Texas $25K Titles for Hovde and Damm; Quevedo Earns Third $15K Championship; Three Former Junior Slam Champions Claim ATP Titles; Nakashima Qualifies Again for Next Gen Finals

Texas has been Liv Hovde's home for several years now, and it's obvious that the 16-year-old is comfortable there, demonstrated by her second USTA Pro Circuit title in the state today.

At the $25,000 tournament in Fort Worth, wild card Hovde defeated unseeded North Carolina freshman Reese Brantmeier 7-6(1), 6-4 for her first title at the $25K level. Hovde's first Pro Circuit title came in September, when the reigning girls Wimbledon champion won the $15,000 tournament in Lubbock. She will move into the WTA Top 500 for the first time when the points are added at the end of the month.

Martin Damm picked up his second $25,000 title of his career, both coming this year, at the $25,000 tournament in Harlingen Texas. The 19-year-old from Florida, seeded No. 5, defeated No. 7 seed and former ATP Top 20 player Bernard Tomic of Australia 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-4 in today's final and will move near his career-high ATP ranking of 461 when the points are added at the end of the month.

Sixteen-year-old Kaitlin Quevedo has gone 18-1 in ITF World Tennis Tour women's $15K tournaments since the US Open Junior Championships, added a third title to her resume with a nearly four-hour comeback victory in Colombia today over No. 4 seed and former University of Miami standout Sofia Sewing. The eighth-seeded Quevedo trailed 5-3 in the final set before winning the last four games of a three-hour and 42-minute 6-3, 6-7(6), 7-5 victory.

Bruno Kuzuhara lost in his first Pro Circuit final at the $15,000 tournament in Turkey, with unseeded Luca Tomasetto of Italy defeating the No. 7 seed 6-4, 6-1. 

At the $60,000 USTA women's Pro Circuit tournament in Macon Georgia, top seed Madison Brengle continued her domination of the post-US Open ITF competition in the United States, beating No. 2 seed Panna Udvardy of Hungary 6-3, 6-1. Brengle has now won three $60K titles since mid-September, with her only loss since then coming in the qualifying of the San Diego Open two weeks ago. Brengle didn't drop a set this week, and has lost only two, both in the previous two finals against Yue Yuan and Robin Montgomery. 

The results of the finals of the three ATP 250s in Europe were unusual in that all three champions were 22 years of age and younger, and all won junior slams in the past six years.

The youngest, 19-year-old Holger Rune of Denmark, the No. 7 seed, defeated top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 6-4, 6-4 for the title in Stockholm, his second on the ATP Tour. Rune won the 2019 Roland Garros boys title, beating Damm and Toby Kodat in the semifinals and final. 

Twenty-year-old Lorenzo Musetti of Italy, who won the Australian Open boys title in 2019, won the title in Naples, beating No. 2 seed and compatriot Matteo Berrettini 7-6(5), 6-2. Musetti, the No. 4 seed this week, defeated Emilio Nava in the Australian boys final.

Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada won his second consecutive title following up his win in Florence last week with a championship in Antwerp. The 22-year-old defeated Sebastian Korda 6-3, 6-4 in today's final. Auger-Aliassime won the US Open boys title in 2016, beating Tsitsipas in the semifinals and Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia in the final. 

Three former collegians claimed doubles titles in Naples and Stockholm. Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M) and Croatia's Ivan Dodig won the title in Naples, with the top seeds beating No. 3 seeds John Peers(Middle Tenn/Baylor) and Matt Ebden of Australia 6-3, 1-6, 10-8.  In Stockholm, top seeds Jean-Julien Rojer(UCLA) of the Netherlands and Marcelo Arevalo(Tulsa) of El Salvador defeated Lloyd Glasspool(Texas) of Great Britain and Harri Heliovaara of Finland 6-3, 6-3 in the final.

If you don't follow the ATP doubles rankings closely, you might not be aware that seven of the Top 10 men, including the Top 3, played college tennis: Rajeev Ram(Illinois), Joe Salisbury(Memphis), Neal Skupski(LSU), Rojer, Arevalo, Michael Venus(LSU) and Tim Puetz(Auburn).

The ATP announced today that Brandon Nakashima(Virginia) has qualified for the Next Gen Finals in Milan Italy next month. It's the second year that the 21-year-old Nakashima has qualified for the 21-and-under tournament. Others who have qualified include Musetti, Rune, Jack Draper of Great Britain and Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic.