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Friday, November 6, 2020

Hamner Claims Daytona Beach Grade 4 Title; Semis Set, Top Seeds Trotter and Seelig Out at ITA Fall Nationals; No. 1 Seed Kwiatkowski Falls at Fayetteville $15K; Korda Reaches Challenger Semis in Germany

Since October 24th, 14 days ago, Sarah Hamner has played 16 singles matches, without so much as a day's rest in between, at two ITF Grade 4 tournaments in Florida. The blue chip senior from Florida, who has committed to South Carolina, ended up winning 15 of those matches, including today's final in Daytona Beach, where she defeated No. 4 seed Chelsea Fontenel of Switzerland 6-4, 6-4 for her first ITF Junior Circuit singles title. Hamner, who won six qualifying matches in the two tournaments, dropped only two sets in those 16 matches, and in the quarterfinals this week she avenged her loss to Ashlyn Krueger in last week's Orlando Grade 4 singles final. Krueger and Hamner won the doubles title in Orlando.

Top seed Adolfo Daniel Vallejo of Paraguay won his second consecutive title this week, coming from behind to defeat No. 8 seed Colton Smith 2-6, 6-4, 7-5. The 16-year-old, who made the finals at a Grade 1 in Brazil back in February, went 11-1 in the three-tournament US Grade 4 swing. Before the restart, Vallejo had won just one Grade 5 doubles title on the ITF Junior Circuit.

The ITF National Fall Championships semifinals are set for Saturday at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, with the top four seeds in the women's draw facing off, while two unseeded men have reached the final four. 

Men's top seed James Trotter of Ohio State was defeated in today's second round by Division II Columbus State junior Alvaro Regalado 6-2, 6-1. In the quarterfinals this evening, Regalado lost to unseeded Michael Zheng, a high school junior from New Jersey 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.  

No. 2 seed Kyle Seelig, also from Ohio State, was defeated in the quarterfinals by No. 8 seed Trey Hilderbrand 7-6(8), 6-4. Hilderbrand, a sophomore at Central Florida, is playing on his home courts, as is No. 3 seed Gabriel Decamps, who advanced to the semifinals in the top half of the draw with a 6-1, 6-1 win over No. 7 seed Siphos Montsi of Illinois. 

The second unseeded player in the semifinals is Gavin Young, who was supposed to join the University of Minnesota men's team, where his father coaches, for the upcoming dual season, but now that Minnesota has plans to cut the program after this academic year, he is not on the roster. Young defeated No. 5 seed Eduardo Nava of Wake Forest 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinals tonight and will play Hilderbrand for a place in the final.

As with the Central Florida men, there is a chance that two Pepperdine women could meet in the final, after top seed Ashley Lahey and No. 2 seed Jessica Failla earned two wins today. Lahey defeated Central Florida's Rebeka Stolmar 7-5, 7-6(4) in the last quarterfinal match of the day, while Failla repeated her ITA Summer Circuit final win over No. 7 seed Solymar Colling with a 6-3, 6-3 decision in the quarterfinals. Failla will face No. 4 seed Abigail Forbes of UCLA, who defeated unseeded Nandini Sharma of Central Florida 6-0, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. Lahey's semifinal opponent is No. 3 seed Alexa Graham of North Carolina, who downed unseeded Safiya Carrington of LSU 6-4, 6-0. 

Live scoring, streaming and draw links are here. Sunday's finals will be broadcast on ESPNU, with more details on that here.

At the USTA men's $15,000 Pro Circuit tournament in Fayetteville Arkansas, two collegians from Canada have advanced to the semifinals. Alex Galarneau, a fifth year senior at North Carolina State, defeated top seed and Virginia graduate Thai Kwiatkowksi, the 2017 NCAA champion, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 in a quarterfinal that took more than three hours to complete. Liam Draxl, a freshman at Kentucky, defeated qualifier Charlie Broom(Baylor) of Great Britain 6-2, 6-4 and will face No. 2 seed Roberto Quiroz(USC) of Ecuador. Junior exempt Martin Damm had a set point in the second set against Quiroz in today's quarterfinals, but Quiroz got through in straight sets 6-4, 7-5 in just over two hours. Galarneau will play No. 8 seed Brandon Holt(USC), who needed three hours and 13 minutes to get past Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M) 7-6(5), 6-7(6), 6-1.

At the USTA women's $100,000 Pro Circuit tournament in Charleston, all three Americans remaining lost in today's quarterfinals. No. 2 seed Lauren Davis fell to unseeded Katarzyna Kawa of Poland 6-3, 6-3; qualifier Claire Liu lost to unseeded Renata Zarazua of Mexico 6-3, 7-6(2) and Tyler $80K champion Ann Li, the No. 8 seed, was beaten by No. 4 seed Misaki Doi of Japan 6-3, 7-6(6). Doi plays qualifier Mayar Sherif(Pepperdine) of Egypt in the semifinals and Zarazua takes on Kawa.  With the loss of the Zamarripa sisters and Ingrid Neel(Florida) and Caitlyn Whoriskey(Tennessee) in today's doubles semifinals, no Americans remain in either draw this weekend.

Sebastian Korda has reached the semifinals of the ATP Challenger 100 in Germany this week. The 20-year-old, currently 136 in the ATP rankings, should move to a new career high regardless of what happens tomorrow against No. 3 seed Ilya Ivashka of Belarus. Today, Korda, the No. 7 seed, defeated No. 2 seed Alexei Popyrin of Australia 6-4, 6-4. No. 4 seeds Alex Lawson(Notre Dame) and Great Britain's Lloyd Glasspool(Texas) have reached the doubles final.

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