Rain Disrupts USTA's USO Collegiate Wild Card Playoffs on Doubles Day; Qualifying Complete at This Week's Four USTA Pro Circuit Tournaments; US Open's New Downsized Mixed Doubles Event Draws Top Players; Another D-I Tennis Program Axed

The USTA's US Open American Collegiate Wild Card Playoffs were to focus on doubles this evening in Lake Nona, but rain rolled in shortly after the start of the first two matches at 5:00 p.m.

DJ Bennett and Ava Hrastar(Auburn) were three games into their match with Sarah Hamner and Kaitlyn Carnicella(South Carolina) with Reese Brantmeier and Alanis Hamilton(UNC) taking on Olivia Center and Kate Fakih(UCLA) in the match to follow.

Columbia's Nicolas Kotzen and Michael Zheng, who is playing in the singles final Wednesday and probably isn't helped by this rain delay, had played two games in their match with Stanford's Nicholas Godsick and Hudson Rivera, with Duke's Cooper Wiliams and Theo Winegar playing SMU's Trevor Svajda and Louis Cloud in the late match, which had not begun.

Check the USTA's tournament website for results and for Wednesday's times. Cracked Racquets will be covering Wednesday's finals, with the main draw US Open wild cards on the line, at the their YouTube channel.

Rain also delayed the completion of qualifying at the USTA Pro Circuit's W35 in Wichita Kansas and the M25 in Tulsa Oklahoma, but those matches did finish this evening.

In Wichita, 17-year-olds Sydney Jara and Ava Rodriguez advanced to the main draw, with Jara, the No. 16 seed in qualifying defeating Maria Kononova(North Texas) of Russia  3-6, 6-0, 10-8 in the final round and the unseeded Rodriguez beating Maria Berlanga Bandera(Tulsa) of Spain 6-1, 7-5.  Rodriguez will face lucky loser Kononova in the first round, with Jara taking on Liv Hovde(Duke).

Texas A&M rising junior Daria Smetannikov, Jenna Dean and Kylie Collins(Texas, LSU, Oklahoma State) are the other Americans to qualify. Ohio State rising junior Teah Chavez of Canada qualified, as did Oklahoma rising senior Julia Garcia of Mexico and Alina Shcherbinina(Baylor, Oklahoma) of Russia.

Ana Sofia Sanchez of Mexico is the top seed in Wichita, with wild cards going to Wichita State's rising senior Kristina Kudryavtseva of Russia, rising UNC junior Thea Rabman and Hibah Shaikh(Virginia).  Katie Rolls, an incoming freshman at Virginia, received a junior exempt spot and will play No. 6 seed Robin Anderson(UCLA) in the first round.  Last week's champion at the W35 in Decatur Illinois, Fiona Crawley(UNC), is unseeded this week, facing Dalayna Hewitt in the first round.  

In Tulsa, American qualifiers are Marko Mesarovic(Clemson), Boris Kozlov(LSU, Tennessee), Nathan Chavez, Bjorn Swenson(Michigan), Jonah Braswell(Florida, Texas), along with lucky loser Dylan Long. 

Wild cards were awarded to Ian Bracks(Oklahoma State), Billy Suarez(Tulane), Pranav Kumar(Texas A&M, SMU) and Liam Krall(SMU). TCU rising sophomore Cooper Woestendick received a junior exempt spot in the main draw, losing tonight to top seed Aidan Mayo 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. Patrick Maloney(Michigan) is the No. 2 seed.

This week marks the exact middle of the SoCal Pro Series, with three tournaments completed and three more to come after this week's $15,000 men's and women's events in Rancho Santa Fe. 

Americans qualifying into the women's main draw are 14-year-old Anya Arora, Jo-Yee Chan(San Diego State), 17-year-old Avery Nguyen, Midori Castillo Meza(Arizona) and Caroline Driscoll(Denver, Stanford).

Haley Giavara(Cal) and Eryn Cayetano(USC) are the top two seeds.

Wild cards were given to Lani Chang, 16s Easter Bowl champion Armira Kockinis, Isabella Foshee(Eastern Washington). Thea Frodin and Olivia Carneiro of Brazil received ITF Junior Reserved places in the main draw. Frodin defeated No. 6 seed Sabastiana Leon of Mexico 6-3, 6-4 in the first round today, while Kockinis lost to No. 8 seed Anita Sahdiieva(Baylor, LSU) of Ukraine 3-6, 6-4, 6-0.  Carneiro lost to No. 4 seed and ITF J300 Indian Wells finalist Alexis Nguyen 6-0, 6-2.

Americans qualifying for the men's main draw are Theo Dean(Yale, Cal), Spencer Johnson(UCLA),  Dominique Rolland(Arizona, UC-Santa Barbara), Kyle Overmyer and Karl Lee(UCLA, USC). Evan Burnett(Texas) received entry as a lucky loser. Roshah Santhosh is the junior reserved entry for the men.

Wild cards were awarded to Ethan Schiffman(Cal, Northwestern), Noah Zamora(UC-Irvine), William Kleege and Dylan Martin. Andre Ilagan(Hawaii) is the top seed, with Australian Moerani Bouzige the No. 2 seed.

The USTA announced the first entries for the new US Open mixed doubles event, which will feature only 16 teams and will played in a Fast 4 format during qualifying week. Nine of the top 10 women and nine of the top 10 men have entered; whether or not they will all play in the tournament, now two months away, remains to be seen, and only the eight teams with the best combined singles rankings will receive entry anyway, with the other eight spots in the draw filled by wild cards.

For the star-studded list of teams entered, see this article from the US Open website.

Another Division I tennis program was cut today, with Louisiana-Monroe announcing the end of their women's tennis program. They do not have a men's team. Looking at their website, that leaves them at 14 sports, two less than the 16 required by the NCAA for Division I schools, but often track and field, listed for both men and women, are considered separate sports for the indoor and outdoor seasons.

Stoiana and Glozman, Dostanic and Zheng Advance to Wednesday's Collegiate US Open Wild Card Playoff Finals; Traynor Sweeps Titles at ITF J100 in Guatemala, Grosman Claims Second Straight J60 Title in Mexico

The finals of the USTA's Collegiate US Open Wild Card Playoff are set for Wednesday, with all four winners of today's semifinals already assured of a trip to New York. The matches on Wednesday will decide who will be going as a qualifying wild card and who will join the top players in the world in the main draw.

None of the four matches today were dramatic with all finishing in straight sets in under two hours, even with the regular scoring that was used, not the no-ad collegians usually play. Top seed Mary Stoiana, the recent Texas A&M graduate, defeated DJ Bennett, a rising senior at Auburn 6-3, 6-3, after they had split their two SEC matches this spring.

Stoiana will face 18-year-old Valerie Glozman, a rising sophomore at Stanford, who defeated Amelia Honer, a recent UC-Santa Barbara graduate 6-1, 6-2. Honer was the No. 2 seed, due to her WTA ranking, but Glozman's unique style, with two-hands on both sides, is difficult to counter when she's on, and she was on tonight.

This year will be Glozman's fourth in women's qualifying, a remarkable number for an 18-year-old. She earned two of the qualifying wild cards as the runner-up in at the 18s Nationals in San Diego in 2022 and 2024; in 2023 she lost in the San Diego semifinals, but was given a qualifying wild card that year too. She has won a match in all three qualifying appearances; The 22-year-old Stoiana, who received US Open qualifying wild cards in both 2023 and 2024, won her first qualifying match last year.

If she should lose Wednesday, Glozman will have another chance to win a US Open main draw wild card, as she is still eligible to play San Diego this August.

In the men's semifinals, Columbia's rising senior Michael Zheng defeated Aidan Kim, a rising junior at Ohio State, 7-5, 6-2, a result which avoids the worst-case scenario of this new Playoff, with the NCAA champion, who previously always got a main draw US Open wild card if American, being shut out of any wild card in New York. At the least, Zheng, who won the title in Baylor last November, will get a qualifying wild card, which he had received in 2023, and also in 2024, when he reached the NCAA singles final in Stillwater. 

Zheng, who was the No. 2 seed, will face top seed Stefan Dostanic, who completed his final year of eligibility at Wake Forest in May, leading the Demon Deacons to the NCAA Team title. Dostanic defeated 2024 fall runner-up Ozan Baris of Michigan State 6-4, 6-4 tonight to set up a fourth meeting between he and Zheng in 2025.  Zheng won their first match in a dual match early in the season, but Dostanic has won the last two: in Baylor at the NCAA team quarterfinals, and two weeks ago in the first round of the ATP Challenger in Tyler Texas. Dostanic is the only one of the four to have not played in US Open qualifying; the only match he's played at the US Open came in 2018, when he received a wild card into the US Open Junior Championships and lost to Lorenzo Musetti of Italy in the first round.

Tuesday's four matches will be the doubles semifinals, with Bennett and Ava Hrastar(Auburn) versus Sarah Hamner and Kaitlyn Carnicella(South Carolina) and Reese Brantmeier and Alanis Hamilton(UNC) verse Olivia Center and Kate Fakih(UCLA) making up the women's field.

