Tennessee Men Produce Epic Comeback to Advance to NCAA D-I Super Regionals; Sharma Beats Osuigwe in W100 Bonita Springs Final; Zink Claims M15 Title in Orange Park; Michelsen, Cash and Tracy Win ATP Challenger 175 Titles

With only eight matches on Sunday, there was a chance that the end to the NCAA Division I Regional weekend would be anticlimactic after all the excitement on Saturday. But that did not happen, with two hosts winning 4-3 matches two reach next weekend's Sweet 16.

No. 14 seed Tennessee was facing a dangerous Duke team that had beaten NC State in the ACC quarterfinals and was just three places below the Volunteers in the rankings. Duke took the doubles point and four first sets, extending their lead to 3-0 with straight-sets victories by Andreja Petrovic at line 3 and Remy Dugardin at line 4.

The Volunteers refused to be cowed by that deficit however, with Shunsuke Mitsui at 2 and Ian Cruz at 6 both coming from a set down to make it 3-2. 

Duke knew it was in a battle certainly, but still were in the driver's seat, after the Blue Devils had forced third sets at both line 1 and line 5, and had leads in the those matches. Connor Krug served for his match at 5-4 and 6-5 at line 5, but Tennessee freshman Jan Kobierski broke both times, then won the tiebreaker 7-6(3) to tie the score. 

Disappointing surely for Duke fans, but at line 1, Duke's Pedro Rodenas was up 5-0 in the third set against graduate transfer Alex Kotzen, who got it back to 5-3 as Kobierski finished his tiebreaker. The former Columbia Lion was just getting warmed up, winning the next three games to serve for the match. Up 40-15, Kotzen couldn't convert his first two match points, but on a deciding point, Rodenas missed after a lengthy rally to lose his seventh straight game, with Kotzen posting a a 7-5, 6-7(3), 7-5 win to put Tennessee in a Super Regional for the fifth straight year. 

For more on the match, see this article from utsports.com.

In College Station, No. 16 seed Texas A&M was hosting Baylor, who at No. 19 in the rankings, was only one spot behind Texas A&M. The Aggies had gotten the boost to the 16th and final seed via the formula the NCAA committee uses for that purpose, so it was no surprise it was decided by the last match on. Texas A&M took the doubles point and earned a win at 6 to go up 2-0, but Baylor came back with straight-sets wins at lines 5 and 4 to tie it.  The Aggies took a 3-2 lead with Alan Magadan's win at line 2, but it didn't last long, with Baylor's Oscar Brostrom Poulsen taking a third set at line 3.  That left it down to No. 1 singles, where Texas A&M freshman Theo Papamalamis had a 3-1 lead over Devin Badenhorst, and he did not falter, taking the next three games to send his team to Wake Forest for the Super Regionals.

For more on the match, see this article from 12thman.com.

Another close match was in progress in San Diego, where No. 6 seed San Diego was hosting Southern California. San Diego was up 2-1, with the doubles point and No. 4 singles, while USC's Karl Lee had just won at line 5 to close the gap when rain moved in. No play is expected until after 10 p.m. Eastern; with no indoor backup and as a single gender site, their regional should have been scheduled for Friday and Saturday, to account for this possibility. 

UPDATE:

After USC and San Diego returned to the courts after a delay of over four hours, the Trojans dominated, and within 30 minutes had completed the 4-2 upset. USC took a 3-2 lead with Nathan Trouve and Oscar Weightman getting three-set wins at lines 2 and 3, and freshman Matteo Marazzi clinched with a come-from-behind 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 win over Blake Kasaday at line 6.  San Diego's Oliver Tarvet and Peter Makk were at 1-1 in a final set Makk had forced by winning two games after resuming at 5-5 in the second.

This means there will be an unseeded men's team in the quarterfinals for the first time since 2010, when USC and UCLA meet in the Super Regional. UCLA, as the higher ranked team, will host. 

Results from all regionals are below. The matches played today are in italics. I'm including the women's scores from Saturday as well. 

The draws, which have times for the Super Regionals Friday or Saturday, are here: men; women. The higher seeded teams host.

