Greif Defeats Top Seed Caruana as Rain Forces Play Indoors at ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed

©Colette Lewis 2016--
Tulsa, OK--

All third round singles matches were played indoors on Wednesday

Rain that began around the starting time of the ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed's third round resulted in a three-hour delay before matches were moved to the six indoor courts at the Michael Case Tennis Center at the University of Tulsa.  All 16 matches were completed inside, with just a few girls matches starting and barely seeing games completed outside before rain forced them inside to wait their turn for courts.

Lukas Greif provided the story of the day, with the reigning Kalamazoo 16s champion taking down top seed Liam Caruana of Italy 7-6(5), 7-6(4) in a tense and well-played contest.

Wild card Greif, playing in just his fifth ITF junior tournament, was pleased with his performance.

"I'm playing really well," said the 16-year-old from Evansville, Indiana. "Today was my best match of the tournament so far. I played really solid and really good on key points."

Greif fell behind 4-0 and 5-1 in the first set tiebreaker, but won six straight points after the change of ends, finishing with a forehand volley winner to give himself a set point, and a crosscourt forehand winner to convert it.

Caruana, an 18-year-old who was playing at the University of Texas at this time last year, destroyed his racquet after dropping that first set, and his anger carried over into the first game of the second set, immediately dropping serve. But he composed himself in the lengthy second game, breaking Greif back, and repeated that after falling behind a break at 4-3.

"He for sure raised his level on his return games," Greif said. "He picked up his level to break back and I kind of let down a little bit, but he played well to get back on serve."

Caruana survived a tough service game at 4-all, saving four break points, but that was the last drama until the tiebreaker.  Up 3-0, Greif lost three straight points but got an unforced error to take a 4-3 lead, then won both points on Caruana's serve to earn three match points. After failing to convert the first with a netted forehand, Greif had another chance on his serve and this time it was Caruana's forehand that found the net.

Greif had never played Caruana before, but said he had seen Caruana play at the International Spring Championships in Carson, which Caruana won.

"I knew a little bit about him," said Greif. "I feel like we play similar games. We're both not the biggest, and we both are solid off both sides, return pretty well. So yeah, I felt like it was a similar matchup, and I just played well on the important points."

Next up for Greif will be Paul Barretto, who took out No. 5 seed Kyrylo Tsygura 6-4, 6-3.  In the other quarterfinal in the top half, No. 4 seed Brian Cernoch will play No. 7 seed Juan Hernandez Serrano of Mexico. Hernandez Serrano defeated No. 10 seed Andrew Fenty 6-3, 6-3, while Cernoch ousted qualifier Boris Kozlov 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.

Two boys in the bottom half of the draw advanced by claiming third set tiebreakers.  No. 6 seed Nicolas Mejia defeated doubles partner Sebastian Korda, the No. 9 seed, 7-5, 6-7(3), 7-6(4) and will play No. 3 seed Alan Rubio Fierros of Mexico, a 6-4, 6-2 winner over No. 13 seed Brian Shi.

No. 11 seed Danny Thomas got by unseeded Tristan McCormick 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(4) and will face unseeded Alex Brown, who defeated Tristan Boyer, also unseeded 7-5, 6-1.

Only two unseeded players remain in the girls draw: Lea Ma and Ann Li, who will play each other in Thursday's quarterfinals.

Ma took out Whitney Osuigwe 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 in a tense encounter featuring many lengthy points, while Li overcame No. 12 seed Hailey Baptiste 7-6(8), 6-0, with the first set featuring every kind of offense and defense imaginable on a tennis court.

The other quarterfinal in the top half will feature top seed Kayla Day against No. 10 seed Abigail Desiatnikov. Day eliminated 14-year-old Katie Volynets 6-1, 6-2, while Desiatnikov outlasted No. 7 seed Sofia Sewing 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.

Day and Desiatnikov played last year in a memorable semifinal match here in Tulsa, with Day saving two match points in a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) victory, but even with Day now the No. 1 junior in the world, Desiatnikov is looking forward to the rematch.

