My Wimbledon 14U Recap; Tien Rolls on at Chicago Challenger; All-USA Semifinals in Dallas and Champaign; House Settlement Tennis Roster Limits Set; 2025 NCAA Individual Championships Slated for USTA National Campus

My Tennis Recruiting Network article on this month's 14-and-under tournament at Wimbledon is up today, featuring Americans Jordan Lee and Raya Kotseva, who discussed their experience playing on grass and being a part of the tennis festival that is Wimbledon. I also was able to provide some coverage of the championship matches, with Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic adding to her already impressive resume, and Takahiro Kawaguchi of Japan putting himself at the forefront of the best 14-year-olds in the world.

The USTA 16s and 18s National Championships begin a week from today in Kalamazoo, with the participation of two-time defending champion Learner Tien(USC) increasingly in doubt.  The 18-year-old wild card from Irvine California won his 28th consecutive match today at the ATP Challenger 75 in Chicago, beating No. 8 seed Seongchan Hong of Korea 6-3, 6-1 to advance to the semifinals. Tien, who is on an eight-match Challenger winning streak after claiming the Bloomfield Hills Challenger at the start of this month, will take on No. 6 seed Yunchaokete Bu of China for a place in the Chicago final. Tien and Bu played in the second round in Bloomfield Hills, with Tien mounting an impressive comeback in his 0-6, 7-5, 6-0 win.  

Tien, now 240 in the ATP live rankings, is the last American still in contention, so he will increase his lead in the USTA Wild Card Challenge. That makes the Kalamazoo US Open wild card less urgent, and his ATP ranking would be the best of any player to compete in Kalamazoo this century. Frances Tiafoe, who won the Kalamazoo 18s title in 2015, was came in at 284 that year.

With Cincinnati Open ATP Masters 1000 qualifying beginning Sunday August 11, the day of the Kalamazoo final, Tien would have to forego one of the four qualifying wild cards he might be offered if he played Kalamazoo. The lure of winning an unprecedented third 18s singles title may not be enough with so many possibilities opening up due to this streak.

The other semifinal at the Chicago Challenger features two former college stars: Great Britain's Jake Fearnley, a recent TCU graduate, and Canada's Gabe Diallo, who left Kentucky in 2022 after his junior year.  Qualifier Fearnley defeated Brandon Holt(USC) 6-3, 6-2 and Diallo, seeded No. 4, beat Mitchell Krueger by the same score.

Tien isn't the only USTA National 18s champion to reach a semifinal this week, with Clervie Ngounoue, the 2023 San Diego champion, reaching the final four at the USTA Pro Circuit W50 in Dallas. Ngounoue, a qualifier, defeated No. 4 seed Manachaya Sawangkaew (Oklahoma State) of Thailand 6-2, 7-5 and will face top seed Kayla Day in the semifinals Saturday. Day beat last week's Evansville W75 champion Sophie Chang 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 in the quarterfinals today. Ngounoue, who received a main draw wild card into the WTA 500 in Washington DC next week, has drawn 2022 NCAA singles champion Peyton Stearns(Texas) in the first round.

Texas A&M rising senior Mary Stoiana, who reached the Evansville final, defeated Catherine Harrison(UCLA) 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-2 to set up a semifinal with another former Bruin, Robin Anderson. Anderson beat Elvina Kalieva 3-6, 6-1, 6-1.

As with the women in Dallas, all the semifinalists at the USTA Pro Circuit men's $25,000 tournament in Champaign are from the United States.

Arizona rising senior Colton Smith defeated top seed Aidan McHugh of Great Britain 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 to advance to the semifinals in Illinois. Smith, a wild card, will play No. 3 seed Cannon Kingsley(Ohio State), who beat Noah Schachter(Texas A&M) 6-3, 6-4. In the bottom half, No. 4 seed Andre Ilagan(Hawaii) will face No. 6 seed Harrison Adams(Texas A&M). Ilagan advanced when qualifier Gavin Young(Michigan) retired trailing 6-4, 3-1; Adams defeated University of Illinois rising junior Kenta Miyoshi of Japan 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.

The qualifying for the ATP and WTA 500s in Washington DC begins Saturday, with all four of the men's qualifying wild cards going to former collegians: Eliot Spizzirri(Texas), Tristan Boyer(Stanford), Thai Kwiatkowski(Virginia) and Andrew Fenty(Michigan).

Two important pieces of news from college tennis today, with the House settlement roster limits for all sports announced today. (This is for the Power 4 conferences, other schools have the option of opting out if they decide not to share revenue with student-athletes according to this Yahoo sports article). Beginning with the 2025 academic year, roster spots are capped at 10 for both men and women. According to this article from cbssports.com, all scholarships can now be divided, which has been the case for men's tennis, who have 4.5 scholarships, but not for women, who currently have eight full scholarships.

"Schools will also have flexibility in sharing scholarships, with all sports now labeled as "equivalency sports," allowing for partial scholarships to be distributed to players in football and basketball. Those sports were previously tabbed as "head-count sports," which required players to be on full scholarship."

As a non-revenue sport, tennis is not at the forefront of the explanations, so it will take more time to understand what the impact these roster limits will have on the sport as schools begin to make their decisions on funding.

The 2025 NCAA singles and doubles championships will be held at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, according to this tweet from John Parsons. Baylor was announced as the 2024 host some time ago, and they are hosting the 2025 NCAA team championships in May, but the 2025 individual championships in the fall, in their second year of a pilot program, did not have a site until this announcement. It was rumored that Georgia, which will have the 2026 NCAA team championships, was not interested in hosting the individuals and that seems to have been the case.

Fearnley Ousts Top Seed at Chicago Challenger; Ngounoue Among Seven Americans in Dallas W50 Quarterfinals; Six US Quarterfinalists at Champaign $25K; European Championships Move to September; Olympic Draws

The strong field at the ATP Challenger 75 this week in Chicago resulted in Great Britain's Jake Fearnley needing to get through qualifying to earn a place in the main draw. But the recent TCU graduate continues to show he'll contend for Challenger titles all summer, reaching the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(3) win today over top seed Terence Atmane of France.

Fearnley, who won the Nottingham Challenger last month as a qualifier, earned his first ATP Top 100 win, over China's Jerry Shang, in that event. His win today over ATP 118 Atmane, from 2-4, 15-40 down in the third set, is the second best by ranking of his career.

Fearnley will play Brandon Holt(USC) in Friday's quarterfinals, after Holt defeated Marc Polmans of Australian 6-4, 7-6(4) to reach his eighth Challenger quarterfinal of the year.

Wild card Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) lost to No. 3 seed Hugo Grenier of France 6-4, 6-0. 

The three Americans in the Chicago quarterfinals--Learner Tien, Mitchell Krueger and Holt--are by far the fewest on the USTA Pro Circuit this week.

Seven US women have advanced to the quarterfinals at the W50 in Dallas, including Clervie Ngounoue, who turned 18 last week. Ngounoue, who like Fearnley was the top seed in qualifying, defeated No. 7 seed Victoria Hu(Princeton) 7-6(7), 6-4 and will face the only non-American remaining, No. 4 seed Manachaya Sawangkaew(Oklahoma State) of Thailand, who beat wild card Katrina Scott 7-6(6), 6-3.

Sophie Chang and top seed Kayla Day will meet in the other top half quarterfinal, while in the all-US bottom half, Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) will play Catherine Harrison(UCLA) and Elvina Kalieva will face Robin Anderson(UCLA). None of the four quarterfinalists in the bottom half are seeded.

The men's $25K in Champaign features six American quarterfinalists, including wild card Colton Smith(Arizona) and qualifier Gavin Young(Michigan). Seeded Americans advancing are No. 3 Cannon Kingsley(Ohio State), No. 4 seed Andre Ilagan(Hawaii) and No. 6 Harrison Adams(Texas A&M). The sixth American in the quarterfinals is former Texas A&M star Noah Schachter. Top seed Aidan McHugh of Great Britain, a finalist at last week's $25K in East Lansing, and rising Illinois junior Kenta Miyoshi of Japan, a wild card, are the other two quarterfinalists.

