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Saturday, April 3, 2010

One Women's Collegiate Streak Ends, One Continues; Thompson, Santamaria Win In Claremont; Puig, Tomljanovic Have Pro Success

Another day filled with important college matches, with two women's teams facing the possible end of impressive winning streaks. No. 12 Stanford extended its home match winning streak to an NCAA-record 159 by beating No. 7 UCLA 5-2 today in Palo Alto, but No. 4 Northwestern's Big Ten winning streak was snapped in Evanston when No. 8 Michigan defeated the Wildcats 4-3. Prior to today's loss, which is Northwestern's third in a row, the Wildcats had not lost to a Big Ten opponent in 81 matches dating back to April of 2004. With the loss, Northwestern's streak of 11 straight Big Ten titles could also be in jeopardy. In a non-conference match between Top 10 opponents, No. 2 Baylor downed No. 6 Notre Dame 6-1 in Waco. Baylor's next opponent is Northwestern, who visits next Friday.

In men's collegiate action today, No. 7 Stanford defeated No. 9 UCLA 4-3 in Los Angeles. The Bruins were playing without Haythem Abid and Holden Seguso. Another close one went also went to the higher-ranked team, as No. 5 Texas beat No. 13 Texas Tech 4-3 in Lubbock. And on Friday, No. 12 Texas A & M needed a third-set tiebreaker win from Austin Krajicek at No. 1 singles to beat No. 37 Nebraska 4-3 in Lincoln.

The Claremont ITF Grade 4 concluded today, with Southern Californians collecting both singles titles. No. 11 seed Clay Thompson outlasted Clarke Spinosa 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 to take the boys championship, and unseeded Sabrina Santamaria won the girls title with a 6-3, 7-6(3) decision over Zoe Scandalis, also unseeded. Unseeded Marcos Giron and Daniel Ho won the boys doubles 6-4, 6-4 over Thompson and his partner Mackenzie McDonald, and unseeded Amanda Lin and Alyssa Smith won the girls doubles with a 6-2, 0-6, 10-8 win over Julia Elbaba and Kyle McPhillips.

For the complete results, click here.

Qualifying for the International Spring Championships began today, and although most of my day Sunday will be spent traveling, I will try to link to the main draws when they are posted Sunday evening. See the ISC site for more information.

On the Pro Circuit, Croatia's Ajla Tomljanovic has reached the final of the $25,000 event in Pelham, Ala., where the unseeded 16-year-old will meet No. 2 Edina Gallovits of Romania. Former Florida All-American Greg Ouellette is in the final of the $15,000 Futures in Mobile, where he will play Ivo Klec of Slovakia. For complete results, see the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.

There were several juniors in the qualifying of the two professional clay court events beginning next week. In Houston, Ryan Harrison and Tiago Fernandes of Brazil both lost in the first round of qualifying. In Ponte Vedra Beach, wild cards Jan Abaza and Beatrice Capra (who, by the way, has dropped out of the Easter Bowl), lost in the first round of qualifying to Julie Ditty and Michaella Krajicek respectively. Wild card Monica Puig did win her first match however, defeating Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus 2-6, 6-4, 6-2. Sloane Stephens was given a wild card into the main draw of this event, the MPS Championships. For the draws, see the tournament website.

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