Navarro Defeats Stearns Again, Wins Charleston $100K; Jones Earns First $25K Title in Zephyrhills; No. 1s UNC and Texas Lose to In-State Rivals in Conference Championships; Georgia Women, Kentucky Men Earn SEC Titles

The last time Emma Navarro and Peyton Stearns met in a USTA Pro Circuit final, back in January, Navarro came away with a 6-3, 7-5 victory. Since then, 2022 NCAA singles champion Stearns has won two USTA Pro Circuit titles and moved ahead of 2021 NCAA singles champion Navarro in the WTA rankings, but today Navarro earned her third victory over Stearns this year, taking the title at the $100,000 tournament in her hometown of Charleston South Carolina.

Stearns got off to a great start in the championship match, needing just 34 minutes to claim the first set 6-2, but Navarro rebounded for a 6-2 set of her own in the second and took a 4-2 lead in the third set. Serving for the match at 5-4, Navarro was broken before reaching match point, but she broke Stearns at love in the next game and made good on her second chance to serve out the championship. Navarro, now 101 in the WTA Live rankings and entered in the $60,000 event next week in her collegiate hometown of Charlottesville, moves into contention for the USTA's Roland Garros wild card with two weeks left for the women. (Stearns is technically the leader, but has already received direct entry into the Roland Garros main draw).

While Navarro was claiming her second USTA Pro Circuit title of the 2023, another NCAA champion earned her first of the year, with 2021 NCAA doubles champion Makenna Jones taking the singles title at the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Zephyrhills Florida. Jones, a former No. 2 in the ITA singles rankings while at North Carolina who was unseeded this week, defeated No. 5 seed Hanna Chang 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 to win the first $25,000 final she had competed in. Jones won her first singles title as a professional last year at the $15K in San Diego.

At the ATP Challenger 75 in Tallahassee Florida, No. 6 seed Zizou Bergs of Belgium defeated No. 5 seed Tung-Lin Wu of Taiwan 7-5, 6-2 to take the title without the loss of a set. 

The doubles title went to the unseeded team from Argentina, with Federico Agustin Gomez(Louisville) and Nicolas Kicker defeating top seeds Will Blumberg(North Carolina) and Luis David Martinez of Venezuela 7-6(2), 4-6, 13-11 in Saturday's final. 

In the six Power 5 conference finals played today, only two favorites left with with championships, both the defending NCAA champions: No. 1 seed Virginia, who defeated No. 2 seed Duke 4-1 for the ACC men's title and No. 1 seed Texas, who beat No. 2 seed Oklahoma 4-2 for the Big 12 women's title.

The top two teams in the country, the Texas men and the North Carolina women, both lost, with TCU avenging its loss eight days ago in Austin, and North Carolina State avenging its loss two weeks ago in Chapel Hill.

TCU took the doubles point, as it had also done last Saturday, but Texas put five first sets on the board in singles. Yet once Texas's Eliot Spizzirri had given the Longhorns their first point with a straight-sets win at line 1 over Jake Fearnley, there was no further momentum to be had, and TCU's Lui Maxted, who did not play in the previous meeting, countered with a win at line 6 over Nevin Arimilli. TCU forced third sets on the other four courts, and when Sebastian Gorzny beat Cleeve Harper 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 at line 5, TCU needed only one of the remaining three matches. It was senior Luc Fomba who delivered, beating Pierre-Yves Bailly at line 2 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 to secure the 4-1 decision.

TCU and Texas are now 2-2 in their four meetings this year, and could meet a fifth time in the NCAA team championships, in either the semifinals or finals.

North Carolina State had not had freshman Diana Shnaider available in their previous match with UNC, with Shnaider competing at the WTA 500 in Charleston that week and reaching the quarterfinals. Shnaider was definitely a factor today, defeating ITA No. 1 Fiona Crawley 6-2, 6-1, after the Wolfpack had taken the doubles point and Amelia Rajecki had beaten Carson Tanguilig 6-3, 6-1 at line 3, making it 3-0. Reese Brantmeier kept the Tar Heels from being shut out with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Alana Smith at line 2, but Sophie Abrams closed out Elizabeth Scotty at line 5 7-5, 6-1 to give NC State a 4-1 victory, the program's first ACC title and its first win over UNC in 25 years. It's the first loss of the season for North Carolina.

Both undefeated SEC regular season champions were dealt their first losses by a conference opponent in today's finals, with top seed Texas A&M falling to No. 2 seed Georgia 4-2 in the women's final, and No. 3 seed Kentucky saving three championship points in its 4-3 win over No. 1 seed Georgia in the men's final. 

The Georgia women, who have struggled in doubles all season, did take it today, which was a huge boost to their chances of avenging their regular season loss to the Aggies. The Bulldogs got wins from Gigi Grant at line 6, Mell Reasco at line 3, and Meg Kowalski at 5, with A&M earning points at line 1 and line 4 before Kowalski clinched. Lea Ma injured her knee in the second set against Mary Stoiana at line 1, and although she continued to play, she was obviously hampered, so her health will be a question heading into the NCAAs in two weeks.

The Georgia men were in good position to close out the Wildcats, with both Miguel Perez Pena at line 5 and Blake Croyder at line 4 serving for their matches in the third sets. But Taha Baadi got the break back, held and broke again to beat Croyder 7-6(5), 2-6, 7-5 to make it 3-3. Freshman Jaden Weekes, who had failed to finish his match against Tennessee in the semifinals despite having a match point and was bailed out by Alafia Ayeni's heroics, also broke and held, meaning the match would come down to a third set tiebreaker.

Weekes saved a championship point with a good second serve down 5-6, and the 18-year-old Canadian came up with the clutch volley and the big serve to close out the 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(7) victory. The 4-3 decision gave the Wildcats their first SEC title since 1992 and just their second ever.

The conference tournaments for the Big Ten and Pac-12 are scheduled for next week.