McHugh plays Smith, Kingsley faces Schachter, Young gets Ilagan and Adams plays Miyoshi.

I heard at Wimbledon that the European Championships, usually played in July, have been moved, for all three divisions, to September. I wasn't able to work out why they moved, but the 14s will be in Most Czech Republic the week of September 9th, the 18s ITF J300 Closed will be in Oberpullendorf Austria the week of September 16th, and the 16s will be in Parma Italy, the week of September 23rd.

Usually the points earned from the ITF J300, which had been held for many years in Klosters Switzerland, would count toward the US Open Junior acceptances, but they will not be of any help this year. 

Links to the information on these events can be found at the Tennis Europe site.

The draws for the Paris Olympic tennis events were released this morning. Play begins Saturday at Roland Garros.

Women's singles: https://www.itftennis.com/media/12851/paris-2024-olympic-tennis-event-womens-singles-draw.pdf

Men's singles: https://www.itftennis.com/media/12852/paris-2024-olympic-tennis-event-mens-singles-draw.pdf

Women's doubles: https://www.itftennis.com/media/12849/paris-2024-olympic-tennis-event-womens-doubles-draw.pdf

Men's doubles: https://www.itftennis.com/media/12850/paris-2024-olympic-tennis-event-mens-doubles-draw.pdf

Mixed doubles: https://www.itftennis.com/media/12848/paris-2024-olympic-tennis-event-mixed-doubles-draw.pdf

US Open Wild Card Challenge Standings; Tien Stretches Win Streak to 27; Ngounoue Receives WTA 500 Washington DC Wild Card; Gauff Chosen as Olympic Flag Bearer; Samson Reaches WTA Semifinal in Prague

The USTA provided the latest US Open Wild Card Challenger standings today, with the first week of women's results producing a tie at the top, with three weeks to go.

Maria Mateas(Duke) and Sophie Chang, who both won ITF W75s last week in Granby Canada and Evansville Indiana are leading, with Evansville finalist Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) in third Both Chang and Stoiana are in this week's W50 in Dallas and have advanced to the second round. Alycia Parks is playing a WTA 125 in Poland on hard courts, so is earning points there by qualifying and reaching the quarterfinals.

Learner Tien(USC) continues to lead the men's standings, with the points from his Bloomfield Hills Challenger victory three weeks ago, with Eiliot Spizzirri(Texas) and Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) in second and third.  

Tien, who won a $15K two weeks ago, which doesn't count in the WC Challenge, defeated qualifier Aidan Mayo 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3 this afternoon at the ATP Challenger 75 in Chicago to reach Friday's quarterfinals, with Basavareddy playing his second round match against No. 3 seed Hugo Grenier of France Thursday. Tien, who now has won 27 consecutive matches, is up to 249 in the ATP live rankings. Results from the Lexington Kentucky and Lincoln Nebraska Challengers will also count, as will any results from the ATP/WTA 500s next week in Washington DC.

The current standings from the USTA release:

Three weeks remain in the Challenge for both men and women. The current top of the men's and women's standing (player's current ranking in parenthesis)

MEN
1. Learner Tien (258) -- 75
2. Eliot Spizzirri (343) -- 47
3. Nishesh Basavareddy (303) -- 46
4. Stefan Kozlov (365) -- 30

WOMEN
T1. Sophie Chang (260) -- 75
T1. Maria Mateas (206) -- 75
3. Mary Stoiana (463) -- 49
4. Hina Inoue (355) -- 23
5. Jada Robinson (672) -- 19

The men's wild card will go to the American with the highest cumulative total of ATP singles ranking points earned from their best four results over six weeks. The Men's Challenge counts outdoor and indoor hard-court events at the 25-level and above around the world.

The women's wild card will go to the American with the highest cumulative total of WTA singles ranking points earned from their best three results over four weeks. The Women's Challenge counts outdoor and indoor hard-court events at the 35-level and above around the world.

Speaking of the Washington DC Mubadala Citi Open next week, it was announced today that Clervie Ngounoue, the 2023 Wimbledon girls and USTA National 18s champion, would be receiving a main draw wild card, as will 2021 US Open girls champion Robin Montgomery, both of whom are from the DC area.

The wild card release:

The Mubadala Citi DC Open, the fifth largest professional tennis event in the United States and the only combined ATP-WTA 500 level tennis tournament in the world, has announced its main draw wildcards ahead of the highly-anticipated 55th edition of the tournament, July 27 - August 4. The event, which annually takes place in Washington D.C. at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park, has awarded main draw wild cards to World No. 9, 2024 Madrid champion and Olympic Gold medalist Andrey Rublev, 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu, former World No. 2 and 2021 Roland Garros quarterfinalist Paula Badosa, 2021 Wimbledon semifinalist and 2022 Australian Open quarterfinalist Denis Shapovalov, four-time ATP champion Reilly Opelka and Washington, D.C. natives and teenagers Robin Montgomery and Clervie Ngounoue. Two additional ATP main draw wild cards will be announced at a later date.

Montgomery, 19, is an alumnus of the Junior Tennis Champions Center (JTCC) in College Park, Maryland. She currently sits at a career-high WTA Ranking of No. 133. Montgomery concluded her junior career in 2021 by sweeping the US Open girls' singles and doubles titles. This year, she reached the third round in Madrid and took a set off World No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka, recorded her first WTA quarterfinal in ’s-Hertogenbosch and advanced through the qualifying draw at Wimbledon before winning her maiden Grand Slam main draw singles match at the professional level.

Ngounoue, 18, grew up playing on the courts at Rock Creek Park Tennis Center. She made her WTA debut last year in DC and defeated top seed Anna Blinkova in the opening round of qualifying, two weeks after winning the Wimbledon girls' singles title. In the time since, Ngounoue captured her first career ITF singles title, advanced through qualifying at the WTA Tour event in San Diego and teamed with Montgomery to reach the third round in last year's US Open women's doubles draw.

In addition, the men’s and women’s singles qualifying draws will feature recent Wimbledon doubles champion Taylor Townsend, former World No. 9 Roberto Bautista Agut and 2021 Roland Garros quarterfinalist Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. 2019 Roland Garros finalist Amanda Anisimova and Louisa Chirico have accepted qualifying wild cards. Other notable names in the qualifying draws include last year’s DC quarterfinalist J.J. Wolf and D.C. native Hailey Baptiste, who defeated former World No. 1 Karolina Pliskova last year at Rock Creek Park.

Ngounoue, who qualified at this week's Dallas W50 and has advanced to the second round, will travel from coast-to-coast next week, with the USTA Nationals starting Sunday August 3 in San Diego.

The Washington DC 500s have good fields considering that the Olympic tennis competition begins this Saturday at Roland Garros and run until Sunday August 4.  For more about the Olympic tennis competition, see these articles from the WTA and the ATP websites.

Americans competing are Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Danielle Collins(Virginia), Emma Navarro(Virginia), Desirae Krawczyk(Arizona State), Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Chris Eubanks(Georgia Tech), Marcos Giron(UCLA), Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M) and Rajeev Ram(Illinois).

The draws will be released on Thursday.

Coco Gauff has been selected by her fellow USA Olympic competitors to be a flag bearer at the opening ceremony, which is Friday in Paris, joining Lebron James in leading the Team USA delegation. For more on Gauff's selection, see this article.

Laura Samson, who was the No. 2 seed, lost in the third round earlier this month at the Wimbledon Junior Championships, but the 16-year-old Czech quickly put that disappointment behind here this week after receiving a wild card into the WTA 250 in Prague. After defeating qualifier Tara Wurth of Croatia 6-0, 6-2 in the first round, the 2024 Roland Garros girls finalist beat No. 2 seed Katerina Siniakova 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 for her first top 50 win. She had not played anyone in the Top 200 before facing Siniakova. Today Samson, No. 3 in the ITF junior rankings, defeated qualifier Oksana Selekhmeteva of Russia 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 to reach the semifinals, where she'll face No. 6 seed Magdalena Frech of Poland. 

