Top Seeds Out in ITF GB1 European Championships; Recaps of Casper and Nisbet's 16s Clay Court Titles; Manasse, Cressy Among Americans Advancing to USTA Pro Circuit Quarterfinals

Today's fourth round of the ITF Grade B1 European Championships in Switzerland saw both the No. 1 seeds in the singles draw ousted, while in the boys draw, No. 2, No. 3 and No. 4 also lost.

Boys top seed Gauthier Onclin of Belgium lost to unseeded 17-year-old Peter Fajta of Hungary 7-6(2), 6-4. Fajta has never played a Grade A event and hadn't played a Grade 1 until this spring. No. 2 seed and Wimbledon semifinalist Harold Mayot of France lost to No. 14 seed Leandro Reidi of Switzerland 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-2 and No. 3 seed and Wimbledon boys finalist Carlos Gimeno Valero of Spain lost a tough one to unseeded Nemanja Malesevic of Bosnia 7-6(6), 4-6, 7-6(4). No. 4 seed Flavio Cobolli of Italy lost to unseeded Nicholas David Ionel of Romania 7-5, 6-0. Only three seeds remain in the boys quarterfinals with the highest No. 8 Dalibor Svrcina of the Czech Republic.

Eighteen-year-old Loudmilla Bencheikh of France, who has a WTA ranking of 503 but wasn't seeded in this event, defeated top seed Alina Charaeva of Russia 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(2). There are six seeds remaining in the girls quarterfinals, including 14-year-old Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic, the No. 3 seed.

Three of the four top seeds have advanced to the quarterfinals in the 14s and 16s divisions. Links to those draws can be found here.

The Tennis Recruiting Network has articles today on the boys 16s and girls 16s USTA Clay Courts finals. Luke Casper's win over Samir Banerjee went to a third-set tiebreaker, and Casper saved seven match points in collecting his second gold ball in singles. Rhiannon Potkey talked to both players about a final I'm sure they will both remember long after they've finished playing tennis competitively. The girls 16s title belongs to 14-year-old Aubrey Nisbet and Sonny Dearth explains in his recap why the success she enjoyed this week caught her by surprise.

The quarterfinals are set for the ATP Challenger 80 in Binghamton New York and the $60,000 ITF World Tennis Tour women's event in Ashland Kentucky, with two US men and five US women advancing with wins today.

Former Cal star Maegan Manasse, who reached the final in Ashland last year, won her match with top seed Madison Brengle when Brengle retired trailing 5-1 in the first set. No. 3 seed Ann Li, qualifier Hanna Chang, qualifier Alexa Glatch and No. 5 seed Robin Anderson(UCLA) have also reached the quarterfinals, with Anderson and Glatch meeting  Friday for a place in the semifinals.

In Binghamton, recent UCLA graduate Maxime Cressy was joined in the quarterfinals this evening by Mitchell Krueger. Cressy, unseeded, defeated Sekou Bangoura(Florida) 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(3) to reach his second Challenger quarterfinal this month. Krueger, the No. 7 seed, defeated 17-year-old Jan Sinner of Italy 7-5, 1-6, 6-3.

Ohio State freshman Cannon Kingsley, who will be playing here in Kalamazoo next week, advanced to the quarterfinals at the $25,000 tournament in Champaign-Urbana. The No. 7 seed defeated Michael Shabaz(Virginia) 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-4 and will play NCAA singles semifinalist Aleks Kovacevic, a rising senior at Illinois on Friday. No. 3 seed Jenson Brooksby, a rising freshman at Baylor, beat Govind Nanda(UCLA) 4-6, 7-5, 6-2, after Nanda had served for the match at 6-4, 5-4. Brooksby's opponent in the quarterfinals is No. 8 seed Keenan Mayo, who left Illinois after his freshman year and has recently signed with Loyola Marymount.

Four Americans have advanced to the quarterfinals at the $25,000 women's tournament in Evansville Indiana, including Natasha Subhash and Elli Mandlik. Subhash, 17, will face former Vanderbilt star Fernanda Contreras of Mexico, a qualifier, next. The 18-year-old Mandlik, who took out 16-year-old Gabby Price 6-3, 6-0 in the second round today, plays No. 5 seed Haruna Arakawa of Japan in the quarterfinals. Grace Min[6] and Kate Fahey(Michigan) are the other two American quarterfinalists.