"I think I have even less pressure this year," said Desiatnikov. "She has this title to defend. I'm just going to go out there and play like I've been training. I'm not going to prepare any different than I have been preparing for any other matches. I'm just going to go out there and give it my all and try my best."

Desiatnikov, who is now training with Jim Madrigal in Nashville, said she can see the improvements in Day's game in the past year.

"She's definitely gotten a lot better," the 15-year-old said. "She's fitter, and overall, just a way better player. But I've also progressed my game. I'm doing a lot harder training, harder fitness. At the end of the (training) day my legs are just so tired and that's how you need to feel."

No. 5 seed Ellie Douglas ended the winning streak of last week's Grade 4 Wichita Falls champion Salma Ewing 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 and will play No. 13 seed Elysia Bolton, who edged friend Kolie Allen, a qualifier, 3-6, 7-6(7).

Rounding out the girls quarterfinals are No. 11 seed Dalayna Hewitt and No. 2 seed Natasha Subhash.  Hewitt got her first straight-sets win of the week, defeating unseeded Sabina Dadaciu 6-2, 6-3, while Subhash, for the second match in a row, needed three sets to advance, beating No. 16 seed Elli Mandlik 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 to close out singles play Wednesday night.

The second round of doubles was completed, with matches played both indoors and outdoors, and with temperatures in the mid-50s and a cold breeze, playing indoors was much more comfortable.  The top seeds in both the girls and boys draws advanced to Thursday's quarterfinals, with Day and Sewing beating Sydney Jones and Janice Shin 6-2, 6-4 and Trent Bryde and Cernoch defeating Joshua Bode and Tomas Kopczynski 6-4, 6-4.

Quarterfinal matches begin Thursday at 10 a.m. CDT, with temperatures expected to reach only the mid 60s, and a chance of rain is in the forecast as well.

Ten Seeds Fall in Second Round of ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed in Tulsa

©Colette Lewis 2016--
Tulsa, OK--

After a quiet day on Monday, the winds picked up Tuesday and so did the upsets, with ten seeds--five boys and five girls--eliminated in the second round of ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed.

The biggest names to fall were No. 2 boys seed Trent Bryde, who was beaten by Alex Brown 7-6(5), 6-1 and No. 3 girls seed Morgan Coppoc, who lost to Lea Ma 7-6(2), 6-3.

Brown and Bryde had played in the second round at the Grade B1 Easter Bowl this spring, with Bryde recording a 7-5, 6-0 victory.

"The first set was kind of similar to this time, too. It was pretty close," Brown said. "And then the second set was not very close there too. This time I tried to go more from my forehand to his backhand and attack with my serve, and get into the point better off my returns. Those were the big things."

Brown trailed 4-2 in the tiebreaker, but took the last five points of the set. When the 17-year-old left-hander got back to 4-4, he began to believe that this time, the outcome of the match would be different than their last meeting.

"I was hoping so," said Brown, who has verbally committed to the University of Illinois for 2017. "I was focusing on each point and not really looking ahead, but yeah, I'm glad it turned out that way."

Next up for Brown will be unseeded 15-year-old Tristan Boyer, who defeated No. 16 seed Sangeet Sridhar 6-3, 6-2.  Also missing from that quarter of the draw is No. 8 seed Edson Ortiz Tovar of Mexico, who lost to Tristan McCormick 6-3, 7-6(3).

Qualifiers Boris Kozlov and Paul Barretto both advanced to the round of 16, with Kozlov defeating No. 15 seed Karl Poling 6-3, 6-1 and Barretto downing No. 12 seed Luis Morfin Friebel of Mexico.

Top seed Liam Caruana of Italy advanced with a 6-1, 6-2 decision over qualifier Brian Berdusco and will play Lukas Grief in the third round, after Greif took out Nicaise Muamba of Canada 6-3, 6-2.

Girls top seed Kayla Day played a qualifier for the second day in a row, beating Janice Shin 6-2, 6-4. Day will face 14-year-old Katie Volynets, who defeated fellow wild card Imani Graham 6-3, 6-4.  No. 2 seed Natasha Subhash had her hands full with qualifier Anna Zhang, but pulled out a 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 victory.