See this article from the WTA website for all the "youngest since" milestones Samson has accomplished with this run.

My Wimbledon Junior Championships Recap; USTA National Hard Courts Wild Cards; Qualifying Concludes at USTA Pro Circuit Events in Dallas, Champaign

I hope you had an opportunity to read my daily coverage of the Junior Championships at Wimbledon here, but if you didn't, I've summarized the historic titles for Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia and Nicolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway in this article for the Tennis Recruiting Network. Also featured are American doubles champions Iva Jovic, Tyra Grant and Alex Razeghi, whose titles made it five straight years that the United States has had Wimbledon junior champions.

Those three Americans will be among the contenders at the USTA National Championships next month in San Diego and Kalamazoo, which now have their full 192-player fields, following the selection of the wild cards, listed below.

USTA National Championships Wild Cards

Boys 18s:
Krish Arora
Meecah Bigun
Joseph Oyebog Jr
Jordan Reznik
Evan Sharygin
Abhishek Thorat

Girls 18s:

Ashton Bowers

Alex Ackman

Sydney Jara

Sophie Llewellyn

Anya Murthy

Mia Yamakita

Boys 16s:

Jerrid Gaines Jr.

Keaton Hance

Marcel Latak

Ford McCollum

Navneet Raghuram

Vihaan Reddy

Girls 16s:

Hannah Ayrault

Maria Aytoyan

Chukwumelije Clarke

Zaire Clarke

Ariana Ikwueme

Nicole Okhtenberg

Boys 14s:

Elliott Awomoyi

Diego Custodio

Luke Jones

Daniel Malacek

Girls 14s:

Adelina Iftime

Addyson Munroe

Boys 12s:

Reynold Griffin

Oliver Rottcher

Girls 12s:

Cathryn Chartrand

McClellan Cooley

The USTA Girls Nationals in San Diego put out a press release today on the return of defending champion Clervie Ngounoue this year, who is warming up for the August 4th start date for 18s this week at the USTA Pro Circuit W50 in Dallas.

Ngounoue was the top seed in qualifying and she advanced to the main draw with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Jada Robinson today.  She will face 2015 NCAA singles champion Jamie Loeb(North Carolina) in the first round Wednesday.

Other Americans qualifying are wild card Bridget Stammel(Vanderbilt), wild card Alexis Blokhina(Stanford), Sara Daavettila(North Carolina) and Dalayana Hewitt.

Two of last week's W75 finalists received special exempt entries: Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) and Kayla Cross. Kari Miller(Michigan) used one of her ITA/ITF Accelerator entries and there were four wild cards awarded: Drew Morris, SMU rising senior; Emma Charney, USC rising junior; Katrina Scott and Kimmi Hance, UCLA rising senior. Only two first round matches were played today at the rare summer event on indoor hard courts, with Scott beating Charney and Robin Anderson(UCLA) defeating Sahaja Yamalapalli(Sam Houston State). Kayla Day is the top seed; the only other junior in the draw is Akasha Urhobo.

At the USTA Pro Circuit men's $25,000 tournament in Champaign Illinois, two of the eight qualifiers are Fighting Illini, giving that program seven of the 32 players in the draw: qualifiers Lucas Horve(recent graduate) and Gabrielius Guzauskas(rising senior), Zeke Clark(assistant coach), wild cards Alex Petrov(recent graduate), William Mroz(rising senior) and Kenta Miyoshi(rising junior) of Japan and Karlis Ozolins(rising senior) of Latvia.

The fourth wild card went to Arizona rising senior Colton Smith, with Rochester $15K champion Alex Bernard(Ohio State) and Rochester finalist Tyler Zink(Georgia, Oklahoma State) getting special exempt spots. 

Seven of the eight qualifiers are Americans, with Canadian Cleeve Harper(Texas) the exception; in addition to Guzauskas and Horve, US qualifiers are Aidan Kim(Florida, Ohio State), Kyle Kang(Stanford), Connor Bruce(Dayton), Gavin Young(Michigan) and Adhithya Ganesan(Florida). 

Ganesan is the only player competing in Champaign that is expected in Kalamazoo for the tournament's August 2 start.

The first round of the ATP Challenger 75 in Chicago is nearly complete, with lightning delaying the final match between top seed Terence Atmane of France and Micah Braswell(Texas) with Atmane leading 7-6(4), 1-2.

Among those advancing to the second round are qualifiers Jake Fearnley(TCU) of Great Britain and Aidan Mayo, with the latter facing wild card Learner Tien Wednesday; Brandon Holt(USC); wild card Nishesh Basavareddy and 2019 NCAA singles champion Paul Jubb of Great Britain.

Teams for ITF World Junior Tennis 14U Team Championships Announced; Pareja Extends Winning Streak to 15 with ITF J200 Title in Colombia; Hoo, Ahmad, Budacsek Claim ITF Junior Circuit Titles; Tien's Streak Reaches 26 at Chicago Challenger

The teams for the ITF World Junior Tennis 14-and-under Team Championships were announced today, with the United States teams competing in Prostejov in the Czech Republic next month featuring all five of the Americans who played the Wimbledon 14-and-under tournament two weeks ago.

The US boys team consists of Michael Antonius, Jordan Lee and, the one participant who did not play the Wimbledon event, Teodor Davidov. USTA National Coach Sylvain Guichard is the captain. 

The US girls team is Welles Newman, Maggie Sohns and Raya Kotseva, who recently switched her country representation from Bulgaria to the United States. At Wimbledon, I confirmed with Kotseva, who has lived for years in Las Vegas, that she had recently received her green card. USTA National Coach Thierry Champion is the captain.

There are seven countries that have teams for both boys and girls: Argentina, Czech Republic(hosts), Japan, Korea, Great Britain, Morocco and USA, with 25 countries having at least one team. All four of the boys in the Wimbledon 14U semifinals are competing in Prostejov: champion Takahiro Kawaguchi of Japan, finalist Lee, Donjae Kim of Korea and Stan Put of the Netherlands. Two of the girls semifinalists, champion Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic and Great Britain's Megan Knight are representing their countries, as are several other boys and girls who did not win their round robin groups.

Fifteen-year-old Julieta Pareja won her first ITF Junior Circuit singles title two weeks ago at a J100 in Medellin Colombia and followed that up last week with the title at the J200 in Bogota, both on clay. With her ITF women's W15 title in Rancho Santa Fe in June, Pareja now has a 15-match winning streak, and she has not lost a set in either of her two ITF Junior Circuit championship runs. In Bogota, the ninth-seeded Pareja beat No. 2 seed Christasha McNeil in the final 6-1, 6-1. She is now at 106 in the ITF junior rankings, up 44 spots from last week.

Calvin Baierl, the No. 3 seed, reached the boys singles final, falling to Luis Guto Miguel of Brazil 7-5, 7-5 in the championship match.

Fifteen-year-old Carrie-Ann Hoo won her third, and biggest, ITF Junior Circuit title of her career at the J100 in the Dominican Republic. Hoo, seeded No. 11, defeated No. 7 seed Isabella Marton of Canada 6-2, 7-5 in the final, while also making the doubles final with Brooke Wallman. All three of Hoo's ITF Junior Circuit singles titles have come in 2024.

At the J30 in El Salvador, 14-year-old Izyan (Zizou) Ahmad won his second consecutive singles title, and his third this year. Seeded No. 3, Ahmad defeated the top seed in the semifinals and then unseeded Jeronimo Duque Salazar of Colombia 6-0, 6-1 in the final. Fifteen-year-old Sophia Budacsek swept the girls titles, with the No. 2 seed winning her first singles title with a 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 victory over top seed Carlota Balseiro of Argentina. Budacsek and Balseiro were on the same side of the net for the doubles final, with the top seeds defeating No. 2 seeds Viktoria Monge of Ecuador and Alison Ramirez of Guatemala 6-2, 6-4 for the title. 

