Wild Cards, Qualifying Draws for ITF Grade 1 Pan American Closed; Top Seed Shibahara Out at ITA Women's All-American Championships; Li Advances to Hilton Head Semifinals

The ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed begins Saturday in Tulsa with qualifying matches, although the draws are sparsely populated.  Only 13 boys and 19 girls signed in for the qualifying, meaning three boys made the main draw without having to win a single qualifying match.  The top 3 seeds in the boys qualifying--Diego Fernandez del Valle Moreno of Mexico, Bill Duo and Britton Johnston--are in the main draw now.  All of the girls in the qualifying draw will have to win at least one match to advance to the main draw, which I'll be covering in person beginning on Monday.

The wild cards, all for main draw, of course, are:

Girls:
Charlotte Owensby
Elvina Kalieva
Alexandra Yepifanova
Hina Inoue
Ava Hrastar

Boys:
Alex Bernard
Hunter Heck
Marcus McDaniel
Lucca Takeda Baptista(BRA)

All sorts of chaos hit the ITA Women's All-American Championships in Pacific Palisades California.  Two qualifiers, Aliona Bolsova of Florida Atlantic and Fernanda Contreras of Vanderbilt, have advanced to the semifinals as has lucky loser Andrea Lazaro of Florida International. Top seed Ena Shibahara of UCLA was defeated by Vanderbilt sophomore Christina Rosca 6-3, 6-2 in the round of 16, with Rosca falling to Lazaro in the quarterfinals, with two singles matches played today. The only seed remaining in the semifinals is No. 2 Gabriela Talaba of Texas Tech. Talaba will face Contreras in Saturday's semifinals, with Bolsova and Lazaro meeting in a non-Power 5, all-Spanish contest.

At the men's All-American Championships in Tulsa, only one round of singles was played Friday, with two rounds scheduled for Saturday.  Top seed Mikael Torpegaard of Ohio State survived a tough match with Victor Pham of Columbia, but No. 2 seed Nuno Borges of Mississippi State was eliminated by Eduardo Mena of Tennessee Tech. Defending champion Petros Chrysochos[3] of Wake Forest and 2017 NCAA singles finalist William Blumberg[4] of North Carolina also have reached the round of 16.  Pre-qualifier Ferran Calvo of Oklahoma continued his amazing run, winning his eighth straight match with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 victory over No. 9 seed Timo Stodder of Tennessee. For more on Tyler Junior College transfer Calvo, see the ITA's Day Two recap.

Ann Li has advanced to the semifinals of the $15,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit event in Hilton Head South Carolina, beating No. 4 seed Montserrat Gonzalez of Paraguay 6-0, 3-6, 6-2.  Li will face University of Texas sophomore Bianca Turtati of Italy, the No. 6 seed, in the semifinals.  Turtati's twin sister Anna, also a sophomore at Texas, will face top seed Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway in the other semifinal.  Caty McNally and Great Britain's Emily Appleton advanced to the doubles final, where they'll play wild cards Meg Kowalski and her 14-year-old partner Kylie Collins for the title.

At the $100,000 ATP Challenger in Stockton California, Michael Mmoh and Tim Smyczek have moved into semifinals, as has former TCU star Cameron Norrie.  Mmoh advanced when Dmitry Tursunov of Russia retired after dropping the first set today, while Smyczek defeated Elias Ymer of Sweden 6-4, 6-4.  Smyczek faces No. 6 seed Darian King, who beat Stefan Kozlov 6-4, 6-4.  No. 3 seed Mmoh will play No. 8 seed Norrie, who beat No. 2 seed Tennys Sandgren for the second week in a row, 6-3, 7-6(5). 

The semifinals of the $100,000 ATP Challenger in Monterrey Mexico also feature two Americans, with Bradley Klahn and Kevin King, both using protected rankings, beating fellow American left-handers in today's quarterfinals. Klahn took out Austin Krajicek 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 and King beat Evan King 7-6(5), 7-6(4). Klahn will play No. 3 seed Quentin Halys of France and King meets No. 4 seed Maximilian Marterer of Germany.