Holt Reaches Champaign Futures Semifinal; Anisimova Advances to Quarterfinals in Stockton $60K; ESPN to Stream Boys 12s Clay Courts Finals; ITA Announces D-III Indoor Fields

USC rising sophomore Brandon Holt has advanced to his first Futures semifinal, with the 19-year-old wild card beating former Trojan Eric Johnson 6-2, 6-1 at the $25,000 Champaign Futures.  Holt, who reached the quarterfinals of one of the Wake Forest Futures last month, will face No. 2 seed Jose Statham of New Zealand in the semifinals. Statham got past wild card Zeke Clark, an Illinois rising sophomore, 6-3, 7-6(2).  Former Tulane star Dominik Koepfer of Germany, the No. 3 seed, will face unseeded Ricardo Rodriguez-Pace of Venezuela in the other semifinal.  Holt and teammate Riley Smith are also through to the doubles semifinals, as are John McNally and Govind Nanda, both of whom are entered in the Kalamazoo 18s next month.

At the $60,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Stockton California, 15-year-old Amanda Anisimova defeated No. 6 seed Grace Min 6-1, 6-2 to advance to the quarterfinals against 2015 NCAA champion Jamie Loeb, the No. 2 seed.  Loeb defeated Caroline Dolehide 6-3, 6-2.  Also advancing to the quarterfinals are 18-year-olds Sonya Kenin[4] and Ashley Kratzer and 19-year-old Ohio State rising junior Francesca Di Lorenzo.  Top seed Kristie Ahn was beaten by Irina Falconi, and No. 3 seed Danielle Collins lost to Shilin Xu of China, a former ITF world junior No. 1.

The USTA announced today that the singles and doubles finals of the USTA Boys 12s Clay Courts will be streamed on Watch ESPN at 10:00 am this Saturday with Jimmy Arias and Steven Goldstein providing commentary.  I believe this ESPN involvement is a first for a USTA National Junior Championship.

Only one of the No. 1 seeds in the eight divisions is still alive in the USTA Clay Court Championships: Fiona Crawley, the top seed in the Girls 16s.  The top seeds in the seven other divisions all have been eliminated prior to the semifinals and often considerably earlier.  Links to the draws can be found in my post from Tuesday.

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced the teams that will be participating in the 2018 Division III Team Indoor Championships.  The women's event is March 2-4, 2018; the men's event is February 23-25, 2018.

The women's teams:
Emory
Pomona-Pitzer
Chicago
Washington University in St. Louis
Carnegie Mellon
Johns Hopkins
Washington & Lee
Sewanee (Host)

The men's teams:

Emory
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
Washington University in St. Louis
Chicago
Carnegie Mellon
University of Redlands
Trinity (TX)
Gustavus Adolphus (Host)

The participation of CMS is something of a novelty, but certainly strengthens the field.

The ITA release is here.