Only Americans Remain in Contention at Charleston $100K; Duke Women Lose Without Beck; Zamarripa, Jones Reach First $25K Semifinals in Zephyrhills; Blanch Advances to Semifinals at $15K in Spain

The $100,000 women's USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Charleston South Carolina will have American champions in both singles and doubles after today's action eliminated the seven international players who had reached the singles quarterfinals and doubles semifinals.

Top seed Peyton Stearns(Texas) defeated Duke's Chloe Beck 6-1, 6-2 in 59 minutes, ending the senior's four-match winning streak in her first professional competition in four years. Stearns will play No. 7 seed Caroline Dolehide, who defeated No. 4 seed Nao Hibino of Japan 6-2, 6-3.

In the bottom half, hometown hope Emma Navarro(Virginia), the No. 3 seed, defeated No. 5 seed Yue Yuan of China 6-3, 6-2, setting up another meeting with No. 2 seed Madison Brengle. Brengle, who beat qualifier Storm Hunter of Australia 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, has lost both her previous matches against Navarro, in the first round of Charleston last year and, in August, in the quarterfinals of the WTA 125 in Vancouver.

In the doubles final tomorrow, 2021 USTA National 18s (and US Open girls) doubles champions Robin Montgomery and Ashlyn Krueger will face top seeds Sophie Chang and Angela Kulikov(USC). The unseeded 18-year-olds defeated Jessy Rompies(Clemson) of Indonesia and Prarthana Thombare of India, also unseeded, 6-7(5), 6-4, 10-5, while Chang and Kulikov beat No. 3 seeds En-Shuo Liang of Taiwan and Olivia Tjandramulia of Australia 6-2, 6-0.

Beck's run in Charleston left her unable to play for the Blue Devils in today's quarterfinals of the ACC tournament, and No. 2 seed Duke lost 4-3 to No. 7 seed Georgia Tech. The Yellowjackets won the doubles point and got singles points at lines 1, 2 and 4, with Kylie Bilchev at line 2 getting the clinching point over Emma Jackson. Duke, currently No. 6 in the ITA rankings, won the ACC tournament last year, beating Virginia in the final.

Stearns isn't the only member of the 2022 Texas Longhorn National Championship team to reach a semifinal on the USTA Pro Circuit this week, with Allura Zamarripa continuing her run at the $25,000 tournament in Zephyrhills Florida. The 2022 Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA team championships as a freshman, Zamarripa has now won five matches, including two in qualifying, to reach her first semifinal at the $25K level. The 20-year-old left-hander defeated No. 8 seed Oana Georgeta Simion of Romania 6-1, 6-2 in today's quarterfinal and will face No. 5 seed Hanna Chang for a place in the final. Hungary's Fanni Stollar, the only international player to make the semifinals in either women's USTA Pro Circuit tournament this week, will play unseeded Makenna Jones(UNC), who won the 2021 NCAA doubles title. Stollar, the No. 7 seed, defeated No. 2 seed Francesca Di Lorenzo(Ohio State) 6-2, 6-3, while Jones reached her first $25K semifinal with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Yuliia Starodubtseva(Old Dominion) of Ukraine.

Starodubtseva and Russia's Maria Kononova(North Texas) advanced to the doubles final with a 6-3, 6-3 win over the No. 4 seeds Allura and Bella Zamarripa and will play No. 2 seeds Jada Hart(UCLA) and Rasheeda McAdoo(Georgia Tech) for the title. Hart and McAdoo defeated Canadian teens Kayla Cross and Victoria Mboko 7-6(5), 6-4. 

Both Americans in the quarterfinals of the ATP Tallahassee Challenger 75 lost today, with wild card Thai Kwiatkowski(Virginia) dropping a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 decision to No. 5 seed Tung-Lin Wu of Taiwan. Eighteen-year-old Alex Michelsen was beated by No. 7 seed Enzo Couacaud of France 7-5, 7-5.

Darwin Blanch became the first player born in 2007 to reach the semifinals of an ITF men's World Tennis Tour tournament today with a win at the $15,000 event in Telde Spain. The 15-year-old left-hander, who will not turn 16 until September, defeated No. 8 seed Sergi Perez Contri of Spain 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 and will face unseeded 20-year-old Alejandro Manzanera Pertusa of Spain, a former Top 15 ITF junior, in the semifinals. Two qualifiers are playing in the top half semifinal.