Qualifying Complete in 12s, 14s and 16s Divisions at IMG Academy International Championships; Kennedy Advances in ITF J300 Qualifying; Grant Wins W50 in Italy; USA Reaches Master'U BNP Paribas Collegiate Team Final

©Colette Lewis 2024--
Bradenton FL--

The final day of qualifying for the 12s, 14s and 16s divisions of the IMG Academy International Championships started with temperatures in the low 50s and a chilly breeze, but there were certainly no complaints from the 48 players who made it through to the main draw. Below is the list of qualifiers, with their countries, which is now impossible to ascertain from the draws. The Asian contingent is strong again this year, as has traditionally been the case at these late year Florida tournaments. A full list of main draw wild cards, which also are not identified as such on the draws, can be found in my Friday post.

Tomorrow is an off day for the qualifiers, all of whom won three or four matches to reach the main draw. Monday is the first day of play in the 12s, 14s and 16s. Due to damage around the seven hard courts on the north side of the IMG campus, the 16s were moved to to clay for this year, and they will have to split the first round over two days and double up later in the week in order to finish on Saturday. They will be playing primarily on the new Legacy Hotel courts on the west campus for at least the first three rounds, which are lighted.

B12s qualifiers: 
Rei Sakai(JPN)
Jingheng Cao(CHN)
Liu Lv Yang(CHN)
Tajesh Reddy Bomma(USA)
Minchan Kwon(KOR)
Julian Toshev(USA)
Tyler Tani(JPN)
Seung Yu Hong(KOR)

B14s qualifiers:

Luka Radosavljevic(CAN)

Yida Liu(CHN)

Jaime Gomez Lopez(USA)

Zhantore Sanzharyly(KAZ)

Simon Stoyanov(CAN)

Max Becerra(CHI)

Antonio Costantini Marques(ESP)

Thomas O'Neill(CAN)

B16s qualifiers:

Charles Pettinelli(USA)

Qi Ao(USA)

Kurt Sayan(USA)

Bernardo Tedesco(BRA)

Eldar Greinert(UKR)

Eita Mishima(JPN)

Noa Cakaric(USA)

Lucas Hoyos(COL)

G12s qualifiers:

Alexie Duclair(CAN)

Ana Paula Vega Alvarez(DOM)

Uma Malika Ngo Bogso(CMR)

Siyun Xiao(CHN)

Yeonkyung Lim(KOR)

Hartley Milne(USA)

Jingyue Zhang(CHN)

Fangqiao Zou(CHN)

G14s qualifiers:

Montserrat Temprana(MEX)

Amina Nurmakhan(KAZ)

Maja Sobiesiak(POL)

Kuzivaishe Charlene Chapepa(ZIM)

Tamina Saken(KAZ)

Mia Tanasoiu(USA)

Eve Thibault(CAN)

Camille Michel(CAN)

G16s qualifiers:

Asia Sundas(ITA)

Chukwunoneeru Smarty(USA)

Clara-Marie Priemer(GER)

Leyla Kilgour(USA)

Zixin Lyu(CHN)

Charlotte Ballarin(USA)

Payton Seidle-Lubowitz(USA)

Daniela Shubianok(USA)

I spent the day watching the first round of ITF J300 qualifying, putting names with faces I've seen in draws throughout the year. In this scenario, I don't watch any match start to finish, but I did see the end of two matches that were memorable, for different reasons.

In the first, Joanna Kennedy was playing the No. 13 seed in qualifying Ichino Horikawa of Japan, on the Stadium clay court, with the deciding tiebreaker in lieu of a full third set just beginning. Kennedy had lost the first set 6-3, but adjusted to Horikawa's depth and pace, taking the second set 6-1.

"I think she started missing more, but I started pressurizing her more in the second set," said the 16-year-old from Colorado, playing in just her fourth ITF junior event. "I wasn't playing super powerful in the first set, I could have started faster and she started big, she was playing well. I think she also trains here, so I knew she was going to be comfortable in the environment. I wasn't pleased with the slow start but I'm happy I could pull out the win."

Kennedy took an early lead in the tiebreaker, with the 17-year-old Horikawa unable to win her first four points on serve. But despite Kennedy's mostly error-free play, she couldn't quite pull away, and it was 7-5 at the second change of ends. Kennedy held her serve for 8-5, but on the point, Horikawa had fallen, scraping her leg. With the roving umpire on the court encouraging her to towel off the leg, Horikawa did clean up the scratch, but before the point could start the umpire detected blood, so play was stopped and a trainer was called to tape the leg.

Kennedy returned to her chair during the wait for the trainer and then the treatment, but she said she had been in a similar situation before in a match tiebreaker and knew how to handle it.

"I think you just have to stay mentally positive, keep energized," said Kennedy, who had played the vast majority of her junior matches on the USTA circuit, which features many match tiebreakers in lieu of the third set. "Stay focused on your game and not worry too much what's going on with them. It wasn't ideal, but I was just focused on getting those two points, playing my game."

Horikawa lost the next point to give Kennedy four match points, but she escaped the first when Kennedy made a rare unforced error. But with two serves coming, Kennedy could stay aggressive and eventually her pace and depth drew a forehand error from Horikawa that ended the match.

Kennedy will face Sophia Cedeno of Florida next, with two wins necessary Sunday to advance to the main draw.

All of the awnings and bench areas on each court were damaged by the recent hurricanes and removed, so umbrellas are now taking their place, making for a more wide-open feeling on the nine clay courts outside the Stadium court. The four red clay courts are the only practice courts available onsite, so that area was always buzzing with players waiting for the matches before theirs to finish, hoping to time their warmup well. That wasn't possible for the players last on court 7, where the third match on that court was still in the second set six hours after the first match had gone on that court at 8:30 a.m.  I decided to end my afternoon there for no other reason than a vacancy on a bench to sit on, and the quality of the match between Luiz Felipe Silva of Brazil and Iker Ibarrondo Suarez of Spain rose and fell throughout the second set that I watched. 

Ibarrondo had taken the first set 7-5 and Silva the second 6-2, but the tiebreaker was riveting, with the level, which although still uneven at times, peaking on occasion. Silva looked to be in the best position when he took a 10-9 lead with two serves, but he lost both serves. He recovered however to save that match point, and they changed ends for the fourth time at 12-12. Silva produced a double fault, the only one of the tiebreaker, to give Ibarrondo another match point, but he couldn't convert it. With both players obviously exhausted as the match ticked past three hours, Ibarrondo had another match point at 15-14, but lost it. He hit the balls back to the other side, perhaps instinctively knowing there should be another change of ends, but he did not move towards the chairs.  The roving umpire on the court told him he had another serve, and he took it from the same end, won it, then won the next when Silva tried a desperation serve and volley which he could not execute. 

Whether Ibarrondo can win two matches on Sunday after that ordeal will be one of the more interesting questions answered at the end of qualifying tomorrow.

Sixteen-year-old Tyra Grant is not competing on this Florida junior swing, staying in Europe after the Junior Billie Jean King Cup title to compete in ITF women's World Tennis Tour events. 

Today she won her second title on the women's WTT, coming through qualifying to earn the championship at the W50 in Italy. Grant is known for her prowess on clay courts, with her W15 title in March coming on that surface, but this was indoor hard, and against much stronger competition.

Grant won close match after close match in her seven wins, advancing via third-set tiebreakers in both the quarterfinals and semifinals. It today's final, against No. 9 seed and former University of Washington standout Stacey Fung of Canada, Grant  fought back to claim a 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 win in the two-hour and 44-minute final. 

At the Master'U BNP Paribas international collegiate team competition in Riems France, the defending champion United States team has advanced to the final, where they will play Great Britain. The US team of Michael Zheng(Columbia), Gavin Young(Michigan), Sebastian Gorzny(Texas), Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) Amelia Honer(UC-Santa Barbara) and Savannah Broadus(Pepperdine) will take on the British team which features some familiar names to those who follow Division I tennis: Amelia Rajecki(NC State), Esther Adeshina(Tennessee), Eliz Maloney(Loughborough) Jake (Finn) Bass(Baylor), Johannus Monday(Tennessee) and James Story(South Carolina).

There is live scoring, but no draws or any results archive that I can find.

IMG International Wild Cards; ITF J300 Bradenton Qualifying Begins Saturday; Tu, Iyengar and Willwerth Reach J500 Merida Quarterfinals; Three Americans Qualify for ATP Next Gen Finals

The main draw wild cards for the IMG International Championships, which begin Monday at the IMG Academy in Bradenton Florida, are listed below. This list is obviously fluid, with late withdrawals likely to result in some of these wild cards getting in on their own.

Note that 2023 J300 Bradenton finalist Teodora Kostovic of Serbia is among them. Had she entered on time, she would not have needed one, as the ITF's ninth-ranked junior. 

