Tien Turns Pro; Michelsen Reaches Quarterfinals of ATP 250 in Newport; Will Champaign $25K Predict 2023 Kalamazoo Finalist, 2024 NCAA Champion? Osuigwe Sisters Meet in Evansville $60K First Round; Wiersholm Returns, Posts Win at Rochester $15K

Learner Tien announced on social media last night that he would not be returning to USC and will now pursue a career in professional tennis. The 17-year-old from Irvine California spent one semester as a Trojan, but played only ten matches due to a lengthy delay in his NCAA eligibility clearance. Tien won the Kalamazoo 18s title last summer, reached the 2023 Australian Open boys singles final and was AO boys doubles champion, and advanced to the semifinals of the Roland Garros junior championships last month.

Eighteen-year-old Alex Michelsen, who has been a training partner of Tien at Tier 1 Performance, has not yet announced that he will be turning pro, but that appears to be coming sooner rather than later after he advanced to the quarterfinals of the ATP 250 Infosys Hall of Fame Open in Newport Rhode Island. Michelsen, who has signed with the University of Georgia, defeated James Duckworth of Australia 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 and will face 2016 NCAA singles champion Mackenzie McDonald(UCLA), the No. 4 seed, Friday. Michelsen is now up to 165 in the ATP live rankings.

2023 NCAA champion Ethan Quinn(Georgia) lost his second round match to top seed Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-2.

The $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Champaign Illinois has developed an intriguing history over the past two years, with its champion reaching the Kalamazoo 18s final the next month, then winning the NCAA singles title the following May. This year's two players who can follow in the footsteps of Ben Shelton in 2021 and Ethan Quinn in 2022 are Nishesh Basavareddy, a rising sophomore at Stanford, who received a wild card into Champaign, and Aidan Kim, a rising freshman at Florida. Basavareddy beat Jack Anthrop(Ohio State) 6-4, 7-5 in his first round match today, Kim is playing No. 2 seed Aidan McHugh of Great Britain tonight. The top seed in Champaign is former ATP No. 65 Evgeny Donskoy of Russia.  Wild cards were awarded to Basavareddy and the University of Illinois's Hunter Heck, Karlis Ozolins and Kento Miyoshi.

The women's USTA Pro Circuit tournament this week is a $60,000 tournament in Evansville, where veterans Madison Brengle and Sachia Vickery are the top two seeds. 

Sixteen-year-old Victoria Osuigwe qualified yesterday, making it three $60Ks that she has qualified for this year, and was drawn to play her older sister, 2017 ITF World Junior champion Whitney. They had not played before in a sanctioned event, and it was Whitney who came away with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory. They are teamed up in doubles this week as well, losing their first round match tonight to Samantha Crawford and Allie Kiick 6-0, 7-5. 

ITA Player of the Year Fiona Crawley, a rising senior at North Carolina, received a wild card and defeated No. 5 seed Robin Anderson(5) 6-4, 6-1 in the first round. 

The other wild cards were awarded to Kiick, Crawford and Eleanor Myers(Kentucky). 

The third USTA Pro Circuit tournament this week is a men's $15,000 tournament in Rochester New York, with Ignacio Monzon of Argentina and Darian King of Barbados the top two seeds. 

One of the wild cards there went to Henrik Wiersholm, the 2012 Kalamazoo 16s champion who went on to star at the University of Virginia. Wiersholm, who had not played competitively in almost four years, defeated No. 5 seed Patrick Maloney(Michigan) 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 in just over three hours. The other wild cards were awarded to Emmett Ward, Jordan Benjamin(Dayton) and Jelani Sarr, a rising freshman at South Carolina. Sarr defeated No. 8 seed Will Grant(Florida) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2; Miami rising freshman Yannick Rahman beat Benjamin 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(3) in another match exceeding three hours.

It's rare that a $15K doesn't feature any ITF Junior Reserve entries, but there were no ITF Top 100 juniors who entered in Rochester. Michigan State rising sophomore Ozan Baris received entry into Champaign via the ITF's Junior Exempt program, based on his Top 30 ITF junior ranking at the end of last year.