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Wednesday, November 20, 2024

Top Seed Gorzny, No. 4 Seed Overbeck Fall on All-American Day, Freshmen Impress in Women's Draw at NCAA Division I Championships; Women's D-I Fall Signing Updates

A day after both ITA All-American champions lost at the NCAA Division I individual championships in Waco Texas, the finalists followed them out of the singles draws, with top seed Sebastian Gorzny of Texas, the men's A-A finalist, falling to Princeton's Paul Inchauspe 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 and No. 4 seed Elza Tomase of Tennessee losing to Auburn freshman Merna Refaat 7-5, 6-4.

Inchauspe, a sophomore from France, was No. 11 in the ITA preseason rankings, but not seeded this week, in spite of an 18-4 record this fall. He qualified at the East Sectional ten days ago, winning the title in North Carolina, but used his previous experience in the cool and windy conditions in Waco today to his advantage.

"Conditions, I won't say I enjoyed them, but it felt familiar, like in New York, Princeton, New Jersey," Inchauspe told Cracked Racquets Alex Gruskin. "It's very similar weather, a bit windy, cold like this, so it felt familiar and it felt pretty good on the court today."

Inchauspe said his strategy was to make Gorzny work to hold. 

"I think making him play as many balls on his serve was a big (key) today," Inchauspe said. "He was under pressure; I was winning points on his serve pretty regularly, which was good. He's a very good player, so I tried for a high first serve percentage, and today, I felt like going into his backhand was a better play and maybe he missed more there. But it was small adjustments I made throughout the match that helped me and allowed me to win today."

Inchauspe admitted that earning All-American status, which all 32 singles winners today did, was not something he considered important early in his career.

"It's a great achievement," Inchauspe said. "Being foreign, you don't go into college thinking about it, but for Americans and for people who are very familiar with college it's a very big deal, so obviously I'm extremely happy. In May, I was supposed to play singles and I had to pull out injured, so I happy I was able to achieve that status today."

Inchauspe will face 9-16 seed Corey Craig of Florida State, who defeated Emon Van Loben Sels of UCLA 6-2, 6-2.

Egypt's Refaat was one of two freshmen still remaining, both in the women's draw, and while her win over Tomase including a comeback from 4-0 down in the first set, it paled in comparison to that of Stanford freshman Valerie Glozman, who trailed Lily Jones of Michigan 5-1 in the third set before posting a 6-0 4-6, 7-6(2) victory.

Jones served for the match at 5-2, 5-4 and 6-5, but never got to a match point, and Glozman dominated the tiebreaker against Jones, who also hits both her forehand and backhand two-handed.

"It was a really tough match and I wasn't sure it was going to happen today," said the No. 5 seed, who turns 18 Friday. "I know  people get really nervous when they're ahead, and it's happened to me as well, so I just thought I could play as hard as I could and it ended up working out today, but I was definitely playing with fire a little bit."

Glozman admitted that Jones's speed and her ability to make her hit an extra shot bothered her.

"She was getting everything back and I was having trouble putting away the last shot, and I was getting a little frustrated," Glozman told Alex Gruskin after the match. "So I just had to calm myself down...and I was able to get into the points again."

Glozman's opponent in the round of 16 is 9-16 seed Thea Rabman of North Carolina, who defeated Andrea Beltran of Denver 7-5, 6-2.

Ozan Baris of Michigan State, who was the preseason No. 1 in the ITA singles rankings was not seeded this week, but he avenged his loss in the Battle of the Bay earlier this fall with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 win over No. 4 seed Carl Overbeck of Cal. Baris will play 9-16 seed Pedro Vives of TCU, wo beat Noah Zamora of UC Irvine 6-4, 6-4.

Below is the list of today's winners, all of whom are now All-Americans for the 2024-2025 season. Oliver Tarvet of San Diego and Maria Sholokova of Wisconsin, who both lost Tuesday, are also All-Americans as ITA All-America champions. A top 20 ranking at the end of the dual match season in May will also confer that status.

2024-2-25 All Americans:

MEN:
Corey Craig, Florida State
DK Suresh, Wake Forest
*Michael Zheng, Columbia
Paul Inchauspe, Princeton
Thomas Paulsell, Georgia
Aidan Kim, Ohio State
Lui Maxted, TCU
Pedro Vives, TCU
*Ozan Baris, Michigan State
Kenta Miyoshi, Illinois
Timo Legout, Texas
Maxi Homberg, Pepperdine
Jay Friend, Arizona
Spencer Johnson, UCLA
*Colton Smith, Arizona
*Shunsuke Mitsui, Tennessee

WOMEN:
DJ Bennett, Auburn
*Julia Garcia Ruiz, Oklahoma
Carson Tanguilig, North Carolina
*Luciana Perry, Ohio State
Merna Refaat, Auburn
Katja Wiersholm, Cal
*Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M
Thea Rabman, North Carolina
Elaine Chervinsky, Virginia
*Connie Ma, Stanford
Valerie Glozman, Stanford
*Savannah Broadus, Pepperdine
Nicole Khirin, Texas A&M
Ozlem Uslu, Virginia Tech
*Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia
Julia Fliegner, Michigan

*All-American in 2023-2024 season

Note that Ozlem Uslu of Virginia Tech, a junior from Turkey, is the program's first All-American.

The first round of doubles was played this afternoon and evening, with top seeds Tarvet and Stian Klaassen of San Diego and Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle of UCLA getting through in straight sets.

Only one seeded men's doubles team lost, 5-8 seeds Zsombor Velcz and Devin Badenhorst of Baylor, who were beaten by Aadarsh Tripathi and Alexander Hoogmartens of UCLA 6-3, 7-6(3).