MEN:

*No. 1 Wake Forest[1] d. Kentucky[2] 4-1

*No. 16 Texas A&M[1] d. Baylor[2] 4-3

*No. 9 NC State[1] d. Georgia[2] 4-1

*No. 8 Columbia[1] d. Clemson[2] 4-2

*No. 5 Ohio State[1] d. Auburn[2] 4-1

*No. 12 Mississippi State[1] d. Michigan State[2] 4-0

*No. 13 South Carolina[1] d. Florida State[2] 4-3

*No. 4 Stanford[1] d. Pepperdine[2] 4-0

*No. 3 Texas[1] d. Cornell[3] 4-1

*No. 14 Tennessee[1] d. Duke[2] 4-3

UCLA[2] d. *No. 11 Cal[1] 4-2

Southern Cal[2] d. *No. 6 San Diego[1] 4-2

*No. 7 Virginia[1] d. Princeton[2]  4-0

*No 10 Arizona[1] d. Harvard[2] 4-0

*No. 15 Central Florida[1] d. Florida[3] 4-1

*No. 2 TCU[1] d. Oklahoma[2] 4-2

*regional host

WOMEN:

*No. 1 Georgia[1] d. Georgia Tech[2] 4-0

Cal[2] d. *No. 16 Washington[1] 4-0

*No. 9 Auburn[1] d. Wisconsin[2] 4-1

*No. 8 Duke[1] d. Florida Atlantic[2] 4-0

*No. 5 North Carolina[1] d. South Carolina[2] 4-0

*No. 12 NC State[1] d. Central Florida[2] 4-1

*No. 13 LSU[1] d. Southern Cal[2] 4-1

*No. 4 Ohio State[1] d. Notre Dame[2] 4-1

*No. 3 Michigan[1] d. Arizona State[3] 4-0

*No. 14 Texas[1] d. Boise State[3] 4-0

Stanford[2] d. *No. 11 Texas Tech[1] 4-1

Oklahoma State[2] d. *No. 6 Oklahoma[1] 4-2

*No. 7 Virginia[1] d. Illinois[3] 4-1

*No. 10 Tennessee[1] d. Pepperdine[2] 4-0

UCLA[2] d. *No. 15 Vanderbilt[1] 4-3

*No. 2 Texas A&M[1] d. UC Santa Barbara[2] 4-1

*regional host

Although the USTA may not officially confirm it until tomorrow, it appears that Iva Jovic will win the USTA's Roland Garros reciprocal wild card after Whitney Osuigwe lost in the final of W100 in Bonita Springs Florida to Astra Sharma(Vanderbilt) of Australian. Osuigwe needed to win the title to catch Jovic, who won last week's W100 in Charlottesville to take the lead, and the 23-year-old from Florida came up just short, with No. 8 seed Sharma taking out the No. 4 seed 6-2, 6-2. 

Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus and Maria Kozyreva(St. Marys) of Russia won their third doubles title in as many weeks. The No. 3 seeds, who won the W50 in Zephyrhills two weeks ago and the W100 in Charlottesville last week defeated unseeded Makenna Jones(UNC) and Angela Kulikova(USC) 6-2, 6-2 in today's final.

At the W35 in Boca Raton Florida, No. 6 seed Luisina Giovannini of Italy defeated top seed Despina Papamichail of Greece 6-1, 6-1 to take the singles title.

No. 4 seeds Ayana Akli(Maryland, South Carolina) and Diae El Jardi(Rice) of Morocco won the doubles title, beating the unseeded team of Papamichail and Gergana Topalova of Bulgaria 7-6(1), 7-5 in today's final.

At the M15 in Orange Park Florida, No. 2 seed Tyler Zink, less than a year removed from his final season at Oklahoma State, won his second USTA Pro Circuit singles title. Zink defeated No. 6 seed Tristan McCormick(Notre Dame, Georgia) 6-3, 7-6(0) in today's final. Zink won his first USTA Pro Circuit title at an M15 in Alabama last August.

Twenty-year-old Alex Michelsen has had great success on grass and hard courts on the ATP Tour, but the Southern Californian has struggled some on clay, going 4-9 last year in Challengers and ATP matches. But this year he made the quarterfinals of the Houston ATP 250 and, after a first round loss at the ATP Masters 1000 in Madrid last week, entered the ATP Challenger 175 in Portugal this week. Although he was the No. 2 seed, the draw was full of Europeans much more comfortable on the surface, but Michelsen prevailed, earning the biggest title of his career with a 6-4, 6-4 win over qualifier Andrea Pellegrino of Italy. 

At the other ATP Challenger 175 this week, Ohio State's 2024 spring NCAA men's doubles champions JJ Tracy and Robert Cash won their biggest Challenger title and the sixth of their careers in France. Unseeded, Tracy and Cash defeated No. 4 seeds Theo Arribage of France and Hugo Nys of Monaco 7-5, 7-6(5) in the final. Tracy is now at a career-high ATP doubles ranking of 67; Cash is at a career-high 72.