USTA 18s Clay Court champion Ann Li defeated No. 8 seed Hurricane Tyra Black 6-3, 6-4 to set up a meeting with No. 12 seed Hailey Baptiste.  The 14-year-old Baptiste trailed McCartney Kessler 5-7, 1-4 before winning six of the next seven games to claim a 5-7, 7-5, 6-1 victory.

Last week's Wichita Falls Grade 4 champion Salma Ewing kept her winning streak going, beating No. 9 seed Victoria Emma 6-4, 6-3 to set up a contest with No. 5 seed Ellie Douglas.

The 15-year-old Ma, who called her win over Coppoc one of her biggest, trailed 5-1 in the first set, but gave all the credit for that lead to Coppoc.

"I thought she was playing really well," Ma said. "I didn't think I was doing stuff wrong, but I thought if I just kept making balls she would break down eventually and she did start missing a lot more.  I think at 5-3 she started to get really tight, she just stopped hitting it and really let me start stepping in more."

The wind picked up in the afternoon, with gusts of 15 mph, so that added an extra element of uncertainty into the later stages of the match, with Ma losing two straight games after taking a 4-1 lead in the second set.

"The wind on one side was blowing really hard one way," said Ma, who splits her training between the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland and the USTA National Training Center East in New York. "You really had to hit through it. I think for both of us, it was tough playing on that side."

Ma will play someone younger than herself in Wednesday's third round: 14-year-old Whitney Osuigwe, who defeated No. 15 seed Layne Sleeth of Canada 7-5, 6-3.

The fifth girls seed falling on Tuesday was No. 6 seed Carson Branstine, but it wasn't her opponent, Sabina Dadaciu, who was responsible. After an incident after her first round match on Monday, which was described to me as "blacking out," Branstine was not cleared by the doctor to return to competition. Branstine didn't want to talk about it, but did not appear pleased with the decision.

The first round of doubles was played on Tuesday afternoon, with top boys seeds Trent Bryde and Brian Cernoch and No. 2 seeds Sebastian Korda and Nicolas Mejia both advancing, although four of the eight seeds did fall.

Girls top seeds Sofia Sewing and Kayla Day had a bye, and No. 2 seeds Branstine and Douglas had to give a walkover to Alexandra Angyalosy and Ryan Peus due to Branstine's medical issue.

Third round matches begin at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.

Day Returns to Tulsa with Year-End No. 1 as Goal; Chrysochos Delivers Wake Forest's First Singles Major at Men's All-American Championships

©Colette Lewis 2016--
Tulsa, OK--

One month ago, Kayla Day was playing on the US Open Grandstand Court, with a full crew of officials, Hawkeye, a DJ and thousands of fans watching her win the girls singles title, both in person and via online streaming.

Fast forward to today in Tulsa, when Day, now the No. 1 junior in the world, was playing qualifier Jessica Aragon, ranked 2243 in the ITF juniors on obscure court five, with no chair umpire, at 8 a.m. in the first round of the ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed.

Day, who managed to record a 6-4, 6-4 victory after being down a break in both sets, was back to defend her title, where her path to the world's top spot began last October, in hopes of holding on to the No. 1 spot when the season finishes in December.

"I want to finish No. 1," said Day, who wasn't aware that she would take that position immediately after she won the girls US Open title. "I won this last year, so I have points to defend and if I finish No. 1, I get more pro tournaments.  Because I'm 17, I only get a certain amount. I playing this, Mexico City (Grade A) and Orange Bowl."

Day admitted it was hard to come back after the success she enjoyed over the summer, winning the USTA 18s Nationals, and with the wild card she received from that, making the second round of the women's US Open, and then following that with her first junior slam title. But she gave Aragon credit for making her work for the win.

"She definitely made a lot of balls and she made me construct points," Day said of her 17-year-old opponent. "I thought my serve was a little off. And she was a lefty too," said Day, who usually is the one with that advantage. "So it's always a little trickier to play lefties, I think. I think in the beginning of both sets, I was trying to go too big on my returns. Towards the end, I just managed to just start off the point and build up to more."

Day said she has noticed people are more aware of her tennis accomplishments post-US Open, especially those in her home town of Santa Barbara, California.