The sixth ITF Junior Circuit title of the week came at the J30 in Jamaica, with 16-year-old Taylor Yarnell winning his second doubles title with Jerry Han of Canada. The top seeds defeated unseeded Mac Goldemberg and Hong Kong's Terry Lau 7-5, 6-1 in the final. 

The final round of qualifying and six first round singles matches were played today at the ATP Challenger 75 in Chicago, with attention again focused on 18-year-old wild card Learner Tien and his winning streak. Tien won his 26th consecutive match this evening, beating No. 2 seed Benjamin Bonzi of France 6-4, 6-4. Tien, who didn't face a break point, broke Bonzi serving at 4-5 in each set. At 133 in the ATP rankings, Bonzi represents the best win of Tien's career. He now faces the winner of Tuesday's match between Juan Pablo Ficovich of Argentina and qualifier Aidan Mayo. 

The others who qualified today are: Great Britain's Jake Fearnley(TCU), who missed today's White House visit by the NCAA champion TCU team; Estonia's Mark Lajal; Michael Zheng(Columbia); Tung-Lin Wu of Taiwan and Japan's James Trotter(Ohio State).

Wild cards were given to Tien, Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) and Andrew Fenty(Michigan).

An ATP feature on Tien and his winning streak was published Friday.

Giron Claims First ATP Title, Shnaider and Borges Make it Three Collegiate WTA/ATP Champions Sunday; Jamrichova Falls in WTA Debut; Bernard and Monday Earn USTA Pro Circuit Championships; Mateas Celebrates Birthday with Granby W75 Title

College tennis continues to expand its influence, with three of six champions in the ATP and WTA tournaments going to players who chose Division I tennis to help prepare them for a professional career.

The oldest of the three, 30-year-old Marcos Giron, won his first ATP title, saving a match point in his 6-7(4), 6-3, 7-5 win over 19-year-old Alex Michelsen in the all-Southern California final at the ATP 250 in Newport Rhode Island. Giron, who won the 2014 NCAA singles final as a junior at UCLA, had lost his previous two ATP finals, in San Diego in 2022 and earlier this year in Dallas. Giron, who will reach a new career-high of 38 with the title, is representing the United States at the Olympics late this month in Paris. For more on the final, see this article from the ATP website.

2024 NCAA doubles champions Robert Cash and JJ Tracy(Ohio State), who received a wild card into the tournament, were beaten in the Newport doubles final by No. 6 seeds Andre Goransson(Cal) of Sweden and Sem Verbeek(Pacific) of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-4.

Giron is not playing the ATP 250 this week in Atlanta, which like Newport, is no longer on the ATP calendar after this year, but there are plenty of other Americans in the draw, with Ben Shelton(Florida) the top seed, Frances Tiafoe No. 3 and Brandon Nakashima(Virginia) No. 7 the seeded Americans. Reilly Opelka, a semifinalist at Newport, received a special exemption into the main draw, and Mackie McDonald(UCLA) and Aleks Kovacevic(Illinois) are direct entries. Two-time Kalamazoo champion Zachary Svajda advanced through qualifying, beating Maxim Cressy(UCLA) 4-6, 7-6(2) 6-4 in today's final round, and recent Georgia Tech graduate Andres Martin received a wild card. Opelka plays Kovacevic and McDonald faces Nakashima in the first round.

Back to today's pro finals, 2019 NCAA singles finalist Nuno Borges(Mississippi State) won the first ATP title of his career, with the 27-year-old from Portugal defeating Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-2 in the final of the ATP 250 in Bastad Sweden. Borges, now a career-high 42 in the ATP rankings, is only the second Portuguese man to claim a title on the ATP Tour. For more on his memorable first title, see this article from the ATP website.

And Diana Shnaider of Russia, who 14 months ago was competing in the NCAA team championships for North Carolina State, earned her third WTA title, on a third different surface, today on the clay the 250 in Budapest Hungary. The top seed, Shnaider defeated Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus 6-4, 6-4 in the final, and will move to a career-high WTA ranking of 23. For more on the final, see this article from the WTA website.

Wimbledon girls champion Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia received a wild card into the WTA 250 in Prague, making her WTA main draw debut today. The 17-year-old left-hander dropped a tight match to No. 5 seed Viktoria Tomova of Bulgaria 7-6(3), 6-3. Unlike her performance throughout the Wimbledon junior tournament, Jamrichova's serve was not an overwhelming advantage, as she had eight double faults today.

Two of the three USTA Pro Circuit titles were won by collegians, with Johannus Monday(Tennessee) of Great Britain winning the title at the $25,000 men's tournament in East Lansing Michigan and Ohio State rising junior Alex Bernard taking the title at the $15,000 tournament in Rochester New York. No. 6 seed Monday defeated top seed Aidan McHugh, also of Great Britain, 6-2, 6-2 for his third ITF men's WTT singles title. The unseeded Bernard defeated Tyler Zink(Georgia, Oklahoma State), also unseeded, 6-3, 6-1 for his second career Pro Circuit singles title.

Unseeded Sophie Chang won the USTA Pro Circuit W75 in Evansville Indiana, beating unseeded Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-3 in today's final. It's the fourth career singles title for the 27-year-old Chang and by far the biggest, with her previous three at the 25 and 15 levels. Stoiana will break into the WTA Top 500 for the first time with her appearance in the final.

Former Duke star Maria Mateas gave herself a welcome 25th birthday present today at the ITF women's World Tennis Tour W75+H tournament in Granby Canada: the biggest title of her career. The top seed, Mateas defeated unseeded 19-year-old Kayla Cross of Canada 6-3, 7-6(3) in just over two hours for her third career ITF WTT women's singles title. Mateas has also assured herself a US Open qualifying spot, with her ranking now up to a career-high of 206 with the cutoff date for entry tomorrow. 

Three All-US Finals Sunday in Newport, Evansville and Rochester, One All-British Final in Michigan, With Collegians in Each One; Blanch Reaches First ITF Men's Pro Circuit Final

The singles championship match in the last edition of the ATP Hall of Fame Open 250 in Newport Rhode Island was going to feature two Americans after yesterday's quarterfinals, and it is the two Southern Californians who will meet for a first ATP title Sunday, with 19-year-old Alex Michelsen facing 30-year-old Marcos Giron(UCLA).

No. 3 seed Michelsen, who made a surprise run to the Newport final last year, defended those points with a convincing 6-2, 6-0 win over wild card Reilly Opelka. Michelsen went 2-5 on the ATP grass court swing in Europe, but has posted three straight-sets wins this week. Giron, the No. 2 seed, went 5-4 on the pro grass court circuit, and has earned a spot in his third ATP final with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 semfinal win over No. 4 seed Chris Eubanks(Georgia Tech). 

Giron, who won the NCAA singles title in 2014, won't be the only NCAA champion in action in Newport Sunday, with 2024 doubles champions Robert Cash and JJ Tracy of Ohio State advancing to the final as a wild cards.  Cash and Tracy, playing in their first ATP event, defeated Anirudh Chandrasekar and Arjun Kadhe(Oklahoma State) of India 6-4, 6-3 in yesterday's semifinals and will face No. 6 seeds Andre Goransson(Cal) of Sweden and Sem Verbeek(Pacific) of the Netherlands for the title Sunday.

Texas A&M rising senior Mary Stoiana has reached the biggest pro final of her career at the $75,000 USTA women's Pro Circuit event in Evansville Indiana. The 21-year-old from Connecticut defeated 2023 NCAA singles champion Tian Fangran(UCLA) of China 6-3, 6-7(5), 7-5 in a semifinal that took three hours and 21 minutes to determine the winner. Stoiana will face Sophie Chang, who, like Stoiana, is unseeded, with Chang posting a 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 semifinal win over Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus. The 27-year-old Chang certainly has the edge in experience, having played 503 Pro Circuit singles matches, compared to 41 for Stoiana.

