February Aces; Kessler, Kypson Among Americans Receiving BNP Paribas Open Main Draw Wild Cards; Lucky Loser Jovic Avenges Qualifying Loss to Reach W35 Semifinals in Texas; Virginia Men Escape with 4-3 Win Over Wake Forest

My monthly Aces column for Tennis Recruiting Network was published today, with the 18 players featured in February including juniors, current collegians and many former collegians. Several of those highlighted are taking that success into March, with Laura Samson of the Czech Republic, Martin Landaluce of Spain and Philip Henning of Georgia all advancing to the semifinals of tournaments to start the month of March.

With women's qualifying starting Sunday at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, wild card announcements had to be made this week, with only the wild cards for Caroline Wozniacki and Venus Williams announced earlier. 

The other women's wild cards were awarded to Emma Raducanu of Great Britain, Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, 2021 BNP Paribas Open champion Paula Badosa of Spain and three Americans: Amanda Anisimova, McCartney Kessler and Ashlyn Krueger.

The five men's wild card recipients are Fabio Fognini of Italy, Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic and three Americans, all former collegiate players: Brandon Nakashima(Virginia), Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M) and Aleks Kovacevic(Illinois).

The qualifying wild cards include four players who won their opportunities in 2023 competitions. Former Cal All-American Haley Giavara and current USC fifth-year Stefan Dostanic earned their wild cards with via the Race to Indian Wells that USTA SoCal implemented this year in conjunction with its Pro Series circuit. Dostanic had been out with an injury all last month, but I've been told that he has been medically cleared and will play Indian Wells.

Clervie Ngounoue and Cooper Woestendick received qualifying wild cards for winning the singles titles at the inaugural FILA International ITF J300 in Indian Wells last March. 

The remaining men's qualifying wild cards were awarded to Steve Johnson(USC), NCAA singles champion Ethan Quinn(Georgia) and Lucas Pouille of France.

The other qualifying wild cards for women all went to teenagers: Iva Jovic, Liv Hovde, Robin Montgomery and Christasha McNeil. In my Tennis Recruiting Network article Monday about Ryann Cutillo and the Johnny Mac Tennis Project, I explained the relationship it has with BNP Paribas and McNeil is one of the players the international bank sponsors at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy. McNeil, 17, is currently No. 62 in the ITF junior rankings.

The full release announcing the wild cards can be found here.

Wild card Jovic is having a confidence-building week heading into the BNP Paribas Open women's qualifying, reaching semifinals of the USTA Pro Circuit W35 in Spring Texas. Today, the 16-year-old avenged her 6-2, 2-6, 14-12 loss to Malkia Ngounoue in the final round of qualifying, needing just 61 minutes to post a 6-1, 6-1 victory. Jovic will play No. 2 seed Varvara Lepchenko in the semifinals, with Lepchenko beating qualifier Allura Zamarripa(Texas) 7-5, 6-0. If Jovic should prevail tomorrow, it would be her best win by ranking, with Lepchenko currently 279; it would also be difficult for Jovic to play in the Indian Wells qualifying if all the women's first round matches are scheduled for Sunday.

The other semifinal will feature top seed Maria Mateas(Duke) and Ena Shibahara(UCLA) of Japan. Mateas defeated No. 8 seed Whitney Osuigwe 6-2, 6-2 and Shibahara beat qualifier Maria Kononova(North Texas) of Russia 6-4, 6-3.

Jovic and Ashley Lahey(Pepperdine) lost in the doubles semifinals, to top seeds Osuigwe and Alana Smith(NC State) 4-6, 6-1, 13-11. Osuigwe and Smith will face Ngounoue and Thaisa Pedretti of Brazil in the final, with the alternates defeating No. 3 seeds Kononova and Maria Kozyreva(St. Mary's) 6-3, 3-6, 10-8 in today's semifinals.

Conference play has begun in Division I college tennis, and a host of big matches were on the schedule this afternoon. The biggest was probably in the ACC, with No. 3 Wake Forest at No. 8 Virginia, and it lived up to the anticipation accompanying it, with Virginia eking out a 4-3 win.  

The match started outside, but rain sent the match indoors 90 minutes in, with Wake Forest having won the doubles point in a tiebreaker on Court 1. Wake won first sets at lines 5, 1, and 4, while Virginia managed to get three first sets at 6, 2 and 3, with the latter both coming via tiebreakers. 

Wake freshman Luca Pow, playing at line 5, continued his stellar play, beating Alex Kiefer 6-0, 6-3 to give Wake Forest a 2-0 lead, but Virginia got on the board with Mans Dahlberg's 6-4, 6-4 win over Holden Koons at line 6. Then the splits began, although Inaki Montes, playing Filipo Moroni at line 2, still had a chance to close out his match in two sets. Chris Rodesch made it 2-2, with a 1-6, 7-6(6), 6-4 win over DK Suresh at line 1, and Montes did avoid a third set, beating Moroni 7-6(4), 6-4 to give Virginia its first lead at 3-2. The two matches that would decide it were at Court 4, where Jeffrey von der Schulenburg was playing Wake's Luciano Tacchi and Court 3, where Virginia's Dylan Dietrich was facing Matt Thomson. 

Tacchi broke von der Schulenburg at 5-6 in the third for a 6-4, 6-7(5), 7-5 win that tied the match, just as Thomson broke Dietrich to take a 5-4 lead. But Thomson was unable to serve it out, with Dietrich winning the last three games for a 7-6, 2-6, 7-5 victory and the clinch for Virginia. 

Virginia, who won all four of the tiebreakers played in the singles matches, last lost an ACC conference match in 2019, but Wake Forest has no reason to think that they can't end that streak in the conference tournament on a neutral site in Cary North Carolina next month.

In other notable D-I results today, No. 52 Florida defeated No. 12 Texas A&M in Gainesville 4-0 in men's SEC play; the No. 36 UCLA women hosted crosstown rival USC, currently No. 8 in the rankings, and posted a 5-2 victory.