"Now a lot of people know who I am, especially at home," Day said. "They're like, oh, I saw you in the paper. You won the US Open. Before they just knew I played tennis. And now I get like ten questions a day -- are you going pro, or are you going to college?"

Day was among 14 girls seeds who advanced to Tuesday's second round, with only No. 14 seed Alana Smith and No. 4 seed Maria Jose Portillo Ramirez of Mexico eliminated.  Smith lost to 14-year-old wild card Katie Volynets 7-5, 6-1, and Portillo Ramirez retired at 1-6, 6-4 to Chloe Hamlin. Portillo Ramirez also withdrew from doubles due to her injury.

No. 2 seed Natasha Subhash defeated Madeline Meredith 6-4, 7-6(3), while No. 3 seed Morgan Coppoc, a Tulsa resident, needed nearly three hours to advance over 14-year-old wild card Victoria Hu.

The boys lost only one seed in first round action, which extended past 8:30 p.m., with the Case Tennis Center lights getting a workout.

No. 14 seed Caleb Chakravarthi was beaten by Kalamazoo 16s champion Lukas Greif, a wild card, 7-5, 6-2.

Top seed Liam Caruana of Italy defeated Ronan Jachuck 7-5, 6-2 and No. 2 seed Trent Bryde ousted wild card Christian Alshon 6-4, 7-5. Mexico's Alan Rubio Fierros, the No. 3 seed, defeated wild card Jarod Hing 6-3, 6-4 and No. 4 seed Brian Cernoch eliminated qualifier Jayman Jhattu 6-3, 6-1.

Second round action begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday with eight boys matches and four girls matches.

Doubles first round action is also scheduled for Tuesday, with Trent Bryde and Brian Cernoch the top-seeded boys team, and Kayla Day and Sofia Sewing the No. 1 seeds in the girls doubles.

One dangerous unseeded team in the boys doubles draw is Danny Thomas and Lukas Grief.  Thomas, the No. 11 seed in singles, came back for a 4-6, 7-5, 6-0 win over wild card Adam Neff in one of the last matches to finish Monday, with his two recent Futures doubles titles giving him confidence.

"I just figured if I'm going to lose it, why not lose it the way I want to play," said Thomas, who was serving down a set and 3-4, 15-40 before recovering. "I just wanted to go out swinging."

Thomas said last month's trip to Israel and the two titles with former Ohio State Buckeye Connor Smith was "a lot of fun."

"It was a great experience, I loved it out there," said Thomas, who will be 17 next month. "The atmosphere, being out there knowing I'm playing with guys 400, 500 in the world. It was really exciting."

Thomas, who also won his first Futures doubles title earlier this year with Smith, admitted he is now in demand as a doubles partner, and he and Greif have played together before. "We used to play a lot together in the 12s," Thomas said.

While junior matches were going on all around them on Monday morning, the top men's college players were deciding the Saint Francis Health System ITA Men’s All-American Championships.

Wake Forest sophomore Petros Chrysochos defeated Ohio State junior Hugo Di Feo 6-4, 6-0, getting on a roll late in the opening set and keeping the momentum to deliver the first major collegiate singles title in the program's history. The No. 6 seed lost only one set in his six victories and took down top seed Mikael Torpegaard of Ohio State 6-2, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.

In the doubles final, No. 2 seeds Filip Begevi and Florian Lakat of Cal defeated unseeded Jack Findel-Hawkins and Lasse Muscheites of North Florida 6-4, 6-2 in the final. Both teams earned places in the National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships next month.

USC freshman Brandon Holt won the consolation title for those losing in the first round, beating Ronnie Schneider of North Carolina 6-3, 6-4. Holt joins the eight singles quarterfinalists with automatic bids  into the Indoor Championship draw.

For more on today's finals, see the ITA recap.

Tiafoe Claims Stockton Challenger; Di Lorenzo Wins Women's All-American Championships; Di Feo and Chrysochos Meet for Men's All-American Title; ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed Starts Monday

It was one of "those" travel days for me, so I don't have any insight to offer for any of the big matches played today: the Stockton Challenger final, the Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships final and the semifinals of the St. Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American Championships. 