The women lost three of their eight seeds, with No. 3 seeds Avelina Sayfetdinova and Mariia Hlahola of Texas Tech losing to Martina Genis Salas and Annabelle Xu of Virginia 6-4, 6-0; No. 4 seeds Savannah Broadus and Vivan Yang of Pepperdine lost to Aysegul Mert and Guillermina Grant of Georgia 7-5, 2-6, 16-14. Mert is the defending champion in doubles, with Dasha Vidmanova her partner in May; Broadus reached the final in Stillwater, with her partner Janice Tjen.  Baylor's 5-8 seeds Liubov Kostenko and Cristina Tiglea lost to Lily Fairclough and Grace Piper of Southern California 6-2, 6-4.

Twelve of the 16 round of 16 matches are scheduled for 10 a.m. Central time Thursday, with the remaining four to follow, not before 11:30 a.m. I'm not sure the point of playing so many matches at once when the weather is good and there aren't doubles conflicts, and I don't understand why they insist on scheduling it that way.

Cracked Racquets will have CrossCourt coverage and feature matches, with links to all 12 courts available, at ESPN+.

Live scoring is here. Results from all today's matches can also be found at the ioncourt website.

With the signing period not as it was in previous years, I've waited several days before posting any of the links, but here is the women's list I've compiled. I hope to get the men's list ready for Thursday.

WOMEN:

Alabama signs Addison Bowman:

Arkansas signs Alexandra Panagiotidou of Greece:

Auburn signs Eva Ionescu of Romania:

Central Florida signs Lauren Seye of Belgium:

Colorado signs Yukiko Ikedo of Japan, Heidi Crncan of Great Britain and Lani Brotman:

Illinois signs Elizabeth Isyanov and Risa Ueno of Japan:

Indiana signs Ameia Sorey and Hi'lani Williams:

Iowa signs Eline Bex of Belgium:


LSU signs Addison Lanton:

Maryland signs Lucia Donnelly:

Mississippi signs Allie Bittner, Owen Wilkinson and Ichino Horikawa of Japan:

Mississippi State signs Mia Robinson:

North Carolina signs Alanis Hamilton and Claire Hill:


Notre Dame signs Sophia Holod and MariLouise van Zyl of South Africa:

Northwestern signs Marelie Raath of Great Britain:

Rice signs Francesca Maguina of Peru:

Rutgers sings Miranda Case, Stella Schmitz and Savannah Cohen:

UC-Santa Barbara signs My-Anh Holmes:

SMU signs Addison Comiskey of Canada and Ellie Mireles:

South Carolina signs Bella Bergkvist Larsson of Sweden, Daniela Pianai of Great Britain, Jane Dunyon and Sara Borkop of Denmark:



Texas Tech signs Ella Brownback:

Vanderbilt signs Mia Yamakita and Erin Pearce of Great Britain:

Posted by Colette Lewis at 10:59 PM 0 comments

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Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Few Upsets on Long Opening Day at NCAA D-I Singles Championships; Jovic Advances at WTA 125 in Charleston; Ekstrand and Crossley Qualify at W50 in Boca Raton; Men Close Out USTA Pro Circuit Year in Austin and Tallahassee

The first day of competition at the NCAA Division I Individual Championships at Baylor's Hurd Tennis Center provided some dramatic matches, but few upsets, with only four women's seeds and two men's seeds failing to advance to Wednesday's second round.


With the first two days of the individual tournament often encompass more than 12 hours, with 64 matches each day, so good weather is imperative to stay on schedule, which Waco delivered, with sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 70s. Tomorrow is predicted to be quite a bit cooler, but no one is complaining about a forecast without in any rain for the duration of the event.

Men's top seed Sebastian Gorzny of Texas got off to a rocky start, which was not surprising, as he hadn't played since late September, when he withdrew from the final of the ITA All-American Championships. Gorzny had a tough first round opponent in Michigan's Gavin Young, who was No. 7 in the preseason rankings, and despite a shaky start, and end, Gorzny got through 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. Despite a 3-0 lead in the final set, Gorzny had to save seven break points in his 4-3 and 5-4 service games before closing out the win.

No. 2 seed Michael Zheng of Columbia, the May 2024 NCAA singles finalist, had a much less tense opener, beating Jeremy Jin of Florida 6-1, 6-2 in 69 minutes. 

Women's top seed Mary Stoiana of Texas A&M avenged her three-set loss this summer to UCLA freshman Kate Fakih, in the second round of the Wichita W35 with a convincing 6-1, 6-1 victory today.

No. 2 seed Dasha Vidmanova of Georgia was expected to get an early test from preseason No. 11 Anastasiya Komar of Oklahoma State, but Vidmanova's recent form and the confidence it has created led her to a 6-3, 6-2 win.


Both ITA All-American champions went out in the first round today.  Maria Sholokova of Wisconsin, who came out of nowhere to win the All-American title in Cary North Carolina two months ago, was beaten by Tennessee junior Catherine Aulia 6-3, 7-5. Aulia, who qualified for the NCAAs just 10 days ago by winning the South section without dropping a set, plays North Carolina senior Carson Tanguilig on Wednesday.

Men's All-American champion and No. 7 seed Oliver Tarvet of San Diego, who received a walkover in the semifinals prior to the walkover he received from Gorzny in the final, lost to Radu Papoe of Cornell 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. Papoe, who was No. 6 in the preseason rankings, lost in the second round as the top seed last week at the Columbus $25K, but the senior from Romania found his form against Tarvet, the preseason No. 3.  