The quick ascension through the ATP Challenger circuit of Ryan Seggerman and Patrik Trhac and other recent collegians has been widely noted, but former Baylor standouts Melany Krywoj of Argentina and Alicia Herrero Linana of Spain are having similar success on the ITF women's circuit this year, winning their fifth title, and third in succession today in Evansville. The No. 2 seeds defeated the unseeded team of Sahaja Yamalapalli(Sam Houston State) of India and Hiroko Kuwata of Japan 6-2, 6-0 for their second title at a W75 this summer, with a W35 title sandwiched in between.

Recent Tennessee graduate Johannus Monday returned to competition this month after an injury forced him out of the NCAA singles competition in May, and the 22-year-old from Great Britain has quickly rebounded from the layoff. After dropping his first round match at the $25K in Dallas last week, the sixth seed is through to the final this week at the $25K in East Lansing Michigan, defeating Stanford rising sophomore Kyle Kang 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in today's semifinals. He will play compatriot Aidan McHugh, the top seed, who defeated Aidan Kim(Florida, Ohio State) 6-2, 6-3.

Joshua Sheehy(Abliene Christian) and Antigua's Jody Maginley won the doubles titles in East Lansing, with the top seeds beating No. 2 seeds Ben Jones of Great Britain and Duarte Vale(Florida) of Portugal 7-5, 6-2 in the final. It's the fourth title for the pair, and their third this year.

At the $15,000 USTA men's Pro Circuit tournament in Rochester New York, the doubles champions will face off in the singles final, with recent Oklahoma State graduate Tyler Zink playing Ohio State junior Alexander Bernard Sunday. The unseeded Bernard defeated No. 7 seed Samir Banerjee(Stanford) 7-5, 6-4 in today's semifinal, while Zink, also unseeded, reached his first Pro Circuit singles final with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Benjamin George(Western Mich) of Canada.  Zink and Bernard, also unseeded in doubles, defeated No. 2 seeds Benjamin Kittay(UNC) and Laurence Sciglitano(George Washington, Boise State, Montana) of Australia 7-6(0), 7-6(4) in today's doubles final, earning their first title as a team.

Darwin Blanch, who has played exclusively on the Pro Circuit this year, has reached the first pro final of his career at the ITF men's $15,000 World Tennis Tour tournament in Tunisia. The unseeded 16-year-old, who has entered Kalamazoo and is expected to return to the United States to train prior to that tournament, has not dropped a set this week. He will play only his second seeded opponent of the week in the final: No. 2 Eliakim Coulibaly of the Ivory Coast.

Turkey Announced as Host for November's Junior Davis and Billie Jean King Cups; TRN's Recaps of USTA Clay Court Nationals; Seven Americans Reach USTA Pro Circuit Semifinals; All-USA FInal Four at ATP 250 Newport

The location of the 2024 ITF Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean Cup competitions was announced today, with the two 16-and-under world team championships returning to Turkey after last year's one-off in Spain.  The two tournaments, which are traditionally held at the same venue at the same time, were split last year, but both will be November 11-17 in Antalya Turkey this year.

The fields have yet to be completed, with the European Summer Cups next month determining five of the 16 teams, but the United States has already qualified both its boys and girls teams. Shannon Lam, Thea Frodin and Kristina Penickova were the US girls who played in April's qualifying; Carel Ngounoue, Jack Secord and Keaton Hance were the boys who earned the US a place in the finals. These players may or may not be named to the teams that will compete in Turkey in November. The other six teams that have qualified can be found in today's ITF release.

Tennis Recruiting Network wrapped up its coverage of last week's USTA National Clay Courts Championships with today's recaps of the 18s tournaments, won by Dylan Long and Claire Hill. The links to TRN's eight articles are below.  Harvey Fialkov, a former Sun-Sentinel reporter who lives in Plantation and plays tennis at the Veltri Tennis Center, home of the Girls 14s Clays, filed this in-depth look at Allison Wang's title run for Florida Tennis.

Girls 18s: Hill Stays Confident, Secures First Gold Ball at Girls 18s Clays

Boys 18s: Long Goes the Distance for Gold Ball at Boys 18 Clays

Girls 16s: Traynor Wins First Ball, Captures Gold at USTA Girls 16 Clays

Boys 16s: Grumet Nets First Gold Ball in Familiar Final at Clay Court 16s

Girls 14s: Wang Secures Another Gold Ball with Girls 14s Clay Title

Boys 14s: Vaughan Claims Double Gold at Boys 14 Clay Courts

Girls 12s: Poznick Pockets Gold Ball at USTA Girls 12 Clay Nationals

Boys 12s: Double Gold for Gardality at USTA Boys 12 Clay Championships

The semifinals are set at the three USTA Pro Circuit tournaments this week, with current collegians contending for titles.

At the women's $75,000 tournament in Evansville Indiana, ITA Player of the Year Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) defeated top seed Sachia Vickery 6-1, 0-6, 5-4 retired to earn the second WTA Top 150 win of her career and a place in the semifinals against 2022 NCAA singles champion Tian Fangran(UCLA).  Tian, who is 15-5 this summer, has beaten Fiona Crawley(UNC), No. 7 seed Liv Hovde and in today's quarterfinals, No. 4 seed Hanna Chang, dropping only 15 games in the process. In the bottom half, unseeded Sophie Chang will face No. 5 seed Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus.

In East Lansing, two unseeded rising sophomores have reached the semifinals of the men's $25,000 tournament, with Aidan Kim(Florida, Ohio State) posting a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 win over Alex Kotzen(Columbia, Tennessee) and Kyle Kang(Stanford) defeating No. 2 seed Cannon Kingsley(Ohio State) 6-2, 7-6(5).  Kim will face top seed Aidan McHugh of Great Britain, who beat No. 5 seed and hometown favority Ozan Baris(Michigan State) 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, while Kang will face No. 6 seed Johannus Monday  (Tennessee) of Great Britain, who beat Joshua Sheehy(Abilene Christian) 6-2, 6-4.

At the $15,000 men's tournament in Rochester New York, rising Stanford junior Samir Banerjee, seeded No. 7, defeated top seed Colin Sinclair(Cornell) of Northern Mariana Islands 6-2, 6-1 and will play Ohio State rising junior Alex Bernard, who is unseeded. In the bottom half, recent Oklahoma State graduate Tyler Zink beat No. 2 seed Matias Descotte of Argentina 7-5, 6-3 and will face No. 8 seed Benjamin George(Western Michigan) of Canada.

For the first time since 1985, and the last time ever, the ATP 250 Hall of Fame Open in Newport Rhode Island will feature all-USA semifinals. The tournament will leave the ATP calendar after this year and hold a joint event in 2025, consisting of a men's ATP Challenger 125 and a WTA women's tournament at the same level.

In the top half semifinal, wild card Reilly Opelka will face 2023 finalist  and No. 3 seed Alex Michelsen, and in the bottom half, Chris Eubanks(Georgia Tech), seeded No. 4, plays Marcos Giron(UCLA), the No. 2 seed. See this ATP article for more on today's wins by Eubanks and Giron.

College Tennis News Update: New Format Trial for D-III, Dunlop Named Official Ball for ITA Events, Up-to-date List of ITA Summer Championships Qualifiers, Recent D-I Coaching Hires; Nebraska Challenger Announces Field

Although I spoke with plenty of Division I college coaches last week at the Wimbledon Junior Championships, I haven't had a chance to post all the news that's been released the past several weeks regarding college tennis.

The ITA announced a one-year pilot for Division III tennis, which is basically the same as Division I, with the best of seven points deciding a dual match winner, in contrast to the best of nine points that has been the format for many years. In Division III, each doubles match has been worth a point, rather than the one point for the team that wins two of the three doubles matches (which are just one set of no-ad doubles) in Division I. 

The D-III pilot will have one deviation from D-I in non-conference matches, with all three doubles matches played to conclusion, rather than the D-I play-to-clinch.

