USC's Cayetano, Princeton's Frayman in Women's Fall Nationals Final; Stanford's Fery, San Diego's Holmgren Play for Men's Title; Navarro and Kingsley Reach USTA Pro Circuit Finals; Anderson Advances to WTA 125 Midland Final

The All-American Championships last month produced unseeded champions, but that will not be the case this year at the ITA Fall National Championships in San Diego.

No. 5 seed Eryn Cayetano of the University of Southern California will face No. 2 seed Daria Frayman of Princeton after both earned straight-sets victories Saturday at the Barnes Tennis Center. 

Cayetano, a junior from Corona California, defeated No. 6 seed Alexa Noel 7-5, 6-3. Cayetano had lost to Noel in three sets last month in the semifinals of the All-American Championships. Frayman, also a junior, from Moscow Russia, defeated unseeded Irina Cantos Siemers of Ohio State 7-5, 6-1.  Frayman is the first woman from Princeton to reach a ITA Fall Nationals final. The tournament was an indoor event until 2017.

The men's final will also feature the No. 2 seed, with Stanford sophomore Arthur Fery advancing to the championship match with a 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 win over No. 5 seed Matej Vocel of Ohio State. The 19-year-old from Great Britain, who has won three consecutive three-setters, will face 23-year-old August Holmgren of San Diego, who defeated top seed Clement Chidekh of Washington 6-0, 1-6, 6-3. Holmgren, a fifth-year senior from Denmark, reached the final of the All-American Championships last month, losing to Ben Shelton of Florida. He will be San Diego's first collegiate major champion if he wins Sunday. (Correction: San Diego's Jose-Luis Noriega won this event, then the Intercollegiate Indoor, and played in January, back in 1992).

The women's doubles final will feature No. 4 seeds Elizabeth Scotty and Fiona Crawley of North Carolina against No. 3 seeds Yuliia Starodubtseva and Tatsiana Sasnouskaya of Old Dominion.

No. 4 seeds Fery and Alexandre Roetsart of Stanford will take on top seeds Vocel and Robert Cash of Ohio State, who won the All-American championships last month.

Cracked Racquets will have coverage of the singles and doubles finals Sunday on their YouTube channel, with Alex Gruskin providing commentary.

Virginia sophomore Emma Navarro

Two current collegians have advanced to the finals of USTA Pro Circuit events, with 2021 NCAA champion Emma Navarro of Virginia and Cannon Kingsley of Ohio State aiming for their first singles titles at that level. 

The third-seeded Navarro won two matches today at the $25,000 tournament in Orlando, with rain washing out all play on Friday. Navarro defeated qualifier Moyuka Uchijima of Japan 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals and No. 2 seed Sujeong Jang of Korea 6-1, 7-6(5) in the semifinals. The 20-year-old sophomore will face top seed Allie Kiick, who picked up straight-sets wins over Nefisa Berberovic of Bosnia and No. 7 seed Amina Anshba of Russia.

No. 7 seed Kingsley, a junior, defeated top seed Felix Corwin(Minnesota) 6-3, 6-2, his fourth consecutive straight-sets win at the $15,000 tournament in Ithaca New York. Kingsley will play No. 6 seed Luke Johnson(Clemson) of Great Britain, who defeated his doubles partner, No. 2 seed Vasil Kirkov, 6-1, 6-1.

Kirkov and Johnson, the No. 3 seeds, won the doubles titles today, defeating unseeded Alex Knaff(Florida State) of Luxembourg and Joshua Peck(North Carolina) of Canada 7-6(3), 6-3 in the final.

At the $15,000 tournament in Fayetteville Arkansas, former University of Florida star Alfredo Perez will play for his first Pro Circuit title Sunday. The 24-year-old from Florida, seeded No. 7, beat No. 5 seed Keegan Smith(UCLA) 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 and will face qualifier Henry Patten(UNC-Asheville) of Great Britain in the final. Patten, who has made at least the semifinals of his last five USTA Pro Circuit tournaments, defeated qualifier Charlie Broom(Dartmouth/Baylor) of Great Britain 6-3, 7-6(5). 

The doubles title went to George Goldhoff(Texas) and Tadeas Paroulek(TCU/Baylor) of the Czech Republic. Goldhoff is currently the volunteer assistant at Baylor, where Paroulek is a sophomore. The No. 3 seeds defeated No. 4 seeds Patten and Broom 6-4, 6-2 in today's final. 

Stefan Kozlov advanced to the final of the ATP Challenger 80 in Charlottesville, avenging his loss to JJ Wolf(Ohio State) in the Las Vegas Challenger final last week. Kozlov defeated Wolf 6-1, 6-7(1), 6-0 and will face Aleks Vukic(Illinois) of Australia for the title. Vukic beat Brayden Schnur(North Carolina) of Canada 6-4, 6-1 to reach his second career Challenger final.

In today's doubles final, Max Schnur(Columbia) and Will Blumberg(North Carolina) won their second straight Challenger doubles title and their third since September, beating No. 3 seeds Treat Huey(Virginia) of the Philippines and Frederik Nielsen of Denmark 3-6, 6-1, 14-12. Schnur and Blumberg must be getting closed to being seeded at Challengers but they haven't been yet.

Kozlov will take the lead in the USTA's Australian Open wild card challenge with a win over Vukic tomorrow, surpassing Wolf. There are two more weeks to go for the men.  Max Cressy(UCLA) is into the final of the Challenger in Germany tomorrow, but because he has been playing on indoor carpet,(he reached the semifinals in last week's Challenger) not indoor hard, his results do not count for the wild card standings.

Robin Anderson has earned her place not only in the final of the WTA 125 Dow Tennis Classic, but also in the main draw of the 2022 Australian Open after beating No. 5 seed Caty McNally 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. McNally ran out to a 4-0 lead in the first set, but struggled after that. In the third set, McNally was up 40-0 in her last two service games, but couldn't win either game and at 4-all, she double faulted twice to give Anderson the chance to serve it out. The former UCLA All-American had no trouble doing that, getting the hold at love to reach her second final in Midland. As a wild card in 2016, Anderson made the final, losing to Naomi Broady of Great Britain. This time she will play top seed Madison Brengle, who saved a match point in her 6-7(2), 7-6(8) 6-0 win over Danielle Lao(USC). 

With Lao's loss, McNally and Anderson were playing not just for a place in the final, but for the Australian Open wild card, with this the final week of that competition for the women. Brengle will not need a wild card, so no one can catch Anderson, who earns 95 points for making the final. In her six years on the pro tour, the 28-year-old from New Jersey has never played in the main draw of a slam, so this will be a significant milestone for her, regardless of what happens in Sunday's final. 

In Saturday night's doubles final, Asia Muhammad and Great Britain's Harriet Dart, the No. 2 seeds, captured the title, beating No. 3 seed Peangtarm Plipuech of Thailand and Aldila Sutjiadi(Kentucky) of Indonesia 6-3, 2-6, 10-7.