The three other women's seeds to fall today were all in the 9-16 category. Elaine Chervinsky of Virginia defeated Emilija  Tverijonaite of Arizona State 7-5, 6-2; Ozlem Uslu of Virginia Tech beat Bridget Stammel of Vanderbilt 7-6(7), 6-2 and Sabine Rutlauka of Penn advanced when Amerlia Honer of UC-Santa Barbara reitred after losing the first set 6-1. 

Michigan(Lily Jones, Piper Charney and Julia Fliegner), Cal (Lan Mi, Mao Mushika and Katja Wiersholm) and Stanford (Valerie Glozman, Alexis Blokhina and Connie Ma) have the most players in the the third round. 

No men's team has more than two players in the second round, with Texas the last team with an opportunity for three. Longhorn junior Jonah Braswell, a 9-16 seed, had six match points in the second set of his late evening contest with Denver's Raffaello Papajcik, but Rafaello saved them all to force a third set. The junior from England broke Braswell on a deciding point at 5-6, after Braswell had saved one match point at 30-40, ending his three-hour and 39 minute, 5-7 7-6(3), 7-5 victory over 13 hours after the first ball was struck at the Hurd Tennis Center.

Cracked Racquets is providing two feeds for the tournament this week at ESPN+, one with Alex Gruskin doing the CR CrossCourt coverage, and one with Chris Halioris calling a men's and women's Match of the Day. Updated draws and live scoring (under the results button) via ioncourt, can be found here.

The USTA Pro Circuit is winding down this week, with a women's W50 in Boca Raton Florida, a men's $25K in Austin Texas and a men's $15K in Tallahassee Florida. The women have a W50 in Tampa the first week of December, but this is it for the men for 2024; if they want to continue playing, they will have to leave the country.

In addition to the USTA Pro Circuit, there is a WTA 125 on clay in Charleston South Carolina this week. Iva Jovic, who is still entered in the ITF J500 Orange Bowl next month, is playing in her first 125, and she is seeded No. 8.  Today she defeated Usue Arconada 6-4, 6-4 and will play qualifier Gabriela Lee(Texas Tech) of Romania in the second round Thursday. Renata Zarazua of Mexico and Alycia Parks are the top two seeds.

In Boca Raton, 17-year-old Monica Ekstrand and 18-year-old Mayu Crossley of Japan advanced to the main draw by winning their final round qualifying matches today. Crossley, who reached the final of the W50 in Miami two weeks ago, didn't drop a game in either of her qualifying matches. Ekstrand defeated No. 11 seed Olivia Bergler of Poland, a freshman at Central Florida, 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 to qualify.

Other Americans qualifying: Rhiann Newborn(Baylor), Tori Kinard and Maribella Zamarripa(Texas).

Wild cards were awarded to Makenna Jones(UNC), who lost to No. 3 seed Akasha Urhobo today 6-3, 6-4; NC State freshman Mia Slama, who lost to Jada Robinson 6-4, 6-2, and 15-year-old Canadian Selin Vakalapudi.

The fourth wild card went to Christina McHale, the former WTA No. 24, who retired from the WTA tour in 2022. The 32-year-old from New Jersey lost today to No. 5 seed Anna Rogers, the former NC State All-American, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

The top seed in Boca Raton is Carlota Martinez Cirez of Spain, with Despina Papmichail of Greece the No. 2 seed.



In Austin, just two of the qualifiers are American: Marko Mesarovic, a sophomore at Clemson, and Boris Kozlov(LSU, Tennessee).  

Wild cards were awarded to two Texas redshirt freshmen: Rahul Sachdev and Calvin Wang, Austin resident Jack Ingram, a freshman at Vanderbilt, and Brown senior Alex Finkelstein. 

Toby Kodat and Duarte Vale(Florida) of Portugal are the top two seeds. Last week's Boca Raton $15K champion Stefan Dostanic(USC, Wake Forest) is the No. 6 seed.

In Tallahassee, the top seeds are Patrick Zahraj(UCLA) of Germany, who has been competing primarily in Challengers this summer and fall, and who reached the semifinals of the Drummondville 75 last week, and Tristan McCormick(Notre Dame, Georgia). 

All wild cards were given to Florida State players: sophomores Justin Lyons,  Azariah Rusher and Germany's Erik Schiessl, and senior Joshua Dous-Karpenschif of France. Dous-Karpenschif lost to 17-year-old Benjamin Willwerth, who was a ITF junior reserved entry, 6-2, 6-1. Willwerth had made his USTA Pro Circuit debut last week in Boca Raton and reached the semifinals. The other junior reserved entries this week are South Carolina freshman Atakan Karahan of Turkey, who lost to No. 6 seed Colin Altimirano(Virginia) 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 in first round action today. Alex Frusina, a freshman at Auburn, received the third junior reserved entry. Ohio State's Jack Anthrop, who did not qualify for the NCAAs, entered via an ITA Accelerator spot he earned as an NCAA quarterfinalist.

America qualifiers in Tallahassee are Mississippi State sophomore Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes, Illinois junior William Mroz, Harvard senior Daniel Milavsky and Jake Van Emburgh(Oklahoma, Ohio State).

Posted by Colette Lewis at 11:18 PM 0 comments

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Monday, November 18, 2024

NCAA D-I Individual Championships Begin Tuesday in Waco Texas: ITA Announces USA's Master'U Team; Goode Wins ITF J100 Title in Mexico, Johnson and Kockinis Claim J60 San Diego Titles; Final AO Wild Card Standings

The NCAA Division I championships begin at 10 a.m. Central Eastern time Tuesday at Baylor's Hurd Tennis Center in Waco Texas, with 64 men and 64 women taking aim at the singles and doubles championships. This is the debut of the D-I individual championships in the fall, after the traditional spring edition of the event was held in May of this year in Stillwater Oklahoma. 

