Ong, Geller, Talaba Win USTA Pro Circuit Titles; Cal's Kikuchi Claims Napa Classic Solinco Shoot Out; Johnson Beats Kozlov for Kunal Patel San Francisco Title

Qualifier Vanessa Ong won her first Pro Circuit title today in Lawrence Kansas, beating No. 2 seed Anastasia Nefedova 6-0, 7-5 at the $15,000 event. Ong, a 17-year-old from Oklahoma who committed to UCLA this summer, had not gotten beyond the quarterfinals at any pro event before this week, although she has been plagued by injuries in the past two years, limiting her competitive matches.

Stanford junior Axel Geller won his second title in the past four months, and his third overall, at the $15,000 tournament in Champaign Illinois today, beating Tennessee junior Adam Walton of Australia 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. Both players had ace counts in double digits, with No. 4 seed Geller hitting 13 and Walton, a qualifier, 12. Geller, who has won three doubles titles this summer, won both singles and doubles titles at one of the Cancun $15Ks back in June.

At the $25,000 women's event in Redding California, former Texas Tech star Gabriela Talaba beat 18-year-old Alycia Parks 6-1, 6-1 for her first singles title of the year.  The 24-year-old from Romania, seeded No. 3, dropped only one set in her five victories.

The singles title at the ATP 80 Challenger in Cary North Carolina went to top seed Andreas Seppi of Italy, who beat No. 11 seed Michael Mmoh 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-3.  Mmoh did pick up a title however after the singles final, winning the doubles championship with Sekou Bangoura. The unseeded pair defeated Treat Huey(Virginia) of the Philippines and JP Smith(Tennessee) of Australia, also unseeded, 4-6, 6-4, 10-8. It's the first Challenger doubles title for both Mmoh and Bangoura.

At the Audi Napa Valley Tennis Classic, Cal sophomore Yuta Kikuchi won the Solinco Shoot Out, which provides a Pro Circuit main draw wild card to the player who wins his round robin group, then survives an eight-player series of tiebreakers that concludes the tournament. Seventeen-year-old Stefan Leustian was the only member of the USTA junior team to advance out of the round robin stage.  Kalamazoo 18s semifinalist and Harvard freshman Ronan Jachuck made the final of the Shoot Out, losing to Kikuchi 10-8.

Complete results from all three days of competition can be found here.

The finals of the Kunal Patel San Francisco Championships were held this afternoon at the Berkeley Tennis Club, with Steve Johnson capturing the title and the $50,000 first prize with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Stefan Kozlov. Kozlov, who receives $20,000 as the runner-up, had upset Sam Querrey in the semifinals 6-4, 7-5, while Johnson had beaten longtime junior and college rival Bradley Klahn 6-4, 7-6(6) in the other semifinal.

Complete draws can be found at the UTR tournament page.