Cressy, Wolf Reach Challenger Finals; Emory and CMS Advance to Women's D-III Indoor Final; McKennon and DeFalco Win ITF Titles; Grant Makes Tennis Europe U12 Final in France
A year ago, both Maxime Cressy and JJ Wolf were playing college tennis, for UCLA and Ohio State. On Sunday, they will play for their second ATP Challenger titles of the year after claiming deciding tiebreakers at events in Calgary and Columbus.
The 22-year-old Cressy, who won last week's ATP Challenger in Drummondville, pounded 31 aces in his 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(5) over No. 7 seed Liam Broady of Great Britain. The No. 10 seed this week, Cressy will move to a career-high regardless of the result on Sunday, when he meets No. 8 seed Arthur Rinderknech of France in a rematch of the Drummondville final. Rinderknech, a Texas A&M graduate, defeated unseeded Kacper Zuk of Poland 6-3, 7-6(3).
The 21-year-old Wolf earned his second consecutive win over former teammate Mikael Torpegaard of Denmark, taking a 7-6(2), 7-6(5) decision over the 2016 NCAA singles finalist. There were no breaks of serve in the match, with No. 6 seed Wolf saving three break points and No. 8 seed Torpegaard two. Wolf will play No. 5 seed Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, who defeated No. 13 seed Jurij Rodionov of Austria 6-3, 7-6(1). Treat Huey(Virginia) and Nate Lammons(SMU) won their second Challenger title in the past three weeks, with the No. 4 seeds defeating unseeded Lloyd Glasspool(Texas) of Great Britain and Alex Lawson(Notre Dame) 7-6(3), 7-6(4) in today's final.
At the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit women's event in Rancho Santa Fe California, No. 3 seed Xiaodi You of China won the singles title, beating No. 5 seed Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia 6-4, 7-6(5). Kayla Day and Sophie Whittle took the doubles title, with the unseeded Americans beating No. 2 seeds You and Eudice Chong(Wesleyan) of Hong Kong 6-2, 5-7, 10-7 in the final.
The finals are set for the ITA Women's Division III Team Indoor Championships, and as with the men, Emory and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps will contest the Sunday's final. Neither were challenged in today's semifinals, with top seed CMS defeating No. 4 seed Carnegie Mellon 9-0 and No. 2 seed Emory beating No. 3 seed Pomona-Pitzer 8-1. The final is scheduled for noon on Sunday at the Top Seed Tennis Club in Nicholasville Kentucky. Links to live scoring and live streaming is available at the ITA tournament page.
DeFalco won her sixth singles title on the ITF Junior Circuit, defeating fellow American Daniella Benabraham 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-2 in the final. Unseeded Tauheed Browning reached the boys final, but lost to No. 3 seed Maxime Mareschal-Hay of Canada 6-3, 6-0.
Bolton and Les Petits As always draw Americans to those major Tennis Europe Indoor events, and the USTA usually puts together a team and provides a coach for the eight 14-and-under boys and girls who make the trip. But the 12s age division doesn't normally attract Americans, possibly because there are no rankings (or seedings) for that age group in Europe and it's difficult to know where the best American players might fit in. The USTA doesn't sponsor a trip, but this year at the Open Super 12 Auray in France, an important Level 1, two Americans did participate and performed well. Carel Ngounoue, the younger brother of Clervie, qualified and reached the quarterfinals, while Tyra Grant, also a qualifier, has reached the final. From what I have gathered, Grant lives and trains in Italy and has never played in the United States. Grant will play Hanna Klugman of Great Britain for the title Sunday. Live scoring is available at TennisTicker. Grant's three-set semifinal win from today is available on YouTube.
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