It's important to note that this does not apply to conference matches, if the conferences have mandated different rules, and also does not apply to ITA National events.  From the July 16 ITA release:

Conferences and team tournaments (ITA Team Indoor Championships, NCAA Championships, etc.) can still set their own policies related to play-play, clinch-play, or clinch-clinch formats.

Those same stipulations will apply to the July 1 ITA announcement that Dunlop is now the organization's official ball, racquet and accessory brand. Wilson, a longtime sponsor and supporter of the ITA, is the ball of choice for many conferences, so players will be making adjustments to a new ball for ITA events, which is common in pro tennis, but not prevalent in the collegiate game. 

The release states that the change took effect on July 1, with all ITA-sanctioned events using Dunlop tennis balls during competition.

I take that to mean that the switch happened in the midst of the ITA Summer Circuit, which continues for two more weeks, culminating in the ITA Summer Championships August 10-13 at the new Leftwich Tennis Center in Memphis Tennessee.

The latest list of qualifiers for the event can be found in this ITA recap of Week 4 of the ITA Summer Masters series.

In coaching news the past few weeks, Chris Russell announced his retirement from the men's head coaching position at New Mexico, which he had held for three seasons.

Utah has hired RuthAnn Allen as it's women's head coach. A former All-American at Utah and an assistant coach there for 20 years, Allen spent the past five years as head coach at Weber State. Allen replaces Ric Mortera, who led the program for five years.

Elizabeth Begley has been named women's head coach at Princeton, returning to the program where she was an assistant from 2015-2018. Begley, an assistant at USC the past three years, replaces Jamea Jackson, who took the women's head coaching position at Arizona State earlier this summer.

The new UNLV women's head coach is Tetiana Luzhanska, who was elevated to the position after serving as an assistant in Las Vegas since 2018.  She replaces Kevin Cory, who resigned after 25 years leading the program.

Former University of Texas standout Dimi Kutrovsky, who has been the assistant at Alabama for the past five years, has been named men's head coach at Virginia Commonwealth. He replaces Anthony Rossi, who left VCU to be Adam Steinberg's associate head coach at Florida. 

A recent addition to the ATP Challenger calendar is the new 75 event in Lincoln Nebraska, scheduled to take place August 5-11. This tournament is not part of the USTA Pro Circuit, but will count toward the US Open Wild Card Challenge, which concludes that week. ATP No. 58 Dan Evans of Great Britain and Chris Eubanks(Georgia Tech) are two of the notable entrants. Eubanks has reached the quarterfinals of the ATP 250 in Newport this week and will play Aleks Vukic(Illinois) of Australia for a spot in the semifinals. The release announcing Lincoln's field is below:

Evans & Eubanks to highlight the inaugural Lincoln Challenger, ATP Challenger Tour event, player field.

LINCOLN, Neb (July 16, 2024) - The Lincoln Challenger has officially announced the 2024 Main Draw Singles player field. What is considered a strong field for an ATP Challenger 75 event, is highlighted by world No. 58 Daniel Evans, of Great Britain. Evans, who reached a career high of No. 21 last August, has been to the 4^th Round of both the Australian Open and the US Open. 

Evans will be joined in Lincoln by American Chris Eubanks. Eubanks, who is currently ranked No. 128 in the world, reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon last year. Eubanks reached his career high of No. 29 last July, on the heels of his run at Wimbledon. 

"We are excited to have such a dynamic player field, for this first year event," said Alex Guthrie, Tournament Director of the Lincoln Challenger. "Between having a player who is top 60 in the world in Dan Evans, having a 2023 Wimbledon Quarterfinalist in Chris Eubanks, and having a lot of young Americans in the field, there will not be a shortage of story lines in Lincoln." 

Other top Americans that will head to Lincoln include No. 113 Zachary Svajda, No. 148 Emilio Nava, No. 187 Mitchell Krueger and No. 188 Martin Damm. 

Full Player List 

Daniel Evans - GBR, No. 58

Luca Van Assche - FRA, No. 104

Zachary Svajda - USA, No. 113

Valentin Vacherot - MCO, No. 115

Harold Mayot - FRA, No. 124

Christopher Eubanks, USA, No. 128

Duje Ajdukovic, CRO, No. 130

Mikhail Kukushkin, KAZ, No. 135

Felipe Meligeni Alves, BRA, No. 144

Emilio Nava, USA, No. 148

Denis Yevseyev, KAZ, No. 160

Yunchaokete Bu, CHN, No. 174

Borna Gojo, CRO, No. 176

Coleman Wang, HKG, No. 179

Mitchell Krueger, USA, No. 187

Martin Damm, USA, No. 188

Tristan Schoolkate, AUS, No. 190

Yosuke Watanuki, JPN, No. 200

Beibit Zhukayev, KAZ, No. 201  

Ozan Baris, USA, No. 629 (ITA Exemption Spot)

Cooper Williams, USA, No. 1057 (ITF Jr Exemption Spot)

For tickets and more information on the Lincoln Challenger, please visit www.lincolnchallenger.com

Inquiries: Alex Guthrie, Tournament Director: alex@topnotchmanagement.com

Collegians Prominent in This Week's Three USTA Pro Circuit Tournaments, Two 75s in Canada and ATP 250 in Newport; ITF Features Day in Life of Auburn's Angella Okutoyi; GoFundMe Established for Tom Svajda

Action on the USTA Pro Circuit is sparse during Wimbledon, but this week there are two men's tournaments at the 15K and 25K level and a W75 for the women.  In addition, Granby Canada is hosting a joint event, with a Challenger 75 and a W75 this week, which has also attracted a large number of college competitors. The same slant to former collegians is developing at the ATP 250 Hall of Fame Open in Newport Rhode Island, which is holding its last ATP event this week, before converting to a joint WTA 125, ATP Challenger 125 event next year.

In Newport, four of the quarterfinalists are former collegians, along with No. 2 seed Marcos Giron(UCLA) who is yet to finish his second round match with Benoit Paire of France. Those advancing to the quarterfinals include two former Illinois stars, Australian Aleks Vukic and Aleks Kovacevic, Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech) and Mackenzie McDonald.  Vukic beat wild card Eliot Spizzirri(Texas) in the round of 16; Kovacevic defeated No. 7 seed Arthur Rinderknech(Texas A&M) of France, and Eubanks got past Ethan Quinn(Georgia) in three sets.

Reilly Opelka returned to ATP main draw competition for the first time since August of 2022, reaching the Newport quarterfinals with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 win over top seed and defending champion Andrian Mannarino of France. 

The other American to advance to the quarterfinals is 2023 finalist Alex Michelsen, who beat 2022 Newport champion Maxime Cressy(UCLA).

2024 NCAA doubles champions Robert Cash and JJ Tracy of Ohio State won their first ATP match today, with the wild cards defeating No. 3 seeds JP Smith(Tennessee) of Australia and Diego Hidalgo(Florida) of Ecuador 6-2, 7-5.

The ATP Challenger 75 in Granby has two collegians still alive for a title, including Andy Andrade(Florida) of Ecuador, who upset top seed Adam Walton(Tennessee) in the first round. No. 8 seed Tristan Boyer(Stanford) is the only other collegian still competing, with Hady Habib(Texas A&M) of Lebanon and Justin Boulais(Ohio State) of Canada falling in the second round today.

The ITF women's World Tennis Tour W75+Hospitality in Granby, has seen two recent/current collegians win their first round over a seed: qualifier Ayana Akli(Maryland, South Carolina), who beat No. 4 seed Elvina Kalieva 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, and Canadian wild card Mia Kupres(Texas A&M), who defeated No. 3 seed Ana Sofia Sanchez of Mexico 7-5, 6-3. Carson Branstine(Texas A&M) of Canada is also through to the second round. The top seeds are both Americans: No. 1 Maria Mateas(Duke) and No. 2 Victoria Hu(Princeton). 

