UNC and Duke Teams Win US Open Main Draw Doubles Wild Cards; Nguyen Twins, Frodin and Ahn Reach Quarterfinals at Rancho Santa Fe W15; Fearnley, Smith Advance on Grass; GoFundMe Established for 12-year-old Gabriel Fere

The USTA's first American Collegiate US Open Wild Card Playoffs concluded today at the National Campus in Lake Nona, with North Carolina's Reese Brantmeier and Alanis Hamilton taking the women's doubles wild card and Duke's Cooper Williams and Theo Winegar claiming the men's doubles wild card.

Compared to the one-set, no-ad doubles typical in college, the three-hour and 35-minute women's doubles final took at least five times as long, allowing for many twists and turns along the way before Brantmeier and Hamilton defeated Auburn's DJ Bennett and Ava Hrastar 4-6, 7-6(4), 7-6 (10-5).

Bennett and Hrastar led 4-1 in the second set tiebreaker before Brantmeier and Hamilton won the final six points to force a third set, and had a break lead in the third set from the third game until Bennett served for the match at 5-4. Up 30-0, Bennett and Hrastar lost five of the next six points, giving Brantmeier and Hamilton new life once again, and after two holds, a 10-point tiebreaker would decide the wild card. Up 4-3 in the tiebreaker, Hrastar and Bennett again were overtaken by Hamilton and Brantmeier, who won seven of the final eight points to take it 10-5.

Brantmeier, who would have no doubt been invited to compete in the singles competition this week had she not suffered an injury in the NCAA team semifinals last month that limited her to doubles, will play in the women's doubles main draw for the second time, after winning the USTA 18s National title with Clervie Ngounoue in 2022. Hamilton, 18, lost in the 18s doubles final in San Diego in 2023, with Kayla Chung her partner. Brantmeier and Hamilton finished the season at No. 2 in the ITA rankings, behind the international pair of Dasha Vidmanova and Mell Reasco of Georgia.

Williams and Winegar, who finished the season as the No. 3 ranked team, behind two international pairs, didn't drop serve in today's 6-4, 6-4 win over Stanford's Nico Godsick and Hudson Rivera. Williams, 20,  and Winegar, 23, will be making their main draw debuts at the US Open.

Seven Americans have advanced to the quarterfinals of the SoCal Pro Series W15 in Rancho Santa Fe California, with 17-year-old twins Avery and Alexis Nguyen, who have verbally committed to North Carolina, among them. No. 4 seed Alexis defeated incoming Stanford freshman Tianmei Wang 6-1, 7-5 to set up a meeting with 16-year-old Thea Frodin, who beat Nanari Katsumi of Japan 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.  Avery defeated fellow qualifier Caroline Driscoll(Denver, Stanford) 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 and will face another qualifier in San Diego State's Jo-Yee Chan. Chan beat Maya Iyengar 6-3, 6-4. Stanford rising freshman Alyssa Ahn, a finalist last week at the W15 in San Diego, avenged her loss in that final to Mao Mushika(Cal) of Japan, who retired today trailing 6-0, 3-0. Ahn's opponent in the quarterfinals will be unseeded Klara Kosan(Pacific), who beat Lily Fairlough(USC) of Australia 7-6(4), 6-3.

No. 2 seed Eryn Cayetano(USC) will face No. 8 seed Anita Sahdiieva(Baylor, LSU) of Ukraine, who beat wild card Lani Chang 4-6, 7-5, 6-2. The 14-year-old Chang had defeated qualifier Veronika Miroshnichenko(Loyola Marymount) of Russia 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the first round.

The men's quarterfinals in Rancho Santa Fe feature six Americans and two Australians and just two seeds.

Ohio State's rising senior Jack Anthrop beat top seed Andre Ilagan(Hawaii) in the first round and Australian qualifier Benjamin O'Connell 6-1, 6-2 today. He will play another qualifier in recent Cal grad Theo Dean, who beat No. 5 seed Strong Kirchheimer 7-6(7), 7-6(10).  

Wild card Noah Zamora(UC-Irvine) beat No. 4 seed Dane Sweeny of Australia 7-6(4), 6-3 and he will play Rudy Quan in the quarterfinals. Quan, a rising sophomore at UCLA, beat recent USC grad Peter Makk of Hungary, a qualifier 7-6(5), 6-3. 

Unseeded Australian Oliver Anderson beat Quan's teammate Spencer Johnson, a qualifier 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 and will face Andrew Fenty(Michigan), who took out No. 3 seed Alfredo Perez(Florida) 7-6(5), 6-3.  

The only quarterfinal that was predicted by seeding is at the bottom, with No. 2 seed Moerani Bouzige of Australia playing No. 7 seed Kyle Kang(Stanford).  Kang beat qualifier Karl Lee(UCLA, USC) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 and Bouzige defeated Leo Vithoontien (Carleton) of Japan 7-6(3), 6-2.

Damian Secore wrote a lengthy recap of the Rancho Santa Fe action after the completion of the first round for the SoCal Pro Series webpage. It features conversations with Quan, Johnson and Chang, as well as an interesting perspective from recent USD graduate Savriyan Danilov, who does not want to return to his native Russia.

Last year at this time, TCU's recently graduated Jake Fearnley was taking his first steps in his swift rise into the ATP Top 50 with a title at the Nottingham Challenger 125. Today marked another career milestone on grass for the 23-year-old from Scotland, who reached his first ATP quarterfinal at the Queens Club 500 in London. Fearnley defeated qualifier Corentin Moutet of France 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 and will face unseeded Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic next. Brandon Nakashima(Virginia) is the only American in the quarterfinals; he defeated wild card Dan Evans of Great Britain 7-5, 7-6(4) and will play No. 2 seed Jack Draper of Great Britain next.

Recent Arizona graduate Colton Smith, is through to his second Challenger semifinal in the last three weeks on grass, with a chance to avenge his first round loss last week to Shintaro Mochizuki of Japan tomorrow at the 125 in Nottingham. Smith, who lost to James Trotter(Ohio State) in the final round of qualifying this week but received entry as a lucky loser, defeated Emilio Nava 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4 in today's quarterfinals. Mochizuki, the 2019 Wimbledon boys champion, beat Smith 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 in the Ilkley Challenger last week. The other semifinal will feature two other junior slam champions: No. 2 seed Marin Cilic of Croatia, the 2005 Roland Garros boys champion and Martin Landaluce of Spain, the 2022 US Open boys champion. 

I recently received an email with sad news about Gabriel Fere, a four-star rising seventh grader from Lake Forest Illinois. Fere has recently been diagnosed with stage 4 Ewing's Sarcoma. In addition to the gofundme organized for his family, Tad Eckert is planning an in-person fundraiser tomorrow(Friday) prior to the start of the USTA Midwest Closed in Indianapolis at: Combat Ops (gamecenter with Lazer tag and more!) 4650 E. Southport Road, Indianapolis, IN 46237 730-9pm (can start checking in at 7).

Please contact Tad via email: tad(at)inventivemfg.com for more details, and please keep Gabriel Fere and his family in your prayers.