Brooksby Makes First WTT Final; Mandlik Plays for Second Straight Title Sunday; Leustian, Cooper Win ITF Junior Titles; Top 10 D-I Teams Fall; Baylor and USC Advance to Oracle Collegiate Challenge Final

Wild card Jenson Brooksby advanced to his first ITF World Tennis Tour final today, beating No. 7 seed Sekou Bangoura(Florida) 6-2, 6-4 at the $25,000 tournament in Bakersfield California. The Kalamazoo 18s champion, who doesn't turn 19 until October so therefore is eligible to play in Kalamazoo again this year, had lost the last two times he had reached the semifinals at the $25K level. Brooksby's opponent in the final is recent Illinois graduate and No. 2 seed Aleks Vukic of Australia, who defeated No. 4 seed Joao Menezes of Brazil 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-3 earlier today.

Seventeen-year-old Elli Mandlik aims for her second consecutive WTT title tomorrow at the $15,000 tournament in Arcadia California. The daughter of Hana Mandlikova, who won last week's $15K in Carson, defeated University of Virginia recruit Natasha Subhash, a wild card, 6-4, 6-3 in today's semifinal.  Mandlik, who had lost to Subhash in their previous two meetings, will face top seed Hanna Chang in Sunday's final. Chang defeated No. 3 seed Pamela Montez(UCLA) 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-1 in the semifinals.

At the men's $15K in Arcadia, qualifier Grey Hamilton, a 22-year-old Ole Miss graduate, has advanced to his first WTT final, beating unseeded Alan Kohen of Argentina 6-3, 7-5 today. Hamilton, who beat top seed Gonzalo Lama of Chile yesterday, will face No. 8 seed Antoine Bellier of Switzerland, who defeated Emilio Nava 6-1, 6-2 in just under an hour, in Sunday's final.

Two Americans won singles titles this week on the ITF Junior Circuit. Seventeen-year-old Stefan Leustian won his first ITF Junior Circuit title since 2017 at the Grade 4 in Panama, when top seed Andrew Dale retired trailing 4-0 in the first set. Leustian, the No. 3 seed, lost only one set in his five victories this week. 

At the Grade 5 in Zimbabwe, 17-year-old Lauren Cooper swept the titles with the No. 7 seed beating top-seeded American Dakota Fordham in the singles semifinals and No. 2 seed Tshegofatso Tsiang of Botswana 6-1, 6-0 in the final, giving Cooper her first ITF junior circuit singles title.  Cooper and Fordham won the doubles title, with the No. 2 seeds beating No. 3 seeds Tsitsi Mahere of Zimbabwe and Victoria Sasinka 6-3, 6-2 in the final.

At the Grade 2 in Spain, Hibah Shaikh partnered with Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain to win the girls doubles, with the unseeded pair beating top seeds Carlota Martinez Cirez of Spain and Helene Pellicano of Malta 1-6, 6-4, 10-7 in the final.

Every weekend is filled with important college tennis matches in the next six weeks, and Bobby Knight has been posting regular updates of all the Division I action at College Tennis Today.  A couple of women's top 10 teams lost this weekend, with No. 29 Texas A&M beating No. 4 Vanderbilt 4-2 in College Station and No. 20 Pepperdine taking out No. 8 Texas 5-2.  The Aggies got a notable win from freshman Katya Townsend at line 1, beating No. 3 Fernanda Contreras 6-2, 6-0.  Pepperdine, who had struggled in February, losing three straight to Duke, Cal and Michigan, appears to be back on track now, with their win over Texas their second over a Top 10 team this week. The Waves shut out No. 6 UCLA last Wednesday. Pepperdine's Evgeniya Levashova has not played since the Cal match and is no longer appearing on the team roster.

Two men's surprises came during the week, with No. 2 Wake Forest losing to No. 8 Florida Wednesday and No. 1 Ohio State falling to No. 4 Texas on Thursday, just a day after the firing of Longhorns head coach Michael Center. And last night in Atlanta, No. 7 North Carolina lost to unranked Georgia Tech 4-3.

The annual Oracle Collegiate Challenge is being held again at the BNP Paribas Open, and Sunday's final will pit No. 1 seed Baylor against No. 3 seed USC.  The sixth-ranked Bears took out Cal 4-0 today and the Trojans also earned a second consecutive shutout at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, beating Arizona State this afternoon.