Some qualifying matches at the USTA Pro Circuit W75 in Evansville Indiana were played indoors due to heat, as were first round matches, due to rain and thunderstorms. USTA National 18s and 2023 Wimbledon Girls champion Clervie Ngounoue defeated qualifier Alexis Blokhina(Stanford) and Texas A&M rising senior Mary Stoiana also advanced to the second round. 

2023 NCAA champion Fangran Tian(UCLA) of China beat Fioana Crawley(UNC), while 2022 Wimbledon girls champion and No. 7 seed Liv Hovde defeated wild card and 2024 NCAA champion Alex Noel(Iowa, Miami). Fourteen-year-old twins Annika and Kristina Penickova received wild cards, with both losing their opening matches, Annika to fellow wild card and 2017 USTA Girls 18s national champion Ashley Kratzer, who is back competing after a lengthy doping band, and Kristina to No. 5 seed Irina Shymanovic of Belarus. Sachia Vickery and Eli Mandlik are the top two seeds this week in Evansville.

At the men's $25,000 tournament in East Lansing Michigan, the vast majority of the field are collegians, with only top seed Aidan McHugh of Great Britain and Ben Jones, also of Great Britain, the only two players in the round of 16 without a US college affiliation. Cannon Kingsley(Ohio State) is the No. 2 seed, with Michigan State rising junior Ozan Baris the No. 5 seed. It's encouraging to see recent Tennessee graduate Johannus Monday of Great Britain back on court after an injury kept him from competing in singles at NCAAs and during the grass court season. He beat 2024 NCAA singles finalist Michael Zheng(Columbia) 6-3, 6-4 to reach the second round. 

The final USTA Pro Circuit tournament this week is the annual $15K in Rochester New York. Colin Sinclair(Cornell) of the Northern Mariana Islands, is the top seed, with Matias Franco Descotte of Argentina the No. 2 seed. Stanford rising sophomore Nico Godsick pulled off the biggest upset of the first round, beating No. 4 seed Emilio Gomez(USC) of Ecuador 7-6(3), 6-4 this evening.

The ITF has released an episode of its You Tube Day in the Life feature, focusing on Auburn rising junior Angella Okutoyi of Kenya. For more on the 2022 Wimbledon girls doubles champion, see this article from the ITF.

There was distressing news this past weekend concerning Tom Svajda, a renowned coach in San Diego and father of Zachary and Trevor Svajda, who has been diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. A GoFundMe has been set up by Gary Kent to help with medical and other expenses, with Tom unable to work while in treatment. Please consider making contribution if you are able.

US Open Entry List Features 25 Americans; Defending USTA 18s Champions Tien and Ngounoue Among 2024 Entrants; Cozad, Clarke and Pareja Claim ITF J100 Titles

The US Open entry list was released today, with 15 US women and 10 US men securing their places in the main draw. As has been the case for many majors lately, a Top 100 ranking no longer guarantees a place in the main draw, at least initially, with 96 the cutoff for women and 98 for the men. Mackenzie McDonald, at 99, will be in with the first withdrawal. 

The American women:

Coco Gauff

Jessica Pegula

Danielle Collins

Madison Keys

Emma Navarro

Sloane Stephens

Caroline Dolehide

Shelby Rogers

Peyton Stearns

Sofia Kenin

Katie Volynets

Lauren Davis

Bernarda Pera

Ashlyn Krueger

Taylor Townsend

The American men:

Taylor Fritz

Tommy Paul

Ben Shelton

Sebastian Korda

Frances Tiafoe

Reilly Opelka

Marcos Giron

Brandon Nakashima

Alex Michelsen

Aleks Kovacevic

The complete men's list, with alternates, is here. The complete women's list, with many more alternates than the men's list, is here. It will be a couple of weeks before the entries for qualifying are determined.

The entry lists for next month's USTA National Championships have been released.

The acceptances for the girls 18s and 16s in San Diego CA, can be found here. 2023 champion Clervie Ngounoue has entered San Diego, as have Valerie Glozman, Iva Jovic, Tyra Grant, Aspen Schuman, Akasha Urhobo and the Penickova twins. Rising Texas freshman Ashton Bowers, currently No. 2 in the TRN 2024 recruiting class, will need a wild card.  Easter Bowl 16s champion Bella Payne and Clay Court 16s champion Olivia Traynor have entered that division for the Nationals as well.

The Kalamazoo 18s field is led by two-time champion Learner Tien, now up to 255 in the ATP live rankings after five consecutive titles on the Challenger and ITF circuit. 2023 finalist Trevor Svajda will return, with Roland Garros boys champion Kaylan Bigun, 2022 16s Kalamazo champion Darwin Blanch and Rudy Quan also among the entires this year.  2023 doubles champions Alexander Frusina and Adhithya Ganesan are both eligible to return due to their fall birthdays, and are on the acceptance list. 

Easter Bowl champion Gavin Goode, Clay Courts champion Gus Grumet and Eddie Herr champion Jack Secord are among the top 16s entries.

The Kalamazoo entry lists can be found here.

The entry lists for the boys 12s and 14s in Mobile AL are here.

The entry list for the girls 12s in Peachtree Corners GA is here.

The entry list for the girls 14s in Rome GA is here.

A google doc of all eight entry lists (with tabs) can be found here.

Jordan Lee, Michael Antonius, Izyan Ahmad are not in the boys 14s draws, and Welles Newman, Maggie Sohns and Raya Kotseva are not in the girls 14s draws, which is a clue that they have been selected to represent the US in the 14U ITF World Junior Tennis competition in the Czech Republic that same week, although the teams have not been officially announced.

I didn't have an opportunity last week to highlight the ITF Junior Circuit titles won by Americans, but I did want to catch up with an abbreviated version tonight.

Fifteen-year-old Ryan Cozad won the singles title at last week's ITF J100 in the Dominican Republic, with the No. 9 seed beating fellow American Nischal Spurling, the No. 13 seed, 7-5, 2-6, 7-5 for his first singles title on the ITF Junior Circuit.

Spurling defeated Yannik Alvarez, who represents Puerto Rico on the ITF Circuit but is eligible for all the USTA events, in the semifinals, but Alvarez won the doubles title in the Dominican Republic, a week after sweeping the titles at the J100 Central and Caribbean Closed event two weeks ago.

Fourteen-year-old Chukwumelije Clarke won the girls title in the Dominican Republic, with the No. 2 seed claiming her fifth and biggest ITF Junior Circuit title with a 6-2, 6-3 decision over No. 5 seed Addison Comiskey of Canada. 

Fifteen-year-old Julieta Pareja won the J100 in Colombia, with the No. 5 seed dropping just 13 games in her five victories. She defeated No. 7 seed Elizaveta Castillo of Peru 6-0, 6-1 in the final, for her first ITF Junior Circuit singles title. She has moved to 149 in the ITF junior rankings.

At the J60 in Orlando two weeks ago, wild card Gus Grumet won his first ITF Junior title in his first tournament on the circuit, defeating unseeded Andrew Johnson 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the final. Grumet went on to win the 16s Clay Courts title last week in Delray Beach. 

Fifteen-year-old Zaire Clarke won the girls title in Orlando, with the No. 2 seed beating wild card Allison Wang 6-1, 6-3 in the final for her second title. Wang went on to win the 14s Clay Courts last week.

Izyan Ahmad swept the titles at the J30 in El Salvador for his second and third ITF Junior Circuit titles. The 14-year-old from New York, seeded No. 2, defeated No. 6 seed Rodrigo Garza of Mexico 6-2, 6-3 in the final.

At J30s in Aruba, Jerald Carroll won his first two singles titles on the Junior Circuit in consecutive weeks. In the first, the 15-year-old, seeded No. 6, beat top seed Felipe Mamede of Brazil 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 in the final. As the No. 7 seed last week, Carroll defeated No. 2 seed Rafael Brown of Canada 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 in the final. 

American girls won both singles titles in Aruba, with 17-year-old Madison McLeod winning her first titles last week. The No. 7 seed beat No. 3 seed Abigail Gordon 6-2, 6-0 in the final, after partnering with Gordon for the doubles title. 