The men's field will feature Zheng and Nicolas Kotzen(Columbia) versus Nicholas Godsick and Hudson Rivera(Stanford) and Cooper Wiliams and Theo Winegar(Duke) versus Trevor Svajda and Louis Cloud(SMU).

Cracked Racquets is providing coverage of all matches at their YouTube channel, beginning at 5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday.

The ITF Junior Circuit results from last week were highlighted by a sweep of the J100 titles in Guatemala for Olivia Traynor and a second straight J60 title for Sean Grosman in Mexico.

Traynor, a 17-year-old from New York, won her third J100 title of year, all since May, and is up to 152 in ITF junior rankings. The No. 2 seed defeated 14-year-old Janae Preston, the No. 4 seed, 6-4, 6-3 in the final, reversing the result of the final two weeks ago at another J100 in Guatemala, which Preston won, leading Traynor 6-2, 3-2 when Traynor was defaulted.

In doubles, top seeds Traynor and Shaya Jovanovic defeated unseeded the unseeded Preston and Emery June Martin 6-2, 6-3 in the final for their first title as a team. It's also two J100 doubles titles in a row for Traynor.

Grosman, a 16-year-old from New York, won back-to-back singles titles at J60s in Mexico, adding last week's title in Veracruz to the one he claimed in Tabasco two weeks ago. The No. 3 seed beat No. 8 seed Nicolas Rivera Paz of Mexico 7-6(4), 6-3 in the final. Grosman has not lost a set in his 10-match winning streak this month in Mexico.

Kalista Papadopoulos, who reached the final in singles, won the girls doubles title with Bethania Bonaguro La Roche of Venezuela. The No. 4 seeds defeated No. 2 seeds Ga Hyun Song Kwon and Natalia Varela Herrera of Mexico 7-6(2), 6-0 in the final. 

Kamil Stolarczyk won the boys doubles title, with Luis Flores Avila of Mexico. The top seeds defeated the unseeded Mexican pair of Paolo Garcia Cavallari and Ignacio Ruiz Marquinez 5-7, 6-4, 11-9 in the final.

At the new J60 last week in Cincinnati, Americans swept all four titles.

Qualifier Carlota Moreno, a 16-year-old from Tennessee, won her first ITF Junior Circuit title without dropping a set all week. The 2025 Easter Bowl 16s bronze ball winner defeated four seeds in her five matches including top seed Reiley Rhodes in the semifinals 6-3, 6-3 and No. 2 seed Sophia Budacsek 6-4, 6-1 in the final. 

Seventeen-year-old top seed Mason Taube won his third title, with the Georgia Tech recruit beating No. 5 seed, 15-year-old Matias Reyniak 6-3, 6-2 in the boys final. Taube didn't have to play his second round or quarterfinal match due to a retirement and a walkover.

No. 3 seed Graeme Angus and Omar Rhazali won the doubles title, beating top seeds Owen Guistwite and France's Romain Azais 6-3, 6-3 in the final. 

Top seeds Rhodes and Olivia De Los Reyes won the girls doubles title, beating unseeded Lily Bazemore and Prisha Lingam 6-3, 3-6, 10-8 in the championship match.

At the J30 in Ottawa Canada, 15-year-old Tristan Stratton of New York won his second ITF J30 title, both coming this year. The 2025 Easter Bowl 16s finalist and top seed defeated No. 5 seed  and doubles partner Kayden Colombo 6-3, 6-4 in the all-USA final. 

For the third straight week at J60s in Pretoria South Africa, Koronayashe Rugara lost to Allegra van der Walt of South Africa, the last two losses in the singles finals. But in those two weeks, the 17-year-old defeated Allegra and sister Angelique in the doubles finals, both times with Morgan Jordaan of South Africa as her partner. Last week's encounter ended with a 6-2, 5-7, 10-7 win for Rugara and Jordaan.

At the J30 in Congo, 15-year-old David Beckles won the doubles title with Hugo Agnes of France. Agnes and Beckles defeated Eric Engunga Escartin of Congo and USA's Gabriel Karam 6-2, 6-2 in the final. 

Svajda and Crawley Claim USTA Pro Circuit Singles Championships; 17-Year-Olds Jovic and Blanch Earn Biggest Titles; Fritz and Diallo Kick Off Grass Season with ATP 250 Titles

A year ago, Fiona Crawley won the SoCal Pro Series $15K title in San Diego, her first tournament after completing her All-American career at the University of North Carolina. Then came a rough patch, with six consecutive first round losses at W35s and W75s and her ranking fell from 348 to 775 this spring. But the 23-year-old from Texas is back in the winner's circle now, after claiming the title today at the W35 in Decatur Illinois. The seventh-seeded Crawley defeated No. 8 seed Dasha Plekhanova of Canada 7-6(5), 6-4 for her fourth career singles title on the USTA Pro Circuit.

Another Tar Heel captured a title in Decatur, with rising UNC sophomore Susanna Maltby partnering with rising NC State junior Maddy Zampardo to take the doubles championship. Maltby and Zampardo, who won the Easter Bowl 18s doubles title in 2023, claimed their first Pro Circuit title with a 5-7, 7-5, 10-7 win over No. 3 seeds Jaeda Daniel(Auburn, NC State) and Salma Ewing(USC, Texas A&M) in last night's final.

Like Crawley, Trevor Svajda had not won a title in more than a year, with his other career title coming at an M25 in Calabasas last March. Svajda, a rising junior at SMU, has made two Challenger quarterfinals this year, but putting together five consecutive wins in his hometown of San Diego during the SoCal Pro Series has to be the highlight of his 2025. The 19-year-old, a finalist in the Kalamazoo 18s in 2023, defeated University of San Diego rising senior Stian Klaassen of the Netherlands 6-2, 6-3 in today's final.

For more on Svajda's win and an emotional Father's Day for he and father Tom, see this article from Damian Secore for SoCal Pro Series.

No. 7 seed Mao Mushika, a 19-year-old from Japan who is a rising junior at Cal, won the San Diego women's singles title, beating No. 6 seed Alyssa Ahn, an incoming Stanford freshman, 7-5, 6-3 for her second ITF women's World Tennis Tour title.

At the M25 in Wichita Kansas, No. 8 seed Hiroki Moriya of Japan won the singles title, beating No. 2 seed Andres Andrade(Florida) of Ecuador 7-6(6), 6-3 in today's final. In the doubles final, Ozan Baris(Michigan State) won his fourth USTA Pro Circuit doubles title, with New Zealand's Matthew Shearer(Tyler CC, William Carey). The unseeded pair defeated top seeds Matt Hulme(Coastal Georgia, Omaha) and Kody Pearson(Tulsa) of Australia 7-6(4), 7-6(4) in the final. Baris will be competing in the USTA's Collegiate US Open Wild Card playoff Monday in Orlando, in singles, after reaching the NCAA singles final last fall.

In Europe, two unseeded 17-year-olds collected the biggest titles of their careers, with Iva Jovic winning the WTA 125 in Ilkley England and Darwin Blanch triumphing at an M25 in Spain.

Jovic beat No. 8 seed and defending champion Rebecca Marino of Canada 6-1, 6-3 despite the 34-year-old making 84% of her first serves. Marino won only 52% of those points however, and Jovic won eight of nine on Marino's second serve, indicating her returning was a key factor today. Her previous biggest title came at a W100 this spring; she is now up to 89 in the WTA live rankings and in contention for a Wimbledon main draw wild card. Jovic reached the singles semifinals and won the doubles title at the Wimbledon Junior Championships last year.

Darwin Blanch, who has not played a junior event since last August in Kalamazoo, earned his second career title without dropping a set on the hard courts in Martos. Seeded No. 5, Blanch defeated top seed Clement Chidekh(Washington) of France 7-6(4), 6-3 in the today's final. Blanch's first title, in February of this year, came at an M15, also on hard courts in Spain. He is still eligible to play Kalamazoo this year.

Taylor Fritz won his first title of the year at the ATP 250 in Stuttgart, beating top seed Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-3, 7-6(0).  The second-seeded Fritz, who has now beaten Zverev in their last five meetings, has won nine ATP titles, with four of them coming on grass. He will return to his career-high of No. 4 in the ATP rankings Monday, and will be joined by Tommy Paul[8] and Ben Shelton(Florida)[10]. It's the first time since 2006 that three American men have been in the Top 10. Then it was Andy Roddick[4], James Blake(Harvard)[7] and Andre Agassi[10].

Former University of Kentucky All-American Gabriel Diallo of Canada won his first ATP title today at the ATP 250 in 's-Hertogenbosch, beating Zizou Bergs of Belgium 7-5, 7-6(8). The 23-year-old Diallo, who had saved two match points in his second round win over Jordan Thompson of Australia, won all four tiebreakers he played this week.  With the title, the first for a Canadian man on grass this century, Diallo will move into the ATP Top 50 for the first time.