B12s

Jingsong Tao
Sid Beers
Nanato Agui
Kajus Seliukas
Daniel Deng
David Oganesian
AJ Williams
Ormond Keighery

G12s

Emilia Matruglio
Yan Xinran
Alina Zhou
Quinn Kennedy
Serena Coleman
Mercedes Laub
Maria Cristina Edjoo
Lerong Yao

B14s

David Cercel
Xiaohan Jiang
Kazuki Nakajima
Leonardo Raphael Freitag
Max Neumann
Christian Rohrberg
Behleu Fomukong
Santiago Salazar

G14s

Josephine Ante
Maxime Ante
Isabella Gonzalez
Penelope Parrott
Jessa Arant
Mehar Kaur
Chen-Yun Tsai
Tessa Puente

B16s

Luca Sevim
Petru Cotoman
Nick Mertgens
Emilio Camacho
Andrej Markovic
Elijah Johnson
Ethan Chen
Jake Khera

G16s

Tingyu Fu
Lea Kaemena
Aiko Jackson
Lisa Anzai
Hanne Estrada
Janica Bo
Oleksandra Revina
Camille Chellas

B18s

Sasha Colleu
Joseph Oyebog
Abhishek Thorat
Bernardo Vialle
Andrew Johnson
Jack Secord
Keaton Hance
Ryan Cozad

G18s

Victoria Osuigwe
Teodora Kostovic
Sara Shumate
Hadley Appling
Anita Tu
Margaret Sohns
Hannah Ayreault
Lani Chang

Qualifying for the ITF J300 begins Saturday, with one round Saturday and two rounds Sunday. Qualifying for the 12s, 14s and 16s divisions finishes Saturday, with a day off for those players before the main draw begins for all age divisions Monday.

It's always been difficult to follow the Yucatan Cup, due to the Thanksgiving holiday and the late night matches there, so this post will be outdated when they finally post the results from today's quarterfinal matches. The event, which was formerly a J300 and is now a J500, saw massive upsets early this week, with unseeded Americans taking out both top seeds. Benjamin Willwerth defeated Maxim Mrva of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-3 in the second round, and Anita Tu ousted Teodora Kostovic of Serbia 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-2 in the third round.

Maya Iyengar, the No. 12 seed, also advanced to the quarterfinals, beating qualifier Riuen Zhang of China 2-6, 7-6(1), 7-6(5).

The Yucatan Cup's tournament website has a recap (in Spanish) of each day's action.

The field is set for next month's ATP Next Gen Finals, with three Americans making the eight-man field: Alex Michelsen, Learner Tien and Nishesh Basavareddy. 2023 US Open boys champion Joao Fonseca of Brazil was announced as the final participant today. There is still speculation that Arthur Fils of France, currently No. 20 in the ATP rankings, might pull out; if that happens 2022 US Open boys champion Martin Landaluce of Spain would take his place at the event, December 18-22 in Jeddah Saudi Arabia. 

The other competitors are Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic, Luca Van Assche of France and Jerry Shang of China, who I anticipate I will see next week training at IMG. For more on each of those qualifying for the Next Gen Final, see the news page on the tournament from the ATP.

My Interview with Texas Freshman Maya Joint; Seeds, Draws for USTA National Indoor Championships Beginning Friday; Happy Thanksgiving!

I was happy to have an opportunity to speak with University of Texas freshman Maya Joint earlier this month in Midland. It had been just over a year since I had spoken to her, after her two titles at the ITF J300 Pan American Regional Championships in Houston in September of 2023. Joint's decision to retain her collegiate eligibility, leaving over $140,000 in prize money earned at the US Open unclaimed, garnered the attention of the media in New York, so that was obviously addressed in our conversation. We of course spoke about her rapid rise, her US Open experiences, and why she was so determined to attend college for this article at the Tennis Recruiting Network.

The USTA Level 1 National Indoor Championships begin Friday at eight locations in the East and Midwest. Seven of the eight draws have been posted; if the boys 14s is posted late tonight, I'll try to add the seeds here tomorrow.

I know we have all been patiently waiting for the World Tennis Number to have some influence on the seedings for events like these, but that has not happened yet, as you can see from my comments on some of the seeds below. There are obviously still problems with the accuracy of the WTN, which the posting of the WTNs on the draws makes clear.

USTA National Indoor Championships seeds, links to draws:

Boys 12s: Flushing Meadows NY*

https://playtennis.usta.com/Competitions/ustanationaltenniscenter/Tournaments/draws/0754D366-3807-4D81-A9CA-521104008531

1. James Borchard

2. Blount Williams

3. David Bender

4. Pranav Vignesh

5. Jason Ye

6. Keita Iwata

7. Stanley Oriala Jr

8. Davidson Jackson

9. Udham Singh

10. Olie Rosa Hall

11. Selwyn Olufemi-Owoeye

12. Mateo Vincens

13. Evan Fan

14. London Slaton

15. William McGugin

16. Brishan Paul

Girls 12s: Manchester MA*

https://playtennis.usta.com/Competitions/manchester-athletic-club/Tournaments/draws/836874AC-688B-4EDA-B592-1F639195F44C

1. Isha Manchala

2. Tara Guhan

3. Anna Kapanadze 

4. Harshitha Thirugnanam

5. Gabrielle Villegas

6. Capri Butera

7. Kareena Cross

8. Josephine Zhou

9. Danielle Han

10. Nicole Blanco

11. Chloe Wang

12. Ilinca Gusatu

13. Kate Liu

14. Piper Yea

15. Chloe Anthony

16. Glori Caldwell

B14s Chicago IL

https://playtennis.usta.com/Competitions/midtownathleticclub00/Tournaments/draws/8B1EE200-6470-4E7A-832C-98FF99400835

1. Eli Kaminski

2. Zesen Wang

3. Aayush Vartak

4. Daniel Malacek

5. Maddox Iliescu

6. Antanas Daugis

7. Aleksandar Doskovic

8. Akshath Hemanth

9. Joshua Dolinsky

10. Manas Kondapalli

11. Damian Guthheil

12. Takuto Goh

13. Zander Abrams

14. Mason Menyhart

15. Joseph Kim 

16. Smyan Thuta

G14s Toledo OH

https://playtennis.usta.com/Competitions/TwosAthleticClub/Tournaments/draws/93EE4700-FACB-4DB9-B775-D7C191952576

1. Michelle Lee

2. Sylvana Jalbert

3. Adelyn Gross

4. Shristi Selvan

5. Savannah Schmitz

6. Olivia Lin

7. Teaghan Jou An Keys

8. Sofia Kedrin

9. Alexandra Grilliot

10. Evelynn Kwak

11. Masha Semenova

12. Natalie Frisbie

13. Anya Arora

14. Emerson White

15. Heidi Polasek

16. London Evans

B16s Chicago IL*

https://playtennis.usta.com/Competitions/xs-tennis-inc/Tournaments/draws/22FDB77E-53A1-41EA-87FD-0746C6C4BF89

1. Shaan Patel

2. Yashwin Krishnakumar

3. Lixing Jiang

4. Artem Dmytrenko

5. Magnus Weng

6. Owen Guistwite

7. Alexander Suhanitski

8. William McEwan

9. Theo Hegarty

10. Colin McPeek

11. Safir Azam

12. Louis Anderson III

13. Joseph Nau

14. Anish Poojari

15. Benjamin Berger

16. Rafael Lopez

NOTE: Marcel Latak has the fourth best WTN in the field; the three players with better WTNs are the top three seeds; he is unseeded.

G16s Minneapolis MN*

https://playtennis.usta.com/Competitions/usta-northern/Tournaments/draws/69A87546-B9E3-4E5E-BD30-C9E3CDEC3F93

1. Kohana Darroch

2. Kara Garcia best 20.25

3. Carolina Castro

4. Kayden Johnson

5. Sasha Miroshnichenko

6. Aya Manning

7. Emi Dowdell

8. Jensen Diianni

9. Sophia Budaczek

10. Raina Kim

11. Cassandra Li

12. Sophia Miller

13. Lauren Nolan

14. Claire Macedo 23.93

15. Aarini Bhattacharya

16. Helena Klooster

NOTE: Seven of the nine girls with WTNs in the 20.xx range are seeded, Anna Bugaienko 20.49 and Julia Seversen 20.26 are not.  Eleven players with WTNs of 21.xx and higher are seeded.

B18s Overland Park KS

https://playtennis.usta.com/Competitions/OPRC/Tournaments/draws/425A9B9D-5D9C-480B-9FD5-02F8837F34FD

1. Prathinav Chunduru

2. Braeden Gelletich

3. Nicholas Patrick

4. Nolan Balthazor

5. Blake Anderson

6. Arnav Bhandari

7. Drew Fishback

8. Joshua Lamm-Bocharov

9. Houston Jacques

9. Winston Lee

9. Tej Bhagra

9. Mark Krupkin

9. Sibby Rodi

9. Bryan Assi

9. Woodson McMillin

9. Brody Nejedly Krall

NOTE: Six of 8 players with 15.xx WTNs are not seeded, while 2 with 17.xx WTNs are seeded.

G18s Indianapolis IN

https://playtennis.usta.com/Competitions/indianapolisracquetclubdean/Tournaments/draws/7EE13C24-AC4F-4BCF-917E-28F3E661AE60

1. Sophia Holod

2. Thara Gowda

3. Kayla Chung

4. Ashley Kurizaki

5. Kaya Moe

6. Calla McGill

7. Katie Spencer

8. Carrie-Anne Hoo

10. Alaina LiSanti

11. Chloe Qin

12. Amiya Bowles

13. Alexandra Wolf

14. Karlin Schock

15. Blair Gill

16. Andra Braicu

NOTE: No. 3 G18s seed Kayla Chung's WTN of 15.84 is better than the top seed in the B18s, Prathinav Chunduru, whose WTN is 16.55

*Electronic Line Calling sites

photo by Joanna Kosinska at unsplash.com

I'm taking tomorrow off for Thanksgiving, but I'll be back on Friday, from the IMG International Championships in Bradenton, where qualifying for the 12s, 14s and 16s age divisions is already underway.