The week before in Aruba, 16-year-old Chloe Fouhety won her first two titles, also partnering with Gordon for the doubles title. The unseeded Fouhety defeated unseeded Juliana Bastidas Tamayo of Ecuador 6-0, 6-3 in the final.

Results of USTA National Clay Court Finals; Hamilton Earns First Pro Title, Tien Extends Winning Streak to 25 at SoCal Pro Series Finale in Lakewood

The USTA National Clay Court Championships concluded over the weekend, with the results of the singles and doubles finals in all four age divisions below. Tennis Recruiting Network will begin its coverage Tuesday, beginning with the 12s division. For complete draws, click on the headings. 

Girls 18s

Singles:

Claire Hill[1] d. Anita Tu[2] 7-5, 6-2

Doubles:

Kady Tannenbaum[1] and Linda Ziets-Segura[1] d. Emerey Gross and Anna Bennett[9] 6-4, 6-2

Girls 16s

Singles:

Olivia Traynor[1] d. Lani Chang[9] 6-3, 7-5

Doubles:

Addy Rogin and Reagan Levine[5] d. Alexandra Wolf and Kingsley Wolf[4] 7-6(3), 6-1

Girls 14s

Singles:

Allison Wang[5] d. Enya Hamilton[3] 6-2, 6-2

Doubles:

Reiley Rhodes and Emery June Martin[3] d. Olivia De Los Reyes and Emery Combs[8] 6-1, 6-4

Girls 12s

Singles:

Nadia Poznick[1] d. Violetta Mamina[8] 6-1, 6-2

Doubles:

Gwyneth Britton and Tara Guhan[6] d.  Alexandra Hu and Capri Butera[14] 6-4, 6-1

B18s

Singles:

Dylan Long[2] d. Ronit Karki[3] 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-4 

Doubles:

Max Pettingell and Jack Satterfield[1] d. Nicholas Patrick and Dylan Long 6-1, 6-2

B16s

Singles:

Gus Grumet[1] d. Andrew Johnson[16] 6-2, 3-6, 6-3

Doubles:

Arjun Prabhakar and Gabriel Jessup[12] d. Lucas Smith and Sutton Severance[3] 6-1, 6-2

B14s

Singles:

Mason Vaughan[3] d. Sebastian Godoy[13] 6-3, 5-7, 6-3

Doubles:

Mason Vaughan and Dylan Meineke[3] d. Akshay Mirmira and Gadin Arun[1] 4-6, 6-3, 6-0

B12s

Singles:

Daniel Gardality[1] d. Blount Williams[6] 6-3, 6-2

Doubles :

David Bender and Daniel Gardality[1] d. Evaan Mohan and Cavan Donnelly[1] 3-6, 6-4, 6-2

The seven-week SoCal Pro Series wrapped up Sunday in Lakewood California, with Learner Tien and Alanis Hamilton winning the singles titles at the $15,000 event. For more on the fifth straight title for Tien and the first pro title for the 17-year-old Hamilton, see the article below from SoCal Pro Series press aide Steve Pratt:

Learner Tien Wins Fifth Straight Pro Title As Match Winning Streak Extends To 25 On Final Day Of SoCal Pro Series

 

LAKEWOOD, Calif., July 14, 2024 – The Learner Tien Express roared through Lakewood on Sunday as the 18-year-old phenom won his 25^thconsecutive match and fifth straight professional title on the final day of the SoCal Pro Series following seven weeks of $15,000 ITF World Tour tournaments in San Diego and Los Angeles County. 

 

On Saturday, Tien from Irvine survived a third-set tiebreaker in the semifinals dropping his only set all week against former UCLA All-American Keegan Smith, and the former USC Trojan took out another former Bruin No. 1 downing wild-card Govind Nanda of Redlands, 6-3, 6-3, in the finals at the Lakewood Tennis Center.

 

It was the eighth career singles title for Tien, who won four SoCal Pro Series events over the seven weeks and an ATP M75 Challenger ($82,000) in Michigan before Lakewood. “It feels good,” said Tien. “I’m happy I made it through the week. I’m a little tired but feel OK. It’s been tough mentally after a long week and to get right back to it. I’m just glad I got through another week.”

 

As he inches closer to breaking into the world top 250, Tien next heads to the Chicago M75 ATP Challenger July 22-28 followed by the USTA National Hardcourt 18s at Kalamazoo where he is the two-time defending champion and looking for a third straight US Open main draw wild card that goes to the winner.

 

Tien was asked if he recalled when he last lost a match. “Yeah, it was when I got hurt,” said Tien, who fractured a rib on the left side of his rib cage on February 20^th in Florida. 

 

He added: “I haven’t thought about the streak that much. I’m just taking it one match at a time and trying not to overthink it. This week was a lot tougher mentally for me than physically.” 

 

Nanda was riding a streak of his own coming into the final having won 11 straight matches in Lakewood, including last week’s title. He played two physical three-set matches in the quarters and semis and said his body was feeling the effects of the past two weeks as he continues his comeback from multiple injuries.

 

“Man, Learner’s just super tough and doesn’t have any holes,” Nanda said of Tien. “He moves you around a lot and plays very high percentage and then kind of pulls the trigger when he wants to without much risk.”

 

Asked what someone needs to do to beat him, Nanda replied, “You just have to make a lot of balls and you have to be able to hurt him when you can. I don’t know when he’ll lose again. At this point he’s rising pretty fast.”

 

It was the third career meeting for Tien-Nanda with Tien winning the first meeting on clay in Florida in just his second pro tourney in April of 2022 and also taking a very close third-set tiebreaker (11-9) in Malibu in January of 2023.

 

Similar to the age difference in the Wimbledon men’s final of 16 years between winner Carlos Alcaraz (21) and Novak Djokovic (37), the women’s final had an even greater age difference of 19 years as the younger player also came out on top. Seventeen-year-old Alanis Hamilton, an Arkansas native who currently lives and trains in Dallas, came back to beat 36-year-old Tori Kinard of Pasadena, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2 to win the women’s singles title.  

 

Kinard, who comes from a prominent Indonesian family of former badminton champions, including her father Chris who was a six-time U.S. champion, started playing pro tournaments in 2006 before Hamilton was even born. She has played in 296 ITF pro events during her career and was trying to win her first-ever singles title playing in her sixth career ITF pro final.

 

“I think after I won the first set I got a little ahead of myself,” said Kinard, who was watched by her brother and coach Travis Kinard, who played at UCLA in the early 2000s. “I’m happy to have had a good week and would have loved to have won it.”

 

A high school senior who will graduate a semester early, Hamilton has committed to the University of North Carolina and plans to join the team in the spring of 2025. 

 

“It feels amazing,” said Hamilton, who had never been past the second round in any of her first seven pro tournaments. “It’s pretty unexpected.”

 

One year ago, Hamilton made the semifinals in doubles at Junior Wimbledon and last August she and Kayla Chung made the finals in doubles at the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 18s Nationals. She said the goal next month is to go one match farther at the Barnes Tennis Center and win the coveted US Open wild card. 

 

Kinard, who played all seven SoCal Pro Series events, will skip the ITF in Evansville, Ind., this week but plans to play the following two weeks in Dallas and Kentucky.

 

“I love it too much to stop playing,” Kinard said. “I love being on the courts and competing. My family supports me and I couldn’t be happier than when I’m on the court.” 

 

In the women’s doubles final on Saturday, the unseeded team of recent Auburn graduate Carolyn Ansari and N.C. State sophomore Gabriella Broadfoot from South Africa beat the No. 3 seeded team of Amelia Honer and Teja Tirunelveli from Texas (by way of India), 6-7 (3), 6-3, 10-3. In the men’s doubles final, the No. 1 seeded team of Keegan Smith and Nathan Ponwith (Georgia/Arizona State) repeated the title they won last week as they take out Alan Fernando Rubio Fierros of Mexico and Adam Jones from Great Britan, the No. 2 seeds, 6-2, 6-2.