Olar Upsets No. 2 Seed at Offenbach ITF J500; Hance and Palavestra Earn First ATP Points at Vero Beach M15; Osuigwe Sisters Meet in Second Round of Charlottesville W100; SEC and Big Ten Women's Awards
The No. 1 seeds at the ITF J500 this week in Offenbach Germany have reached the third round, but the No. 2 seeds have not, with American Jacob Olar taking out Bulgaria's Alexander Vasilev 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4 in today's second round, and Eva Bennemann of Germany defeating Alena Kovackova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 in the first round Tuesday.
Olar, who last month signed with Alabama for this fall, has yet to break into the Top 100 of the ITF junior rankings, but a deep run this week will help him break that barrier. Olar, who is coached by Ryan Harrison in Bradenton Florida, plays Czech qualifier Matyas Kozlovsky in Thursday's third round.
Max Exsted, the No. 9 seed, is also through to the third round, beating Matteo Sciahbasi of Italy 4-6, 6-2, 6-2; he plays unseeded Tito Chavez of Spain next after Chavez defeated No. 6 seed Flynn Thomas of Switzerland 7-5, 6-1 today.
All three US girls lost in the first round, as did No. 14 seed Dominick Mosejczuk.
Top seeds Andres Santamarta Roig of Spain and Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic are through to third round matches against No. 16 seed Ivan Ivanov of Bulgaria and No. 15 seed Deniz Dilek of Turkey respectively.
All 16 first round matches were played today at the men's USTA Pro Circuit M15 in Vero Beach Florida, with two 17-year-olds earning their first ATP points.
Qualifier Ilija Palavestra, who has verbally committed to Ohio State, defeated Ricardo Rodriguez of Venezuela 7-5, 7-5 to reach that milestone. Palavestra, from Lake Worth Florida, received a wild card into qualifying by reaching the final of the pre-tournament wild card event and had no trouble winning his opening two matches. He faces No. 7 seed Will Grant(Florida) next, who beat Australian Open boys finalist Benjamin Wilwerth, a wild card, 6-2, 7-6(3).
Keaton Hance, who received a wild card into the main draw, defeated qualifier Evan Bynoe 6-2, 6-3 to claim his first ATP point. He faces No. 2 seed Juan Carlos Aguilar(Texas A&M, TCU) of Canada Thursday.
The two junior reserved entries played each other, with Jack Kennedy beating Noah Johnston 6-4, 6-3.
Victor Lilov took out top seed Alvin Tudorica(South Florida) of Canada 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 and Andrew Fenty(Michigan) beat No. 4 seed Strong Kirchheimer(Northwestern) 6-2, 6-1.
In doubles play Tuesday, Noah Johnston and Gustavo Ribeiro de Almeida, both future Georgia Bulldogs, beat top seeds Aguilar and Jamie Vance 7-6(4), 6-3 and will play wild cards Hance and Kennedy in the quarterfinals Thursday.
For a look at all some of the high profile teenagers competing this week, see this TC Palm article from Harvey Fialkov.
At the women's USTA Pro Circuit W100 in Charlottesville Virginia, the Osuigwe sisters will play for the third time in the past two years in the second round.
Eighteen-year-old Tori Osuigwe, who has committed to NC State for this fall, qualified for the main draw with a 6-1, 6-3 win over No. 2 seed Karina Miller(Michigan) yesterday and today defeated wild card Annabelle Xu of Canada, a junior at Virginia, 6-4, 7-5. No. 6 seed Whitney Osuigwe beat 18-year-old Akasha Urhobo 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to advance.
In their previous two meetings, Whitney, who is five years older, won in three sets in the first round at a W60 in Evansville in 2023. But in their last meeting, last September on clay in the Dominican Republic, Tori won 6-4, 6-4.
Seventeen-year-old Iva Jovic is the top seed and still in the running for the USTA's Roland Garros wild card, but because she didn't play the past two weeks, she'll need to go deep both this week and next. She defeated Claire Liu 6-4, 6-1 in the first round today, but will have to face an in-form Caty McNally next. McNally, who received a wild card after reaching the final of the W50 last week in Zephyrhills, defeated Kajsa Rinaldo Persson 6-4, 0-6, 7-5 today. McNally is currently tied for second place in the Wild Card Challenge with Louisa Chirico; Julieta Pareja, who has not played since reaching the semifinals of the WTA 250 in Bogota in Week 1, leads the race.
The conference award season began today, with honors announced for the SEC and Big Ten women. Cadence Brace of Canada, who is through to the second round of Charlottesville W100, was named the SEC freshman of the year after going 11-6 at the No. 1 spot for LSU.
Obviously, I don't vote for these awards, but if I did I would have cast my ballot for Auburn's Jordan Szabo as coach of the year in the SEC, and for UCLA's Kate Fakih for freshman of the year in the Big Ten.
Click on the heading to see the all-tournament teams.
Player of the Year: Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia
Freshman of the Year: Cadence Brace, LSU
Newcomer of the Year: Sofia Rojas, Georgia
Player of the Year: Julia Fliegner, Michigan
Freshman of the Year: Emily Sartz-Lunde, Michigan
Coach of the Year: Ronni Bernstein, Michigan
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