McNally Advances to Citi Open Quarterfinals, Receives Cincinnati Wild Card; Arconada and Dolehide Reach Quarterfinals at Pan Am Games; Pro Circuit Update; Southern Girls Win National 18s Team Championships

Seventeen-year-old Caty McNally won her first main draw WTA match on Tuesday at the Citi Open and it didn't take her long to earn her second. McNally defeated Christina McHale 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 this afternoon to advance to the quarterfinals of the WTA International event, where she will meet the winner of tonight's match between No. 4 seed Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan and qualifier Vavara Gracheva of Russia. McNally and Coco Gauff, who were given a wild card into doubles, have reached the semifinals.  The other two Americans still in singles meet in a quarterfinal contest Friday, with Lauren Davis facing Jessica Pegula.

Earlier in the day, McNally was announced as a main draw wild card for her hometown event, Cincinnati's Western and Southern Open, in two weeks. JJ Wolf(Ohio State), another Cincinnati area product, received a men's qualifying wild card.

At the WTA Premier event in San Jose, Amanda Anisimova, the No. 4 seed, advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Madison Brengle. Qualifier Kristie Ahn picked up her best win by ranking today, beating No. 3 seed Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-3, 6-3. Ahn, who has made one previous WTA quarterfinal, back in 2017 at Nottingham, should take over the lead in the USTA's US Open Wild Card Challenge with one week to go, although McNally is also piling up points this week. With the San Jose tournament a higher level, Ahn has the advantage as of now, plus she was in 7th place prior to this week, while McNally had no points prior to this week.

The women's leader in that race for the past three weeks, Usue Arconada, is in Peru representing the United States at the Pan Am Games. Both Arconada, seeded No. 3,  and Caroline Dolehide, seeded No. 4, are in the quarterfinals, playing for a place in the medal round on Friday.  The pair have already reached the medal round in doubles, where they are the top seeds.

I am not able to cover the Pro Circuit events this week as I normally would, with the Kalamazoo Nationals beginning bright and early tomorrow, but here's what going on in the four events in the United States, with the quarterfinals set for Friday.

At the $25,000 men's tournament in Decatur, three Americans have advanced to the quarterfinals: last week's champion Jenson Brooksby(Baylor), the No. 3 seed; Aleks Kovacevic(Illinois), and Christian Langmo(Miami). Langmo was one of the Tennis Recruiting Network's July Aces, for his first ITF World Tennis Tour $15K title last week in Cancun, and Brooksby was also featured, for his win in Champaign-Urbana.

At the women's $25,000 tournament in Fort Worth, six of the quarterfinalists are Americans: No. 2 seed Catherine Harrison(UCLA); Lorraine Guillermo(Pepperdine), who beat top seed Gabriela Talaba of Romania; Sophie Whittle(Gonzaga); lucky loser Chanelle Van Nguyen(UCLA); Lauren Proctor(Winthrop) and Alexa Glatch.

The men and women are both in Lexington Kentucky this week, with the men competing in the ATP 80 Challenger and the women at a $60,000 ITF tournament. Two former Virginia Cavaliers have moved into the quarterfinals of the men's event, with teammates JC Aragone, seeded 13th, and unseeded Alexander Ritschard getting wins today. Former Baylor Bear Roy Smith could join them with a win tonight.

Three US women, all in the bottom half, reached the quarterfinals. Unseeded Jamie Loeb(North Carolina) and No. 2 seed Ann Li will meet in one quarterfinal; No. 3 seed Robin Anderson(UCLA), who made the semifinals last week in the Ashland Kentucky $60K, is now at a career-high of 162 in the WTA rankings.

The Southern section claimed its second 18s National Team championship, with the girls taking the title Wednesday in California after the boys team won their version Tuesday in Tennessee. I don't know who was seeded what, but Southern defeated Texas 4-3 and like the boys, they did it with their depth. After winning the doubles point, they lost the singles matches at lines 1, 2 and 3, but won at 4, 5 and 6 to take the title.  Below are the results from the final.

I've added the girls 12s seeds, which weren't available last night, to the post with the seeds from all the other girls Nationals and the boys 12s and 14s.