Semifinals Set at ITF J4 in South Carolina; Qualifier Blokhina Reaches Tyler $80K Quarterfinals; Top Seed Martin Ousted, Williams Advances at Tallahassee $15K; Five Americans in Las Vegas Challenger Quarterfinals

After plenty of upsets last week at the ITF J4 in Atlanta, this week's J4 in Lexington South Carolina has gone more to form, with seven of the eight semifinalists seeded players.

Top seed Andrew Delgado and No. 4 seed Eli Stephenson will meet in a blockbuster semifinal after both posted straight-sets wins in today's quarterfinals. Delgado, the champion last week in Atlanta, defeated Jimin Jung 7-6(4), 6-3, surrendering his first games of the week after two 6-0, 6-0 wins and a walkover. Stephenson, who reached the semifinals of the JB1 in Nicholasville earlier this month, defeated Rahul Sachdev 6-0, 6-2 today.

In the other boys semifinal, No. 15 seed Michael Kouame of France will face the only unseeded semifinalist in either singles draw, Paxton Pritchard, an 18-year-old four-star recruit from North Carolina.

Kouame defeated No. 5 seed Tygen Goldammer 7-5, 6-0 and Pritchard took out No. 2 seed Joseph Oyebog 7-5, 3-6, 6-2.

The semifinal in the top half of the girls draw will feature No. 7 seed Kayla Chung, the singles finalist and doubles champion last week in Atlanta, against No. 10 seed Allie Bittner. Chung defeated No. 16 seed Lily Pradkin 6-1, 6-1 and Bittner downed unseeded Trinetra Vijayakumar 6-4, 7-5. In the bottom half of the girls draw No. 3 seed Riley Crowder will take on No. 14 seed Emily Baek in another all-USA semifinal. Crowder defeated unseeded Georgia Cranford 7-6(4), 6-3 and Baek, who had beaten No. 2 seed Ece Gencer of Turkey in the third round, defeated No. 9 seed Addison Bowman 6-2 4-6, 7-5. 

Eighteen-year-old qualifier Alexis Blokhina, a freshman at Stanford, continued her impressive results this week at the $80,000 USTA women's Pro Circuit tournament in Tyler Texas, beating Emiliana Arango of Colombia 4-6, 7-6(4), ret. Next up for Blokhina is the 2020 Australian Open women's champion Sofia Kenin, who beat qualifier Ellen Perez(Georgia) of Australia 6-4, 6-4. In addition to Blokhina and Kenin, the other American quarterfinalists are Danielle Lao(USC) and Taylor Townsend, who, like Blokhina and Kenin, are unseeded.

Seventeen-year-old Cooper Williams, who reached the quarterfinals of a $15,000 men's USTA Pro Circuit for the first time last month in Fayetteville Arkansas, has done it again in his next appearance on the Pro Circuit this week at the $15,000 tournament in Tallahassee. The Harvard recruit defeated University of Miami fifth-year Dan Martin of Canada 6-4, 6-2 and will face qualifier Phillip Henning(Georgia) of South Africa Friday.

Florida State is hosting this week's tournament and three Seminoles have reached the quarterfinals, with wild card Andreja Petrovic, a junior from Norway, pulling off the upset of the day with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over top seed Andres Martin(Georgia Tech). Petrovic will face Arizona State newcomer Cash Hanzlik on Friday.

2021 FSU graduate Alex Naff of Luxembourg, the No. 2 seed, will take on Antoine Cornut Chauvinc of France, a junior at Florida State, for a spot in the semifinals.

University of Florida junior Will Grant will play 2015 NCAA champion Ryan Shane(Virginia) in the other quarterfinal.

The University of Oklahoma is hosting a $15,000 tournament in Norman and two Sooners on the current roster have advanced to the quarterfinals.

No. 6 seed Alex Martinez of Spain, an OU senior, will face former Baylor All-American Adrian Boitan of Romania, and unseeded sophomore Jordan Hasson will play No. 3 seed Daniel Rodrigues(South Carolina) of Portugal in the quarterfinals.

Oklahoma State senior Tyler Zink, the No. 5 seed and the only American remaining in the draw, will take on top seed Lucas Gerch of Germany, who is a former OSU Cowboy.

No. 7 seed Yuta Kikuchi(Cal) of Japan will face No. 4 seed Kareem Al Allaf(Iowa) of Syria in the other quarterfinal.

Five Americans will compete in the quarterfinals Friday at the ATP Challenger 80 in Las Vegas, with No. 2 seed Steve Johnson playing No. 5 seed Juan Pablo Ficovich of Argentina, No. 4 seed Stefan Kozlov facing Alexis Galarneau(NC State) of Canada, Brandon Holt(USC) meeting qualifier Tennys Sandgren(Tennessee) and Ernesto Escobedo playing China's Jerry Shang.