Blake, Nakashima Headline December Fundraiser for Tom Svajda; D-I College Signings, New Assistants; UTR Partners with Colleges to Increase Pro Tennis Tours on Campus, Former Volunteers Join PTT Player Relations Team

Now that the brief off-season for pro tennis is approaching, exhibitions often take center stage. James Blake and Brandon Nakashima, two San Diego area residents, are joining Trevor and Zachary Svajda in a December 7th exhibition to benefit the Svajdas' father Tom, who is battling cancer.

Tom, who has been a tennis coach in Pacific Beach for decades, has been unable to work since his diagnosis this summer.  Tickets for the fundraiser, to be held at the Rancho Santa Fe Tennis Club beginning at 10:30 a.m are $150. For more details, and to purchase tickets, see this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tom-svajda-tennis-exhibition-fundraiser-tickets-1091335577089

The GoFundMe established for Tom can be found here.

With the holiday coming up, it's unlikely there will be many more Division I signing announcements released; here are the few that I've found since my list for women on November 20 and my list for men on November 21.

Men:

Memphis signs Marcos Castro Fabra of Spain and Jarrod Joyce of Australia:

https://gotigersgo.com/news/2024/11/25/mens-tennis-doerr-signs-two-for-2025-26-season

Texas signs Oliver Ojakaar of Estonia and Mariano Dedura-Palomero of Germany:

https://texaslonghorns.com/news/2024/11/26/mens-tennis-mens-tennis-signs-international-standouts-ojakaar-dedura-palomero.aspx

Women:

New Mexico signs Coumba Ben of Mali:

https://golobos.com/news/2024/11/21/womens-tennis-signs-coumba-ben/

Oklahoma State signs Alian Zack of Israel:

https://okstate.com/news/2024/11/21/cowgirl-tennis-adds-alian-zack

Old Dominion signs Marina Markina of Latvia:

https://odusports.com/news/2024/11/22/womens-tennis-adds-marina-marina-for-2025-season

Rice signs Daniela Chica:

https://riceowls.com/news/2024/11/21/womens-tennis-pens-daniela-chica-velasquez-to-2025-class

Tennessee signs Francesca Mattioli of Argentina:

https://utsports.com/news/2024/11/21/womens-tennis-lady-vols-ink-mattioli-to-2024-25-squad.aspx

I also came across a few new coaching hires in Division I.

The Tennessee men's program has hired Matt Lucas as associate head coach: https://utsports.com/news/2024/11/26/mens-tennis-tennessee-mens-tennis-adds-matt-lucas-as-associate-head-coach.aspx

The Vanderbilt men's program has added Filip Kraljevic as an assistant coach: https://vucommodores.com/kraljevic-joins-commodores-as-assistant/

The West Virginia women have hired Logan Blair as an assistant coach: https://wvusports.com/news/2024/11/12/blair-named-assistant-coach-for-tennis.aspx

UTR has made several announcements this month regarding its Pro Tennis Tour: a $500,000 commitment to a Tour Card Program, their debut in the NIL space, the increase in campus events with 14 D-I universities signing on to help triple the number of PTT events on campuses. The latest release announces additions to its PTT Player Relations team, with four current or former Tennessee Volunteers named to the team: alums Pat Harper and Tenika McGiffin of Australia, Giles Hussey of Great Britain and senior Shunsuke Mitsui of Japan. Former Tennessee associate head coach James McKie, who Lucas was just hired to replace, is now Director of Player Relations at UTR.

Americans Sweep Doubles Titles at ITF J300 in Mexico; Five ITF Singles Titles for US Juniors Last Week; 25 Americans, Top Seeds Mrva, Kostovic Begin Play in J500 Merida; Jovic Withdraws from Orange Bowl

There's just three more weeks of competition on the ITF junior circuit for 2024, but the final month is filled with top level events on North American clay.

That tour began last week at the ITF J300 in Zapopan Mexico, with Americans sweeping the doubles titles.

No. 3 seeds Maximus Dussault and Dominick Mosejczuk won the boys titles, beating No. 4 seeds Joao Pedro Didoni Bonini of Brazil and Valentin Garay of Argentina 6-2, 6-1 in the final. It's the first doubles title at the J300 level for the 17-year-old Americans.

Top seeds Maya Iyengar and Annika Penickova won the girls doubles title, beating No. 5 seeds Anna Maria Fedotova of the Dominican Republic and Eleejah Inisan of France 6-4, 6-1 in the final. Iyengar has now won three ITF J300 doubles titles, with three different partners; Penickova has won two. This is Annika's first of her eight doubles titles she's won without twin sister Kristina as her partner.

In singles, No. 7 seed Yoana Kostantinova of Bulgaria won the girls title, beating top seed Mike Buchnik of Israel 6-3, 6-4 in the final. No. 4 seed Jan Klimas of the Czech Republic won the boys title, beating No. 10 seed Stefan Horia Haita of Romania 7-6(5), 6-4 in the final.

Mosejczuk, the No. 6 seed in singles, reached the semifinals, losing to Klimas 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5). Qualifier Maria Aytoyan also reached the semifinals, falling to Konstantinova 6-4, 6-3.

Of the five singles titles for Americans last week on the ITF Junior Circuit, two of them came, unsurprisingly, at the J60 in San Diego.

Unseeded 13-year-old Lani Chang, daughter of Michael Chang and the former Amber Liu(Stanford), won her first ITF junior circuit title and did it in impressive fashion, beating Easter Bowl 18s champion Tianmei Wang, the No. 6 seed, 6-4, 6-2 in the first round, while also winning her next four matches in straight sets. In the final Chang won over 14-year-old Sophie Suh, who was defaulted at 6-3, 0-1. If anyone knows what that was about, please let me know at clewis[at]zootennis.com.

The boys title also went to an unseeded player, with that final also not completed. Sixteen-year-old Adrien Abarca won his first ITF Junior Circuit singles title when unseeded Nav Dayal retired down 3-1 in the first set.

Abarca and Andre Alcantara, who won the doubles title two weeks ago in San Diego, lost to Alexander Guajardo and Joseph Nau in last week's final 6-2, 7-6(12). Neither team was seeded.

The girls final was also between two unseeded teams, with Wang and Elena Zhao defeating Carley Chen and Rachel Lee 5-7, 7-6(3), 10-5.

At the J60 in Peru, 15-year-old Reiley Rhodes swept singles and doubles, her first two titles on the ITF Junior Circuit.

The unseeded Rhodes lost just 14 games in her 5 straight-sets singles victories, including a 6-3, 6-1 win over the No. 1 seed Daniela Gonzalez of Peru in the semifinals. Rhodes then defeated No. 6 seed Sena Yoon 6-3, 6-2 in the all-US final.

Rhodes and Kalista Papadopoulos, seeded No. 3 in doubles, defeated the unseeded Bolivian team of Valentina Zamora and Adriana Zurita 6-2, 6-3 in the doubles final. 

At the J60 in India, 14-year-old Izyan (Zizou) Ahmad won his fifth title on the ITF Junior Circuit, with the No. 3 seed beating qualifier Arjun Rathi of India 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the final. Priyanka Rana of the United States, the No. 2 seed, lost to top seed Rishitha Reddy Basireddy of India 7-5, 6-4 in the girls final.

The fifth singles title for an American came at the J30 in Guatemala, with 15-year-old qualifier Julian Zhang defeating top seed Xavier Massotte of Canada 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 in the final, after taking out No. 2 seed Jose Argenal of Guatemala 6-3, 6-4 in the semifinals. Zhang played his first ITF tournament two weeks ago at another J30 in Guatemala, qualifying and reaching the semifinals. So he is now 14-1 in his first 15 ITF Junior Circuit matches.

The J500 in Merida Mexico, the second of the four major tournaments I mentioned above, is underway, although no results from today's first round have yet been posted. The tournament website has draws and the order of play, but I don't see any live scoring. 

The seeds are below. Cooper Woestendick was injured at last week's J300 and has withdrawn from this event and the J300 in Bradenton next week.

