Kalieva Advances to Quarterfinals at Rancho Santa Fe $60K; Teens Coleman, Xu into Norman $15K Quarterfinals; Norrie Reaches BNP Paribas Semis; Small College ITA Cup Underway

Eighteen-year-old Elvina Kalieva has played most of her professional-level tournaments at the $15,000 and $25,000 levels, but rather than opt for either of the two USTA Pro Circuit events at those classifications this week in Norman Oklahoma and Florence South Carolina, she decided to play qualifying at the $60,000 tournament in Rancho Santa Fe California. 

After the ITF junior No. 11 won a match over No. 4 seed Tara Moore of Great Britain(Kalieva got a walkover in her first round qualifying match), she was into the main draw of a $60K via qualifying for the first time. In the first round, she defeated fellow qualifier Dalayna Hewitt 7-5, 1-6, 6-2; today, Kalieva earned her best win via ranking, beating No. 4 seed and WTA 108 Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan 6-4, 2-6, 6-2. Kalieva, who won a round in the women's qualifying and reached the quarterfinals of the US Open Junior Championships, will face Slovenia's Polona Hercog, the No. 6 seed, in Friday's quarterfinals.  No. 3 seed Madison Brengle is the only other American still in the running for the singles titles.

At the $15,000 tournament in Norman Oklahoma, 17-year-old Annabelle Xu of Canada and Ellie Coleman, a Duke freshman, advanced to the quarterfinals. Both Xu and Coleman received entry to this week's tournament via their ITF junior rankings. Xu defeated Kianah Motosono(Oklahoma) 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 and Coleman beat Anita Sahdiieva of Ukraine (Baylor) 6-4, 6-3.  Wild card Ivana Corley(Oklahoma) and Raveena Kingsley are the other two Americans joining Coleman in the quarterfinals.

The three Canadian teenagers who got through qualifying and won their first round matches yesterday, all lost today in the second round.

Four American women are through to the quarterfinals of the $25,000 tournament in Florence SC: No. 3 seed Katie Volynets, No. 5 seed Robin Anderson(UCLA), Maria Mateas(Duke) and qualifier Amy Zhu(Michigan).

The men's $15K in Naples Florida lost its No. 1 seed today, with lucky loser Blu Baker of Great Britain defeating Michael Redlicki(Duke/Arkansas) 6-4, 6-3.  Wild card Jake Van Emburgh(Oklahoma/Ohio State) is the only American remaining. Van Emburgh will take on 16-year-old ITF Junior No. 1 Juncheng Jerry Shang of China in the quarterfinals.

If you are interested in tracking which current college players are competing in USTA Pro Circuit events this fall, check out this website.

Cam Norrie has had an outstanding 2021, and the former TCU All-American kept it going today in Indian Wells, defeating Diego Schwartzman of Argentina 6-0, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Open. The 26-year-old left-hander from Great Britain, already at an ATP career-high of 26, will become the top-ranked player in that country, the 18th since the ATP began publishing rankings in 1973. Norrie will face Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, who beat Hubert Hurkacz of Poland 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(2).

The ITA Cup, an individual ITA national championship competition for Division II, Division III, NAIA and Junior College, began today in Rome Georgia and is scheduled to finish Sunday. For more about the event, see this ITA article. Links to the draws and live streaming can be found here.

A number of ITA Division I Regionals are also being played this weekend. See this page for dates and links to draws.