At the $100,000 tournament in Stockton, Frances Tiafoe earned his second Challenger title, both at the $100,000 level, beating Noah Rubin 6-4, 6-2 in today's final.  Tiafoe, the No. 3 seed this week, was 0-3 against the unseeded Rubin in the juniors. With the title, the 18-year-old Tiafoe is expected to hit the Top 100, right on the number, for the first time in his career.

In the Stockton doubles final, No. 2 seeds Sam Groth of Australia and Brian Baker defeated No. 4 seeds Matt Reid and JP Smith of Australia 6-2, 4-6, 10-2.

Farther south in the state of California, Ohio State Francesca Di Lorenzo defeated Ena Shibahara of UCLA 6-4, 6-3 to take the first collegiate major of the 2016-17 school year.  The third-seeded sophomore from Ohio now has now won two majors, after taking the National Indoors last November.  Shibahara, a freshman from California playing in her 11th match in nine days with pre-qualifying and qualifying, fell short of a title, but her debut was certainly an impressive one. She earned a place in the National Indoors next month, as did Vanderbilt's Astra Sharma and North Carolina's Hayley Carter, who reached the semifinals, and Sinead Lohan of Miami, who won the consolation tournament for those losing in the first round.

The doubles title in Pacific Palisades went to the unseeded team of Carter and Jessie Aney of North Carolina, who beat Pepperdine's Luisa Stefani and Apichaya Runglerdkriangkra, the No. 5 seeds, 6-1, 2-6, 11-9 in the final.

For a complete recap, with quotes and photos, see this article from the ITA.

The semifinals of the men's All-American in Tulsa are complete with the final between No. 6 seed Petros Chrysochos of Wake Forest and unseeded Hugo Di Feo of Ohio State.  Di Feo finally ended the run of Texas freshman Christian Sigsgaard 7-6(4), 6-0, who had won 11 matches in eight days in pre-qualifying, qualifying and main draw. Chrysochos, a sophomore, advanced to his first major final with a 7-5, 6-1 win over unseeded Alfredo Perez of Florida.

All four will receive a place in the Indoor Championships next month in New York, along with quarterfinalists, Mikael Torpegaard of Ohio State, Christopher Eubanks of Georgia Tech, Tom Fawcett of Stanford and Florian Lakat of Cal. Also receiving a wild card into the National Indoors will be the winner of tomorrow's consolation final between Brandon Holt of USC and Ronnie Schneider of North Carolina.

The doubles final will feature North Florida's Jack Findel-Hawkins and Lasse Muscheites, who qualified for the main draw, against No. 2 seeds Filip Bergevi and Lakat of Cal.  Findel-Hawkins and Muscheites defeated Gergely Madarasz and Ricardo Medinilla of Purdue 6-2, 6-4, while Bergevi and Lakat fought through No. 3 seeds Skander Mansouri and Christian Seraphim of Wake Forest 6-3, 6-7(4),10-8.

At the $25,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Redding, California, No. 2 seed Francoise Abanda of Canada beat top seed Sachia Vickery 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 to claim the singles title. No. 2 seeds Sabrina Santamaria(USC) and Bosnia's Ema Burgic Bucko(Baylor) took the doubles title, beating Julia Elbaba(Virginia) and Bernarda Pera 6-3, 7-6(4) in the final.

Emina Bektas won her second career ITF Women's Circuit $10,000 title, with the former University of Michigan star, seeded No. 5, beating top seed Victoria Rodriguez of Mexico 6-3, 6-1 in just over an hour. Bektas had claimed the doubles title, with Jessica Wacnik the day before.

In Australia, former University of Virginia All-American Jarmere Jenkins claimed his second straight $25,000 Futures title. Unseeded, Jenkins defeated No. 2 seed Blake Mott of Australia 7-6(2), 7-6(5) in the final. Former Georgia standout Nathan Pasha won the doubles title with Australian Darren Polkinghorne.