Jovic Reaches Ilkley WTA 125 Final; Crawley Advances to W35 Decatur Championship Match; Svajda and Ahn into San Diego $15K Finals; Top Seeds Win Grass Court 14s Tournament, Wimbledon Berths

Seventeen-year-old Iva Jovic is through to her first WTA 125 final, with the Southern Californian having her most straightforward win yet in defeating No. 2 seed and ATP Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland 6-0, 6-2 in the semifinals on the grass courts of Ilkley. Jovic, who had needed three sets to advance in her first three victories, didn't face a break point in the match.  Now at 97 in the WTA live rankings, Jovic will move up another ten spots if she can defeat No. 8 seed Rebecca Marino of Canada, the defending champion, in Ilkley. Marino, who at 34, is twice as old as Jovic, defeated 19-year-old qualifier Celine Naef of Switzerland 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in the other semifinal today.

Qualifier Zachary Svajda lost in the semifinals of the ATP Challenger 125 in Ilkley, with No. 7 seed Tristan Schoolkate of Australia earning a 6-4, 7-6(6) victory today. TCU's Jack Pinnington Jones, a wild card, defeated Shintaro Mochizuki of Japan 7-6(5), 6-4 to make his first Challenger final. He also is making his case for a main draw wild card into Wimbledon with his results this week.

No. 7 seed Fiona Crawley, who completed her All-American career at the University of North Carolina in May of 2024, is through to her first final since last June, after defeating UCLA incoming freshman Mayu Crossley of Japan, the No. 6 seed seed 2-6, 6-1, 7-5 in today's semifinals at the USTA Pro Circuit W35 in Decatur Illinois. Crawley's opponent in the final will be No. 8 seed Dasha Plekhanova of Canada, who beat unseeded Katie Swan of Great Britain 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 today.

The singles final at the USTA Pro Circuit M25 in Wichita Kansas will feature No. 8 seed Hiroki Moriya of Japan and No. 2 seed Andres Andrade(Florida) of Ecuador. Moriya beat top seed Nicolas Mejia of Colombia 1-6, 6-0, 7-5, while Andrade also came through in three sets, beating unseeded Justin Boulais(Ohio State) of Canada 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

While his older brother Zach lost in Ilkley today, closer to home 19-year-old Trevor Svajda reached his second Pro Circuit final at the SoCal Pro Series $15,000 tournament in San Diego. The rising junior at SMU ended an impressive winning streak, with University of San Diego rising senior Oliver Tarvet of Great Britain retiring after winning the first set from Svajda 6-3, but down 0-3 in the second set. Tarvet had not lost a match on the USD courts since March 17, 2023, when Princeton’s Thomas Bosancic beat him during his freshman season with the Toreros.

Svajda will face another rising senior at San Diego in the final, after qualifier Stian Klaassen defeated teammate and fellow qualifier Savriyan Danilov of Russia 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 in the other semifinal. 

After their singles semifinal, Klaassen and Danilov teamed up to take the doubles titles, beating last week's champions and No. 2 seeds Keshav Chopra(Georgia Tech) and Philip Jordan(South Carolina, UC-Santa Barbara) 6-4, 6-7(7), 15-13 in Saturday evening's final.

Eighteen-year-old Alyssa Ahn, a rising freshman at Stanford, has reached her first Pro Circuit final, with the No. 6 seed from San Diego beating No. 4 seed Stefania Rogozinska Dzik of Poland 7-5, 7-6(4) in the women's $15,000 tournament in San Diego. Ahn will play No. 7 seed Mao Mushika(Cal) of Japan, who beat Tianmei Wang 6-2, 7-6(5) to advance to her first final this year, after falling in the semifinals of the SoCal Pro Series the first two weeks.

The unseeded Australian team of Lily Fairclough, a USC rising junior,  and Lily Taylor, a rising Arizona State sophomore, won the doubles title, beating unseeded Kristina Nordikyan(USC) and Anita Sahdiieva(Baylor, LSU) 2-6, 6-2, 10-4. Fairclough and Taylor had lost in the final to Haley Giavara(Cal) and Sahdiieva in the first week of the SoCal Pro Series in May; Fairclough then partnered with Sahdieeva to beat Mushika and Nodikyan for the title last week, before reuniting with Taylor for their first title as a team this week.

Top seeds Rafael Pagonis of Greece and Sakino Miyazawa of Japan claimed the titles today at the Tennis Europe Category 1 Lexus Junior International Raynes Park, a grass court event that serves as qualifying for the Wimbledon 14U tournament during the second week of the Championships in July. Pagonis, who is on a 23-match winning streak in major Tennis Europe 14s tournaments, defeated No. 2 seed Moritz Frietag of Austria 7-5, 4-6, 6-3. The 13-year-old Miyazawa, the 2024 Junior Orange Bowl champion, who is already 304 in the ITF Junior rankings, defeated wild card April Sackflame of Great Britain 6-0, 6-3 in the final. Both the champions and runners-up receive invitations to the Wimbledon 14U tournament.

ITA Division I National Awards Announced; Incoming Stanford Freshmen Reach Semifinals at San Diego W15; Kotzen and Moreno Out of USTA USO Wild Card Playoff; Jovic, Svajda Advance at Ilkley 125s

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association released the names of the 2025 Division I National Award winners today, with Dasha Vidmanova of Georgia and Timo Legout of Texas claiming National Player of the Year honors. This award always goes to the player who is No. 1 in the final ITA rankings, so those award winners have been known for several weeks now. The Coach of the Year is usually the coach of the NCAA champion, as is the case this year, but that was not the case last year, when Alison Ojeda of NCAA semifinalist Tennessee was given the nod over Mark Weaver of Texas A&M. For details on each winner, click on the header to go to the ITA article.

WOMEN:

Coach of the Year: Drake Bernstein, Georgia

Assistant Coach of the Year: Ty Schaub, Michigan

Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship: Nibi Ghosh, Notre Dame

Cissy Leary Sportsmanship: Elaine Chervinsky, Viriginia

Rookie of the Year: Cadence Brace, LSU

Most Improved: Kallista Liu, Maryland

Senior Player of the Year: Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia

Player to Watch: Piper Charney, Michigan

National Player of the Year: Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia

Earlier this week, Vidmanova was named the winner of the Honda Award for Tennis, which is an annual award sponsored by Collegiate Women's Sports. The Honda Cup, the overall award given to one athlete from among the winners of each sport, will be announced June 30 in a live telecast on CBS Sports Network.

MEN:

Coach of the Year:  Tony Bresky, Wake Forest

Assistant Coach of the Year:  Cris James, NC State

Arthur Ashe Leadership and Sportsmanship: Colton Smith, Arizona

Rafael Osuna Sportsmanship: Michael Zheng, Columbia

Rookie of the Year: Rafael Jodar, Virginia

Most Improved: Corey Craig, Florida State

Senior Player of the Year: Colton Smith, Arizona

Player to Watch: Kenta Miyoshi, Illinois

National Player of the Year: Timo Legout, Texas

At the SoCal Pro Series in San Diego, two Stanford incoming freshmen and two Loyola Marymount alumni have reached the women's W15 semifinals, and three University of San Diego players have advanced to the men's $15K semifinals.

No. 6 seed Alyssa Ahn, who made the semifinals in San Diego last year, defeating unseeded Selina Atay 6-4, 6-1 to defend those 2024 points. She will face No. 4 seed Stefania Rogozinska Dzik(Loyola Marymount) of Poland in an attempt to reach her first Pro Circuit final. Nineteen-year-old Mao Mushika(Cal) of Japan, the No. 7 seed, has reached the semifinals of all three SoCal Pro Series so far, beating Veronika Miroshnichenko(Loyola Marymount) of Russia 6-2, 0-6, 7-6(5) in today's quarterfinals. She will play the other 18-year-old rising freshman at Stanford, Tianmei Wang, who won her first Pro Circuit quarterfinal match today, beating Mao's twin sister Mio, the No. 3 seed, 6-2, 6-1.

Last week's champion Oliver Tarvet of Great Britain, a rising senior at the University of San Diego, is through to the semifinals after qualifier Toby Samuel(South Carolina) retired trailing 7-5, 4-4.  He will face San Diego resident Trevor Svajda, after the SMU rising junior defeated Andrew Fenty(Michigan) 6-3, 6-4. The other semifinal will feature two USD stars, who qualified this week: graduate Savriyan Danilov of Russia and rising senior Stian Klaassen of the Netherlands. Danilov beat No. 3 seed Alafia Ayeni(Cornell, Kentucky) 6-4, 6-4 and Klaassen defeated No. 8 seed Quinn Vandecasteele(Oregon) 2-6, 7-6(8), 6-3, saving two match points in the second set tiebreaker.

Svajda will need to make a quick trip to Florida after he's finished in San Diego, with he and SMU teammate Louis Cloud last minute replacements in the doubles draw at the USTA's US Open Collegiate Wild Card Playoffs.  Svajda and Cloud are taking the place of Tennessee's Alex Kotzen and Alejandro Moreno, who withdrew today due to injury, and will play Cooper Williams and Theo Winegar of Duke in the semifinals Tuesday night.

