Chrysochos Claims Another ITA Major Title, Jokic Earns Her First at ITA Fall Championships; Opelka, Mejia, Bencic Win Pro Circuit Titles; US Fed Cup Team Loses to Czech Republic

Wake Forest's Petros Chrysochos
photo courtesy ITA

Petros Chrysochos of Wake Forest is developing quite a Division I collegiate resume. The senior from Cyprus defeated Daniel Cukierman of USC 6-4, 7-5 today in the final of the Oracle ITA National Fall Championships to earn his sixth major title, team and individual, in his collegiate career.  Chrysochos, who won the doubles title at the Fall Championships last year, and the All-American singles title back in 2016, added this year's Fall singles title to the NCAA singles championship he won back in May. Wake Forest's titles at the Team Indoor and NCAA Team Championships this year give him four majors in this calendar year alone, and he gave some indication what his opponents have been up against in today's final.

The top-seeded Chrysochos trailed 5-1 in the second set, and was down 0-40 serving at 2-5, but he saved all four set points in that eighth game after saving one on a deciding point with No. 6 seed Cukierman serving at 5-1. After breaking Cukierman at love to get back on serve at 4-5, Chrysochos went down 30-40, but saved two more set points to put his total at seven.  Cukierman, who countered Chrysochos' impressive baseline game by moving forward frequently, wasn't able to come up with any answers once Chrysochos found his form and he was broken for a third straight time to give Chrysochos the opportunity to serve out the match. He had no trouble doing so, dictating with his forehand to close out the championships on his first match point.

The women's title went to University of Georgia sophomore Katarina Jokic, the No. 9 seed, who beat No. 11 seed Kate Fahey of Michigan 6-3, 7-5.  Jokic trailed 3-0 in the second set, got back even, then broke for 5-4, but she was unable to close out the match on her first opportunity. She broke Fahey again to take a 6-5 lead, but again fell behind 15-40 in her second opportunity to serve it out. This time she recovered, forcing a deciding point, and Fahey hit a forehand long to give Jokic the title. Jokic won all six of her matches this week in straight sets.

With their titles,  Chrysochos and Jokic have earned main draw wild cards into an Oracle Challenger Series tournament next year. The singles finals will be re-aired on ESPNU on Tuesday, November 13 at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern time.

Clemson's Marie-Alexandre Leduc and Fernanda Navarro won the women's doubles title, beating Pepperdine's Ashley Lahey and Evgeniya Levashova 7-6(5), 6-2. University of North Carolina-Asheville's Oli Nolan and Henry Patten defeated Bjorn Thomson and Parker Wynn of Texas Tech 6-2, 6-1 to claim the men's title.

Emily Arbuthnott of Stanford won the women’s consolation singles competition for those losing in the first round, defeating Michigan’s Chiara Lommer 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the final.

Alex Lebedev of Notre Dame won the men’s consolation singles title by beating Sameer Kumar of Stanford 6-4, 6-1.

Meghan Kelley and Sofia Munero Sanchez of Virginia won the women’s consolation doubles final, defeating Vera Ploner and Martina Okalova of Tulsa 7-6(4), 6-2.

Penn State’s Constant De La Bassetiere and Gabriel Nemeth won the men’s doubles consolation final, beating Loic Cloes and Clement Marzol of South Alabama 6-3, 6-7(6), 10-7. 

No. 8 seed Reilly Opelka won his second ATP Challenger title of the year and the third of his career today at the $75,000 tournament in Knoxville Tennessee, beating unseeded Bjorn Fratangelo 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(2).

Toshihide Matsui(BYU-Hawaii) of Japan and Frederik Nielsen of Denmark, finalists last week in Charlottesville, captured the doubles title this week in Knoxville. The unseeded pair defeated former Tennessee Volunteers Tennys Sandgren and Hunter Reese, also unseeded, 7-6(6), 7-5 in the final.

No. 8 seed Nicole Gibbs(Stanford) fell in the final of the $80,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit event in Las Vegas, with top seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland earning a 7-5, 6-1 victory.

Eighteen-year-old Nicolas Mejia of Colombia won his first ITF Men's Pro Circuit title today at the $15,000 Futures in Niceville Florida. The unseeded IMG Academy student defeated No. 2 seed Strong Kirchheimer(Northwestern) 6-4, 6-4 in a two-hour-plus final.

The US Fed Cup team lost to the Czech Republic in the second day of the final in Prague. After Barbora Strycova had beaten Sonya Kenin 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-4 and Katerina Siniakova had defeated Alison Riske 6-3, 7-6(2) on Saturday, the US needed the final three matches to pull out the win. Kenin was close to sending it to a fourth match, coming back several times in a nearly four-hour battle with Siniakova, but Kenin did not convert her two match points late in the third set, and Siniakova claimed a 7-5, 5-7, 7-5 victory to give the Czech an insurmountable 3-0 lead. The remaining two matches were not played. For more on Sunday's deciding match, see this article from the Fed Cup website.