ITF J500 Merida seeds:

Boys:

1. Maxim Mrva(CZE)

2. Charlie Robertson(GBR)

3. Oliver Bonding(GBR)

4. Miguel Tobon(COL)

5. Jagger Leach(USA)

6. Amir Omarkhanov(KAZ)

7. Petr Brunclik(CZE)

8. Thomas Faurel(FRA)

9. Osaki Paldanius(FIN)

10. Henry Bernet(SUI)

11. Nathan Trouve(FRA)

12. Ian Mayew(USA)

13. Maxwell Exsted(USA)

14. William Rejchtman Vinciguerra(SWE)

15  Timofei Derepasko(RUS)

16. Ognjen Milic(SRB)

Girls:

1. Teodora Kostovic(SRB)

2. Kristina Penickova(USA)

3. Hannah Klugman(GBR)

4. Alena Kovackova(CZE)

5. Jana Kovackova(CZE)

6. Mika Buchnik(ISR)

7. Tereza Krejcova(CZE)

8. Julie Pastikova(CZE)

9. Thea Frodin(USA)

10. Elizara Yaneva(BUL)

11. Luna Maria Cinalli(ARG)

12. Maya Iyengar(USA)

13. Sarah Melany Fajmonova(CZE)

14. Laima Vladson(LTU)

15. Annika Penickova(USA)

16. Nellie Taraba Wallberg(SWE)

There are 25 Americans competing in the main draw this week: 14 boys and 11 girls. In addition to the US seeds, listed above, the others are: Benjamin Willwerth, Noah Johnston, Kase Schinnerer, Dominick Mosejczuk, Matisse Farzam, Maximus Dussault, Ronit Karki, Calvin Baierl and qualifiers Lachlan Gaskell, Jack Satterfield and James Weber for the boys. The US girls, in addition to the four seeds, are: Capucine Jauffret, Leena Friedman, Julieta Pareja, Trinetra Vijayakumar, Anita Tu and qualifiers Hadley Appling and Aoife Kuo.

Iva Jovic, who had entered both J500s in Merida and next month's Orange Bowl, has withdrawn from both, with the Orange Bowl withdrawal coming two days ago. With her expected Australian Open main draw wild card, Jovic may not want to be playing on clay in preparation.

Columbia's Zheng and Georgia's Vidmanova Claim NCAA D-I Singles Titles, Virginia and TCU Capture Doubles Championships; Americans Basavareddy, Osuigwe, Ngounoue, Dostanic and Milavsky Claim Pro Titles

 A week of generally excellent weather came to a close today in Waco, with less than ideal conditions, with 20 mph winds making the finals of the NCAA Division I Individual Championships an adventure for all the participants.  It was the No. 2 seeds who handled that challenge better in the singles championships, with Columbia's Michael Zheng claiming the men's title with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 win over Michigan State's Ozan Baris, and Georgia's Dasha Vidmanova earning a second NCAA career title with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Auburn's DJ Bennett.

Zheng, who reached the men's single final in May, got off to a quick start in the match, and although he gave his first break back, he immediately got another one and held for a 4-2 lead. Another break, on a deciding point, gave Zheng a chance to serve out the set, and while the game was close, as most of them were in the set, Zheng took the set 6-2.

After six holds to start the second set, Zheng got a break, but that advantage didn't last long, with Baris breaking back and holding for 5-4, then tracking down a forehand volley on a deciding point in Zheng's service game. Zheng was standing at the net to pick off Baris's excellent backhand pass, but he netted his forehand volley, and suddenly the match was even.

"I thought I had it once I went up that break in the second," said the 20-year-old junior from New Jersey, speaking with Alex Gruskin of Cracked Racquets. "Credit to him and his team, they changed it up a little bit. He was going for a little bit too much, and in these windy conditions and it's tough when the ball isn't in the perfect strike zone. He was giving me a lot of free points from his forehand side, and then he started grinding a little bit, making a lot balls. I felt a little more pressure to go for it and I started making a few more errors."

An unpleasant flashback from May's final, when Zheng won the first set, but lost the match to Alabama's Filip Planinsek 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-2, surfaced after that set point.

"I kind of felt my stomach drop after missing that volley," Zheng said. "I was like, oh my god, no way, did I blow it again? But I just reset. I knew it was going to be a tough match today, I knew he wanted really bad and was going to come out and give it his best, so I was going to do the same, make this third set as tough as possible."

Zheng opened with a break, but serving at 3-2, he had to save two break points, one with a big forehand and the deciding point with some aggressive net play. Zheng did try to move forward in the final set, and that proved pivotal in that game, with Baris broken at love in the next game and Zheng serving out the first championship in modern NCAA tennis history for Columbia.

"It's just a huge honor to represent Columbia,"  Zheng said. "The community is like family, everyone's supporting you, I got so many text messages after the match. Doing it for (head coach) Howie(Endelman), the Columbia community and all the people supporting me back home, it's honestly amazing, a huge honor."

Zheng won't have long to celebrate, as he will head to France next week to compete in the Master'U BNP Paribas world collegiate team competition for the United States.

Baris, who was unseeded this week despite his semifinal appearance in the May championships, said his disappointment stemmed from not delivering a first title to Michigan State.

"Here I was just playing to win the first national championship for myself, but mostly for Michigan State, said the 20-year-old junior from Michigan. "So that's kind of the heartbreak. It just feels different. I'm not going to beat myself anymore, losing is already tough, it's not the most fun part of the sport. But playing out there was fun, and being in those situations are the situations I want to be in."

While a program first was going to be achieved no matter who won the men's title, the women's final had a different atmosphere, with Vidmanova looking to add a singles title to the doubles championship she won in May. The unseeded Bennett, on the other hand, was a surprise finalist, and the first player from Auburn to advance to the NCAA singles final. 

In her semifinal win over Oklahoma's Julia Garcia Ruiz, Bennett had played a near-perfect opening set of power tennis, but the conditions were not conducive to that Sunday, and she struggled to take advantage of the opportunities that she had against Vidmanova. After getting a break and holding for a 4-1 lead, Vidmanova had to save three break points in each of her next two service games, but she navigated that with her unexpected combination of offense and defense given her height.

One of the break points Vidmanova saved was controversial, as she appeared to touch the net after running up to a get the ball. She got the ball back for a winner, but the stream showed her feet touching the net after she hit it, but well before it had bounced twice. No call was made by the chair, and no objection voiced by Auburn, but it was an oversight hard to fathom from what I saw on the stream.

In the second set, Vidmanova got an early break, won a deciding point to keep her lead at 3-1, then broke and held to put the match out of reach. Bennett was finally able to earn a break with Vidmanova serving for the match at 5-2, but she broke Bennett to earn the title, the fourth in Georgia history and first since Chelsey Gullickson was the champion in 2010.

Vidmanova's fall season, a combination of Pro Circuit and collegiate events, prepared her for this run to the title.

"I felt very confident, I think I had a stretch of pro tournaments that I played before going into this," said the senior from the Czech Republic, who is currently 331 in the WTA rankings. "It was a little bit of different pressure from the pros, but I felt confident in my game, knew what I wanted it to look like and for the most part I did what I wanted."

Vidmanova is one of five women to win both the NCAA singles and NCAA doubles titles in their careers, and will now set her sights on the team championship in May.

"It means a lot," Vidmanova said of her two titles in the last six months. "Winning doubles last year(May of 2024), singles was definitely one of the goals for this year. I'm really happy to achieve it for myself, and for Georgia, I know it means a lot. Last year we made the finals and lost to Texas A&M so I think we're all very motivated and committed to doing it again, making it to the finals and getting one more title."

Bennett is still trying to process the run she put together this week, after starting the fall season No. 32 in the ITA rankings. Last winter, Auburn's head coach was fired at the beginning of the dual match season and with graduation losses, Bennett had to adjust to new teammates and new coaches.

"It was an insane run," said the 21-year-old junior from Florida. "I did believe in myself that I could get this far, I did believe I could win the tournament, but I never thought it would happen, honestly. Especially where I came from, the year that I had, struggling in the NCAA tournament last year, it was a really great turnaround, with (coaches) Jordan(Szabo) and Pete(Francis), all our new staff, yeah, I'm really grateful for all of them."

Bennett is already looking forward to the spring season.

"I'm super excited for season, the results we had from the team here, three of us making it to the singles and me and my partner making it in doubles," Bennett said. "It's really promising for our lineup and I think it should give the other girls back home confidence that even with so many new people on the team, we're still going to be really good."

The doubles finals both were decided in match tiebreakers, with TCU's Lui Maxted and Pedro Vives taking the men's title and Elaine Chervinsky and Melodie Collard claiming the women's title.

Maxted and Vives, a No. 5 seed, defeated the unseeded Michigan team of Gavin Young and Benjamin Kittay 6-3, 6-7(6), 10-2 to become the second TCU team to claim an NCAA men's doubles title. 

The unseeded team of Chervinsky and Collard defeated UCLA freshmen Kate Fakih and Olivia Center, a No. 5 seed, 4-6, 6-3, 10-5 to claim Virginia's first women's doubles title.

Maxted and Vives were able to make their one break hold up in the first set, but after going up 4-3 in the second set, Maxted was broken, and they could not convert, on Young's serve at 5-6 in the subsequent tiebreaker, on their match point. Maxted double faulted on set point to send the match to the tiebreaker, but a bathroom break helped the team reset.

"Pedro calmed me down a little bit, saying it's just a doubles match at the end of day," said Maxted, a senior from Great Britain. "A quick five-minute break and we just came out with a lot of energy and tried to get off to a good start in the tiebreak."

With the tiebreaker at 4-2 in their favor at the first change of ends, TCU was relentless, taking the final six points of the championship match. 

Vives and Maxted were well aware that the last NCAA individual title for the Horned Frogs came in 1981.

"It means the world to us," said Vives, a senior from Spain. "The last person to win it was Karl Richter and David Pate. We actually get to see Karl every day because he helps (head coach David) Roditi with the academy back in Fort Worth. So it's going to be pretty funny to see him every day and remind him he's not the only one to have that trophy."

