ITA Small College Championships Complete, Super Bowl Winners Set for New York; Dadamo Claims First Pro Circuit Title

The next week or so will be about filling the field for the USTA/ITA Indoor Intercollegiate Championships, which will be November 7 through November 10 at the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center in New York. Some of the regionals are underway now, and others will be held next weekend, with the regional champions earning a place in the IIC draw.

The eight quarterfinalists from the All-American Championships last weekend,as well as the consolation winner, have already qualified, and today the small college representatives were determined during the ITA's Super Bowl today in Fort Myers, Florida.  The Division II, Division III, NAIA and Junior College regional champions play for national titles in their respective divisions over the first three days of the tournament, then the winners of those divisions play off for one of the coveted 32 spots in the Indoor draw.

This year, NAIA Embry-Riddle's Deni Zmak won the men's overall title, defeating Tyler Community College's Mate Cutura 5-7, 7-6(4), 6-4.  Zmak will be competing in both singles and doubles in New York, after winning the doubles title too, with Simon Felix. Zmak and Felix beat Division III champions Palmer Campbell and Brantner Jones of Middlebury 6-2, 6-3.

The women's overall singles winner was Valentine Confalonieri of Division II Lynn University.  Confalonieri beat Junior College champion Niriantsa Rosolomalala of Georgia Perimeter 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-2. The doubles team of Emma Onila and Linda Fritschken of Division II Barry claimed a 6-4, 6-1 win over Fausthy Pietersz and Joanna Savva of Tyler Junior College to earn their place in the Indoor Championships.

For more on today's finals, see this article from the ITA staff in Fort Myers.

Two unseeded left-handed Americans faced off for their first Pro Circuit singles title today, and it was 24-year-old Jeff Dadamo who emerged the winner against 21-year-old Evan King at the $15,000 Futures in Houston, Texas.  Former Texas A&M All-American Dadamo, the 2011 NCAA doubles champion with Austin Krajicek, beat recent University of Michigan graduate King 6-3, 6-1 in the final.

Former University of Virginia star Sanam Singh won the doubles title with Vijayant Malik, also of India, with the unseeded pair beating No. 4 seeds King and former Oklahoma standout Costin Paval of Romania 7-6(5), 6-4.

In the women's $25,000 Pro Circuit event in Macon, Ga., No. 4 seed Anna Tatishvili of Georgia defeated top seed Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia 6-2, 1-6, 7-5 in the final.  The doubles title went to former Ole Miss players Kristi Boxx and Abby Guthrie, who defeated another unseeded team, Emily Harman (Syracuse) and Liz Lumpkin (UCLA), 3-6, 7-6, 10-4.

At the $100,000 Tiburon Challenger, the doubles title went to former Tennessee All-American Rhyne Williams and Krajicek, the No. 3 seeds, who defeated Rajeev Ram (Illinois) and Bradley Klahn (Stanford), the No. 2 seeds, 6-1, 6-4 in final. The Tiburon championship is Krajicek's third Challenger doubles title of the year, the other two coming with another former Tennessee star, Tennys Sandgren.  Today's win was Williams' first doubles title at a Challenger this year.

The singles final didn't feature any Americans, with Peter Polansky of Canada defeating Matthew Ebden of Australia 7-5, 6-3, after Ebden beat top seed Denis Kudla and Polansky took out No. 2 seed Tim Smyczek in the semifinals.