The draws can be found here; Cracked Racquets will be providing their CrossCourt coverage, plus a featured Match of the Day, at ESPN+.

Hurd Tennis Center 2015 NCAA Championships

NCAA Division I Seeds:

WOMEN:
Singles:
1. Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M
2. Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia
3. Maria Sholokhova, Wisconsin
4. Elza Tomase, Tennessee
5. Valerie Glozman, Stanford
6. Ange Oby Kajuru, Oklahoma State (withdrew)
6. Connie Ma, Stanford
7. Julia Fliegner, Michigan
8. Sofia Johnson

9-16 seeds (alphabetical)
Savannah Broadus, Pepperdine
Julie Garcia Ruiz, Oklahoma
Amelia Honer, UC-Santa Barbara
Sofia Johnson, Old Dominion (now seeded 8)
Luciana Perry, Ohio State
Theadora Rabman, North Carolina
Bridget Stammel, Vanderbilt
Emilija Tverijonaite, Arizona State
Sarah Hamner, South Carolina moves into seed group

Doubles:
1. Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle, UCLA
2. Gabriella Broadfoot and Maddy Zampardo, NC State
3. Avelina Sayfetdinova and Mariia Hlahola, Texas Tech
4. Savannah Broadus and Vivian Yang, Pepperdine

5-8 (alphabetical by institution)
Liubov Kostenko and Cristina Tiglea, Baylor
Carson Tanguilig and Susanna Maltby, North Carolina
Jade Otway and Isabel Pascual, TCU
Olivia Center and Kate Fakih, UCLA

MEN:
Singles:
1. Sebastian Gorzny, Texas
2. Michael Zheng, Columbia
3. Colton Smith, Arizona
4. Carl Overbeck, Cal
5. Jay Friend, Arizona
6. Lui Maxted, TCU
7. Oliver Tarvet, San Diego
8. Aidan Kim, Ohio State

9-16 seeds
Jonah Braswell, Texas
Corey Craig, Florida State
Timo Legout, Texas
Shunsuke Mitsui, Tennessee
Thomas Paulsell, Georgia
Braden Shick, NC State
DK Suresh, Wake Forest
Pedro Vives, TCU

Doubles:
1. Oliver Tarvet and Stan Klaassen, San Diego
2. Marko Miladinovic and Oska Brostrom Poulsen, Baylor
3. Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez, Mississippi State
4. Luciano Tacchi and Luca Pow, Wake Forest

5-8 seeds
Zsombor Velcz and Devin Badenhorst, Baylor
Cooper Williams and Theo Winegar, Duke
Youcef Rihane and Alex Bulte, Florida State
Pedro Vives and Lui Maxted, TCU

The ITA announced the six players who will compete for the United States at the Master'U BNP Paribas international team competition later this month in France: Savannah Broadus (Pepperdine), Sebastian Gorzny (Texas), Amelia Honer (UCSB), Mary Stoiana (Texas A&M), Gavin Young (Michigan), and Michael Zheng (Columbia).

All six are competing this week at the NCAA championships. Zheng, Gorzny and Honer are new members of Team USA; Stoiana, Young and Broadus were on last year's championship team. Robin Stephenson of Washington and Andrew Rueb of Harvard are coaching the team.  

When I spoke to Maya Joint, the Texas freshman, earlier this month in Midland, she told me she is playing for the Australian team this year.

The ITA's announcement, with comments from Stoiana and Honer, is here.

American juniors won four ITF Junior Circuit singles titles last week, with unseeded 16-year-old Gavin Goode winning the biggest one: the J100 in Zapopan Mexico. Goode defeated No. 6 seed Yubel Ubri 6-0, 1-0 ret. in the all-USA final for his second singles title on the ITF Junior Circuit; the first was at the J60 last month in South Carolina. He is up to 257 in the latest ITF junior rankings.

The ITF J300 in Zapopan is underway, with Oliver Bonding of Great Britain and Mika Buchnik of Israel the top seeds. The seeds begin play Tuesday. This is the warmup event for the J500 in Merida, which is next week, followed by the J300 in Bradenton and the J500 Orange Bowl, which closes out the 2024 ITF junior calendar. 

At the J60 in San Diego last week, 15-year-old Andrew Johnson won his third ITF singles title, all this fall, with just one loss, in the second round of the ITF J300 Pan Am, in the 18 matches he's played since the beginning of October. Johnson, the top seed, beat qualifier Tyler Lee 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-3 in the final. Johnson is now up to 275 in the ITF junior rankings.

Fourteen-year-old wild card Armira Kockinis, the reigning USTA National 14s champion, won her first ITF Junior Circuit title in just her third tournament, defeating UCLA recruit Kayla Chung, the top seed, 6-3, 2-6, 6-0 in the final. 

Chung and Elena Zhao, who were unseeded, won the doubles title, beating unseeded Kara Garcia and Sephi Sheng 7-6(5), 6-2 in the final. It's Chung's tenth ITF Junior Circuit doubles title with seven different partners.

The boys doubles title was won by Adrien Abarca and Andre Alcantara, who defeated Lee and Justin Riley Anson 2-6, 6-4, 13-11 in the final. It's the seventh ITF Junior Circuit doubles title for Alcantara and the first for Abarca.

Fifteen-year-old Shaan Majeed won his second J30 title in as many weeks in Montego Bay Jamaica, with the No. 3 seed defeating top seed Matthew Shapiro 7-5, 6-2 in the all-US final. Majeed has now won ten consecutive matches, all in straight sets, in the past two weeks.