Svajda's older brother Zachary, a two-time Kalamazoo 18s champion, is also through to the semifinals this week, at the ATP Challenger 125 in Ilkley, England. The 22-year-old qualifier will face No. 7 seed Tristan Schoolkate of Australia in the semifinals after his 7-6(8), 4-6, 7-5 win over Leandro Riedi of Switzerland today. 

TCU's Jack Pinnington Jones of Great Britain, a wild card, has also advanced to the semifinals, where he'll face 2019 Wimbledon boys champion Shintaro Mochizuki if Japan.

Seventeen-year-old Iva Jovic, playing in just her third WTA 125 tournament and her first on grass, has needed three sets in all three of her matches this week, but is through to the Ilkley 125 semifinals after beating Talia Gibson of Australian 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 today. She will face her first seed this week Saturday, No. 2 seed Viktorija Golubic, 32, of Switzerland. No. 8 seed Rebecca Marino of Canada, who won this event last year when it was a W100, will face 19-year-old Celine Naef of Switzerland in the other semifinal. Jovic is currently 105 in the WTA live rankings after her win today.

Draws Released for USTA's Collegiate US Open Wild Card Playoffs; ITA Men's Kickoff Weekend Draft Features 13 Passes; USA Team for Upcoming World University Games; USTA Pro Circuit Update; Cameroon Davis Cup Player and Coach Joseph Oyebog Passes Away at Age 57

The USTA's inaugural US Open Collegiate Wild Card Playoff begins in Lake Nona Monday evening, with the draws now posted here. The schedule for Monday and Tuesday is below, with the court assignments on the left.

Michigan's Gavin Young and Benjamin Kittay were unable to accept their invitation due to injury, with Nicolas Godsick and Hudson Rivera of Stanford taking their place.

MONDAY
5pm matches
Team USA 1 - (1) Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) vs. DJ Bennett(Auburn)
Team USA 2 - (2) Michael Zheng(Columbia) vs. Aidan Kim(Ohio State)

Followed by matches
Team USA 1 - (1) Stefan Dostanic(Wake Forest) vs. Ozan Baris(Michigan State)
Team USA 2 - (2) Amelia Honer(UC-Santa Barbara) vs. Valerie Glozman(Stanford)

TUESDAY
5pm matches
Team USA 1 - (1) Nicolas Kotzen/Zheng(Columbia) vs. Nicholas Godsick/Hudson Rivera(Stanford)
Team USA 2- (1) Bennett/Ava Hrastar(Auburn) vs. Kaitlyn Carnicella/Sarah Hamner(South Carolina)

Followed by matches
Team USA 1 - (2) Olivia Center/Kate Fakih(UCLA) vs. Reese Brantmeier/Alanis Hamilton(UNC)
Team USA 2 - (2) Cooper Williams/Theo Winegar(Duke) vs. Alex Kotzen/Alejandro Moreno(Tennessee)

The finals in both singles and doubles are Wednesday.

As with yesterday's women's ITA Division I Kickoff Weekend draft for next February's National Team Indoor Championships, today's men's draft featured many more passes than normal, with 13 teams electing not to participate in the regional qualifying in January. Although only three teams in the 20s drafting position passed compared to five in the women's 20s, that is still a high number opting out.

The ranking of the last women's team in was Penn at 79 (the Penn  men's team, ranked 50, passed); the ranking of the last men's team in the draft was 76, with Virginia Tech filling out the regional at Wake Forest, the No. 1 seed.

The Raleigh regional filled up in record time, with three of the first four teams in the drafting position choosing to travel to No. 7 NC State: Tennessee[15], Texas A&M[17] and Duke[18]. No. 16 Central Florida elected to go to No. 12 Cal.

Five regions filled up completely before anyone elected to go to No. 1 Wake Forest, No. 4 Stanford or No. 6 Ohio State.  Cal and No. 13 South Carolina appear to be the most competitive, with all teams in those two regions ranked between 12 and 26.

The least competitive region is probably Ohio State, who has No. 53 Purdue, No. 56 Old Dominion and No. 63 North Alabama coming to Columbus. UCLA, even though ranked 14th and the last regional host, was avoided by mid-range teams, although they do have No. 38 UC-Santa Barbara as their No. 2 seed. 

As I mentioned in yesterday's post on the women's draft, the reasons for so many teams passing may be related to more conference matches, smaller travel budgets, or perhaps just uncertainty when it comes to the impact of the approval of the House settlement, which takes effect July 1. I hope this isn't the first sign of the haves and have nots further polarizing in Division I college tennis, but I fear it might be just that.

The United States tennis team for the World University Games in July were announced this week, with UCLA's Kate Fakih and Olivia Center, Stanford's Nicolas Godsick, Harvard's Natalie Block and SMU's Trevor Sjavda and Jerry Barton traveling to Germany for the biennial competition. SMU men's head coach Grant Chen will lead Team USA.  For more from Chen and several of the players, see this article from uclabruins.com.

Along with Week 3 of the SoCal Pro Series, there are two tournaments in the Midweest this week on the USTA Pro Circuit, with the men at the M25 in Wichita Kansas and the women competing in a W35 in Decatur Illinois.

The top two seeds and the only WTA Top 300 players in the draw lost in the first round, with Jenna Dean defeating top seed and WTA 274 YeXin Ma of China 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-3 and Ava Markham(Wisconsin) beat No. 2 seed and ATP 281 En Shuo Liang of Taiwan 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(4).  Markham is through to the quarterfinals, where she'll face No. 7 seed Fiona Crawley(UNC), but Dean lost to Jaeda Daniel(Auburn, NC State) today. Daniel, the only other American to advance to the quarterfinals, will face Great Britain's Katie Swan next.  Mayu Crossley of Japan, the No. 6 seed, defeated future UCLA teammate Kate Fakih 6-2, 6-1 and will play No. 3 seed Cadence Brace(LSU) of Canada in Friday's quarterfinals. 

Rain in Wichita has delayed the completion of today's final second round match, with Nicolas Kotzen(Columbia) facing No. 6 seed and former ATP No. 19 Hyeon Chung of Korea.  No. 3 seed Aidan Mayo is through to Friday's quarterfinals, and Aidan Kim(Florida, Ohio State) also advanced with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Ozan Baris(Michigan State), but Kim gave a walkover to Justin Boulais(Ohio State) of Canada, so Boulais is through to the semfinals. As you can see in the beginning of this post, both Kim and Baris are competing in the US Open Collegiate Wild Card Playoff beginning Monday in Orlando. Kotzen is playing doubles Tuesday.

Top seeds Nicolas Mejia of Colombia and Andres Andrade(Florida) of Ecuador are through to the quarterfinals.

At the SoCal Pro Series $15Ks for men and women in San Diego, last week's champion Oliver Tarvet, a rising senior and All-American from the University of San Diego, was not seeded this week. But in his second round match today against top seed Alfredo Perez(Florida), the 21-year-old from Great Britain came out on top 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-3. According to this article on first round action from Damian Secore for USTA SoCal, Tarvet hasn't lost a match on the USD courts since his freshman year. 

Americans through to the quarterfinals are unseeded Trevor Svajda(SMU), who beat  No. 7 seed Kyle Kang(Stanford) 6-2, 3-6, 6-0, unseeded Andrew Fenty(Michigan), No. 3 seed  Alafia Ayeni(Cornell, Kentucky) and No. 8 seed Quinn Vandecasteele(Oregon). Fenty and Svajda will face each other next.

Two 18-year-old rising Stanford freshmen are through to the quarterfinals in San Diego, with unseeded Tianmei Wang of LA defeating No. 8 seed Maya Iyengar 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 and No. 6 seed Alyssa Ahn of San Diego beating last week's champion Lily Taylor(Arizona State) of Australia 6-4, 1-6, 6-3. 

I missed the sad news last month that Joseph Oyebog, a pillar of African tennis in his home country of Cameroon and father to top juniors Lucy and Joseph Jr., has passed away at age 57. The ITF obituary details his efforts to raise the profile of the sport in Cameroon and in Africa and the legacy he has established there.

A Look at Italian Tennis Culture and Player Development; PlayReplay Electronic Line Calling System Receives ITF Silver Certification; 15 D-I Women's Teams Pass in ITA Indoor Kickoff Weekend Draft; Men's Draft Thursday

I've never been to an ITF Junior Circuit tournament on European clay, so how those tournaments compare to junior events in the United States was something I could only speculate about until I read this Tennis Recruiting Network article by Dylan Friedman. Friedman, the older brother of blue chip Yale recruit Leena Friedman, spent several weeks this spring traveling with his sister, which gave him a first-hand look at the cultural differences that impact the sport.

He also provides information on how the Italian federation has emphasized skills that will translate to faster surfaces, providing at least a partial explanation for all the recent success the country has had, especially on the men's side.

A silver bullet for player development does not exist, but learning from others and adapting initiatives to a country's particular culture can help prevent complacency and inertia.