Chervinsky and Collard won every one of their five matches in a match tiebreaker, and despite an excellent first set from Fakih and Center, they began to find their form down 5-1 in the first set, winning three straight games before Fakih closed out the set.

"We were really glad to have ended the first set like that even though we lost, said Chervinsky, a senior from Florida. "We had good momentum, fought back really well and had a good game plan, so at least we were not on our back foot starting the second set and I think that really showed."

Once they won the second set and got to the tiebreaker, Chervinsky and Collard had found their form and once they built a 4-0 lead, Center and Fakih could not find any momentum until it was too late.

 "I don't think it's a mistake that we won five of them," said Collard, a senior from Canada. "We really put ourselves in a position to win all of the super tiebreakers. In every single match we got our things together to be ready for the super tiebreakers. At that moment, nothing matters but those ten points."

Although Virginia did not have an NCAA doubles title in their history, they did have inspirations, with head coach Sara (Anundsen) O'Leary winning the 2007 doubles title with Jenna Long at North Carolina, and the three NCAA singles titles claimed by Danielle Collins and Emma Navarro.

"I kind feel good to be with those names," said Collard. "Bringing this championship there, we were sitting there thinking are we really going to be with Emma Navarro and Danielle Collins? That's pretty cool."

Complete draws can be found here.

While there were two American champions at the NCAAs (Zheng and Chervinsky), five young Americans captured titles in the pro ranks.

Stanford junior Nishesh Basavareddy won his second Challenger title tonight at the ATP Challenger 50 in Puerto Vallarta Mexico, with the top seed defeating No. 6 seed Liam Draxl(Kentucky) of Canada 6-3, 7-6(4). Basavareddy moves to a new ATP career-high ranking of 139 with the title and will likely have earned a spot in the ATP Next Gen Finals next month, as he is now seventh in the race. After going 16-3 in the past four weeks, Basavareddy looked to be on the verge of a physical collapse several times in tonight's final, but the 19-year-old from Indiana should be able to rest for a few weeks with that competition in Jeddah scheduled for December 18-22.

Draxl won the doubles title last night, with compatriot Benjamin Sigouin(North Carolina). The top seeds beat unseeded Ryan Seggerman(Princeton, UNC) and Karl Poling(Princeton, UNC) 7-6(5), 6-2.

Whitney Osuigwe won her first singles title in over five years, with the 22-year-old from Florida, the 2017 ITF World Junior Champion, winning the W50 in Boca Raton. Osuigwe, seeded No. 7, defeated No. 6 seed Eva Vedder of the Netherlands 7-6(8), 6-3 in today's final.

Eighteen-year-old Clervie Ngounoue won her first singles title since July, and her third overall, at the W35 in the Dominican Republic. The 2023 Wimbledon girls champion, seeded No. 5, defeated No. 7 seed Cagla Buyukakcay of Turkey 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in today's final.

At the men's $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Austin Texas, Stefan Dostanic(USC, Wake Forest) won his second straight event and the biggest pro title of his career. The 23-year-old Californian, seeded No. 6, defeated defending champion Pierre-Yves Bailly(Texas) of Belgium 6-3, 7-6(4) in today's final. Dostanic, who had beaten Bailly in the quarterfinals of the $25K in Texas last month, won the $15K in Boca Raton last week.

And in the last men's USTA Pro Circuit event of the year, the $15,000 tournament in Tallahassee, qualifier Daniel Milavsky won his first pro title. The 23-year-old Harvard senior defeated No. 9 seed Jack Anthrop, a junior at Ohio State, 6-3, 6-2 for his seventh win in seven days. Milavsky, who did not play collegiate events this fall, dropped only one set in those seven matches, while beating four seeds.

Three Americans Reach NCAA Division I Singles Finals, Two US Teams Advance to Doubles Championships Sunday in Waco; All-Collegian Singles Finals on USTA Men's Pro Circuit; Basavareddy Reaches Another Challenger Final

At May's men's Division I singles championships in Stillwater Oklahoma, seven of the eight quarterfinalists were from the United States, but despite those odds, Slovenia's Filip Planinsek of Alabama emerged as the champion. In this fall's singles and doubles championships in Waco Texas, which have been decoupled from the team championships for the first time this year, the chance that an American would win the title were a coin flip, with four quarterfinalists and two semifinalists from the United States.

But those two semifinalists, unseeded Ozan Baris of Michigan State and No. 2 Michael Zheng of Columbia advanced to Sunday's final, guaranteeing an American champion.

Zheng, who reached the final last year, losing in three sets to Planinsek, was the recipient of a retirement from Texas freshman Timo Legout, who was suffering from an illness that kept him up most of Friday night. After Zheng broke him for a second time in the first set, Legout retired down 1-4, with his winning streak to start his collegiate career ending at 24(singles and doubles).  

"Obviously tough for Timo, it's never the way you want to win," Zheng told Cracked Racquets' Alex Gruskin. "But I'm happy to be back in the finals. It was a tough loss six months ago, not even last year, so I'm hoping to actually get the title this time."

Zheng admitted that he needed time to process his loss in the May final.

"It took a little while to shake it off," said 20-year-old junior from New Jersey. Zheng, the first player to reach back-to-back men's NCAA finals since Steve Johnson of Southern California in 2011 and 2012. "But it's tennis, you lose way more than you win, so I was happy to get back on court after that, went straight to France to train on clay and then played pro events in the summer and got it going toward the end of the summer and I'm playing some of my best tennis now."

If Zheng's loss in the final was tough, it probably wasn't as difficult to overcome as Baris's loss in the semifinals against Planinsek, where he had four match points, including a 6-3 lead in the third-set tiebreaker before losing 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(6).

Baris, who is unseeded this week despite being ranked No. 1 in the ITA preseason rankings, defeated DK Suresh of Wake Forest, a No. 9 seed, 7-5, 7-6(5) to wipe away those bad memories.

Baris managed to stay patient and hold serve while waiting for the big-serving Suresh to give him an opportunity. He got it at 5-all, breaking Suresh at love, and then was able to serve out the set without incident. Baris took a 2-0 lead in the second set, but poor service game early in the set, his only one of the match, gave Suresh some hope, and the junior from India took a 3-2 lead, with Baris serving from behind the rest of the way. He forced the tiebreaker with a love hold, but then fell behind 4-1 before Suresh began to falter with a third set in sight.

Baris won the next four points, with Suresh throwing in a double fault to give Baris a 5-4 lead. When Suresh hit a forehand long, Baris had two match points, with one more serve coming, but he netted a backhand. If any bad memories from May surfaced then, he didn't reveal them, and Suresh missed his first serve, giving Baris another reasonable chance. His return forced Suresh into a backhand slice, and when it went into the net, Michigan State had its first NCAA men's singles finalist.

"In the tiebreak, I was really tough in the big moments," the 20-year-old junior from Michigan told Gruskin. "And that's what got me through."

Baris is now letting himself think about winning the title.

"I had, and still have, a couple of things I wanted to get off the checklist," Baris said. "One of them is winning a championship; for myself in individuals, and obviously for the team as well. Now I actually get the opportunity to play for it. You really can't ask for much more. Obviously I'm going to feel some nerves, but the way I look at it, this round I wasn't playing for a championship, in the quarterfinals I wasn't playing for a national championship. Those matches still meant a ton to me, but tomorrow I have a great opportunity and I'm going to enjoy that, because I'm actually able to see where I'm at when my goal and what I want is so close to me."

Baris and Zheng played last September in a fall event in South Carolina, with Zheng posting a 6-0, 6-4 win.

Both Baris and Zheng have earned places in the USTA's new US Open Collegiate Wild Card Playoff next spring, with the other two players to be selected after the dual match season.

Unseeded DJ Bennett of Auburn will also receive an invitation to the women's USO Wild Card Playoff event, after she defeated Oklahoma's Julia Garcia Ruiz, a No. 9 seed, 6-1, 3-6, 7-5.

The match looked like it was shaping up to be a rout when Bennett blasted her serve and forehand for winner after winner, showing no nerves and a level that would not be out of place at any WTA 250 tournament. But sustaining that level was unlikely, and Garcia Ruiz began to find patterns that worked, helping her go on offense instead of expending all her energy trying to defend.

Garcia Ruiz went up 3-1 in the third set, but Bennett didn't panic, and it was Garcia Ruiz, a junior from Mexico, who made the key unforced errors down the stretch.

"After playing a first set like that, it's hard to keep that level," said the 21-year-old junior from Florida. "So I was expecting her to have a sort of comeback. I was trying to stick to what works, bringing back the level I had in the first set, making sure that I made my first serve, staying calm when I was down, making sure that I don't freak myself out about the situation."

Bennett is the first NCAA women's singles finalist is Auburn's history, and she is trying not to be overwhelmed by this run.

"It means everything and more to play in the finals, have this opportunity, be the first person in Auburn history to make it to the finals, it's pretty cool," Bennett said. "Again, I'm at a loss for words, but I'm just living in the moment, that's all I'm trying to do, and have fun."

Bennett will face No. 2 seed Dasha Vidmanova of Georgia, who advanced to the final with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over Julia Fliegner of Michigan.

As with the other women's semifinal, this looked to be a mismatch when Vidmanova, who has had the most difficult route to the semifinals, took a 4-1 lead in the first set. But Fliegner began to find her range, while Vidmanova retreated into defending, with Fliegner winning five straight games to take the set. 

