Beck Wins Again at Charleston $100K; Zamarripa Upsets Top Seed at $25K; Blanch Reaches First Men's Pro Circuit Quarterfinal in Spain; Michelsen Advances to Tallahassee Challenger Quarterfinals

Duke senior Chloe Beck received a wild card into the qualifying at this week's $100,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Charleston South Carolina, and she has advanced to the quarterfinals in her first professional event since 2019. Beck then 17, lost in the first round of qualifying of the Charleston $100K that year, and had not played a pro event since. Today she defeated WTA No. 145 Elli Mandlik 6-1, 6-0 in one hour flat to advance to a meeting with top seed Peyton Stearns, the reigning NCAA singles champion. Stearns, who defeated Sachia Vickery 7-5, 6-2 in the second round today, and Beck have never played, in juniors or college, despite being the same age.

After moving into the No. 1 singles slot at Duke late last season, Beck has been a sure point for the Blue Devils all season; she has lost just one dual match this year, to Miami's Alexa Noel, and is currently No. 4 in the ITA singles rankings.

Although Mandlik will show as her best professional win ranking-rise, Beck did defeat NC State's Diana Shnaider, currently WTA No. 88, 6-3, 6-3 less than two weeks ago in a dual match. The 21-year-old Beck, who has never had a WTA ranking, has earned enough points this week make her debut in the Top 800, regardless of the outcome of the quarterfinal with Stearns.

At the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Zephyrhills Florida, qualifier Allura Zamarripa defeated top seed Yuki Naito of Japan 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-0 to reach the quarterfinals. It's the second quarterfinal of the year at a $25K for the 20-year-old, who turned pro last May, after her freshman year at the University of Texas. Three other Americans have advanced to the quarterfinals: No. 2 seed Francesca Di Lorenzo(Ohio State), No. 5 seed Hanna Chang and unseeded Makenna Jones(North Carolina). 

Reigning Kalamazoo 16s champion Darwin Blanch is through to his first ITF men's World Tennis Tour quarterfinal, advancing when Tom Gentzsch of Germany retired trailing 6-2, 5-1 at the $15,000 tournament in Spain. The 15-year-old Blanch, who trains in Spain, beat No. 3 seed RrezartCungu(Wake Forest) of Montenegro 6-0, 6-3 in the first round. He plays No. 8 seed Sergi Perez Contri of Spain in the quarterfinals. Perez, 25, has played 408 ITF professional matches, while Blanch has played 21.

Alex Michelsen is through to his third ATP Challenger quarterfinal, all since February, at this week's Tallahassee 75. The 18-year-old University of Georgia signee trailed former ATP Top 10 player Lucas Pouille of France 5-3, in the second set, but won the final four games of the match for a 6-3, 7-5 victory. Michelsen, now up to 262 in the ATP live rankings, plays No. 7 seed Enzo Couacaud of France in Friday's quarterfinals. 

The other American to reach the quarterfinals is Thai Kwiatkowski(Virginia), who won a battle between wild cards tonight. The 2017 NCAA singles champion, who captured last week's $15K in Sunrise Florida, defeated 18-year-old Stanford recruit Kyle Kang 6-4, 6-4.