Gaskell Claims ITF J200 Title in Montreal; Tien and Boyer Reach Las Vegas Challenger Final; US Davis Cup Team Beats Germany; An In-Depth Look at Kentucky's College Recruiting

I will have my normal Monday post on the other ITF Junior Circuit titles of Americans, but with the J200 in Montreal Canada ending on Friday, and being one of the bigger tournaments in North America post-US Open, I'll recap that one tonight.

Seventeen-year-old Floridian Lachlan Gaskell, who was unseeded, won his most significant tournament on the ITF Junior Circuit, and dropped only one set along the way. The 2023 Kalamazoo 16s finalist lost that set in his 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 second round win over No. 3 seed Maximus Dussault; Gaskell's other victory over a seed came in the final, where he defeated No. 2 seed Nicolas Arseneault of Canada 6-2, 6-4. He should move from outside the Top 200 to well inside the Top 150 when next week's rankings are published.

No. 2 seed Nadia Lagaev won the girls singles title, beating No. 5 seed Emma Dong in an all-Canadian final.

Claire An and Dong won the girls doubles title, with the top seeds beating No. 2 seeds Lagaev and Raphaelle Leroux of Canada 6-4, 6-2 in the final.

The unseeded Canadian team of Miko Lapalme and Felix Roussel won the boys doubles championship, defeating Simon Caldwell and Zachary Cohen, who were also unseeded, 6-2, 5-7, 10-2.

At the ATP Challenger 75 in Las Vegas, No. 6 seed Tristan Boyer(Stanford) and No. 3 seed Learner Tien(USC) advanced to Sunday's final with hard-fought three-set victories.

The 23-year-old Boyer, who will be playing in his fourth Challenger final, all since April of last year, won his second straight match from a set down in a third set tiebreaker, after beating Andres Martin(Georgia Tech) 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) in the quarterfinals, he took out Karue Sell(UCLA) of Brazil 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(4) in today's semifinal. 

The 18-year-old Tien, who will be playing in his second Challenger final, with his first coming in July, defeated No. 5 seed Abdullah Shelbayh(Florida) of Jordan 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. There were countless grueling rallies and two epic games in the first two sets, with Tien winning an 8-deuce service game to take a 5-1 lead and Shelbayh holding after 10 deuces, saving seven break points to consolidate his 4-2 lead.  That theme did not continue in the third set, with Tien breaking twice, in the first and fifth games, and holding on to one of those breaks for the win.

Tien and Boyer played last year in the quarterfinals of the $15K in Irvine, part of SoCal Pro Series, with Tien winning 7-5, 6-3. Tien went on to take the title, his first on the Pro Circuit.

The United States Davis Cup team ended the group stage undefeated, taking out Germany 2-1 to claim the top spot and the preferred seeding in November's quarterfinals in Spain.

USA 2 Germany 1
Reilly Opelka (USA) d. Henri Squire (GER), 6-7(4), 7-6(9), 6-3
Brandon Nakashima (USA) d. Maximilian Marterer (GER), 6-4, 6-2
Kevin Krawietz/Tim Puetz (GER) d. Austin Krajicek/Rajeev Ram (USA), 6-1, 7-6(4)

For more on Saturday's match in China, see this article from the Davis Cup website.

The Kentucky Kernel, the student newspaper at the Univresity of Kentucky, published an interesting article yesterday on the recruiting process as it pertains to college tennis. The focus is on the Kentucky men's team, which has established itself as one of the country's top programs the past few years, and in particular, on how sophomore Jack Loutit of New Zealand ended up in Lexington. But the article also looks at how a local high school player ended up playing for Midway, an NAIA school in the area. Having been around college recruiting for almost two decades, I probably overestimate how much the average fan or young junior knows about the process, so this article may fill in some gaps.