The qualifying for the ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed finished today, with the main draw beginning at 8 a.m. Monday at the Case Tennis Center at the University of Tulsa.  The girls qualifiers: Marcella Cruz, Janice Shin, Kolie Allen, Anette Goulak, Peyton Stearns, Anna Zhang, Jessica Aragon and Sydney Jones.  The boys qualifiers: Brian Berdusco, Boris Kozlov, Sean Sculley, Alejandro Rodriguez, Jayman Jhattu, Austen Huang, Paul Barretto and Steven Sun. All 16 are from the US.

The top 8 boys seeds:
1. Liam Caruana(ITA)
2. Trent Bryde
3. Alan Rubio Fierros(MEX)
4. Brian Cernoch
5. Kyrylo Tsygura
6. Nicolas Mejia(COL)
7. Juan Hernandez Serrano(MEX)
8. Edson Ortiz Tovar(MEX)

The top 8 girls seeds:
1. Kayla Day
2. Natasha Subhash
3. Morgan Coppoc
4. Maria Portillo Ramirez
5. Ellie Douglas
6. Carson Branstine
7. Sofia Sewing
8. Hurricane Tyra Black

I'll be on-site tomorrow covering the event.

Rubin, Tiafoe Face Off in Stockton Challenger Final; Shibahara and Di Lorenzo Meet for Women's All-American Title; Men's Top Seeds Out in Tulsa; Lyeons and Ewing Crowned Champions at WIchita Falls ITF

The all-US, all-21-and-under semifinals at the $100,000 Stockton, California Challenger produced straight-sets victories for Noah Rubin and Frances Tiafoe Saturday. The 20-year-old Rubin defeated 18-year-old Michael Mmoh 6-2, 6-3 to advance to his first Challenger final since he won Charlottesville last November. The 18-year-old Tiafoe avenged his loss to 21-year-old Mackenzie McDonald last week in the Tiburon Challenger quarterfinals, beating the NCAA champion 7-6(4), 6-3 to reach his fifth Challenger final of the year.

Rubin and Tiafoe have not played as professionals, but they have played in juniors three times, with Rubin winning all three. The first was back in 2012, when Tiafoe was just 14 in the third round at the ITF Pan American Closed.  The other two were in 2014, at Wimbledon Juniors and Kalamazoo, in the third round and the quarterfinals respectively.  Rubin went on to win all three of those tournaments.

The final is set for the Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships in Pacific Palisades, California with pre-qualifier Ena Shibahara of UCLA facing No. 3 seed Francesca Di Lorenzo of Ohio State.

Freshman Shibahara, who won six match just to reach the main draw, now has 10 wins in eight days. In today's semifinal, the US Open girls doubles champion defeated unseeded Astra Sharma of Vanderbilt 6-3, 6-1.  Di Lorenzo, a sophomore who is the reigning Indoor champion, took down top seed and 2016 NCAA finalist Hayley Carter of North Carolina 7-6(3), 6-2 to advance to the final.

Carter can still collect a title however, as she and Jessie Aney reached the doubles final.  The unseeded pair will face Pepperdine's Luisa Stefani and Apichaya Runglerdkriangkra in Sunday's championship match.

The Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American Championships played their third round and quarterfinal matches today, with both No. 1 seed Mikael Torpegaard of Ohio State and No. 2 seed and defending champion Thai Kwiatkowski of Virginia eliminated. Torpegaard lost in the quarterfinals to No. 6 seed Petros Chrysochos of Wake Forest 6-2 6-4, while Kwiatkowski was defeated by 9-16 seed Florian Lakat of Cal 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 in the round of 16.

Sophomore Chrysochos, the only seed remaining, will play sophomore Alfredo Perez of Florida in the semifinals, after Perez defeated No. 3 seed Christopher Eubanks of Georgia Tech 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 in the quarterfinals.  The other semifinal will feature Ohio State's Hugo Di Feo against Texas freshman pre-qualifier Christian Sigsgaard, who has now won 11 matches in eight days after beating 9-16 seed Lakat  6-3, 7-5 in the quarterfinals.  While it is not unusual for a pre-qualifier to reach the final in the Women's All-American, with that now having happened in three of the past five years, it is extremely rare in the Men's All-American. I can't remember it happening in the nine years I covered the event.  Buckeye junior Di Feo, who is 33 in the ITA preseason rankings, defeated No. 5 seed Skander Mansouri of Wake Forest in the round of 16 and No. 4 seed Tom Fawcett of Stanford 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in the quarterfinals, coming back from 3-0 down in the final set.