Shapiro and Jake Khera, the No. 2 seeds, won the boys doubles title, beating unseeded Nishith Rajesh and Kamil Stolarczyk 7-6(11), 6-3 in the all-US final.

At the J30 in Lima Peru, 16-year-old Alessia Franco won her second ITF Junior Circuit doubles title, with partner Olivia Chela of Poland. The No. 3 seeds defeated unseeded Samantha Alvarez of Chile and Luciana Trigosso of Bolivia 6-0, 7-6(3) in the final. 

The USTA issued the final update on their annual Australian Open wild card challenge race. Today's release:

ORLANDO, Fla., November 18, 2024 – Nishesh Basavareddy’s fifth ATP Challenger Tour final of the 2024 season this past week in Champaign, Ill., proved to be enough to catapult the 19-year-old to the top of the final men’s Challenge standings.

 

Basavareddy fell to fellow American Ethan Quinn in the final of the USTA Pro Circuit Challenger 75 event, which moved him past Chris Eubanks and Nicolas Moreno de Alboran. Quinn finished fourth.

 

Basavareddy will likely be joined by fellow American teenager Iva Jovic in the main draw in Melbourne next year.

 

​See below for the final standings:

 

 

Final Men's Standings

(Player's current ranking in parenthesis)

 

1. Nishesh Basavareddy (152) -- 110

2. Chris Eubanks (107) -- 93

3. Nicolas Moreno de Alboran (109) -- 91

4. Ethan Quinn (110) -- 87

5. Aidan Mayo (362) -- 81

 

Final Women's Standings

(Player's Nov. 18 ranking in parenthesis)

 

1. Sofia Kenin (86) -- 395

2. Hailey Baptiste (92) -- 240

3. Caroline Dolehide (81) -- 164

4. Bernarda Pera (75) -- 149

5. Iva Jovic (207) -- 141

6. McCartney Kessler (68) -- 117

7. Ann Li (97) -- 104

 

The USTA and Tennis Australia have a reciprocal agreement in which main draw wild cards for the 2025 Australian Open and US Open will be exchanged.


Note that the ATP rankings for Ethan Quinn and Aidan Mayo are incorrect. Quinn is currently 204, not 110, and Mayo is 304, not 362.

Posted by Colette Lewis at 8:30 PM 0 comments

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Sunday, November 17, 2024

Quinn, Mayo, Boyer Claim Challenger Titles; Americans Sweep All USTA Pro Circuit Tournaments, with Rapolu Winning Third Straight Title at Austin W50; Fritz Falls in ATP Finals, Puetz Captures Doubles Title

Ethan Quinn had lost three Challenger matches to Nishesh Basavareddy, two of them this fall, but he rekindled that rivalry today, with the 2023 NCAA singles champion defeating the fifth-seeded Stanford junior 6-3, 6-1 in the final of the ATP Challenger 75 in Champaign Illinois for his first Challenger title.

After Basavareddy had played so well in his 6-1, 6-1 win over Eliot Spizzirri in the semifinals, clinching the USTA's reciprocal Australian Open wild card, he struggled with his serve in the final, ending with 11 double faults. The 20-year-old Quinn, who left Georgia after winning the NCAA title as a freshman, hadn't been in a Challenger final since February, but he was outstanding all week in Champaign, getting his first ATP Top 100 win in the first round against top seed Adam Walton, his first of five straight-sets. Against Basavareddy, he saved all ten of the break points he faced, coming from 0-40 down in back-to-back service games in the first set. Quinn is now up to a career-high 204 in the ATP rankings, guaranteeing himself a spot in the Australian Open qualifying to start the year. 

Americans won three of the five Challengers this week, with Tristan Boyer(Stanford) earning his third at the 100 in Montevideo Uruguay, and Mayo capturing his first at the 75 in Drummondville Canada.

Boyer, 23, who was unseeded, defeated the No. 8, No. 2 and No. 4 seeds en route to the final, all in straight sets, where he beat No. 5 seed Hugo Dellien of Bolivia 6-2, 6-4. Boyer is now up to a career-high 120 in the ATP rankings. 

Mayo, 21, had made one Challenger final before this week, at Charlottesvile last year. In Drummondville, he won four matches in three sets, including today's final, where he defeated recent Virginia graduate Chris Rodesch of Luxembourg 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. Mayo got his second ATP Top 100 win in the opening round against No. 2 seed Aleks Kovacevic(Illinois), who retired at 2-6, 7-6(3), 2-1. Although shy of his career-high ATP ranking of 268, Mayo is up to 304, which should keep him out of Challenger qualifying in 2025.

Recent University of Texas graduate Malaika Rapolu returned to her home courts in Austin with her first two ITF women's World Tennis Tour titles, both of them coming at W15s in Mexico last month. At this week's W50, Rapolu extended that winning streak to 15 matches, beating fellow wild card Kari Miller(Michigan) 6-4, 6-2 in today's final. The 21-year-old Texan, who was 1249 in the WTA rankings when she finished school in May, is now up to 564 in the live rankings with this title.

Ohio State sophomore Aidan Kim will begin his pursuit of an NCAA singles title next week in Waco with the confidence that comes from a first Pro Circuit singles title. The 19-year-old from Michigan took advantage of playing on his home courts this week at the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Columbus, with the No. 5 seed beating No. 3 seed Aristotelis Thanos of Greece 7-5, 6-1 in today's final. Thanos, a sophomore at Michigan State, is also heading to the NCAA tournament, with play beginning Tuesday.