Some very important news came out today on the electronic line calling front, with PlayReplay, the company which conducted the pilots at the ITA Division I Team Indoor Championships this past February, has received silver certification from the International Tennis Federation.

This means ITF sanctioned tournaments can now use the Play Replay system in place of the standard officiating crews.  The ITA was also requiring a silver certification before it would formally change its rules on officiating to allow ELC, but now that the approval has been announced, schools should be able to begin implementation of the systems on their campuses once the ITA has formally amended their rules.

So far, PlayReplay is the only company of the many that are pursuing solutions for electronic line calling that has received this certification, according to the press release today, shown below in its entirety:

USTA PARTNER PLAYREPLAY ACHIEVES ITF SILVER CLASSIFICATION AND IS THE ONLY COMPANY WORLDWIDE THAT HAVE PASSED ALL TESTS

New Standard for Electronic Line Calling Addressing the Volume Market

San Diego/Stockholm, June 11th, 2025

PlayReplay has passed the required testing for the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Silver Classification and is the only company globally to have achieved this status. Over the past two years, PlayReplay has completed a series of rigorous tests with the ITF to verify the system's accuracy, usability, and reliability. These tests were conducted on hard courts, covering both indoor and outdoor environments. The test sequence was finalized during the recent USTA SoCal Pro Series event held last week at Barnes Tennis Center in San Diego, CA.

To date, PlayReplay is the only system that is classified for electronic line calling by the ITF outside of systems approved for use in high-level professional tennis, such as Grand Slams. The system can be used for review/challenge by chair umpires, roving officials, or the players themselves.

"We are exceptionally proud to be the first to break new ground with a system that can address the volume market," says Hans Lundstam, CEO of PlayReplay. He further adds, “Our partners have been especially impressed by the system’s accuracy and ease of use, combined with its lightweight footprint.”

About PlayReplay:
PlayReplay aims to democratize tennis tracking, making it accessible to everyone. Our advanced technology promotes fairness across all levels of competition and equips coaches with critical data to support their players more effectively. To date, PlayReplay has been used in approximately 250,000 matches, generating an estimated 100 million line calls.

For more information, visit: www.playreplay.io

With tennis budgets under particular scrutiny now with the House settlement approved, adoption might not be as quick as many of us would like, but at least one roadblock has now been removed.

My Tennis Recruiting Network article on the PlayReplay's system in use during the Men's Team Indoor at SMU can be found here.

The women's ITA Division I Kickoff Weekend draft was held this afternoon, and the most striking observation from it was the number of teams who passed, 15. Those are teams who have qualified by ranking to choose a regional for the January weekend that begins the road to the Team Indoor but chose not to participate.

There have always been teams who decide not to enter the draft, for a variety of reasons and some of them had much higher profile than those passing today. But 15 is an extraordinarily high number, and to see so many teams in the 20s passing, like Tulsa, San Diego, Kansas, Alabama and Old Dominion, invites viewing it as a trend.  It may be budgets, or the new larger conferences providing teams with fewer scheduling options or the .500 rule, or none of these reasons. The final team with a bid was No. 79 Penn, with the Quakers filling the regional at Michigan.

The first regional to fill was at No. 13 Texas, with No. 19 Cal, No. 24 Baylor and No. 31 Arizona heading to Austin. The second regional to fill was No. 6 Ohio State, who will be hosting No. 29 Georgia Tech, No. 30 UC-Santa Barbara and No 35 Iowa. Charlottesville also filled early, with No. 7 Virginia hosting No. 20 Southern Cal, No. 23 Wisconsin and No. 36 Rice.

Oklahoma State, with the first pick in the draft, chose to travel to No. 14 Texas Tech, and other top teams were not interested in challenging those two teams, with that the next to last regional to fill.

No. 1 Georgia, despite losing three seniors from its lineup, did not draw strong competition, but it was No. 8 Auburn who top and mid-level teams really wanted to avoid, with the Tigers competition that weekend No. 67 Florida State, No. 72 Nevada and No. 76 Tulane.

The men's D-I ITA Kickoff Weekend draft begins Thursday at noon Eastern, with No. 15 Tennessee, No. 16 Central Florida and No. 17 Texas A&M with the first three choices of regional destinations. The passes on the men's side, particularly of the teams in the 20s, will be a number to keep an eye on.

2024 Finalists Jones and Rottgering Lead Wimbledon Junior Acceptances, 15 Americans Receive Entry; D-I Women's ITA Kickoff Weekend Draft Set for Wednesday; ITA Division I Regional Awards Announced

The acceptances for the Wimbledon Junior Championships were released today, with 2024 finalists Mees Rottgering of the Netherlands and Emerson Jones of Australia among the entries. Rottgering, who hasn't played a junior event since winning the ITF Junior Masters in China last fall, a surprise entrant and may, of course, withdraw before the June 24th deadline.  

Jones, who at age 16, is limited in the number of pro events she can play, has played both Australia and Roland Garros this year, so I expect her to compete in the juniors again; with her WTA ranking of 206, she is also playing women's qualifying this year.

Only two of the ITF junior Top 10s have not entered, both champions at the this year's Australian Open Juniors: No. 3 Henry Bernet of Switzerland, who has been rehabbing an injury, and No. 2 Wakana Sonobe of Japan. Both Roland Garros champions, Germany's Niels Mcdonald and Austria's Lilli Tagger, have entered.

Ten American boys received entry into the main draw: Jagger Leach, Benjamin Willwerth, Jack Kennedy, Keaton Hance, Noah Johnston, Maxwell Exsted, Jack Satterfield, Dominick Mosejczuk, Maximus Dussault and Jack Secord.  Ryan Cozad is three spots out of the main draw; Ronit Karki is five spots out. The initial cutoff for main draw was 47, compared to 43 at Roland Garros; the Roland Garros cutoff eventually moved to 48.

The regional entries, who get in as the only entrants in the Top 80 from their regions, are Karim Bennani of Morocco and Yannik Alvarez of Puerto Rico.

The initial qualifying cutoff for the boys was 77, with Gavin Goode and Matisse Farzam both inside that number.

Only five US girls were accepted into the main draw: Kristina Penickova, Julieta Pareja, Annika Penickova, Thea Frodin and Maya Iyengar. 

The main draw cutoff for girls was 49, with no regional entries. At Roland Garros the cutoff was 51 and went to 55 by the freeze date.

Aspen Schuman is 5 out of the main draw, with the other American girls in qualifying Leena Friedman, Capucine Jauffret and Ishika Ashar, who at 85, is the last girl to make qualifying.  Alyssa James of Jamaica, ranked 113, received entry based on the regional quota, which applies to anyone ranked in the Top 150 if their region is not represented.

The Roehampton ITF J300 acceptances also closed today, but they have not been posted. As it is the only other junior grass tournament before Wimbledon, the fields are generally the same, although occasionally a top player will skip Roehampton and play only Wimbledon.

The final qualifying event for the Wimbledon 14U tournament, now in its fourth year, began today in Raynes Park in London. Draws for the Tennis Europe Category 1 tournament can be found here.  I hope to have information on the complete fields, including the American participants, for the Wimbledon 14U event some time next week.

The Kick-off Weekend draft, which begins the process of deciding the participants in next February's ITA National Team Indoor Championships, begins Wednesday at noon with the women.

The top 14 teams in the 2024-25 season's final rankings will host, with the remaining teams, in ranking order, deciding which of the 14 regionals suits them best.  No. 15 Oklahoma State, which had been very active in the transfer portal and has signed 2022 Wimbledon girls finalist Luca Udvardy of Hungary for this fall, will select first, followed by UCLA and Vanderbilt. 

The men's draft will be Thursday, with that draft board here.

The ITA announced its Division I Regional Awards today, with the National Awards scheduled to be announced Friday.

The men's Regional Awards are here; the women's Regional Awards are here.

Santhosh, Preston Win J100s in Guatemala, Grosman Sweeps J60 Titles on ITF Junior Circuit; UTR Pro Tennis Tour Update; ITF and ITA Announce Additional Opportunities for Collegiate Men

A new J30 made its debut on the ITF Junior Circuit calendar last week in Cincinnati Ohio, and as you might expect, Americans had a part in all four titles. But we'll start this week's review with the American sweep at the J100 in Guatemala and go from there, with five singles titles and seven doubles titles for American juniors.

Sixteen-year-old Californian Roshan Santhosh won the boys singles title at the J100 in Guatemala, with the top seed claiming his second ITF Junior Circuit singles title with a 6-2, 6-1 win over No. 5 seed Taisei Hata of Japan. Santhosh did not lose more than three games in any set in his five victories. Fourteen-year-old Janae Preston won her second J100 title of 2025 and her third overall when top seed Olivia Traynor was defaulted leading 6-2, 3-2 in the final. If anyone knows what the circumstances of that default were, I'm interested in that information. 

Unseeded Theo Hegarty and Nicolas Pedraza won the doubles titles, beating No. 3 seeds Hata and Roger Koike of Japan 6-3, 6-3 in the final.  Traynor and Sophia Cedeno, the No. 2 seeds, defeated No. 4 seeds Preston and Julia Seversen 6-2, 2-6, 10-7 to claim the girls doubles championship.

