My ITF JB1 Pan American Closed Recap, Videos; Irwanto Reaches Singles Semifinal, Ganesan Doubles Final at JA Osaka; Wolf Advances to First ATP Semifinal

If you didn't have an opportunity to read my daily coverage of last week's ITF JB1 Pan American Closed in Nicholasville Kentucky, the Blinkist version is available now at the Tennis Recruiting Network. Although the fields weren't the strongest I've seen at the tournament that I've been covering since 2007, Tatum Evans and Keegan Rice came in with a lot of momentum from recent tournaments and left with the trophies. The Top Seed Tennis Club had a three-year sanction for the event, which was not held in 2020 due to the pandemic, and it's my understanding that they will not be seeking to renew now that they've fulfilled their contractual obligations. I'll be curious to see who might be interested in hosting the event next year, as Grade 1 events, with their hospitality requirements, are expensive undertakings.

Below are the videos of the boys and girls finals, which were played at the same time (as were the doubles finals).

Two of the competitors at the Pan American Closed made the long trip to Japan for the ITF Grade A Osaka Mayor's Cup and they are having more success there than they did at Nicholasville. 

Jonathan Irwanto, who lost in the first round in singles last week, has reached the semifinals this week unseeded, beating No. 6 seed Lennon Jones of Japan 6-4, 6-0. He will play unseeded Asahi Harazaki of Japan, who defeated No. 16 seed Quang Duong 6-2, 6-4.  The other semifinal will feature top seed Gerard Campana Lee of Korea versus No. 3 seed Hayato Matusoka of Japan.

Adhithya Ganesan, who lost in the second round of doubles last week, is through to finals this week with his partner Harazaki. The No. 7 seeds defeated Irwanto and his partner Reiya Hattori of Japan, the No. 8 seeds, 6-2, 6-1 in today's semifinals. They will face No. 5 seeds Kevin Edengren of Sweden and Volodymyr Iakubenko of Ukraine for the title Saturday. 

Three of the girls remaining are from Japan, with Emerson Jones of Australia the fourth semifinalist. Jones, seeded No. 7, will play No. 2 seed Sayaka Ishii and top seed Sara Saito will face No. 4 seed Hayu Kinoshita.

Former Ohio State All-American JJ Wolf has reached his first ATP semifinal at the 250 tournament in Florence Italy. The unseeded 23-year-old defeated No. 4 seed Maxime Cressy(UCLA) in the second round and in today's quarterfinals, Wolf beat No. 7 seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan 3-6, 7-5, 6-1. Wolf, who is now at a career-high 63 in the ATP live rankings, will face qualifier Mikael Ymer of Sweden in Saturday's semifinal.

At the ATP 250 in Gijon Spain, Sebastian Korda is through to the semifinals after defeating wild card Andy Murray 6-4, 1-6, 6-1. Korda will play former Texas A&M All-American Arthur Rinderknech who saved nine match points in his 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(16) victory over No. 2 seed Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain. It's the fifth ATP Top 20 win for the 27-year-old from France.