One current collegian who did not qualify for the NCAAs this fall is Southern California junior Emma Charney, but she now has a nice consolation prize with her first Pro Circuit title this week at the W15 in Clemson South Carolina. The 21-year-old has played only seven Pro Circuit tournaments, all but one in her two homes in Southern California or South Carolina. This week she won seven matches without dropping a set, coming through qualifying while defeating the No. 2 and No. 1 seeds. The latter win came in today's final, where she beat former North Carolina All-American Sara Daavettila 7-6(4), 7-6(3). 

Charney wasn't the only Trojan to claim a title this week, with Stefan Dostanic, an All American at USC in 2022, who is expected to finish his eligibility at Wake Forest this spring, earning his second $15,000 title. The 23-year-old, seeded No. 4, defeated qualifier Ilgiz Valiev of Russia 6-4, 6-2 in today's final in Boca Raton Florida.

It was déjà vu for Taylor Fritz today in the Nitto ATP Finals final against Jannik Sinner, with the Italian repeating his 6-4, 6-4 victory in group play earlier in the week in the championship match. Sinner is the first player to win the title without dropping a set since Ivan Lendl in 1986. With his appearance in the final, Fritz will move to a new career-high ATP ranking of 4.

As happened at last week's women's WTA Tour Finals, a former collegian captured the men's title in doubles today, with 2011 Auburn All-American Tim Puetz taking the Nitto ATP Final title with fellow German Kevin Krawietz. The first all-German team to claim the year-end title, the eighth-seeded Puetz and Krawietz got their second win of the week over No. 1 Marcelo Arevalo(Tulsa) of El Salvador and Mate Pavic of Croatia in today's final, 7-6(5), 7-6(6).

Posted by Colette Lewis at 8:36 PM 0 comments

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Saturday, November 16, 2024

USA Sweeps Billie Jean King, Junior Davis Cup Titles; Basavareddy Wins Australian Open Wild Card; Fritz Reaches ATP Final; NCAA Draws Posted; Wild Cards Reach W50 Final in Austin

2024 Junior BJK Cup and Junior Davis Cup Champions
left to right: Ciara Frame, Georgi Rumenov, Kristina Penickova
Tyra Grant, Julieta Pareja, Jack Kennedy, Jack Secord, Keaton Hance, Jose Caballero (photo courtesy USTA)

So much news today in American tennis, so let's get to it, with the lead story the Junior Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup titles for the USA teams in Turkey.

The US boys claimed their first title since 2014, beating Romania 2-0. Keaton Hance earned the first point, at No. 2 singles, with a 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-0 win over Alejandro Mateo Berg Nourescu, giving Jack Kennedy the opportunity to close out the match at No. 1 singles. Kennedy, the Kalamazoo 18s finalist, didn't drop a set in any of his five matches leading up to the final, and he continued that dominance against Yannick Theodor Alexandrescou, taking a 6-3, 6-2 victory after trailing 2-0 in the second set.  The US boys didn't play a single doubles match that mattered, going 12-0 in singles matches; the only point they lost was in a dead doubles match in the round robin group.

The boys finished in time to cheer on the girls, who were in the unprecedented position of being behind on the scoreboard this week when Julieta Pareja lost to Romania's Giulia Popa 7-5, 6-4 at No. 2. singles. But Tyra Grant quickly put the US back in control, beating Maia Bercescu 6-2, 6-1 and with the three-time junior slam doubles champion on tap for the deciding doubles, the drama was minimal. Pareja and Grant blitzed through the first set 6-1, only to have Burcescu and Popa jump out to a 2-0 lead in the second set. But the US girls tied it at 2, had a deciding point/match point with Burcescu serving at 4-5 and broke Popa at 5-6 for the clinch. At 30-all Grant poached to set up their first match point and Pareja's backhand winner gave the US girls their third straight Junior Billie Jean King Cup title.

The US girls have dominated the 16U competition, with their last loss coming in 2016, in the final, to an Iga Swiatek-led Polish team. They won in 2017, 2018 and 2019, but could not participate in 2021 as the USTA opted not to enter the competition due to Covid. 

Grant joins Iva Jovic and Connie Ma as players who have won consecutive Junior Billie Jean King Cup titles, but Grant is the only one of those three who played in the final in their first year on the team. 

This is the first time since 2014 that both the boys and girls have won in the same year. The boys team that year consisted of Michael Mmoh, Will Blumberg and Gianni Ross; the girls team was Tornado Black, CiCi Bellis and Sofia Kenin. 

The Czech girls finished third, beating Germany 2-0; the boys bronze medal was shared by Japan and Germany, who were tied at 1-1 after two long singles battles when the anticipated rain arrived. 

You can watch a replay of the both finals at the ITF YouTube Channel, the girls final is here, the boys final is here.

Nineteen-year-old Nishesh Basavareddy, who played two years at Stanford, will be competing in his first slam main draw in Melbourne after claiming the USTA's Australian Open reciprocal wild card with a semifinal victory today at the ATP Challenger 75 in Champaign. Basavareddy, seeded No. 5, rolled past unseeded Eliot Spizzirri(Texas) 6-1, 6-1, the exact same score as his win over Spizzirri in the Tiburon Challenger final in October. 

Basavareddy, who has yet to publicly announce his intention regarding returning to Stanford for his junior year, made the final in Charlottesville, the semifinals in Knoxville and now the final in Champaign in the past three weeks. For those of us who have known him since the 12s, the fact he has been able to stay healthy throughout this summer and fall, and particularly in these deep runs every week at the end of the season, is the most encouraging part of his success. He is now at a career-high 152 in the ATP live rankings.