At the J60 in Mexico, 16-year-old top seed Sean Grosman swept the titles, beating No. 2 seed and doubles partner Kamil Stolarczyk 6-3, 6-0 for his second ITF Junior Circuit singles title. In the doubles final, top seeds Grosman and Stolarczyk defeated No. 2 seeds Carlo Arena Fava and Valentino Arjona of Mexico 6-0, 6-4.

In Cincinnati, unseeded 18-year-old Ilan Klein won his first ITF Junior Circuit title, beating wild card Gregory Bernadsky 3-6, 5-7, 6-4 in the boys final.  Seventeen-year-old Amiya Bowles also claimed her first ITF Junior Circuit title, with the No. 3 seed beating top seed Aarini Bhattacharya 5-7, 6-3, 6-1.

Bhattacharya did win the doubles title, with Vibha Gogineni. The No. 2 seeds defeated unseeded Olivia Darawan and Chloe Qin 7-6(8), 6-1 in the final. No. 2 seeds Maksim Nekrasov of Russia and Luca Ugel defeated top seeds Anthony Dry and Owen Guistwite 2-6, 6-4, 14-12 in the final. 

The fifth singles title for an American last week was secured at the J30 in Uganda, with 16-year-old Eaden-Zack Harron winning his second ITF Junior Circuit, a week after collecting his third doubles title there.  Harron, the No. 2 seed, defeated No. 4 seed Kazuki Nakajima 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(2) in the final.

For the second week in a row, Koronayashe Rugara picked up a doubles titles at a J60 in South Africa, with South African partner Morgan Jordaan. The top seeds defeated No. 2 seeds Allegra and Angelique van der Walt of South Africa 6-3, 6-1 in the final. Rugara lost to Allegra van der Walt in the singles final.

At the J30 in the Cayman Islands, top seeds Fianna Graci and Anabelle Janczyk won the girls doubles title, beating No. 2 seeds Asia Sundas and Sofia Sundas of Italy 6-4, 6-2 in the final.

I hadn't realized how long it has been since I posted an update on the UTR Pro Tennis Tour results from the United States, but it's time to catch up. There is a new shorter version of these PTT events, called Summer Slams, which have begun on college campuses. The total prize money is $12,500, not $20,000 as for the regular PTT tournaments, but they are played over four days, not seven.

MEN:

April 7 Newport Beach CA

Maciej Rajski d. Aleksa Circi 6-4, 6-1

April 7 Houston TX

Raphael Perot d. Ilgiz Valiev 4-6, 7-5, 7-5

April 13 Atlanta GA

Ian Mayew d. Tyler Stice 6-1, 3-1, ret.

April 22 College Station TX

Alan Magadan d. Edoardo Cherie Ligniere 6-3, 7-6

April 28 Newport Beach CA

Aleksa Ciric d. Maciej Rajski 4-6, 6-2, 6-3

May 5 Stockton CA

Tiago Silva d. Ran Amar 6-1, 6-4

May 5 Boca Raton FL

Joshua Charlton d. Phillip Jordan 6-4, 6-1

May 12 Newport Beach CA

Gianluca Brunkow d. Maciej Rajski 4-6, 7-5, 6-3

May 18 Boca Raton FL

Roan Jones d. Christophe Clement 6-1, 6-0

May 19 Champaign IL

Lucas Horve d. Chad Kissell 6-4, 6-2

May 22 Tuscaloosa AL (Summer Slam $12.5 prize money)

Matic Kriznik d. Enzo Aguiard 6-1, 6-4

May 25 Knoxville TN

Alejandro Moreno d. Asahi Harazaki 6-4, 7-6(1)

May 25 Los Angeles CA

Peter Makk d. Maciej Rajski 7-6(7), 6-1

May 29 Denver CO (Summer Slam)

Tanapatt Nirundorn d. Janmagnus Johnson 3-6, 7-5, 6-2

June 1 Los Angeles CA

Peter Makk d. Gianluca Brunkow 6-1, 6-2

June 2 Manchester CT

Petro Kuzmenok d. Roy Smith 2-6, 6-2, 6-4

June 5 Winston Salem NC (Summer Slam)

Janmagnus Johnson d. Agustin Mastri 6-2, 6-0

WOMEN:

April 13 Atlanta GA

Dalayna Hewitt d. Alicia Herrero Linana 7-5, 6-1

April 14 Newport Beach CA

Veronika Miroshnichenko d. Eduarda Piai 6-3, 6-3

April 21 Boca Raton FL

Ekaterina Khayrutdinova d. Gabriella Lindgren 6-4, 7-5

May 5 Stockton CA

Kylie Mckenzie d. Solia Valentine 6-2 6-2

May 11 Boca Raton FL

Adriana Reami d. Gabriella Lindgren 4-6, 7-5, 6-1

May 19 Champaign IL

Megan Heuser d. Akari Matsuno 3-6, 6-0, 6-4

May 25 Los Angeles CA

Eryn Cayetano d. Veronika Miroshnichenko w/o

May 26 Knoxville TN

Dalayna Hewitt d. Leyla Britez Risso 6-7(3) 6-3, 6-4

May 29 Denver CO (Summer Slam $12.5 prize money)

Rhiann Newborn d. Andrea Burguete Beltran 6-4, 3-6, 7-5

June 2 Los Angeles CA

Eryn Cayetano d. Tianmei Wang 6-2, 6-0

June 2 Manchester CT

Olivia Lincer d. Brooke Lynn Schafer 6-3, 6-0

June 5 Winston Salem NC

Riley Crowder d. Maeve Thornton 6-1, 3-6, 6-3

The ITF and ITA have announced an additional pro circuit program for Division I collegiate men, with those who finished 21-30 in the final ITA rankings last month receiving entry into up to eight ITF M25 tournaments. The list of those players can be found here.

That now means that 30 Division I men receive preference for entry in ATP and ITF tournaments, while the women's number remains at five, which is what it was when that ITF women's collegiate program was started in 2023. Whatever the reason for this disparity, it's not a good look for the ITF or the ITA.

Vidmanova Wins First W75 in Sumter; Smith Falls in Birmingham 125 Final; Collegians Tarvet and Taylor Claim SoCal Pro Series Titles; Judge Approves NCAA House Settlement

Vidmanova en route to her NCAA singles title last fall

Less than a month ago, Dasha Vidmanova was completing her illustrious college tennis career by leading the University of Georgia women to an NCAA team title, their first since 2000, with a 4-0 win over Texas A&M.

The 22-year-old from the Czech Republic, the Most Outstanding Player of the Team Championships and the 2024 NCAA spring doubles and fall singles champion, has now won two consecutive titles on the ITF women's World Tennis Tour after beating LSU rising sophomore Cadence Brace of Canada 7-5, 6-1 in today's final of the USTA Pro Circuit W75 in Sumter South Carolina.

Vidmanova is  undefeated as a pro; after winning the W35 in the Dominican Republic two weeks ago in her first event since graduating, she now has won ten matches in a row, with the W75 her sixth Pro Circuit singles title and her first over the W35 level.

With the 110 points from these last two weeks posting tonight, her WTA ranking tomorrow will be 241, putting her in position to get into US Open qualifying with just a few more good performances in tournaments this summer.

At the ATP Challenger 125 in Birmingham England, recent University of Arizona graduate Colton Smith reached the final of his first tournament on grass (he did not play any ITF junior tournaments outside of North America and didn't crack the Top 100 in the ITF junior rankings, so did not qualify for Roehamption or Wimbledon) with a 6-3, 6-4 win today over Rinky Hijikata(UNC) of Australia. His win in that semifinal match, which Smith led 6-3 when rain and darkness suspended it Saturday, provided Smith with his sixth ATP Top 100 victory. He lost in the final, 6-4, 6-4, to Otto Virtanen of Finland, who had completed his semifinal match on Saturday, but Smith will break into the ATP Top 150 with his run this week. He has a special exemption into the main draw of the Challenger 125 in Ilkley, where he'll play 2019 Wimbledon boys champion Shintaro Mochizuki of Japan in the first round. 

At the ATP Challenger 75 in Tyler Texas, qualifier Yibing Wu won his sixth Challenger title, with the 2017 US Open boys champion winning the second all-Chinese challenger final with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win over Yi Zhou. The oft-injured 25-year-old, whose ATP career-high is 54, will return to the Top 300, while the 20-year-old Zhou will be inside the Top 300 for the first time.

The final title claimed at Roland Garros this year was a long time coming, with Carlos Alcaraz of Spain defending his title with a  five-hour, 29-minute 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3), 7-6(2) win over Jannik Sinner of Italy. Alcaraz saved three match points serving at 3-5, 0-40 in the fourth set, broke Sinner and won the tiebreaker to send it to a fifth set. Sinner served for the match in that set as well, again at 5-4, and again he was broken, with Alcaraz finding another unfathomable gear in that game and the tiebreaker to win his first match from two sets down and his fifth major, at the age of 22.

