Electronic Line Calling Set to Debut at ITA All-American Championships; Leach Earns First ATP Point in Fayetteville; Teens Ahn and Crossley Advance at San Rafael W35; Basavareddy Reaches Columbus Challenger Quarterfinals

The ITA announced today that their long-awaited move to electronic line calling will begin in earnest next week at the men's ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa Oklahoma. The company the ITA has selected for this initiative is PlayReplay, a Swedish company, with the pilot program starting first with the All-American Championships, then followed by the women's West Sectional in Los Angeles in November, the Men's and Women's Team Indoor Championships in February and dual matches at Pepperdine in March.

How all this will work remains to be seen, but this is from today's ITA release:

The PlayReplay ELC system utilizes a minimally intrusive camera solution that provides users a high level of necessary player and ball tracking data, “challenges” to line calls, a visual representation of where balls land, and a ruling on the call. The PlayReplay system also provides players and coaches access to a wealth of player analysis data, including shot speed, court positioning, in/out percentage, and many other useful metrics. By utilizing coaching features provided by the system, players will also be able to select target areas and gain insight into their accuracy during a training session.

After years of assurances that electronic line calling would be coming to college tennis (the US Open began using it on all their courts in 2021), it's finally here and I'm eager to see it in action next week in Tulsa. 

Jagger Leach is the rare junior who earned his first ATP point in his first opporunity, with the 17-year-old making his Pro Circuit debut today at the $15,000 tournament in Fayetteville Arkansas. Leach, who received entry via the ITF's Junior Reserved program, did not have to play No. 2 seed Nathan Ponwith, who withdrew. Leach faced instead lucky loser Arthur Bellegy of France, a recent Arkansas transfer, and won that match 6-1, 6-0 in 70 minutes.

The women's Pro Circuit, back after a four-week hiatus, is in San Rafael California for a W35 this week, with Kayla Day and Gabriela Knutson(Syracuse) of the Czech Republic the top two seeds.

Wild cards were given to India Houghton(Stanford), Katja Wiersholm(Cal), Alexis Nguyen and Alyssa Ahn. Only Ahn managed a victory in the first round, with the 17-year-old from San Diego, who has verbally committed to Stanford, defeating Cal senior and qualifier Jessica Alsola 6-1, 4-6, 7-5.

Qualifiers who won their first round matches include Carolyn Campana(Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, Pepperdine), Ashley Kratzer, the 2017 USTA 18s National champion, Alicia Herrero Linana(Baylor) of Spain and Mayu Crossley of Japan. The 18-year-old Crossley, who has verbally committed to UCLA for next year, defeated Houghton 7-6(5), 7-5 in today's first round. Crossley faces Day in Thursday's second round.

The third tournament this week on the USTA Pro Circuit is the ATP Challenger 75 in Columbus, with Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech) and Tristan Schoolkate of Australia the top seeds. Eubanks advanced with a win over Cooper Williams(Harvard, Duke), but Schoolkate lost to qualifier Patrick Zahraj(UCLA) of Germany yesterday. Zahraj's run ended there, with a second round loss today to former Ohio State standout James Trotter of Japan.

All three wild cards went to Ohio State players, with Alex Bernard beating No. 4 seed Brandon Holt(USC) on Monday, but falling in the second round today 6-2, 6-3 to Naoki Nakagawa of Japan. Bryce Nakashima lost to Tristan Boyer(Stanford) in the first round 6-1, 7-6(3), but the third Buckeye wild card, Jack Anthrop, did earn a win, beating qualifier Murphy Cassone(Arizona State).

Stanford junior Nishesh Basavareddy, who is taking the fall off to compete in this stretch of weekly Challengers in the US,  reached his seventh career Challenger quarterfinal with a 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 win over 2023 NCAA champion Ethan Quinn(Georgia). The five other quarterfinalists will be determined on Thursday.