Stearns and Navarro Meet for Charleston $100K Title; Jones Reaches First $25K Final; All Four US Teams Qualify for ITF Junior Team Finals; Conference Tournament Finals Set in SEC, Big 12, ACC
Less than a year ago, both Emma Navarro(Virginia) and Peyton Stearns(Texas) were competing in the NCAA Division I Team Championships, with Stearns' Longhorns beating Navarro's Cavaliers 4-2 in the quarterfinals in Champaign, although Stearns lost her match with Navarro 6-1, 6-0. Stearns, who lost only two matches all season, went on to win the NCAA singles title, with an expected rematch with Navarro failing to materialize after Navarro was upset by Abigail Rencheli of NC State in the round of 16.
Since then, with both turning pro after their sophomore years, Navarro and Stearns have met twice, in back-to-back $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournaments in Florida in January. Navarro won both, 7-5, 6-3 in the Naples final and 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in the Vero Beach quarterfinals. Stearns has had the better results since however, and she comes into their Sunday final at the $100,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Charleston South Carolina, Navarro's hometown, as the No. 1 seed after a recent run to a WTA 250 final in Bogota. Stearns defeated No. 7 seed Caroline Dolehide 6-2, 7-5 in today's semifinal.
Navarro, the No. 3 seed, continued her dominance over Madison Brengle, the No. 2 seed, dispatching the WTA Top 100 fixture 6-3, 6-0 in 52 minutes in today's semifinal. Stearns is now up to 72 in the live ATP rankings; Navarro will also be at her career-high after this week; she is currently up to 105. She is also still very much in the race for the USTA's Roland Garros main draw wild card now, with two weeks left for the women.
In the doubles final today, top seeds Sophie Chang and Angela Kulikov(USC) defeated unseeded 18-year-olds Ashlyn Krueger and Robin Montgomery 6-3, 6-4.
2021 NCAA doubles champion Makenna Jones, the former North Carolina standout, has reached her first final at the $25,000 level on the Pro Circuit, in Zephyrhills Florida. The unseeded 25-year-old, the daughter of former ATP No. 1 in doubles Kelly Jones, defeated No. 7 seed Fanni Stollar of Hungary 7-6(2), 6-4 in today's semifinal. She will face No. 5 seed Hanna Chang, who ended the run of qualifier Allura Zamirripa(Texas) 6-3, 6-4.
The doubles title in Zephyrhills went to the unseeded team of
Maria Kononova(North Texas) of Russia and Yulia Starodubtseva of Ukraine(Old Dominion). They defeated No. 2 seeds Jada Hart(UCLA) and Rasheeda McAdoo(Georgia Tech) 7-5, 6-3. It's the first ITF Women's doubles title for Starodubtseva and the third for Kononova.
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| USA Junior Davis Cup team: Captain Sylvain Guichard, Matisse Farzam, Jagger Leach and Max Exsted |
The ITF Junior Team North/Central American and Caribbean qualifying tournament that took place the past three days at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona has concluded, with all four teams from the United States earning their spots in the Finals. The USA's U16 Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup teams and the U14 Boys World Junior Tennis team did not drop a point in finishing at the top of their groups in the four-team round robin competition. The U14 Girls World Junior Tennis team lost to Canada 2-1, but still qualified, with the top two teams in each group earning a spot in the 16-team Finals later this summer and fall.
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