Jovic Reaches Final at USTA Pro Circuit W100 in Tyler Texas, Ngounoue Wins Doubles Title; Smith's Comeback Leads to Sioux Falls Challenger Final; Lopata Advances at W35 Hilton Head; Monday Aims for Third Straight $25K Title in Norman

Iva Jovic will play in the biggest final of her career Sunday at the USTA Pro Circuit W100 in Tyler Texas, just three weeks after winning the biggest title of her career at a W75 in Rancho Santa Fe California. The reigning USTA Girls 18s champion is now 14-1 with two titles since reaching the semifinals at the US Open Junior Championships, earning win No. 14 today with a 6-4, 6-2 decision over unseeded Jaimee Fourlis of Australia.

The 16-year-old from Torrance California, the No. 5 seed this week, will play top seed Renata Zarazua of Mexico, who ended wild card Alana Smith's chance for the USTA's Australian Open reciprocal wild card with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 decision over the former NC State All-American.

Jovic, who is now up to 204 in the WTA live rankings, which guarantees her a spot in the Australian Open qualifying draw, is likely to receive the main draw wild card. Although she is fifth in points at the moment, the four women ahead of her--Sofia Kenin (now through to the final at the WTA 500 in Tokyo), Hailey Baptiste, Caroline Dolehide and Bernarda Pera--have all earned enough points to get into the main draw on their own ranking during the past month. So, barring injury or some other unforeseen circumstance, Jovic will be competing in Melbourne in January. 

Clervie Ngounoue and Australian Alexandra Osborne won the doubles title in Tyler, defeating Brandy Walker(Northern Arizona) and Mary Lewis(Arizona, Michigan State) 6-2, 6-3 in the championship contest between unseeded teams. It's the fourth and biggest title for both Ngounoue and Osborne, who had not played together before this week.

Wild card Colton Smith will lead the men's race after the first week of the USTA's Australian Open Wild Card Challenge, coming from 5-2 down in the third set to defeat Murphy Cassone(Arizona State) 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 at the ATP Challenger 75 in Sioux Falls South Dakota. The Arizona senior, who had beaten last week's Calgary champion Cassone 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(3) in the singles quarterfinals of the NCAAs in May, saved three break points serving at 1-4, to keep his deficit to just one break. He then broke Cassone in his next two service games and closed it out with a love hold. 

Smith will face qualifier Borna Gojo of Croatia, with the former Wake Forest All-American defeating unseeded Mark Lajal of Estonia 7-6(1), 6-4 in the first semifinal. 

A complete recap of today's action by media manager Greg Sharko, with comments from both Gojo and Smith, can be found here.

Like the singles title will be, the doubles title was claimed by former collegians, with Canadians Cleeve Harper(Texas) and Liam Draxl(Kentucky) ending the run of titles for Ryan Seggerman(Princeton, UNC) and Patrik Trhac(Idaho State, Utah). The No. 3 seeds defeated the top seeds 7-5, 6-3, after Seggerman and Trhac had won the Fairfield and Calgary Challenger titles the past two weeks. It's the second Challenger doubles title for Draxl and 2022 NCAA doubles champion Harper; they won the Edmonton $25K title two weeks ago.

2024 NCAA singles finalist Anastasiya Lopata, a junior at the University of Georgia, will play in her first Pro Circuit final Sunday at the W35 in Hilton Head South Carolina. The 19-year-old from Ukraine, who used one of her ITA Accelerator Program entries as an NCAA finalist this week, defeated Kylie McKenzie 6-4, 0-6, 6-2 in the semifinals today. Lopata will play top seed Elvina Kalieva, who beat Central Florida sophomore Olivia Lincer of Poland 6-1, 6-3. 

Former UNC Tar Heels Fiona Crawley and Makenna Jones won the doubles title in Hilton Head, with the No. 4 seeds defeating No. 2 seeds and Auburn teammates Angella Okutoyi of Kenya and Merna Refaat of Egypt 6-2, 6-7(5), 10-7 in today's final. It's the second Pro Circuit doubles title for Crawley, the 2023 NCAA doubles champion, and the 12th for Jones, the 2021 NCAA doubles champion, but their first as a team.

At the men's $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Norman Oklahoma, Johannus Monday of Great Britain will play for his third consecutive $25K title in as many weeks after he defeated Wake Forest's Stefan Dostanic(USC) 6-2, 6-4. The former Tennessee Volunteer All-American will face unseeded Juan Carlos Aguilar(Texas A&M, TCU) of Canada, who beat No. 6 seed Tyler Zink 6-4, 6-3. 

The home crowd went home happy from the doubles final, with Oklahoma teammates Oscar Lucides of Guadaloupe and Bruno Nhavene of Mozambique, who were a wild card entry, beating Alan Magadan(UT-San Antonio) of Mexico and Alex Martinez(Oklahoma) of Spain 7-6(4), 6-1. It's the first pro title for Lucides and Nhavene.