Spizzirri and Breunich Earn ITF Grade 5 Titles in St. Vincent; Oudin Retires; Gojo Beats Bemelmans in WInston-Salem Qualifying

American juniors earned singles titles today at the ITF Grade 5 tournament in St. Vincent. 

The top-seeded Eliot Spizzirri, who exactly a week ago played in the third place 16s doubles match in Kalamazoo, won his second ITF singles title with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over unseeded Diego Gonzalez of Venezuela in the final. The 15-year-old from Connecticut won his first singles title at the Grade 5 in Martinique last April.

Sixteen-year-old Willa Bay Breunich, also the No. 1 seed, won her first ITF singles title when Mell Reasco Gonzalez of Ecuador retired trailing 5-2 in the first set.

Both Spizzirri and Breunich also reached the doubles finals, but both lost, with Spizzirri and Roger Lyn giving a walkover to their opponents, while Breunich and Sofia Rojas retired up 6-3, 1-2.

At the ITF Grade 4 in Mexico, Nathan Han, who also played Kalamazoo, won the doubles title and lost in the singles final.  Han and Blu Baker of Great Britain, seeded No. 1, defeated Alvaro Gonzalez of Mexico and Sasha Pachnev of Canada 6-0, 6-1 for the doubles championship.  Han, the No. 2 seed, lost to top seed Marcelo Sepulveda Garza of Mexico 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the singles final.

Jack Sock and Melanie Oudin won the US Open Mixed Doubles title in 2011

Melanie Oudin announced her retirement from professional tennis yesterday at the age of 25.  Oudin, whose amazing run to the quarterfinals of the US Open as a 17-year-old back in 2009 was one of the most unexpected and exciting sports stories of that summer, suffered from injury and illness for most of the last five years.  I watched Oudin come up through the juniors and she was talented, modest, hard-working and competitive. She was fun to watch and made the most of what she had; it's a shame her health didn't allow her to display those qualities the past several years. For more on Oudin's retirement, see the WTA website.

At the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati, the last two Americans bowed out in today's semifinals, with wild card Sloane Stephens dropping a 6-2, 6-1 decision to No. 2 seed Simona Halep of Romania and No. 14 seed John Isner falling to No. 7 seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria 7-6(4), 7-6(10).  Both should be encouraged by their results this week however, as they look ahead to the US Open.

At the men's Winston-Salem Open, Wake Forest rising sophomore Borna Gojo played his first match against an ATP Top 100 player and got his first Top 100 win, beating No. 3 seed Ruben Bemelmans of Belgium 7-6(3),3-6, 7-6(6). Wild card Gojo, of Croatia, will face No. 8 seed Alex Bolt of Australia for a place in the main draw.  Former Georgia Tech star Kevin King defeated 18-year-old Alex De Minaur of Australia, the No. 5 seed, 6-1, 6-2 and will face Marton Fucsovics of Hungary in the final round of qualifying.

At the WTA's Connecticut Open, Christina McHale is the only American who made it through this weekend's qualifying (Correction: there were three rounds of qualifying and she lost in the final round). Sloane Stephens and Lauren Davis are the only Americans in the main draw. Rising Yale freshman Samantha Martinelli lost in the first round of qualifying, but she spoke with the media about her experience in this article from the New Haven Register.