Basavareddy will play 2023 NCAA champion Ethan Quinn(Georgia), who reached his first Challenger final since February with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over wild card Kenta Miyoshi of Japan, a University of Illinois junior. Quinn's run this week has put him in position to play qualifying at the Australian Open, with his current ATP live ranking at 226. Basavareddy has won all three of their meetings on the Challenger Tour this summer and fall.

The doubles title in Champaign was claimed by top seeds Evan King(Michigan) and Reese Stalder(TCU), who beat unseeded James Davis and James Mackinlay of Great Britain 7-6(3), 7-5 in the final today. It's their 11th Challenger title as a team.

Taylor Fritz defeated ATP No. 2 Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(3) today in the semifinals of the ATP World Finals and will play for the year-end championship against World No. 1 Jannik Sinner of Italy. Sinner, who defeated Fritz 6-4, 6-4 in group play earlier this week, defeated Casper Ruud of Denmark 6-1, 6-2 to reach the finals without the loss of a set. Fritz is the first American to reach the final of the ATP World Tour Finals since James Blake in 2006. For more on today's match, see this article from the ATP website.

The NCAA singles and doubles championships begin Tuesday in Waco, with Baylor hosting the first fall edition of the individual championships. The draws were released today (the seeds were announced on Monday and can be found here), with two women who originally qualified not in the draw: Texas's Ashton Bowers and Oklahoma State's Ange Oby Karjuru. With Karjuru the No. 6 seed, that led to some seeding changes, with Connie Ma of Stanford now No. 6, Julia Fliegner of Michigan now No. 7 and Sofia Johnson of Old Dominion moving up from the 9-16 seeding group to No. 8.  Sarah Hamner of South Carolina then moved up to the 9-16 seeding group. There have been no withdrawals from the men's field. 

Top seed Mary Stoiana of Texas A&M will face the only freshman in the women's field this year (CORRECTION: Valerie Glozman of Stanford, Irina Balus of Duke, Merna Refaat of Auburn and Ariana Pursoo of Texas are all freshmen) in the first round: UCLA's Kate Fakih (Fakih is the only freshman who qualified in the last weekend of tournaments). Men's top seed Sebastian Gorzny of Texas plays Gavin Young of Michigan to open his tournament. Young was No. 7 in the preseason rankings, while Gorzny was No. 30 before his run to the ITA All-American Championships final. 

The women's singles draw is here, the women's doubles draw is here. 

The men's singles draw is here, the men's doubles draw is here.

Two of the women who played in the NCAA singles draw in May, Michigan's Kari Miller and Texas's Malaika Rapolu, will play for the title Sunday at the USTA Pro Circuit W50 in Austin Texas after the two wild cards won three-setters in today's semifinals. Miller defeated unseeded Whitney Osuigwe in just under three hours 6-1, 4-6, 7-5, while Rapolu beat unseeded Haruka Kaji of Japan 2-6, 6-4, 6-0. Rapolu has never been to a pro circuit final above the W15 level; Miller won a W35 in September. 

The doubles title went to unseeded Diae El Jardi of Morocco and Thaisa Pedretti of Brazil, who beat top seeds Osuigwe and Alana Smith(NC State) 6-2, 4-6, 14-12 in today's final. 

Two of the men competing in the NCAA championships next week will face off in the final of the men's USTA Pro Circuit $25,000 tournament in Columbus Ohio. Ohio State sophomore Aidan Kim, the No. 8 seed in Waco, but seeded No. 5 this week on his home courts, defeated No. 2 seed Samir Banerjee(Stanford) 6-0, 4-6, 6-3; Greece's Aristotelis Thanos of Michigan State, unseeded in Waco but the No. 3 seed in Columbus this week, defeated No. 7 seed Derek Pham(Oklahoma State) of Australia 6-4, 7-5. 

Kim and Thanos are in opposite halves of the draw; Banerjee and Kim are in separate quarters. 

The Buckeyes have already picked up one title in Columbus, with Jack Anthrop and Bryce Nakashima winning the doubles championship. The No. 4 seeds defeated No. 3 seeds Adam Jones of Great Britain and Jake Van Emburgh(Oklahoma, Ohio State) 6-3, 6-2. Nakashima qualified for the NCAAs in doubles with Will Jansen. 

At the men's $15K in Boca Raton, No. 4 seed Stefan Dostanic(USC, Wake Forest) ended the run of 17-year-old Benjamin Willwerth, posting a 6-4, 6-4 win in the semifinals. Dostanic will face qualifier Ilgiz Valiev of Russia, who beat No. 3 seed Will Grant(Florida) 6-2, 6-3. 

Wild cards Jeremias Rocco and Santiago Villarruel of Argentina won the doubles title, beating top seeds Miles and Alex Jones 4-6, 7-5, 10-6 in today's final.

At the W15 in Clemson, top seed Sara Daavettila(North Carolina) will play qualifier Emma Charney, a junior at USC. Daavettila beat NC State sophomore Kristina Paskauskas 6-2, 7-5 in the semifinals, while Charney reached her first Pro Circuit final with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Makenna Jones(North Carolina). 

Jones and Daavettila won the doubles title, with the top seeds beating Central Florida teammates Olivia Bergler of Poland and Sofia Biolay of France, the No. 4 seeds, 6-0, 6-4 in the final. 

Posted by Colette Lewis at 9:01 PM 0 comments

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Friday, November 15, 2024

US Teams Face Romania in Junior Davis Cup, Junior Billie Jean King Cup Finals Saturday; Willwerth Ousts Top Seed at Boca Raton $15K; All Collegian Semis at Columbus $25K, Basavareddy Can Clinch AO Wild Card Saturday

The Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup teams from the United States will both play for the titles Saturday after they again shut out their semifinal opponents today.