Two doubles teams that qualified will play in one men's semifinal with Purdue's Gergely Madarasz and Ricardo Medinilla taking on North Florida's Jack Findel-Hawkins and Lasse Muscheites. In the bottom half semifinal, No. 3 seeds Skander Mansouri and Christian Seraphim of Wake Forest will face No. 2 seeds Filip Bergevi and Florian Lakat of Cal.

At the $10,000 ITF Women's Circuit tournament in Mexico City, former University of Michigan star Emina Bektas has reached the final.  The No. 5 seed defeated No. 2 seed Marcela Zacarias of Mexico 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3 in today's semifinal and will play No. 2 seed Victoria Rodriguez of Mexico in Sunday's final. Bektas has one title regardless of Sunday's outcome as she and former Boston College standout Jessica Wacnik won the doubles title.  The top seeds defeated Alexia Coutino Castillo and Rodriguez, the No. 4 seeds, 6-3, 6-4 in today's final. It is Bektas's fifth doubles title this year, all with different partners, with three of those titles coming in the past four weeks.

No. 1 and No. 2 will meet for the singles title at the $25,000 Redding, California Women's Pro Circuit event, with Sachia Vickery taking on Francoise Abanda. Vickery advanced to the final when qualifier Katie Boulter of Great Britain retired trailing 6-1, 1-0, while Abanda needed two and a half hours to get past Bernarda Pera 6-2, 6-7(4), 7-6(3).

In ITF Junior Circuit action, Jaycer Lyeons and Salma Ewing won the Grade 4 titles in Wichita Falls, Texas.  Ewing, the No. 10 seed, defeated No. 12 seed McCartney Kessler 6-3 6-2, the 16-year-old's first ITF singles title.  The unseeded Lyeons defeated No. 13 seed Christian Alshon 6-4, 6-4, giving the 15-year-old his first ITF singles title.

Alshon did get the better of Lyeons in doubles, with he and Boris Kozlov, seeded No. 6, taking out unseeded Lyeons and Christopher Muniz 6-1, 5-7, 10-5.

The girls doubles title went to unseeded Janice Shin and Elizabeth Tedford, who beat No. 6 seeds Taylor Bridges and Sydney Jones 6-2, 7-5 in the final.

Qualifying will be completed for the ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed in Tulsa on Sunday, with the usual sparse qualifying draws there meaning that some players will need to win only one match to reach the main draw, which begins on Monday. I will be providing on-site coverage beginning then.

Mmoh, Rubin, Tiafoe, McDonald Reach Stockton Challenger Semifinals; Semifinals Set at Women's ITA Riviera All American Championships, Top Seeds Advance at Men's All American

The quarterfinals at the $100,000 ATP Challenger in Stockton, California could hardly have gone better for the young Americans, with four of them, all aged 21 and under, advancing to Saturday's semifinals.

Frances Tiafoe, the only one of the four seeded at No. 3, defeated No. 6 seed Alessandra Giannessi of Italy 7-6(5), 6-3 and will play McDonald, who came back for a 3-6, 7-6(1), 6-4 win over No. 5 seed Denis Kudla. The 21-year-old McDonald, who reached the semifinals last week at the $100,000 by beating Tiafoe,  received a special exemption into this week's tournament and has now earned another for next week's $100,000 event in Fairfield, California.  Regardless of who wins Saturday's semifinal, both McDonald and Tiafoe will reach career highs in their ATP rankings.

The other all-American semifinal will feature 20-year-old Noah Rubin against 18-year-old Michael Mmoh.  After five straight-sets losses to Canadian Frank Dancevic in the past two years, Rubin finally got a win today, taking their quarterfinal 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.  Mmoh avenged his loss to Darian King of Barbados in last week's Tiburon final, adding credence to the theory that Mmoh, a qualifier, was just out of gas in his eighth match of the tournament in that final.  Mmoh defeated King 6-4, 6-4, facing only one break point, which he lost, in the match.

