Montgomery Faces Brengle for Templeton $60K Title; Ngounoue and Stearns Meet in Austin $25K Final; Nguyen and Patil Win Corpus Christi J4 Titles; Sherif Makes History with First WTA Title in Italy

Eighteen-year-old Robin Montgomery will play for the second Pro Circuit title of her career Sunday at the $60,000 women's tournament in Templeton California, after defeating fellow qualifier Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine 6-3, 6-1 today in the semifinals. Montgomery will play top seed Madison Brengle, who defeated unseeded Sophie Chang 6-2, 6-3.  Montgomery has faced eight WTA Top 100 players prior to tomorrow's match with No. 51 Brengle and she is 0-8 in those matches, but regardless of the outcome of Sunday's final, she will move into the WTA Top 300 for the first time.  More from Templeton media contact Steve Pratt:

TEMPLETON, Calif. – October 1, 2022 – Eighteen-year-old Robin Montgomery let out a huge “Come On!” as fellow qualifier Kateryna Bondarenko from Ukraine hit a forehand wide putting an exclamation point on the Washington D.C. native’s first career semifinal victory at a USTA Pro Circuit $60,000-level tournament. 

 

Montgomery’s 6-3, 6-1 score was the same as her quarterfinal win on Friday as she continued to dominate with her big lefty serve and all-court game. Montgomery will face top-seeded Madison Brengle in Sunday’s EPIC Central Coast Tennis Classic taking place this week at the Templeton Tennis Ranch.

 

It’s been a tough couple of months for Montgomery, who has been sidelined with a wrist injury since June forcing her to miss the summer season and a chance to play at the USTA National Hardcourts in San Diego, as well as the US Open.  

 

“It was a bummer to miss San Diego and the US Open,” said Montgomery, who made her return last week at Berkeley and won two qualifying matches and one in the main draw. “But health comes first.”

 

Montgomery, who in July moved to Orlando to be closer to the USTA National Campus, was watched by her mother Gabrielle Montgomery and her coach Eric Nunez, a former USTA National Coach who is traveling with Montgomery this week as he said he still works with the USTA on a part-time basis.

 

Montgomery will next face the 32-year-old Brengle, who was just as dominant in her 6-2, 6-3 semifinal win over fellow American unseeded Sophie Chang.

 

In Sunday’s doubles final that will kick off play at 12 noon, top-seeded Sophie Chang and Katarzyna Kawa will take on the No. 2 seed Nao Hibino from Japan and American Sabrina Santamaria, a former NCAA doubles champion from USC. In Saturday’s semis, Chang and Kawa took out No. 3 Arianne Hartono (Netherlands) and Astra Sharma (Australia), 6-7 (5), 6-0, 10-8.

 

Clervie Ngounoue, who is also coming back from an injury that derailed her summer, will be playing for her first Pro Circuit singles title Sunday at the $25,000 women's tournament in Austin Texas. The 16-year-old from Washington DC, who reached her first ITF women's singles final this March right before a foot injury caused her to miss the next four months, defeated No. 2 seed and WTA No. 211 Yuki Naito of Japan 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 in today's semifinals.  Ngounoue will face 2022 NCAA singles champion Peyton Stearns(Texas), the No. 6 seed, who defeated unseeded University of Texas freshman Nicole Khirin of Israel 6-1, 6-2. Stearns will be playing in her fourth Pro Circuit final, all at the $25K level; she has one title, last year in South Carolina.

No. 2 seeds Elysia Bolton(UCLA), who is now representing Australia, and Jamie Loeb(North Carolina) won the doubles title in Austin, beating unseeded Martyna Kubka of Poland and Ashley Lahey(Pepperdine) 6-3, 6-3 in today's final. Bolton now has three pro doubles titles and Loeb 10, but it's their first together.

In Corpus Christi, the ITF J4 concluded today, with 14-year-old Alexis Nguyen and 18-year-old Ritesh Patil winning their first titles on the ITF Junior Circuit, with both champions unseeded. Nguyen defeated unseeded Kayla Chung 6-3, 6-3 in the final, after beating No. 2 seed Erica Jessel in the third round and losing only one set in her six victories.

Patil, a Texas A&M recruit, advanced to the final when top seed Cooper Woestendick retired trailing 6-1, 3-2 in the semifinals. Today he defeated No. 11 seed Linus Lagerbohm of Finland 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-2 for his eighth victory of the week, after winning two matches to qualify.

Unseeded Andrew Ena and Aditya Vyas won the boys doubles title via walkover from Woestendick and Brendan Boland, the No. 4 seeds.

No. 4 seeds Jessica Bernales and Riley Crowder won the girls doubles title, defeating Chung and Kayla Schefke 6-7(6), 6-3, 10-8. 

Former Pepperdine All-American Mayar Sherif continues to make history on the WTA Tour; with two wins today at the Parma Italy 250, in the semifinals and finals, the 26-year-old became the first Egyptian to capture a WTA title. Sherif defeated Ana Bogdan of Romania 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in nearly three hours in the semifinals, then took out top seed Maria Sakkari of Greece 7-5, 6-3 in the final for her first WTA Top 10 victory.  For more on Sherif's latest entry in the WTA history books, see this article from the WTA.

Both Americans in the semifinals of the ATP 250 in Seoul Korea lost early this morning, with Jenson Brooksby(Baylor) dropping a 7-5, 6-4 decision to Denis Shapovalov of Canada and lucky loser Aleks Kovacevic(Illinois) losing to Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.