The girls, who have not lost a match in the five ties they've won this week, defeated the Czech Republic 2-0. with Julieta Pereja winning at No. 2 singles 7-6(6), 3-6, 6-3 over Tereza Krejcova and Tyra Grant clinching the win with a 6-0, 6-1 decison over Julia Pastikova at No. 1 singles. Grant has been outstanding all week, with her 6-3, 6-4 win over US Open girls finalist Wakana Sonobe of Japan in the quarterfinals the closest match she's had all week.

Romania defeated Germany 2-0 to reach the final, the first ever Billie Jean King Cup finals appearance for that country

Grant was on the US team that won the title last year; the girls are looking for their third straight with the only Junior Billie Jean King Cup title they haven't won since 2016 is the one they didn't play in 2021, with the USTA deciding not to send a team that year due to the pandemic.

The US boys will also play Romania in the Junior Davis Cup final. In today's semifinals, they defeated Japan 2-0, with Keaton Hance beating Hyu Kawanishi 6-2, 6-2 at No. 2 singles and Jack Kennedy defeating Ryo Tabata 7-6(11), 6-4 at No. 1 singles.

Romania has never played in a JDC final; the US boys have now made four finals since last winning the title in 2014.

Links to live streaming and live scoring can be found here.

Seventeen-year-old Benjamin Willwerth didn't stop at winning his first match in his first USTA Pro Circuit event this week at the $15,000 tournament in Boca Raton Florida. After taking out former Florida All-American and No. 6 seed Axel Nefve in the second round, Willwerth defeated top seed Peter Bertran(Georgia, South Florida) of the Dominican Republic 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 in today's quarterfinals. Willwerth will now face No. 4 seed Stefan Dostanic(USC, Wake Forest) in the semifinals. The other semifinal will feature No. 3 seed Will Grant(Florida) against qualifier Ilgiz Valiev of Russia.

Three of the participants in next week's NCAA singles championships have advanced to the semifinals of this week's $25,000 men's USTA Pro Circuit event in Columbus Ohio, with the fourth also a current collegian who did not make the NCAA field.

That would be Oklahoma State sophomore Derek Pham of Australia, the No. 7 seed, who defeated wild card Bryce Nakashima, a sophomore at Ohio State, 6-2, 6-2 in today's quarterfinals. Pham will face Michigan State sophomore
Aristotelis Thanos, the No. 3 seed, who beat No. 8 seed Jack Anthrop of Ohio State by the same score.

The Buckeyes do have a representative in the semifinals in No. 5 seed Aidan Kim, who defeated teammate Will Jansen 7-5, 6-4. Kim will play No. 2 seed Samir Banerjee, a junior at Stanford. Banerjee beat former Virginia star Jeffrey von der Schulenburg of Switzerland 6-3, 6-2.

The last of the seeds at the women's W50 in Austin Texas went out in today's quarterfinals, with two recent college graduates advancing to the semifinals.  Former Michigan All-American Kari Miller, a wild card who reached the quarterfinals at the WTA 125 in Midland last week, defeated Jaimee Fourlis of Australia 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4 to set up a meeting with Whitney Osuigwe. Osuigwe defeated No. 8 seed Carol Zhao of Canada 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.

Wild card Malaika Rapolu, the former Texas standout, defeated qualifier Rinon Okuwaki of Japan 6-1, 6-3 and will face Haruka Kaji of Japan, who beat No. 8 seed Sophie Chang 6-1, 6-1.

At the women's W15 in Clemson, top seed Sara Daavettila(North Carolina) ended the run of 14-year-old qualifier Kristina Liutova, posting a 6-3, 6-4 quarterfinal victory. Daavettila will play unseeded NC State sophomore Kristina Paskauskas of Great Britain, who beat teammate Gabriella Broadfoot of South Africa 7-5, 6-7(4), 7-6(5) in three hours and 10 minutes. 

In the bottom half semifinal, qualifier Emma Charney, a junior at Southern Cal, will face former North Carolina star Makenna Jones. Charney defeated NC State freshman Gabia Paskauskas of Great Britain 6-2, 6-2, while Jones came back to beat Georgia junior Sofia Rojas 2-6, 6-2, 6-2.

There are several story lines at the ATP Challenger 75 in Champaign Illinois, but as is usually the case at this final Challenger of the season on the USTA Pro Circuit, the Australian Open wild card overshadows them all.

2023 NCAA champion Ethan Quinn(Georgia) reached his first Challenger semifinal since February today, beating qualifier Micah Braswell 6-2, 6-3, while wild card Kenta Miyoshi of Japan, a junior at Illinois, is into his first Challenger semifinal with a 7-6(3), 6-2 win over Great Britain's Jack Pinnington Jones(TCU). They will play in the first semifinal of the day, with a 3 p.m. Eastern start.

But the stakes are higher in the second semifinal, between No. 5 seed Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) and Eliot Spizzirri(Texas), with Basavareddy able to clinch the USTA's reciprocal Australian Open wild card with a victory over Spizzirri. Spizzirri defeated No. 6 seed Patrick Kypson 6-4, 6-3 to set up a third meeting this fall with Basavareddy. Basavareddy, who avenged his recent loss to Govind Nanda(UCLA) tonight with a 6-2, 6-4 victory, beat Spizzirri 6-1, 6-1 in the Tiburon Challenger final and 6-4, 6-3 in the first round at the Charlottesville Challenger two weeks ago. 

If Basavareddy does not make the final, the wild card will go to Knoxville Challenger champion Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech), who lost to Nanda in the second round last night, but retains his lead for now.

Posted by Colette Lewis at 8:50 PM 0 comments

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