in his first final; Baris, who lost to Ethan Quinn(Georgia) in the 2023 Wichita final, won a M15 title in his hometown of East Lansing in 2023.

Baris already has claimed one title in Wichita this week, partnering with Matthew Shearer(William Carey, Nebraska) of New Zealand to defend their title. Baris, who has now won three Wichita doubles titles in the past four years, and Shearer defeated Charlie Camus(NC State) and Pavel Marinkov of Australia 6-7(8), 7-6(2), 10-7 in a battle between unseeded teams. 

At the M15 in Los Angeles, 20-year-old top seed Kaylan Bigun(UCLA) will face 16-year-old Andy Johnson, the No. 5 seed, in Sunday's final, with the winner collecting his second USTA Pro Circuit title.

Bigun, who won his first title two weeks ago in the opening week of the SoCal Pro Circuit Series, defeated rising Arizona senior Sasha Rozin of Canada 6-4, 6-4 today.

Johnson, who won his first title at the M15 in Sunrise Florida in February, defeated UCLA's No. 1 Spencer Johnson 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Johnson, who considers the Jack Kramer Club his home courts, and Bigun, who also has roots in the area, will be meeting for the first time. 

The title at the W35 in Decatur Illinois will also go to an American, with top seed Madison Brengle facing No. 3 seed Lea Ma(Georgia) in Sunday's final. Brengle defeated No. 4 seed Sahaja Yamalapalli(Sam Houston) of India 6-2, 6-3 and Ma beat No. 5 seed Zuzanna Pawlikowska of Poland 6-3, 6-3. 

Brengle, 36, and Ma, 25, met in the semifinal of a W35 in California last fall, with Brengle winning it 6-2, 7-6(3).

In today's doubles final, unseeded Sara Daavettila(UNC) and Maria Kononova(North Texas) of Russia defeated the unseeded teenaged pair of Thara Gowda and Kaede Usui(Wisconsin) 6-3, 6-2. It's the tenth ITF Pro Circuit title for Kononova, the third for Daavettila.

The fourth all-American final Sunday is at the ATP 250 in Stuttgart Germany, with Ben Shelton(Florida) taking on defending champion Taylor Fritz. Shelton, who won all three of his matches this week from a set down, with rain forcing him to complete his quarterfinal and then play his semifinal today. He saved two match points in his 6-7(4), 7-6(14), 7-6(6) win over Jiri Lehecka of Czechia, after saving a match point in his second round meeting with Marcos Giron(UCLA). 

Fritz had the easier day today, with just one match, a 6-4, 6-4 decision over Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan. But when Shelton and Fritz last met, in the final of ATP 500 in Dallas in February, Shelton got the victory 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, saving three match points. 

For more on today's semifinals, see this article from the ATP website.

The only final that isn't all-USA is at the W15 in Los Angeles, where Kaitlyn Carnicella(Auburn, South Carolina) will face fellow qualifier Alina Shcherbinina(Baylor, Oklahoma) of Russia, with a first Pro Circuit title on the line for both.

The 21-year-old Carnicella, a rising senior at South Carolina, defeated No. 2 seed Monika Ekstrand(Stanford) 0-6, 6-4, 6-4. Shcherbinina, 22, beat No. 3 seed Alexandra Vagramov(UCLA) of Canada 6-4, 6-2.