Although the professional head-to-head shows nothing for Rubin and Mmoh, they played two years ago in the semifinals at Kalamazoo, with Rubin winning a tense 7-6(1), 2-6, 7-5 encounter and going on to claim the title, as Mmoh did this year(with much less drama).

Live streaming with commentary by the excellent Mike Cation is available for both matches here.

At the $25,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit event in Redding, California, Danielle Collins' run came to and end.  Collins, who won last week's tournament in Stillwater, Oklahoma, fell to top seed Sachia Vickery 6-4, 6-4 in today's quarterfinals.  Wild card Julia Elbaba, like Collins, a recent Virginia graduate, lost to No. 2 seed Francoise Abanda of Canada 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. Bernarda Pera won her match over German Lauren Schaeder 7-6(6), 6-0 and will play Abanda next.  Vickery gets qualifier Katie Boulter of Great Britain in the semifinals.

At the Saint Francis Health System ITA Men's All-American Championships in Tulsa, the top six seeds have advanced to Saturday's singles round of 16, with only two seeds losing in second round action today.

Qualifier Christian Seraphim of Wake Forest defeated 9-16 seed William Bushamuka of Kentucky 6-4, 6-4 and Alfredo Perez of Florida beat No. 7 seed Arthur Rinderknech of Texas A&M 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.  Seraphim gives the Demon Deacons three players in the round of 16, the most for any school, joining teammates Petros Chrysochos, the No. 6 seed, and No. 5 seed Skander Mansouri.

Top seed Mikael Torpegaard of Ohio State advanced with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Aron Hiltzik of Illinois, but it was definitely more difficult for No. 2 seed and defending champion Thai Kwiatkowski of Virginia, who prevailed over UCLA's Martin Redlicki 3-6, 7-6(3), 7-5.

The remarkable run of Texas freshman Christian Sigsgaard continued, with the 19-year-old from Denmark winning his ninth match in the past seven days.  Sigsgaard defeated Herkko Pollanen of Ohio State 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 to join fellow Texas freshman, qualifier Yuya Ito, in the third round.

At the Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships, two round of singles were played today, with top seed Hayley Carter of North Carolina and No. 3 seed Francesca Di Lorenzo of Ohio State winning both their matches to advance to a semifinal meeting Saturday.  Carter defeated Erin Routliffe of Alabama and Viktoriya Lushkova of Oklahoma State, setting a new school record for most singles wins, while Di Lorenzo got by Lily Miyazaki of Oklahoma and No. 6 seed Belinda Woolcock of Florida.  Di Lorenzo trailed Woolcock 5-0 in the first set before roaring back for a 7-5, 6-2 victory.

In the bottom half of the draw, pre-qualifier Ena Shibahara of UCLA got off to an even worse start than Di Lorenzo, losing the first set of her quarterfinal match with Florida's Kourtney Keegan 6-0, but she then claimed ten games in a row before earning a 0-6, 6-0, 6-2 victory, her ninth in seven days.  After seven consecutive straight-sets victories, the freshman needed three sets in her first match of the day too, beating Vladica Babic of Oklahoma State 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

However inhumane it may seem, Shibahara's run is not unusual. In 2012 Virginia freshman Julia Elbaba came through pre-qualifying to make the final, and the following year, North Carolina freshman Jamie Loeb came through pre-qualifying to win the title.

Shibahara will play Vanderbilt's Astra Sharma in the semifinals, with Sharma taking out North Carolina freshman Sara Daavettila and Pepperdine's Mayar Sherif Ahmed.

The doubles semifinals are set for Saturday, with the unseeded team of Carter and Jessie Aney facing Northwestern's Alex Chatt and Maddie Lipp, the No. 7 seeds, in the top half. In the bottom half, No. 2 seeds and NCAA champion Keegan and Brooke Austin of Florida will play Pepperdine's No. 5 seeds Luisa Stefani and Apichaya Runglerdkriangkra.

Matches will be streamed for both All-American Championships at FloTennis.com, with a subscription payment required for viewing.