Vandecasteele Claims First Pro Circuit Title in Edwardsville; Starodubtseva Wins Second $60K in Dallas; Ngounoue Falls in WTA DC Open Qualifying; Fritz Takes Atlanta Open Title

After falling in two finals as a qualifier in the SoCal Pro Series last month, Quinn Vandecasteele got over the hump today at the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Edwardsville Illinois, ending the winning streak of top seed Aidan Mchugh of Great Britain by a 6-3, 7-6(5) score.

The 20-year-old Vandecasteele, who will be entering his fourth year at the University of Oregon, also had to go through qualifying this week, but lost only one set, in the first round, en route to the title. Mchugh, who won last week's $25,000 tournament in Champaign, fought back from 6-1 down in the tiebreaker, but after winning four consecutive points, the 23-year-old double faulted on match point No. 5.

The doubles title in Edwardsville went to top seeds George Goldhoff(Texas) and Mac Kiger(UNC), who defeated unseeded Colin Markes(Texas) and Karem Al Allaf(Iowa) 6-2, 6-1 in the rain-delayed final. Markes did make it to the Lexington Challenger for his 4 p.m. qualifying match, and he won it, beating Blu Baker of Great Britain 6-4, 7-5.

As great a summer as Vandecasteele has had, Yuliia Starodubtseva of Ukraine could be having an even better one. The former Old Dominion star, who completed her eligibility last year, won her second $60,000 title this summer at the USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Dallas. The unseeded Starodubtseva, who had beaten top seed Madison Brengle (for the second time in two weeks) in the quarterfinals, took out No. 2 seed Yafan Wang of China 3-6, 6-2, 6-2, her third straight victory this week from a set down. The 23-year-old is 18-2 this summer in $60K USTA Pro Circuit tournaments and is up to 203 in the WTA live rankings.

At the $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Pittsburgh, No. 6 seed Darian King of Barbados won his second straight title, beating Juan Carlos Aguilar(Texas A&M/TCU) of Canada 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the final. Aguilar had to play his semifinal earlier in the day, beating wild card Felix Corwin(Minnesota) 6-3, 6-4. King, 31, won the $15K last week in Rochester New York.

Qualifying at the Mubadala Citi DC Open was completed today, with Wimbledon girls champion Clervie Ngounoue falling short in her final round qualifying match. The 17-year-old wild card, originally from the Washington DC area, was on court with WTA No. 79 Magdalena Frech of Poland for two hours and 16 minutes, but lost in straight sets, 7-6(5), 7-5. The two Americans who did qualify beat other Americans, with Hailey Baptiste defeating Peyton Stearns(Texas) 7-6(5), 6-2 and Lauren Davis getting past Ashlyn Krueger 1-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Six players qualify for the men's draw, which is a 48-player field compared to the 28-player field for women.  Two-time Kalamazoo 18s champion Zachary Svajda advanced to the main draw with a 7-6(3), 3-0 ret. win over Brandon Holt(USC); wild card Bjorn Fratangelo beat Alexis Galarneau(NC State) of Canada 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to reach his first ATP main draw since the Roland Garros in 2022; Bradley Klahn(Stanford) is through to the main draw after a 7-5, 6-4 win over Sho Shimabukuro of Japan. Klahn last played an ATP event a year ago, as a wild card in Washington.

For the second straight week, Jerry Shang of China qualified for the main draw, with the 18-year-old defeating 2017 NCAA champion Thai Kwiatkowski(UVA) 7-6(5), 6-2. Kiranpal Pannu, the former Columbus State All-American from New Zealand, qualified for the first time to an ATP event, beating 19-year-old Bruno Kuzuhara 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(6). The only previous ATP main draw appearance for Pannu was as a wild card in Auckland this past January.

Taylor Fritz won his sixth ATP title this afternoon at the Atlanta Open 250, beating unseeded Aleks Vukic(Illinois) of Australia 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-4. Fritz, who is the top seed in Washington DC, will remain at No. 9 in the ATP rankings, while Vukic moves to a career high of 62 after his first ATP semifinal and final this week.