Wagle, Quevedo Earn ITF Junior Circuit Titles; Kypson Wins Luxembourg $15K; Hijikata and Kirchheimer in Edwardsville $15K Final; Krueger and Ramanathan Advance at Cary Challenger; Nakashima, Collins Reach ATP/WTA Finals

Elise Wagle, seeded No. 6, won her first ITF Junior Circuit singles title today at the J3 in the Dominican Republic. The UCLA incoming freshman emerged from an all-USA final four in the girls draw, defeating No. 7 seed Olivia Lincer 7-6(3), 6-3 in the championship match. Wagle did not drop a set all week. She and Leah Kuruvilla also reached the doubles final, where the unseeded pair lost to Maria Castano of Spain and Zara Larke of Australia, also unseeded, 7-5, 4-6, 10-6. 

Kaitlin Quevedo, who just won the 16s USTA Clay Court title in Huntsville Alabama, went directly to Colombia for the J5 this week, and will return with the winner's trophy, her first on the ITF Junior Circuit. The unseeded 15-year-old from Naples defeated the No. 4 seed in the first round and the top seed in the semifinals before breezing past Mariapaz Ospina of Colombia 6-2, 6-0 in the final. She also did not lose a set all week. Felipe Pinzon, the Boys 16s Clay Court champion, lost in the semifinals to top seed Nicolas Mendoza of Colombia.

Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M) missed most of 2019 with an injury, and then of course lost a lot of opportunities due to the pandemic last year, but he is putting together a good 2021. The 21-year-old from North Carolina is 13-4 this year on the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour, including his first title since last March at the $15,000 WTT tournament this week in Luxembourg. Kypson, the 2017 Kalamazoo 18s champion, beat No. 2 seed Filip Peliwo of Canada in the first round, then three consecutive qualifiers before facing the No. 4 seed, 18-year-old Nicholas David Ionel of Romania in today's final. It took nearly three hours, but Kypson won that battle 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.

At the $15,000 USTA men's Pro Circuit tournament in Edwardsville Illinois, Rinky Hijikata of Australia will go for his second title in as many weeks against Strong Kirchheimer. Hijikata, the rising junior at North Carolina, won a $15K title last week in Tunisia, then returned to the US and picked up right where he left off. Hijikata defeated wild card Cannon Kingsley(Ohio State) 7-6(3), 6-7(6), 6-2 in three hours and two minutes, while Kirchheimer, the No. 3 seed, eliminated No. 6 seed Christian Langmo(Miami) 6-4, 6-4. Kirchheimer is looking for his first title since February of last year.

No. 2 seeds Nathan Ponwith(Arizona State) and Reese Stalder(TCU) won the doubles title today, defeating the unseeded team of Langmo and Bruno Kuzuhara 6-4, 6-4 in the final.

The final is set at the ATP Challenger 80 in Cary North Carolina, with No. 6 seed Mitchell Krueger facing No. 8 seed Ramkumar Ramanathan of India for the title. Krueger ended the run of wild card Govind Nanda(UCLA) 6-3, 6-2, while Ramanathan overcame a fast start by Stefan Kozlov to overtake the tiring American 1-6, 6-3, 6-1. 

The Cary doubles title went to top seeds Christian Harrison and Dennis Novikov(UCLA), who defeated unseeded Petros Chrysochos(Wake Forest) of Cyprus and Michail Pervolarakis(Portland) of Greece 6-3, 6-3 in the final.

Brandon Nakashima will play for his first ATP title tonight against top seed Cameron Norrie at the 250 tournament in Los Cabos Mexico. The 19-year-old from San Diego, who spent one semester at the University of Virginia, last night defeated No. 2 seed John Isner 7-5, 6-4, the third seed he has defeated this week, to earn a shot against the former TCU star from Great Britain, who is playing in his fifth ATP final, but still looking for his first ATP title. Norrie rolled over No. 3 seed Taylor Fritz 6-3, 6-1 in the other semifinal Friday night.

Although two-time NCAA champion Danielle Collins(Virginia) has reached a slam semifinal and a slam quarterfinal, she has never played in a WTA final. That changes Sunday, when the 27-year-old from Florida takes on Gabriela Ruse of Romania for the title at the WTA 250 in Palermo Italy. Collins, the top seed, defeated No. 4 seed Shuai Zhang of China 6-4, 6-3 in today's semifinals. Ruse, a qualifier, beat Collins earlier this month in the Hamburg quarterfinals 6-4, 1-6, 7-5, and the 23-year-old went on to take the title.

Qualifying for the ATP 250 Truist Atlanta Open began today, with only one of the four Americans in the 16-player field advancing to Sunday's final round. Austrian Sebastian Ofner defeated Wimbledon boys champion and wild card Samir Banerjee 7-5, 6-4, with Noah Rubin and Donald Young also losing their first round matches. Bjorn Fratangelo will play Jason Jung(Michigan) of Taiwan for a place in the main draw.

The draw was released today, with wild card Trent Bryde(Georgia) set to face Nakashima, who received a special exemption because he is in the Los Cabos final. The winner of that match will take on top seed Milos Raonic of Canada.