Jovic Claims W100 Title in Charlottesville; UCLA Men and Ohio State Women Win 4-3 Thrillers to Earn Big 10 Titles; NCAA Selection Show Monday; Santamarta, Stusek Capture J500 Offenbach Titles; IMG Future Stars Tournament Crowns Champions

Seventeen-year-old Iva Jovic won the biggest title of her young career today at the USTA Pro Circuit W100 in Charlottesville Virginia. The top seed, who had needed nearly three-and-a-half hours to get through her semifinal with No. 4 seed Laura Pigossi of Brazil Saturday, was able to keep her time on court today to a minimum, beating unseeded Irina Bara of Romania 6-0, 6-1 in 61 minutes. This moves her WTA live ranking up to a career-high of 119.

My calculations have Jovic taking the lead in the USTA's Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge with one week to go; these 100 points, plus the 30 she earned for a first round win at the WTA 250 in Colombia three weeks ago, should put her ahead of Julieta Pareja, who has 116 points from her run to the semifinals in Colombia. Jovic, who received the USTA's Australian Open wild card after last fall's race, is entered in the W100 in Bonita Springs Florida next week.

The other two Americans in USTA Pro Circuit finals lost, with No. 8 seed Ayana Akli falling to former Baylor standout Alicia Herrero Linana of Spain 6-1, 7-6(1) at the W35 in Charlotte North Carolina. It's the first Pro Circuit singles title for Herrero Linana, although she has a dozen Pro Circuit doubles titles.

At the M15 in Vero Beach Florida, No. 7 seed Will Grant(Florida) lost to Blu Baker of Great Britain 7-6(3), 6-4.

Unseeded Nicolas Mejia of Colombia won the ATP Challenger 75 in Savannah Georgia, beating No. 4 seed Liam Draxl(Kentucky) of Canada 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(3). Draxl has now lost his last five Challenger finals, after winning his first appearance in one in November 2023.

The last of the Power 4 conference championships brought the drama, with the No. 2 seeds taking out the top seeds 4-3 in the Big Ten tournaments.

In Ojai California last night, the Ohio State women defeated Michigan for the first time in three attempts this year, with the match coming down to a third set at No. 4 singles. Ohio State lost the doubles point but got straight-sets wins from Teah Chavez at line 1 and Luciana Perry at line 2, and a three-set win from Sydni Ratliffe at line 3. That left it to freshman Nao Nishino, who had saved a match point in the second set tiebreaker, with Nishino beating Michigan freshman Emily Sartz-Lunde 6-7(5), 7-6(7), 6-4 to end Michigan's three-year reign as conference tournament champions.

The win also boosted the Buckeyes, who were outside the top 8 prior to the conference tournament, to No. 4 in the projected rankings, meaning they will host the NCAAs for the first three rounds, prior to the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals at Baylor.

For more on the final, see this article from ohiostatebuckeyes.com.

Today in Columbus, where Ohio State was hosting the conference tournament, an unimaginable streak came to an end, with the Buckeyes losing 4-3 to UCLA. It's the first time in 22 years that Ohio State has lost at home to a conference opponent, a streak that spans 128 matches.

UCLA won the doubles point and took three first sets in singles, and in the end, those were the three singles points that delivered the title, but there were many momentum shifts in between. Ohio State took the lead with wins at 5 and 1, with UCLA coming back to tie it with Kaylun Bigun's victory at line 3. Ohio State went ahead again with Preston Stearns getting a three-set victory at 6, but UCLA's Alexander Hoogmartens took a three-set win at line 4 to leave it all up to UCLA's Emon van Loben Sels and Alex Bernard at line 2. Van Loben Sels had led 5-2 in the second set, but Bernard won the final five games of the set to force a third, so there was no guarantee that the sophomore would be able to serve out the match when he broke Bernard for 5-3. But he got it done, delivering the Bruin's first conference title in their first year in the Big Ten with a 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-3 victory.

For more on the final, see this article from uclabruins.com.

Unlike the Ohio State women, the projections on collegetennisranks.com don't show UCLA getting the boost that would get them into a hosting position for the NCAAs after starting this weekend's conference tournament ranked 22. 

The NCAA selection show will provide the final answer on whether the Bruins will be traveling for the first two rounds tomorrow at 5:30 p.m Eastern time. The women's selection show kicks off at 5 p.m., with both shows live at ncaa.com.

The J500 in Offenbach Germany concluded today with titles for Andres Santamarta Roig of Spain and Julia Stusek of Germany.

Santamarta, the top seed, defeated No. 3 seed Yannick Theodor Alexandrescou of Romania 7-5, 7-5 to win his third consecutive J500 title on clay, after the Orange Bowl last December and the Banana Bowl last month. I don't think he'll pass World Junior Finals champion Mees Rottgering of the Netherlands or Australian Open champion Henry Bernet of Switzerland in the ITF junior rankings, but he's certainly one of the favorites for the Roland Garros Junior Championships in June.

No. 10 seed Stusek, 16, had never won a title above the J200 level, but she did not lose a set all week, beating No. 14 seed Sonja Zhenikhova of Germany 6-4, 6-1 in the final.

Maxwell Exsted of the United States suffered a rare loss in doubles in the final, with partner Alejandro Arcila of Colombia. The No. 2 seeds lost to top seeds Timofei Derepasko of Russia and Alexander Vasilev of Bulgaria 6-3, 6-4.

Orange Bowl champions Deniz Dilek of Turkey and Beatrise Zeltina of Latvia took girls doubles title, beating unseed Mariia Drobysheva of Ukraine and Ida Wobker of Germany 6-3, 6-2 in the final.

IMG's annual Future Stars invitational tournament for players 12 and under concluded today in Greece, with 11-year-old Jakub Kyncl of the Czech Republic and 12-year-old Tina Jansone of Latvia winning the titles.  Kyncl defeated 12-year-old Max Hodkinson of Great Britain 7-6, 6-3, while Jansone beat 11-year-old Anna Chuchilina of Russia 6-4, 6-4.  Kyncil's impressive tweener winner on match point can be viewed on the Tennis Europe site.

Three Americans competed in the Future Stars tournament: Easter Bowl 12s champion James Borchard, who lost to Kyncl in a third-set tiebreaker in the quarterfinals, and William McGugin and Amiee Peng, who did not advance out of the group stage.