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Saturday, April 29, 2023

Navarro and Krueger Reach Charlottesville $60K Final; Rain in Savannah Leaves Roland Garros Wild Card Up in Air; Exsted and Urhobo Win J100 Titles in Delray Beach; Ohio State and Michigan Meet Sunday in Both Big Ten Finals

It's difficult to overstate how impressive Emma Navarro has been this week at the $60,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in her collegiate home of Charlottesville. The 2021 NCAA champion, seeded No. 3, started her week with a 6-0, 6-0 rout of Robin Montgomery and today she defeated qualifier Grace Min 6-0, 6-1 in 45 minutes, winning 51 points to 14 by Min. Navarro, who won last week's $100K in Charleston and is on a nine-match winning streak, will meet No. 6 seed Ashlyn Krueger in the final. Krueger defeated No. 5 seed Carolina Dolehide 6-4, 7-5, aided by a first serve percentage of 82. The 18-year-old Krueger and the 21-year-old Navarro will be meeting for the first time Sunday.

The doubles championship went to Sophie Chang and China's Yue Yuan, who did not lose a set all week. In a battle of unseeded teams, Chang and Yuan defeated Japan's Nao Hibino and Hungary's Fanni Stollar 6-3, 6-3 in today's final. The 25-year-old Chang, who won the Charleston $100K title last week with Angela Kulikov(USC), now has 19 WTA and ITF doubles titles, dating back to 2014.

Rain disrupted the second singles semifinal today at the ATP Challenger 75 in Savannah Georgia, with the USTA's Roland Garros wild card still undecided. Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M), the leader in the race, lost his semifinal match to No. 2 Facundo Diaz Acosta of Argentina 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, so Tristan Boyer(Stanford) is still alive. Boyer, who won the first and only game of his semifinal match played before the rain began, will needed to beat France's Calvin Hemery tomorrow morning's semifinal and Diaz Acosta in tomorrow afternoon's final to secure it. If he loses either match, Kypson will earn the wild card.

Top seeds Will Blumberg(North Carolina) and Luis David Martinez of Venezuela won the doubles title, avenging their loss in last week's Tallahassee final with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Nicolas Kicker and Federico Agustin Gomez(Louisville) of Argentina. This is Blumberg's eighth pro title--3 ATP and 5 Challenger--and the first with a partner other than Max Schnur(Columbia).

Two surprise finalists will play for a first Pro Circuit title Sunday at the $15,000 tournament in Vero Beach Florida. Wild card Jaycer Lyeons(Tyler JC) defeated No. 3 seed Duarte Vale(Florida) of Portugal 3-6, 7-6(7), 7-5 in three hours and 17 minutes to set up a meeting with unseeded Dan Martin(Miami) of Canada, who beat Jacob Brumm(Cal/Baylor) 7-5, 6-1.  

Wild cards Kaylan Bigun and Roy Horovitz have reached the semifinals in doubles and will play that, and, should they win, the final, on Sunday.

Top seed Max Exsted and No. 16 seed Akasha Urhobo won the singles titles today at the ITF J100 in Delray Beach Florida, with neither losing a set in their six victories. 

The 15-year-old Exsted defeated No. 12 seed Abishek Thorat 6-2, 6-2, then partnered with Nikita Filin to take the doubles title. San Diego J300 champions Exsted and Filin, the top seeds, defeated No. 8 seeds Ian Mayew and Stefan Regalia 7-6(0), 6-2 in the final.

The 16-year-old Urhobo captured her second ITF Junior Circuit title, when top seed Tyra Grant retired trailing 6-2, 4-1. Grant was unable to play in the doubles final that followed, with unseeded twin sisters Annika and Kristina Penickova getting the walkover over from Grant and Mayu Crossley of Japan. It's the first ITF Junior Circuit title for the 13-year-olds.

The finals of the Pac-12 conference championships are tonight in Ojai; the Big Ten conference championships are tomorrow, with Michigan and Ohio State men and women contesting both. Below are the semifinal results from Friday and Saturday; I will update the Pac-12 final results Sunday morning.

Semifinals:
Michigan[1] d. Wisconsin[4] 4-0
Ohio State[2] d. Illinois[3] 4-0

Final (Sunday):
Michigan[1] v. Ohio State[2]

Semifinals:
Ohio State[1] d. Illinois[4] 4-1
Michigan[2] d. Northwestern[3] 4-2

Final(Sunday):
Ohio State[1] v Michigan[2]

Pac 12 women:
Semifinals:
Stanford[1] d. Washington[4] 4-0
Southern Cal[6] d. Cal[2] 4-2

Final(Saturday night):
Stanford[1] d. Southern Cal[6] 4-0

Pac 12 men:
Semifinals
Southern Cal[1] d. Stanford[4] 4-2
Utah[3] d. Arizona[2] 4-3

Final(Saturday night):
Southern Cal[1] d. Utah[3] 4-2

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