Bellis Defeats Seed in Carlsbad $125K; College Players Dominate Waco Futures; USTA's October Honor Roll; ITA Division II, III and NAIA Fall Rankings

Sixteen-year-old CiCi Bellis returned to competition for the first time since the US Open women's qualifying today at the $125,000 WTA Carlsbad, California tournament, beating No. 6 seed Julia Glushko of Israel 6-3, 6-4. Bellis, who has been injured, will play Katerina Stewart next. The 18-year-old Floridian advanced to the second round with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Paula Goncalves of Brazil Monday. Bellis and Stewart have played four times, twice in juniors and twice in Pro Circuit events last October, with Bellis going 4-0.

Other Americans advancing to the round of 16 include Kristie Ahn, Samantha Crawford, Jennifer Brady and No. 5 seed Nicole Gibbs. Gibbs won in unusual fashion on Monday, when her opponent, Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia, was defaulted with Gibbs leading 6-3, 3-2 after apparently for unsportsmanlike conduct. She apologized on twitter, specifically to Gibbs and to her doubles partner, Vania King, calling her behavior "unacceptable." Defaults for misconduct put the player out of the tournament, so King was unable to compete in doubles with an alternate team taking their place.

At the $15,000 Waco Futures, 12 of the 16 players remaining in the draw are current or former college players.

Dennis Nevolo (Illinois),  who defeated top seed Daniel Nguyen(USC) yesterday, will play Texas A&M sophomore Arthur Rinderknech, a qualifier;  TCU sophomore Cameron Norrie will face No. 6 seed Stefan Kozlov; No. 4 seed Tom Jomby(Kentucky) will play qualifier Jacob Sude(Oklahoma State); Clay Thompson(UCLA) meets No. 5 seed Sekou Bangoura(Florida); qualifier Robbie Mudge(North Carolina State) plays No. 8 seed Maximiliano Estevez of Argentina; Baylor senior Julian Lenz faces No. 3 seed Nick Meister(UCLA); TCU sophomore Guillermo Nunez plays No. 7 seed Tigre Hank of Mexico and Baylor junior Maxime Tchoutakian faces Champaign Challenger champion, No. 2 seed Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland.

The USTA posts an Honor Roll every month of the top performances by US players aged 20 and under, recognizing both the player and their coaches.  Although I try to mention as many of these achievements as I can for those 18-and-under, I do miss a few, so please check out this detailed list.

The ITA released the NAIA fall rankings today, with Kevin Konfederak and Jordan Cox of Georgia Gwinnett No. 1 and No. 2. Georgia Gwinnett also has the top-ranked women in NAIA, Valeria Podda.

In the Division II rankings, released yesterday, Alejandra Cisneros of Armstrong State is the top-ranked woman, and Jan Meyer of Azusa Pacific is No. 1 in the men's rankings.

The Division III fall rankings came out earlier this month, with Eudice Chong of Wesleyan and Noah Farrell of Middlebury No. 1 in singles.

The links to the complete lists for all divisions can be found at the ITA rankings page.