The women's doubles final before the men's final also went the distance, with No. 2 seeds Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini of Italy defeating unseeded Aleksandra Kunic of Serbia and Anna Danilina(Florida) of Kazakhstan 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 for their first major title as a team. Errani has five women's doubles titles with Roberta Vinci; this is Paolini's first, although they did win the Olympic gold medal last summer. Errani won her second mixed doubles title with Andrea Vavassori Thursday.

Two current collegians took advantage of their summer break to earn titles at the SoCal Pro Series, with University of San Diego's Oliver Tarvet of Great Britain and Arizona State's Lily Taylor of Australia getting victories today at the $15,000 tournaments at USD.

The fifth-seeded Tarvet, a rising senior who has been one of the top players in college tennis since arriving in San Diego in 2022, didn't lose a set all week en route to the men's final, and then didn't lose a game in today's championship match, beating No. 7 seed Leo Vithoontien(Carleton) of Japan 6-0, 6-0. Vithoontien had won his previous two matches in third set tiebreakers, and made the doubles final, which surely took a toll. It's the fifth singles title on the ITF men's World Tennis Tour for Tarvet, who also won a SoCal Pro Series tournament last year.

It's the first Pro Circuit title for the 18-year-old Taylor, a rising sophomore at Arizona State who played at lines 3 and 4 for the Sun Devils in her freshman year. Unseeded, Taylor didn't drop a set until the women's final, with No. 8 seed and Duke recruit Aspen Schuman also reaching the final without the loss of set.  Schuman won the first, but Taylor rebounded for a 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 victory.

In the women's doubles finals Saturday, No. 3 seeds Lily Fairclough(USC) of Australia and Anita Sahdiieva(Baylor, LSU) of Ukraine defeated unseeded Mao Mushika(Cal) and Kristina Nordikyan(USD) 6-2, 6-1 in the championship match.

The men's doubles title went to No. 2 seeds Keshav Chopra(Georgia Tech) and Phillip Jordan(South Carolina, UC-Santa Barbara), who beat the unseeded pair of Vithoontien and Matt Kuhar(Bryant) 6-3, 7-6(5) in the final. 

For quotes from the finalists, see this recap from USTA SoCal's Steve Pratt.

Late Friday, Judge Claudia Wilken announced her decision to approve the House settlement, which provides the framework for colleges and universities to begin sharing revenue with student-athletes. The roster limits that Wilken was concerned about did not jettison the settlement, as she accepted the compromise proposed by the plantiffs that would allow schools to keep those roster spots already occupied or promised, although they are not required to do so. Going forward, tennis will have a maximum of ten roster spots, with scholarships allowed to be full or partial for those ten spots. How this settlement will impact college tennis and other Olympic sports remains to be seen. An overview of what this could mean for college sports when it begins July 1, from Ross Delenger of Yahoo Sports, can be found here.

Tagger Makes Austrian Tennis History with Roland Garros Girls Title; Mcdonald Wins All-German Boys Final; Gauff Claims Second Slam Title; Vidmanova, Brace Meet in W75 Sumter Final

Two unseeded 17-year-olds claimed the 2025 Roland Garros junior singles titles today in Paris, with Lilli Tagger of Austria beating No. 8 seed Hannah Klugman of Great Britain 6-2, 6-0 and Niels Mcdonald beating fellow German Max Schoenhaus 6-7(5), 6-0, 6-3 on Court Simonne Mathieu. Tagger is the first Austrian, girl or boy, to capture a Roland Garros junior singles title, while Mcdonald is the third German boy overall, and second in the Open Era, to win a junior singles title in Paris.

Embed from Getty Images

The score of the girls final, at least in the first set, was not indicative of how close it was. Tagger and Klugman met in the semifinals of a W35 in Spain this spring, with the Austrian winning it three sets, and the first two games today, which took 16 minutes, suggested a similar battle. But Tagger asserted herself with a break in the fourth game, then fought off three break points to keep that break, before breaking an error-prone Klugman for a second time to take the set.

Dropping the first set had been something of a pattern for Klugman during the week, having done it in her first round, quarterfinal and semifinal wins, but those comebacks may have taken their toll, and in her on-court comments at the trophy ceremony alluded several times to how long the week had seemed to her.

Tagger, in contrast had not lost a set all week, and with her 6-4, 6-4 win over No. 3 seed Jeline Vandromme of Belgium in the first round, she had immediately announced herself as one of the favorites.  With her reliable one-handed backhand, which is difficult to read for many players, given its novelty among girls, and her forehand a fearsome shot, Tagger looked nothing but confident in the second set, giving Klugman no hope for another comeback. In 28 minutes, just over half as long as the first set, the title was hers, 15 years after her coach, Francesca Schiavone of Italy, had taken the women's singles title. 

Tagger is just the second Austrian to win any junior slam singles title, joining Jurgen Melzer, the 1999 Wimbledon boys champion.

Embed from Getty Images

Considering that Mcdonald and Schoenhaus, also unseeded, were both playing in their first major singles final, and, despite the dismal weather, in front of a large crowd, they engaged in a poised and competitive first set, with no breaks of serve. Mcdonald saved two break points in his first service game, but did not face another one in the match; Schoenhaus, who had 16 winners in the opening set, didn't face a any break points at all in the first.

Schoenhaus, who, like Tagger, has a one-handed backhand, came up with a crucial penetrating forehand with Mcdonald serving at 5-5 in the tiebreaker, forcing an error and giving himself a set point. He converted it when Mcdonald missed a backhand return on a second serve, but Mcdonald immediately seized the momentum by getting break points, his first of the match, in Schoenhaus's opening service game, converting the second for a 1-0 lead.  Once he was broken at love to give Mcdonald a 3-0 lead, Schoenhaus's game deserted him, and he made 17 unforced errors, while collecting just one winner.

Although Schoenhaus eventually pulled out of that with a hold in the second game of the third set, he fell behind permanently when he lost serve in the fourth game, and Mcdonald was just too solid to provide any openings. Schoenhaus did hold his next two service games to keep himself alive, and a Mcdonald double fault to open his 5-4 service game might have indicated some nerves, but he shook them off. A calmly executed drop shot winner, and then a forehand winner gave him two match points, with the first one saved by a forehand from Schoenhaus forcing an error. But on his second championship point, Mcdonald put an end to any tension, hitting a good first serve that Schoenhaus caught late on his backhand, with Mcdonald immediately collapsing on the baseline in celebration of his improbable title.

Mcdonald wasn't the only unseeded 17-year-old German champion in today's Roland Garros finals, with Eva Bennemann and Sonja Zhenikhova of Germany pulling off an improbable comeback to beat No. 3 seeds Alena and Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic. Trailing 6-4, 4-0, Bennemann and Zhenkihova won the next six games, including four consecutive deciding points to get to the match tiebreaker, where they never trailed, but needed three match points to finally secure.

No. 2 seeds Alan Wazny of Poland and Oskari Paldanius of Finland defeated No. 7 seeds Noah Johnston and Benjamin Willwerth 6-2, 6-3, with the Americans unable to save any of the three break points they faced, while Wazny and Paldanius saved five of six.

There were no breaks in the second set until Johnston lost his serve on a deciding point serving at 3-4, and the No. 2 seeds, who did not face a break point in the set, closed it out on their first championship point. 

Seven years after she claimed the Roland Garros girls title at age 14, Coco Gauff won the women's title, beating top seed and WTA No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-4. Gauff's other major, the 2023 US Open, was also a comeback over Sabalenka, with the 19-year-old taking that one 2-6, 6-3, 6-2. Gauff win remain at No. 2 in the WTA rankings, but she is now is one of only four women this century to win a girls title and women's title at the same slam, joining Victoria Azarenka(AO), Ashleigh Barty(Wimbledon) and Simona Halep(RG).

For more on Gauff's win, see this article from the Roland Garros website.

In the men's doubles final this evening, No. 5 seeds Marcel Granollers of Spain and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina ended years of frustration with their first slam title, beating No. 8 seeds Joe Salisbury(Memphis) and Neal Skupski(LSU) of Great Britain 6-0, 6-7(5), 7-5.  Granollers, 39, was 0-5 in men's doubles finals at slams, while Zeballos, 40, was 0-3. They saved break points at 3-all and 5-all and then broke Skupski at love in the final game to take the elusive championship.

Two unseeded collegians will play for the title at the women's USTA Pro Circuit W75 in Sumter South Carolina, with NCAA 2024 fall singles champion Dasha Vidmanova(Georgia) of the Czech Republic taking on Cadence Brace(LSU) of Canada.  

Vidmanova tilted the 2025 won-loss record against her collegiate rival Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) in her favor with a 7-6(13), 6-1 win over the No. 7 seed in today's semifinals. Vidmanova was 1-2 against Stoiana in college this year going into the NCAA team final last month, but won that match and today to move to 3-2. Brace defeated compatriot Katherine Sebov 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-3 in the bottom half semifinal.  This is the first final at the ITF WTT W75 level for both Vidmanova and Brace.

