Xu, Dale Reach ITF Grade 2 Finals; Broadus Advances at Lubbock $15K; Wolf Tops Mmoh at Columbus Challenger; USTA Fall Ranked Spotlight Next Weekend at Lake Nona Campus

The singles finals are set for Friday at the ITF Grade 2 in Montreal, with top seed Andrew Dale and unseeded Valencia Xu taking on second-seeded Canadians for the titles.  Dale defeated JJ Tracy 6-0, 6-2 and will face Joshua Lapadat, who beat No. 6 seed Alex Kiefer 6-2, 6-2 in the other semifinal today.

Xu, the USTA 16s finalist in San Diego, defeated 13-year-old qualifier Victoria Mboko of Canada 2-6, 7-5, 6-0 and will play Jada Bui, who beat unseeded Annabelle Xu of Canada 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.

The doubles finals were played today, with Lapadat and his partner Ilya Tiraspolsky, also of Canada, beating Bruno Kuzuhara and Victor Lilov 6-2, 6-3 for the boys title. No. 3 seeds Jenna DeFalco and her Canadian partner Marina Stakusic won the girls doubles title, beating top seeds Bui and her partner Sarah-Maude Fortin of Canada 3-6, 6-2, 10-6 in the final.

At the ITF Grade A in South Africa, Elvina Kalieva lost to top seed Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic in today's quarterfinals 6-0, 7-5, but she is still alive in doubles, with partner Alexandra Eala of the Philippines. The No. 4 seeds take on No. 2 seeds Ziva Falkner of Slovenia and Matilda Mutavdzic of Great Britain in the semifinals.

Rain continues to plague the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Houston, with the second round yet to begin today, but last night TCU freshman Tadeus Paroulek of the Czech Republic defeated top seed Sebastian Fanselow(Pepperdine) of Germany 7-5, 3-6, 6-4. Wild card Ron Hohmann(LSU) beat No. 6 seed Nick Hardt of the Dominican Republic 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-3 and Austin Rapp(UCLA) beat No. 3 seed Nicolas Mejia of Colombia 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-3.

The quarterfinals are set at both $15,000 tournaments, with just two US men, but six US women, into the last eight. Georgia sophomore Trent Bryde will face No. 2 seed Nick Chappell(TCU) in the quarterfinals of the tournament in Fayetteville Arkansas to decide which American reaches the semifinals. Bryde and US Open boys doubles champion Tyler Zink(Georgia) are in the doubles semifinals. In Lubbock Texas, Savannah Broadus defeated wild card Katja Wiersholm 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to advance to a meeting with Dalayna Hewitt, who beat No. 4 seed Andrea Villarreal of Mexico 6-2, 6-3.  Other Americans into the quarterfinals are Jessica Livianu(St. Johns), No. 3 seed Dasha Ivanova, Lauren Proctor(Winthrop) and qualifier McCartney Kessler(Florida).

Two US men remain in the ATP 90 Challenger in Columbus, with JJ Wolf reaching his first quarterfinal at that level since turning pro. The former Ohio State star, seeded No. 13 defeated Michael Mmoh 6-2, 6-2 to advance to a meeting with unseeded Gabriel Petit of France. 2017 NCAA champion Thai Kwiatkowski(Virginia), the No. 5 seed, will face No. 4 seed Peter Polansky of Canada in the quarterfinals.

Lots of early season college events are on for this weekend and next, and Central Florida and North Carolina State will be hosting an eight-school, 32-player singles tournament, as well as doubles, next weekend at the USTA's National Campus at Lake Nona.  I'll be at the campus covering the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Fed Cup, but if I have any spare time I will try to get to some of those matches. NCAA champion  Estela Perez-Somarriba of Miami is expected to compete, along with Kessler, Isabelle Boulais of Ohio State and NC State's Anna Rogers. For more on the schools participating and the schedule, see this article from the USTA.