Vidmanova, now 331 in the WTA rankings after four Pro Circuit titles this summer and fall including a W50 title earlier this month in Miami, didn't doubt she could reverse her slide.

"I knew that it was mostly on me, so I still felt confident, even after the first set," said the 21-year-old senior from the Czech Republic. "I was just trying to get back in it, put it behind me, forget about it, and that's what I did."

With her serve improving, Vidmanova took a 4-1 lead in the second set, and this time closed it out, with a similar pattern developing in the third set.

"I was just trying to stay in it, I knew I would have a chance," said Vidmanova, who won the NCAA doubles title, with Aysegul Mert in May. "It was a good match, in the third set, and I'm happy I got it done. I think Julia played very well, throughout the whole match, maybe there were moments when she gave me a few free points, but what I tried to do is the serve-plus-one because she can't really be aggressive then."

Vidmanova, who played in both the team final, a loss to Texas A&M, and the doubles final six days later, is accustomed to the biggest stages in college tennis. 

"I know it's like the final and everything, but it's just another match to play the way I want to play," Vidmanova said. "Hopefully I can focus on myself, my serve, my game, the things I want to do, and I think by doing that I'll have a good chance."

The men's and women's singles finals are both scheduled for 11 a.m. Central time Sunday, with the doubles finals to follow. Cracked Racquets will have coverage at ESPN; live scoring is here.

The doubles finals will also feature two American teams, with UCLA's Kate Fakih and Olivia Center playing for the women's title, and Michigan's Benjamin Kittay and Gavin Young competing in the men's final. 

Fakih and Center, one of the No. 5 seeds, defeated the unseeded Auburn team of Bennett and Ava Hrastar 6-2, 3-6, 10-7. After trailing 5-4 in the tiebreaker, Fakih and Center won the next five points. The freshmen, who won the USTA 18s doubles National Championships in 2023, dropped the next two points, but Fakih's good first serve on the third match point sealed their victory.

Fakih and Center will play the unseeded Virginia team of Melodie Collard and Elaine Chervinsky, who had an equally tense semifinal win, beating unseeded Alicia Dudeney and Rachel Gailis of Florida 1-6, 6-3, 10-8. Collard and Chervinsky are the first Virginia team to reach the NCAA doubles final.

Fakih and Center, both Americans, have earned a spot in the USTA's US Open wild card playoffs for doubles team by reaching the final. 

The unseeded Kittay and Young are the first men's team from Michigan to reach an NCAA final after their 6-4, 6-2 win over No. 5 seeds Youcef Rihane and Alex Bulte of Florida State. They will play another No. 5 seed, Pedro Vives and Lui Maxted of TCU, who defeated Legout and Lucas Brown of Texas 6-4, 6-2. With Legout's illness, with Brown also under the weather, there was a question as to whether that match would even be played, but the Longhorns did their best despite being far from healthy.

While the matches didn't go Texas's way in Waco, back home in Austin, Texas senior Pierre-Yves Bailly of Belgium picked up two victories today at the $25,000 men's Pro Circuit tournament. The eighth-seeded Bailly, the defending champion, defeated No. 2 seed Duarte Vale(Florida) of Portugal 6-2, 7-6(2) to set up a meeting with No. 6 seed and doubles partner Stefan Dostanic(USC, Wake Forest). Dostanic, who is now on a nine match winning streak after winning the Boca Raton $15K last week, defeated No. 3 seed Alastair Gray of Great Britain 1-6, 6-1, 6-3.

Bailly and Dostanic won the doubles title, with the unseeded pair beating top seeds Cleeve Harper(Texas) of Canada and Pat Harper(Tennessee) of Australia 7-5, 6-3.

Two current collegians are also through to the final at the $15,000 men's tournament in Tallahassee Florida. Ohio State junior Jack Anthrop, the No. 9 seed, defeated No. 4 seed Leo Vithoontien(Carleton) 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 in the semifinals, and will play Harvard senior Daniel Milavsky, a qualifier, who beat No. 3 seed Will Grant(Florida) 6-1, 6-4.

Top seeds Tim Ruehl(Arizona State, TCU) and Patrick Zahraj(UCLA) of Germany won the doubles title, beating No. 3 seeds Tristan McCormick(Notre Dame, Georgia) and Fred Simonsson of Sweden 6-2, 5-7, 10-8 in the final.

No. 7 seed Whitney Osuigwe reached the final of the W50 in Boca Raton, defeating No. 5 seed Anna Rogers(NC State) 6-1, 6-1. Osuigwe will play No. 6 seed Eva Vedder of the Netherlands, who ended qualifier Mayu Crossley's run with a 6-1, 6-4 semifinal victory.

Rogers and Alicia Herrero Linana(Baylor) of Spain won the doubles title, with the No. 3 seeds defeating No. 2 seeds Maria Kononova(North Texas) and Maria Kozyreva(St. Mary's) of Russia 6-2, 6-1.

After a grueling fall season on the USTA Pro Challenger Circuit, which earned him an Australian Open wild card, Stanford junior Nishesh Basavareddy has continued his season in Mexico, where he has reached the final of the ATP 50 in Puerto Vallarta with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Oklahoma junior Luis Alvarez of Mexico.  Basavareddy, the No. 1 seed, will face No. 6 seed Liam Draxl(Kentucky) of Canada for the title Sunday. Basavareddy has now made three Challenger finals and one semifinal in the past four weeks. 

Baris and Zheng Reach Men's Semifinals; Bennett and Fliegner Advance to Women's Final Four at D-I Singles Championships; Dostanic Extends Winning Streak at Austin $25K; Qualifier Crossley Moves on at Boca Raton W50

Six months after reaching the NCAA Division I singles semifinals in Stillwater Oklahoma, juniors Ozan Baris of Michigan State and Michael Zheng of Columbia find themselves back there after claiming straight-sets victories today at the Hurd Tennis Center on the campus of Baylor University.

Baris, who is unseeded in this tournament despite being No. 1 in the ITA preseason rankings published in August, defeated No. 5 seed Jay Friend of Arizona 6-1, 7-5, winning the final five games of the match. 

Baris was unwilling to credit a big jump in his level for that final surge, responding to a question from Cracked Racquets' Alex Gruskin about that second set comeback.

"I kept my head down and the points turned my way," said the 20-year-old from Okemos Michigan, who is the first three-time All-American(two singles, one doubles) in Spartan history. "I felt the beginning of the set, the points were going his way, the no-ad points. And then, the no-ad points went my way and I stayed tough. It was a close second set, but I just gutted it through."

Baris said he sensed a change this week, contrasting it to how he handled the atmosphere surrounding his run in May. 

"It feels like it's been shorter, honestly," Baris said. "I don't know how to explain it, but this feels like it's all happened pretty quick. Last year, it was crazy, this is another milestone, this is something else, this is something else, constantly feeling that. Whereas now, it's 'I'm back in the semis, it's nice'. I think the biggest difference is that last year I thought my whole life would change if I won the whole thing. This year, I'd love to, but whoever wins this tournament, the day after, they have to wake up and do the whole thing again. I'm not looking just to be an NCAA champion, I'm looking to be a top professional, one of the top players in the world, so I won't stop after this tournament and I won't stop after this year with the team. I'm just going to keep going and see where I can go with my tennis."

Baris will play Wake Forest junior DK Suresh, who defeated fellow No. 9 seed Corey Craig of Florida State 6-3, 6-2.

No. 2 seed Zheng was the first winner of the morning, putting on a clinical display in his 66-minute, 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 6 seed Lui Maxted of TCU. Zheng, who reached the singles final in Stillwater in May, lost 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-2 to unseeded Filip Planinsek of Alabama in the championship match, told Gruskin that his run this year also felt different, primarily because in the spring he had three-set match after three-set match.  Obviously pleased with his level today, Zheng is hoping to sustain that in his meeting with No. 9 seed Timo Legout of Texas, who defeated unseeded Spencer Johnson of UCLA 6-3, 6-2. Legout, a 22-year-old from France, has now won 24 matches singles and doubles--every match he was played--since being cleared to begin his collegiate career this fall.

If Baris and Zheng win tomorrow, they will automatically qualify for the USTA's playoff for the US Open wild card, which is slated to happen after the conclusion of the spring dual match season. The criteria for selection to that playoff can be found here.

The women's semifinals also feature one unseeded player, with DJ Bennett of Auburn having a breakout fall, beginning with a quarterfinal appearance at the ITA All-American Championships in September.  Bennett and Virginia's Elaine Chervinsky played the only three-set match of the eight quarterfinals, and that lacked drama, with Bennett running away with the final set for a 7-5, 5-7, 6-0 win.

"I was trying to stick to my game, making sure that I'm making my first serve and being aggressive with my forehand," said the 21-year-old junior from Belleview Florida. "That's something that kind of fell off a little bit in the second set and Elaine took advantage of it. So I had to get back to playing my style of tennis, being aggressive, taking the ball early and putting it away when I get the opportunity. I also returned really well in the third set, so I didn't give her much."

Bennett, who is just the second Auburn player to reach the NCAA semifinals (Fani Chifchieva, 2008), is still trying to comprehend her achievement this week.