No. 4 seeds Tara Moore and Abigail Rencheli(NC State) won the doubles title today, beating unseeded En Shuo Liang of Taiwan and YeXin Ma of China 7-5, 6-2 in the final.

Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M) gave a walkover to the final to Yi Zhou of China today, setting up just the second all-Chinese Challenger final against qualifier Yibing Wu at the ATP Challenger 75 in Tyler Texas. Wu, the 2017 US Open boys champion, has struggled with injuries throughout his pro career, but he is always a threat at Challengers if he is healthy. He defeated Karue Sell(UCLA) of Brazil 7-6(1), 6-4 today.

In the Tyler doubles final, No. 4 seeds Finn Reynolds(Ole Miss) and James Watt(Saint Mary's CA) of New Zealand took the title with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Alex Martinez(Oklahoma) of Spain and Adria Soriano Barrera(Miami) of Colombia. It's the third Challenger title for Reynolds and the first for Watt.

Colton Smith's match with Rinky Hijikata(UNC) of Australia at the ATP Challenger 125 in Birmingham England was suspended due to rain with Smith up 6-3, 3-3. They will resume tomorrow morning, with the winner facing Otto Virtanen of Finland for the title. 

Klugman and Tagger Meet for Roland Garros Girls Title; Unseeded Germans Mcdonald and Schoenhaus in Boys Final, Willwerth and Johnston Make Doubles Final; Smith Advances to ATP Challenger 125 Semis; Vidmanova and Stoiana Meet Again; Central Arkansas Drops Tennis

It hasn't been easy for the only seed remaining in singles at the Roland Garros Junior Championships, with No. 8 seed Hannah Klugman of Great Britain coming from a set down on three occasions this week, including today's semifinal with unseeded Rositsa Dencheva of Bulgaria. 

After dropping the first set 6-1, with Dencheva hitting 11 winners and making just six unforced errors, Klugman once again rebounded in the second set, taking it 6-3 while posting a positive winners to unforced error ratio of 14-10.  Klugman, already competing in her tenth junior slam at the age of 16, didn't have to save a match point, as she did in her 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 quarterfinal win over qualifier Sarah Fajmonova of the Czech Republic, but the last set was tense. After letting her 3-1 lead go by getting broken at love at 3-2, Klugman got the break right back and consolidated it for a 5-3 lead. Dencheva couldn't derail that momentum, with her forehand going awry at the worst possible time, and Klugman had to do little to claim the 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 decision.

Klugman, the first British girl in the Roland Garros final since Michelle Tyler in 1976, will face unseeded Lilli Tagger of Austria in Saturday's championship match, after Tagger defeated top seed Emerson Jones of Australia 6-4, 7-6(5) in the other semifinal, avenging her quarterfinals loss to Jones at the Australian Open this year. Tagger, the first Austrian girl ever to reach a Roland Garros final, has not dropped a set this week, and she won her only meeting with Klugman in March, in the semifinals of the W35 in Spain 6-4, 6-7(7), 6-3. Tagger is one of two girls in the quarterfinals with a one-handed backhand, with Luna Cinalli of Argentina the other.

The boys final will be the first at Roland Garros between two 17-year-old Germans after Niels Mcdonald defeated No. 13 seed Ryo Tabata of Japan 6-2, 6-2 and Max Schoenhaus beat No. 9 seed Ivan Ivanov of Bulgaria, one of the pre-tournament favorites, 6-3, 6-4. Mcdonald needed only 55 minutes to record his fourth straight-sets win of the week; his only loss of a set came in his upset of top seed Andres Santamarta Roig of Spain in the third round. Tabata did not play at the level of his previous matches, with his 30 unforced errors contributing to the brevity of the match. 

Schoenhaus trailed 3-0 in the second set, but he showed none of the nerves that had cropped up in his 6-3, 1-6, 7-6(11) quarterfinal win over No. 6 seed Benjamin Willwerth, where he saved two match points. After he broke Ivanov to go up 5-4, Schoenhaus took a 30-15 lead after an unforced error by Ivanov, then hit a (one-handed) backhand winner to earn two match points, and calmly stroked a volley winner to convert the first.

The last time two unseeded boys reached the Roland Garros final was 2010, when Agustin Velotti of Argentina defeated Andreas Collarini, who then represented the United States, but now plays for Argentina. 

Neither Schoenhaus nor Mcdonald has ever won an ITF Junior Circuit singles title above the J200 level, although Schoenhaus did win the Wimbledon boys doubles title last year with Alex Razeghi.

Both singles finals will be played, consecutively, on Court Simonne-Mathieu, the third biggest court at Roland Garros. There is rain in the forecast, and that court does not have a roof.

Saturday's boys doubles final will feature No. 7 seeds Noah Johnston and Benjamin Willwerth, who defeated No. 8 seeds Jagger Leach and Great Britain's Oliver Bonding 6-4, 2-6, 10-7 in today's semifinal.  They will face No. 2 seeds Oskari Paldanius of Finland and Alan Wazny of Poland, who beat No. 3 seeds Keaton Hance and Jack Kennedy 6-1, 6-2.  Willwerth and Johnston won three ITF doubles titles last year, while Johnston has won two J300 titles this year, one with Leach and the other with Jacob Olar.

The junior slam run for twins Kristina and Annika Penickova[2] ended today, with sisters Alena and Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic avenging their loss in the semifinals of the Australian Open with a 4-6, 7-5, 10-3 victory today. The third-seeded Kovackovas will face the unseeded German team of Eva Bennemann and Sonja Zhenikhova, who beat unseeded Mia Pohankova of Slovakia and Tagger 7-5, 7-6(5).

In the men's doubles semifinal at Roland Garros today, No. 8 seeds Joe Salisbury(Memphis) and Neal Skupski(LSU) of Great Britain advanced to Saturday's final with a 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-6(10-7) win over No. 9 seeds Christian Harrison and Evan King(Michigan). Skupski will be playing for his second men's doubles major, after winning Wimbledon with Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands in 2023. Salisbury is seeking his fifth, having won the Australian Open in 2020 and the US Open 2021-2023 with Rajeev Ram(Illinois). In the 2022 US Open final, Salisbury and Ram beat Skupski and Koolhof for the title.

They will face No. 5 seeds Marcel Granollers of Spain and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina in the final. Granollers and Zeballos lost in the 2023 Wimbledon final to Skupski and Koolhof.

Former University of Florida star Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan, a member of the Florida NCAA championship team in 2017, is through to her second women's doubles final, after she and partner Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia defeated Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway and Eri Hozumi of Japan 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-5 in a semifinal between two unseeded teams. They will play No. 2 seeds Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini of Italy, who beat the No. 4 seeds Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider(NC State) of Russia 6-0, 6-1, on Sunday.

While the clay season is winding down, the grass season is just getting started, with an ATP Challenger 125 and a WTA 125 in Birmingham this week. No Americans have reached the semifinals at the WTA event, but two Americans are through to the semis in the ATP Challenger: Brandon Holt(USC) and recent Arizona graduate Colton Smith. 

Smith, who received entry as an alternate, defeated Lloyd Harris of South Africa 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-4, and will play No. 3 seed Rinky Hijikata(North Carolina) of Australia in the semifinals.  Holt, a 6-4, 6-3 winner over Adrian Mannarino of France, will face Otto Virtanen of Finland in the semifinals, after Virtanen beat Coleman Wong of Hong Kong 6-2, 7-5. Hijikata is the only seed remaining.

At the ATP Challenger 75 in Tyler Texas, Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M) is continuing to chalk up wins, with the Bogota 50 and Little Rock 75 champion reaching the semifinals with a 6-4, 7-5 win over wild card Trevor Svajda(SMU). Kypson will face unseeded 20-year-old Yi Zhou of China, a former ITF junior No. 5, for a spot in the final.  Qualifier Yibing Wu of China and Karue Sell(UCLA) of Brazil will play in the other semifinal, with no seeds remaining in the semifinals.

Another meeting between Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M) and Dasha Vidmanova(Georgia) is coming Saturday in the semifinals of the W75 in Sumter South Carolina. Stoiana, the No. 7 seed, defeated Japanese qualifier Ena Koike 6-1, 7-6(6), while the unseeded Vidmanova beat Shrivalli Bhamidipaty of India 6-0, 6-4.  Stoiana and Vidmanova split their four college matches this year; Stoiana won their only Pro Circuit meeting in the quarterfinals of the W75 in Oklahoma last fall.

LSU rising sophomore Cadence Brace will face fellow unseeded Canadian Katherine Sebov in the other semifinal, after Brace defeated qualifier Jaeda Daniel(Auburn, NC State) 6-3, 6-2 and Sebov beat wild card DJ Bennett(Auburn) 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. 

Division I Central Arkansas(corrected from incorrect previous id as Arkansas State) announced today they would be discontinuing their women's tennis program. The school, which does not have men's tennis, has recently added beach volleyball and STUNT as varsity sports for women.