More Division I NLI Signings; Korda Reaches Championship Match at Next Gen Finals; Paul Beats Tiafoe in Stockholm; Riske Wins Title in Austria; Three American Semifinalists at Knoxville Challenger

The Division I signing announcements continue to dominate the college tennis news now that the fall season is winding down. If there is no country mentioned, the player is from the United States. Here's the latest:

Women:

Auburn has signed DJ Bennett and Katherine Simone.

Boston College has signed Natalie Eordekian and Seren Agar.

LSU has signed Nikita Vishwase and Noor Carrington.

Michigan has signed Elisabeth Jones.

Minnesota has signed Aiva Schmitz of Germany.

Notre Dame has signed Rylie Hanford, Akari Matsuno and Bojana Pozder.

Oregon has signed Jo-Yee Chan.

Rutgers has signed Mai Nguyen.

USC has signed Madison Sieg and Emma Charney.

Vanderbilt has signed Bridget Stammel and Sonya Macavei. (My Tennis Recruiting Network article on Macavei's decision can be found here).

Washington has signed Melissa Sakar, a graduate transfer from Columbia, and Erika Matsuda of Japan.

Washington State has signed Stefaniia Mikhailova of Russia and Elyse Tse of New Zealand, who will start in January.

MEN:

Central Florida has signed Luca Hotze.

Florida has signed 2020 Orange Bowl 16s champion Jonah Braswell.

Georgia Tech has signed Robert Bauer.

Illinois has signed Oliver Okonkwo, a transfer from Iowa, Tyler Bowers and Kenta Miyoshi of Japan.

New Mexico has signed Daniil Kukhniuk, who will start in January, and Nikoley Sysoev of Russia.

Texas A&M has signed Mathias Bondaz of France.

Utah has signed Geremia Rossi of Switzerland and Berk Bugarik of Macedonia.

Western Michigan has signed Derek Distelrath.

Wichita State has signed Luke Bracks.

Sebastian Korda at Wimbledon 2021
photo credit: AELTC/Jonathan Nackstrand

Sebastian Korda defeated Brandon Nakashima in today's ATP Next Gen semifinals 4-3(3), 2-4, 1-4, 4-2, 4-2 to reach tomorrow night's championship match in Milan Italy. Korda will face Spain's Carlos Alcaraz, who had a much easier time in the other semifinal with Argentina's Sebastian Baez 4-2, 4-1, 4-2. For more on Korda's win over Nakashima, see this article from the ATP website.

Tommy Paul advanced to his first ATP final today in Stockholm Sweden, coming from a set and a break down to defeat Frances Tiafoe 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-4. Tiafoe served for the match at 7-5, 6-5, but Paul got the break back and recorded his first win over Tiafoe since the juniors to reach an ATP final for the first time. Paul will play Denis Shapovalov of Canada, who beat Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 7-5 in the other semifinal between two young North Americans. For more on Paul's win, see this article from the ATP website.

Alison Riske won her first WTA title since 2019 and her third overall today in Linz Austria, defeating lucky loser Jaqueline Cristian of Romania 2-6, 6-2, 7-5. For more on the final, see this article from the WTA website.

The semifinals at the ATP Challenger 80 in Knoxville will feature three US men, with Bjorn Fratangelo and Christopher Eubanks beating fellow Americans in today's quarterfinals, and Michael Mmoh advancing with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 win over qualifier Aidan McHugh of Great Britain. McHugh had put an end to the run of Charlottesville champion Stefan Kozlov last night.  Fratangelo took out 19-year-old wild card Emilio Nava 6-4, 6-4 and Eubanks defeated Christian Harrison 6-3, 7-6(9).  No. 2 seed Daniel Altmaier of Germany prevented two all-American semifinals by defeating Jack Sock 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(2) in the night match. Altmaier will face Mmoh and Fratangelo and Eubanks will face off in the semifinals Saturday, with live streaming available, with Mike Cation providing commentary, here.