"I don't even have words," Bennett said. "It means everything and more to have this opportunity and play these matches. Honestly, I've surprised myself a little bit with my results, but with all the hard work I've put in over this semester and over the past two and a half years, with Jordan(Szabo), Pete(Francis) and Val(Zeleva), everything is falling into place.

Bennett will play fellow junior Julia Garcia Ruiz of Oklahoma, a No. 9 seed, who blitzed past No. 5 seed Valerie Glozman 6-1, 6-1. Bennett said she played Garcia Ruiz last fall in North Carolina, surviving a rally from Garcia Ruiz to post a 6-2, 6-7(3), 10-2 victory.  "I remember being up a set and up in the second set and she made a good comeback and I'm pretty sure I won in a tiebreaker, so I have that little bit of confidence to know that I beat her before. But I'll be sticking to my game and try to have as much fun as possible."

The other women's semifinal will feature two seniors, No. 7 seed Julia Fliegner of Michigan and No. 2 seed Dasha Vidmanova of Georgia.

Fliegner avenged her previous two losses to Ohio State sophomore and No. 9 seed Luciana Perry, the most recent a 6-1, 6-1 loss in the October regional final, posting a 7-6(4), 6-3 victory today. Fliegner and Perry finished their first set as Michael Zheng was finishing his match, but Fliegner was able to win the key points in the final few games to get out of a potential marathon in straight sets. Vidmanova had no trouble with the big-hitting Texas A&M junior Nicole Khirin, with impressive defense-to-offense contributing to her 6-4, 6-2 victory.

Bennett and Legout are still in contention for two titles this week, with both advancing in doubles as well.

Bennett and Ava Hrastar, who are unseeded, defeated No. 5 seeds Jade Otway and Isabel Pascual of TCU 4-6, 6-4, 10-7 and will take on 2023 USTA 18s National Champions Kate Fakih and Olivia Center of UCLA, one of the No. 5 seeds. Fakih and Center, the only 18s champions to earn All-American honors as a team in their freshman year, defeated No. 2 seeds Maddy Zampardo and Gabriella Broadfoot of NC State 6-2, 7-6(5).

Two unseeded teams will face off in the top half, with Alicia Dudeney and Rachel Gailis of Florida taking on Virginia's Melodie Collard and Chervinsky. Dudeney and Gailis, who defeated top seeds Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle of UCLA in the second round, beat unseeded Irina Balus and Ellie Coleman of Duke 6-4, 6-1. Collard and Chervinsky survived a rollercoaster of a match with No. 5 seeds Carson Tanguilig and Susanna Maltby of North Carolina 6-0, 0-6, 10-7.

Unseeded Legout and Lucas Brown of Texas will meet TCU's Pedro Vives and Maxted in the bottom half semifinal. No. 5 seeds Vives and Maxted defeated No. 3 seeds Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanches Martinez of Mississippi State 6-3, 7-5; Legout and Brown hung on for a 6-7(5), 6-3, 10-8 win over unseeded Bryce Nakashima and Will Jansen of Ohio State.

Unseeded Gavin Young and Benjamin Kittay of Michigan reached the semifinals via walkover, due to an injury to Aadrash Tripathi of UCLA, who was playing with Alexander Hoogmartens. Young and Kittay will face No. 5 seeds Youcef Rihane and Alex Bulte of Florida State, who beat No. 4 seeds Luciano Tacchi and Luca Pow of Wake Forest 5-7, 6-4, 10-7.

The semifinals will, fortunately, be just two at a time, with the women's singles semifinals at 10:00 a.m. Central, the men's singles semifinals to follow, not before 11:00 a.m. The women's doubles semifinals are not before 12:30 p.m. and the men's doubles semifinals are not before 1:30 p.m.

Cracked Racquets will provide coverage of all semifinal matches at ESPN+. Live scoring is here.

While Legout and Brown were extending their stay in Waco, Texas teammate Pierre-Yves Bailly was busy defending his 2023 $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit title in Austin. No. 8 seed Bailly, who did not qualify for the NCAAs, is through to the semifinals, with the 21-year-old senior from Belgium defeating No. 4 seed Patrick Maloney(Michigan) 6-2, 7-5. He will play No. 2 seed Duarte Vale(Florida) of Portugal next.  Texas redshirt freshman Evan Burnett reached the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-4 win over top seed Toby Kodat in the second round, but he lost today to No. 6 seed Stefan Dostanic(USC, Wake Forest) 6-1, 6-3. Dostanic, the champion last week at the $15K in Boca Raton, has now won eight consecutive matches. He will play No. 3 seed Alastair Gray(TCU) of Great Britain, who defeated Roman Gales of France 7-5, 6-0.

At the women's USTA Pro Circuit W50 in Boca Raton, qualifier Mayu Crossley, who is joining UCLA next fall, is through to the semifinals after defeating No. 8 seed Lia Karatancheva of Bulgaria 6-3, 7-6(2). The 18-year-old from Japan, who didn't drop a game in her two qualifying matches, will face No. 6 seed Eva Vedder of the Netherlands in Saturday's semifinals. In the other semifinal, No. 7 seed Whitney Osuigwe will face No. 5 seed Anna Rogers(NC State). Osuigwe beat No. 3 seed Akasha Urhobo 6-4, 7-5, while Rogers took out No. 2 seed Despina Papamichail of Greece 6-3, 6-3.

At the men's $15,000 tournament in Tallahassee Florida, three Americans have advanced to the semifinals, including two current collegians.

Ohio State's Jack Anthrop, who did not qualify for the NCAAs, is through to the semifinals with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over qualifier Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes(Mississippi State); he will play 2021 NCAA Division III champion and No. 4 seed Leo Vithoontien(Carleton) next. Former Florida standout Will Grant, the No. 3 seed, will face qualifier Daniel Milavsky, a senior at Harvard, who did not compete collegiately this fall. Milavsky defeated No. 2 seed Tristian McCormick(Notre Dame, Georgia) 6-1, 6-4 in today's quarterfinals.

Virginia's Chervinsky Shocks Top Seed Stoiana, Legout Ousts No. 3 Seed Smith at NCAA Division I Championships; Men's D-I Fall Signing Update; USA Falls in Davis Cup Quarterfinals

Texas A&M senior Mary Stoiana led the Aggies to their first NCAA team title in May, but she will not win an NCAA individual title in during her storied collegiate career, after the top seed lost in today's NCAA Division I Championships round of 16 to unseeded Elaine Chervinsky of Virginia 6-3, 6-0.

Stoiana could not find her form today at the Hurd Tennis Center on the Baylor campus, and Chervinsky, also a senior, avoided the temptation to overplay, which is tempting when faced with Stoiana's variety.

"I came out really well," Chervinsky told Cracked Racquets' Alex Gruskin after the match. "I know Mary is one of the best athletes in college tennis, so I knew I had to come out and fight for every point. I think I did a good job with my first serve percentage, was sticking with my game plan and being really disciplined."

Chervinsky said she did not know who her opponent would be today until after she had savored her 6-3, 7-5 victory over Stanford's Alexis Blokhina in Wednesday's second round. 

"I'm not one to look at the draw, so it was a very nice surprise," Chervinsky said. "Yesterday I was in a very good mood, had a very good match, so I was kind of riding that a little bit. But at dinner time, it was time to think about the game plan. I have a lot of respect for Mary, I've seen her do great things over the years, but I also know it's my last year, so let's leave it all out there and let's have some fun with it."

Chervinsky will face unseeded DJ Bennett of Auburn, who defeated Cal's Katja Wiersholm 7-6(5), 6-3.

The third unseeded player to advance to the quarterfinals in the women's draw is Stoiana's teammate Nicole Khirin, who defeated No. 6 seed Connie Ma of Stanford 7-5, 6-7(6), 6-3.  Khirin, a junior, clinched the team title for Texas A&M in May, and is one of the few collegiate players who can overpower Ma. Khirin will play No. 2 seed Dasha Vidmanova of Georgia, who defeated No. 9 seed Savannah Broadus of Pepperdine 6-2, 6-3.

An all-Big Ten battle will take place in the other quarterfinal in the bottom half, with Michigan's Julia Fliegner, the No. 7 seed, playing Ohio State's Luciana Perry, a No. 9 seed. Fliegner defeated unseeded Ozlem Uslu of Virginia Tech 6-2, 6-4, while Perry also had an emphatic win over North Carolina's Carson Tanguilig 6-2, 6-3.

The only freshman remaining in the women's draw is No. 5 seed Valerie Glozman of Stanford, who defeated North Carolina sophomore Thea Rabman, a No. 9 seed, 6-4, 6-2. Glozman is hoping to celebrate her 18th birthday Friday with a trip to the semifinals when she faces Oklahoma's Julia Garcia Ruiz, a No. 9 seed. Garcia Ruiz defeated the other freshman in the women's draw, Auburn's Merna Refaat, 7-5, 6-3.

The men's quarterfinals feature two of the eight players who advanced to the semifinals in Stillwater in May: singles finalist Michael Zheng of Columbia, the No. 2 seed, and unseeded Ozan Baris of Michigan State.

