Tien Reaches Irvine $15K Final, Wins Doubles Title; Challenger Titles for Kypson and Nava; Eubanks and Keys Take Wimbledon Grass Warmups; 15 Americans Begin Play Sunday in ITF J300 at Roehampton

Learner Tien will aim for his first singles title on the USTA Pro Circuit in his hometown of Irvine California Sunday, following the 17-year-old left-hander's second Pro Circuit doubles title today at the $15,000 SoCal Pro Series event. The 2022 Kalamazoo 18s champion defeated qualifier Isaiah Strode 6-3, 7-6(6) in today's singles semifinal to set up a meeting with another qualifier, Quinn Vandecasteele, a rising junior at the University of Oregon. Vandecasteele, who defeated No. 6 seed Edward Winter(Pepperdine) of Australia 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 today, will be playing for the 14th consecutive day Sunday, after reaching last week's $15K final in Los Angeles as a qualifier.

Tien and Vandecasteele have played twice this year, in Tien's collegiate debut at USC after a long wait to be cleared by the NCAA, and in the quarterfinals of the Pac-12 tournament in Ojai, with neither match being completed.

Tien and Bryce Nakashima, the rising Ohio State freshman, took the doubles title this afternoon, defeating the unseeded British pair of Josh Goodger(Tulsa/Florida) and Matthew Summers(Denver) 6-4, 6-2, their fourth straight-sets victory of the week. It's the third Pro Circuit doubles title for Nakashima, who also won a title in week one of the SoCal Pro Series with teammate Jack Anthrop.

The women's singles final Sunday in Irvine will feature the top two seeds, with No. 2 seed Haley Giavara(Cal) taking on top seed Jia-Jing Lu of China. Giavara, 22, defeated doubles partner Katherine Hui[6], a rising freshman at Stanford, 7-5, 6-4 to reach her first Pro Circuit singles final. The 33-year-old Lu beat No. 3 seed Eryn Cayetano(USC) 6-1, 6-2 in the top half semifinal. 

Giavara and Hui won the doubles title this afternoon, the first Pro Circuit doubles title for Giavara and the second for Hui, who won the $15K in San Diego last month with Sara Daavettila(UNC). The top seeds defeated No. 2 seeds Cayetano and Isabelle Chhiv(Princeton) 6-2, 6-4.

Cracked Racquets will have coverage of the singles finals Sunday on their YouTube channel.

Former Texas A&M star Patrick Kypson, the 2017 Kalamazoo 18s champion, won his first ATP Challenger event today, a 50 level in Medellin Colombia. The 23-year-old from North Carolina, seeded No. 7, defeated former Florida State star Benjamin Lock of Zimbabwe 6-3, 6-3 in today's final. Kypson, who didn't drop a set this week, will rise to a career-high of 271 in the ATP rankings on Monday.

Emilio Nava had a much more dramatic win in his Challenger final at the 75 level event in Italy, saving two match points with opponent Titouan Dragouet of France serving for the match at 5-4 40-15 in the second set. But Nava broke, won the second set tiebreaker and finished off his second Challenger title 6-7(5), 7-6(6), 6-4 after midnight in Italy, in just under three hours. Nava will also reach a new career high of 168 in the ATP rankings Monday.

Former UNC All-American Will Blumberg won the doubles title, with Luis David Martinez of Venezuela, with the top seeds defeating No. 2 seeds Roman Jebavy of the Czech Republic and Vladyslav Manafov of Ukraine 6-4, 6-4. Although this, his sixth Challenger title, was on clay, Blumberg is playing Wimbledon next week, with Casper Ruud as his partner.

Two years ago when I spoke to Chris Eubanks for this Tennis Recruiting Network article, he had decided to make the trip to London for Wimbledon qualifying, even though he was still outside the cutoff a few days before. He ended up making it into qualifying but lost in the first round; last year he lost in the second round of qualifying. This year, the unseeded 27-year-old from Atlanta is heading to Wimbledon main draw with his first ATP title in tow, having won the ATP 250 today in Mallorca Spain with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over No. 4 seed Adrian Mannarino of France. 

These quotes I got from the former Georgia Tech star during that interview two years ago have really stuck with me, and I think it goes a long way toward explaining his recent surge in the rankings; he's now at a career-high of 43.

"I think [I learned the importance of] having an identity, a clear-cut identity on your game style and what it's going to be," said Eubanks, who needs 20-plus credits to earn his degree in business at Georgia Tech. "When you're in such a structured environment as I was, I'd come in every day and (head coach) Kenny(Thorne) would just continue to reinforce, this is how you play, this is how you're going to play."

"It's probably one of the things, having three, four years out of school now, I can say I missed," Eubanks said. "You go pro and you have a little more time to think, I guess, free time on your hands. People can come up to you and offer their suggestions on what they think you should do and you can maybe listen to it and get lost a little bit. I think that's something that's maybe happened to me in the past, losing the identity of how I want to play, kind of shutting out the noise. For me, it was having that constant reinforcement: this is how you're going to play and this is what we're doing every day to make sure you're as good as possible at executing that kind of game style."

For more on Eubanks' title, see this article from the ATP website.

Madison Keys will also head to Wimbledon with a title, her seventh on the WTA tour, after claiming the championship at the 500 event in Eastbourne. Keys defeated Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-2, 7-6(13) for her second title at Eastbourne and her third title on grass. For more on Keys' title, see this article from the WTA website.

The ITF J300 in Roehampton begins Sunday, with eight US girls and seven US boys in the singles draws.  Clervie Ngounoue is the top seed, with the other American girls Valeria Ray, Mia Slama, Thea Rabman, Tatum Evans, Tyra Grant[13], Ariana Pursoo, and Alexis Harmon.  Kaitlin Quevedo and Ashton Bowers were late withdrawals.

The US boys in the draw are No. 4 seed Cooper Williams, Darwin Blanch[10], Kaylan Bigun, Kyle Kang, Roy Horvitz and Alexander Razeghi. Meecah Bigun in the only one of the four US boys in the final round of qualifying to advance to the main draw.

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