Zheng got off to a slow start against Georgia's Thomas Paulsell, a No. 9 seed, but came back for a 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory. Baris was also down early, to No. 9 seed Pedro Vives of TCU, before recording a 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2 win.  Zheng's opponent Friday will be No. 6 seed Lui Maxted of TCU, who beat unseeded Maxi Homberg of Pepperdine 6-2, 7-5; Baris will play Arizona's Jay Friend, who defeated Shunsuke Mitsui of Tennessee, a No. 9 seed, 7-5, 6-4. 

In the top quarter, Corey Craig of Florida State defeated unseeded Paul Inchauspe of Princeton 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 to set up a quarterfinal meeting with fellow No. 9 seed DK Suresh of Wake Forest. Aidan Kim of Ohio State, the No. 8 seed, served for the match at 6-4, 5-4, but Suresh broke, won the tiebreaker and rode his big serve to a 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-3 victory.

The third No. 9 seed in the quarterfinals is Texas's Timo Legout, who defeated one of the pre-tournament favorites Colton Smith of Arizona 6-3, 7-6(4).  Legout, a 22-year-old from France, who was cleared for competition this fall, was a magician in getting out of trouble, saving 13 consecutive break points at the end of the first set and the beginning of the second set before finally getting broken. Smith took a 5-2 lead in the second set, and had three sets points, but Legout saved all those to hold for 5-3, and Smith then double faulted at 30-40 to give back the break, and Legout played the better tiebreaker to earn the win.

Legout is still undefeated in his brief collegiate career, in both singles and doubles, going 22-0. Remarkably, all those wins have come at Baylor, where he swept the titles in the Regional Championships in October.

"Obviously a great win for me against a really, really good player," Legout told Alex Gruskin. "I said yesterday that I would need to raise my level to beat a player like Colton and that's what I did today, so I'm really, really proud of that. In that second set, I saved an insane amount of break points, down 0-40, 15-40 twice, at 2-5 15-40. With the deuce points, you get chances, maybe a little more than usual, to break back and I was just thinking to stay alive on my serve. He was getting a little big tight because he had so many chances to close that second set and he didn't."

Legout will attempt to extend his Baylor winning streak to 23 tomorrow in the quarterfinals against unseeded Spencer Johnson of UCLA, who defeated unseeded Kenta Miyoshi of Illinois 6-3, 6-4. 

Today was All-American day for doubles, and it was certainly and eventful second round, with both top seeds losing in straight sets. Men's ITA All-American champions Oliver Tarvet and Stian Klaassen of San Diego lost to Gavin Young and Benjamin Kittay of Michigan 6-4, 6-0 and women's ITA All-American finalists Elise Wagle and Kimmi Hance lost to Florida's Alicia Dudney and Rachel Gailis 6-4, 6-3.

Tarvet and Klaassen and Wagle and Hance did secure their All-America status by winning the titles at the A-A. The third method of achieving that accolade is finishing Top 10 in the final ITA rankings at the end of the 2024-2025 season.

Division I Doubles All-Americans:

Alicia Dudeney and Rachel Gailis, Florida

Irina Balus and Ellie Coleman, Duke

Carson Tanguilig and Susanna Maltby, North Carolina

Ava Hrastar and DJ Bennett, Auburn

Elaine Chervinsky and Melodie Collard, Virginia

Jade Otway and Isabel Pascual, TCU

Kate Fakih and Olivia Center, UCLA

Gabriella Broadfoot and Maddy Zampardo, NC State

Gavin Young and Benjamin Kittay, Michigan

Aadarsh Tripathi and Alexander Hoogmartens, UCLA

Luciano Tacchi and Luca Pow, Wake Forest

Youcef Rihane and Alex Bulte, Florida State

Pedro Vives and Lui Maxted, TCU

Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez, Mississippi State

Bryce Nakashima and Will Jansen, Ohio State

Timo Legout and Lucas Brown, Texas

All eight quarterfinals will begin at 10 a.m. Central Friday. Cracked Racquets coverage is available at ESPN+. Live scoring and results are available at ioncourt.

As promised, here is the signing update for Division I men. My women's list was posted on Wednesday.

Alabama signs Matic Kriznik of Slovenia, Vit Kalina of Czech Republic and Brendan Loh of Australia:

https://rolltide.com/news/2024/11/15/mens-tennis-alabama-mens-tennis-adds-three-to-class-of-2025

Arkansas signs JUCO transfer Jean-Baptiste Badon and Elicha Navas of Spain:

https://arkansasrazorbacks.com/udwadia-announces-signings-of-badon-elicha-navas/

Auburn signs Amirkhamza Nasridinov of Russia:

https://auburntigers.com/news/2024/11/12/mens-tennis-signs-amirkhamza-nasridinov

Baylor signs Drew Hedgecoe: https://baylorbears.com/news/2024/11/14/mens-tennis-mt-adds-drew-hedgecoe-to-2025-signing-class.aspx

Blake Anderson: https://baylorbears.com/news/2024/11/14/mens-tennis-baylor-mt-inks-no-1-recruit-of-texas-blake-anderson.aspx

Alex Chirita of Romania: https://baylorbears.com/news/2024/11/15/mens-tennis-mt-signs-alexandru-chirita-to-join-roster-in-spring.aspx

Central Florida signs Pedro Rodrigues of Brazil: 

https://ucfknights.com/news/2024/11/12/mens-tennis-signs-prominent-brazilian-junior-pedro-rodrigues

Duke signs Dylan Long: 

https://goduke.com/news/2024/11/14/blue-chipper-dylan-long-joins-mens-tennis

Florida signs Niels Villard of France and Rafael Segado of Spain:

https://floridagators.com/news/2024/11/14/mens-tennis-welcomes-niels-villard-and-rafael-segado.aspx

Georgia signs Noah Johnston:

https://georgiadogs.com/news/2024/11/13/mens-tennis-mten-bulldogs-announce-2025-signing-class

Illinois signs David Bakonyi of Hungary and Adam Jilly of Hungary:

https://fightingillini.com/news/2024/11/14/illinois-mens-tennis-adds-two-to-2025-signing-class.aspx

Indiana signs Adryan Badlani:

https://iuhoosiers.com/news/2024/11/14/mens-tennis-indiana-mens-tennis-signs-aryan-badlani

Kentucky signs Nicolas and Mikael Arseneault of Canada:

https://ukathletics.com/news/2024/11/14/kentucky-mens-tennis-adds-nicolas-and-mikael-arseneault-to-2025-signing-class/

LSU signs Enzo Kohlmann De Freitas of Brazil: https://lsusports.net/news/2024/11/14/tennis-inks-enzo-kohlmann-de-freitas/

Sasa Markovic of Serbia: https://lsusports.net/news/2024/11/21/tennis-inks-sasa-markovic/

Mississipppi signs Kai Milburn of New Zealand: https://olemisssports.com/news/2024/11/14/mens-tennis-mens-tennis-signs-kai-milburn-to-2025-freshman-class

Nebraska signs Niels Van Der Sijs of the Netherlands: https://huskers.com/news/2024/11/21/huskers-add-niels-van-der-sijs

North Carolina signs Ian Mayew, Oliver Tarbut and Kase Schinnerer: https://goheels.com/news/2024/11/14/mens-tennis-signs-three-top-prospects

Northwestern signs Dylan Fayerman, Jacob Golden and Cooper Han: https://nusports.com/news/2024/11/14/northwestern-welcomes-three-new-freshmen-to-the-mens-tennis-team

Oklahoma signs Orel Kimhi of Israel: https://soonersports.com/news/2024/11/18/mens-tennis-sooners-add-orel-kimhi-for-spring-season

Purdue signs Nikola Jovic of Serbia: https://purduesports.com/news/2024/11/13/mens-tennis-young-adds-top-100-jovic-on-signing-day

TCU signs Jagger Leach, Cooper Woestendick and Maximus Dussault: https://gofrogs.com/news/2024/11/15/mens-tennis-tcu-signs-nations-no-1-usa-recruiting-class-for-2025.aspx

Texas Tech signs Thiago Guglieri of Brazil and Ludovico Vaccari of Italy: https://texastech.com/news/2024/11/13/mens-tennis-guglieri-vaccari-sign-with-red-raiders

Southern California signs Nathaniel Suh: https://usctrojans.com/news/2024/11/13/mens-tennis-usc-mens-tennis-signs-five-star-in-state-athlete.aspx

Western Michigan signs Chen-Hui Ho of Taiwan: https://wmubroncos.com/news/2024/11/13/mens-tennis-announces-signing-of-chen-hui-ho-to-national-letter-of-intent.aspx

The Davis Cup quarterfinals began this week in Spain, with the imminent retirement of Rafael Nadal overshadowing any of the competitive tennis on tap. After Spain lost 2-1 to the Netherlands, putting an abrupt halt to what might have been a much longer celebration of Nadal's career, the air seemed to go out of the event. For Americans, it feels even more deflating now, after today's 2-1 loss to Australia.  Ben Shelton(Florida) lost 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(14) to Thanasi Kokkinakis at No. 2 singles before Taylor Fritz brought the United States even with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Alex de Minaur at No. 1 singles. That meant the doubles would decide the winner, and captain Bob Bryan elected to pull Olympic silver medalists Rajeev Ram(Illinois) and Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M) in favor of Shelton and Tommy Paul, who lost to Matthew Ebden and Jordan Thompson 6-4, 6-4.

For more on today's loss, see this article from usta.com.