ITF J1 Eddie Herr Qualifying Begins Saturday; Ngounoue Advances to Semifinals at JA in Merida; Seeds Struggle at USTA National Indoor Championships

©Colette Lewis 2022--
Bradenton FL--

Last year's Eddie Herr International Junior Championships were held in the midst of construction on the IMG Academy's new tennis and basketball facility, but this year all the inconveniences are in the rearview mirror. Two stadium courts, one hard and one Har-Tru, will be in use throughout the tournament, and five indoor courts were being used for qualifying today in the 12s, 14s, and 16s division. There are also four new red clay courts, which won't be used this week, with the ITF J1 held on the same Har-Tru courts as before, with the addition of the stadium court.

Due to rain and wet courts earlier in the week, the second round of qualifying for the younger divisions was still going on after dark this evening; the third round will be Saturday and the fourth and final round will take place Sunday.

Both qualifying draws for the ITF J1 are full, with play beginning at 8:30 on Saturday. Top seed in the boys qualifying, with an ITF junior ranking of 153, is Gonzalo Zeitune of Argentina. Marko Mesarovic is the top seed among Americans, at No. 3. The top seed in the girls qualifying is Antonia Vergara Rivera of Chile, ranked 168. Three Americans follow her in the seedings, Kaitlyn Rolls, Alexia Harmon and Maya Iyengar.

The singles quarterfinals are still in progress at the JA in Merida Mexico. Cooper Williams, the No. 7 seed, is the only American boy still in contention for a title, having reached the singles quarterfinals and the doubles semifinals, with partner Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez of Mexico.

Three US girls advanced to the quarterfinals: No. 5 seed Clervie Ngounoue, No. 9 seed Mia Slama and unseeded Ariana Pursoo. Ngounoue advanced to the singles semifinals with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-0 win over No. 16 seed Mingge Xu of Great Britain. Slama and Pursoo are playing each other in the quarterfinals later tonight in the bottom half, so another American semifinalist is assured. Ngounoue is also competing in the doubles semifinals tonight, with partner Amelie Smejkalova of the Czech Republic. 

The USTA National Indoor Championships began today and will run through Monday. Most age divisions had two rounds of singles today, so not all the draws are updated for those second round matches. Below are the top 8 seeds in each division, along with notations on those who have already lost. Click on age division to go to each draw.

B18s Overland Park Kansas

1. Dylan Tsoi (lost 1st rd)

2. Tygen Goldammer (lost 2nd rd)

3. Connor Smillie (lost 1st rd)

4. Alex Fuchs

5. Stephan Gershfeld

6. Sanjeev Chundu (lost 1st rd)

7. Caden Hasler

8. Greyson Casey (lost 1st rd)

G18s Indianapolis Indiana

1. Valerie Glozman

2. Stephanie Yakoff

3. Esha Velaga

4. Natasha Rajaram (lost 2nd rd)

5. Kaitlyn Carnicella 

6. Maddy Zampardo

7. Audrey Spencer (lost 2nd rd)

8. Amber Yin (lost 1st rd)

B16s Chicago Illinois

1. Brody Nejedly Krall (lost 1st rd)

2. Krish Gupta 

3. Nolan Balthazor (lost 1st rd)

4. Dominick Mosejczuk

5. Nicolas Patrick

6. Troy Kudrjavtsev

7. Ian Mayew

8. Evan Burnett (lost 1st rd)

G16s Minneapolis Minnesota

1. Kristina Penickova

2. Catherine Shen

3. Rachel Lee

4. Leena Friedman

5. Grace Li

6. Kaede Usui

7. Sophia Holod

8. Annika Penickova

B14s Chicago Illinois

1. Jack Secord

2. Liam Alvarez

3. Colin McPeek (lost 2nd rd)

4. Ilias Bouzoubaa

5. Shaan Patel

6. Abraham Rosett (withdrew, illness)

7. Roshan Santhosh (lost 2nd rd)

8. James Quattro

G14s Toledo Ohio 

1. Christina Lyutova

2. Isabelle DeLuccia

3. Alyson Shannon

4. Kaia Giribalan

5. Brooke Kwon

6. Kori Montoya

7. Victoria Mann (lost 1st rd)

8. Carrie-Anne Hoo

B12s Indianapolis, Indiana

1. Antanas Daugis

2. Diego Custodio

3. Zesen Wang

4. Dylan Meineke

5. Advay Singh

6. Karan Shanker

7. Aryan Ponugoti (lost 1st rd)

8. Aayush Vartak

G12s Manchester, Massachusetts

1. Lani Chang

2. withdrew

3. Aarini Bhattacharya

4. Priscilla Sirichantho

5. Kathryn Cragg

6. Michelle Lee (lost 1st rd)

7. Grace Hong

8. Camilla Olga Castracani

Happy Thanksgiving from Zootennis! NCAA Delays Decision on Moving Division I Individual Championships to Fall

Photo by Oxana Melis on Unsplash

As we head into the Thanksgiving holiday, I'd like to thank everyone for reading Zootennis and making it a part of your tennis information gathering. If you can, please consider a donation to support my travel expenses (Paypal link is here) and make your Tennis Warehouse purchases through the link to the left. In addition, I'd like to say thank you to Junior Tennis Champions Center, Southern California Tennis Foundation and the John McEnroe Academy for supporting my work through their advertising. Please take a moment to click on their advertising banners to learn about their offerings.

I'll be taking tomorrow off, but will be back Friday with updates from the ITF Grade A in Merida Mexico and links to the USTA National Indoor Championships, which begin Friday at locations around the country.

John Parsons has provided the news that the NCAA's Competition Oversight Committee has delayed a decision on the ITA's recommendation that the Division I individual championships to the fall. Check out his tweet on the subject here, and follow his no ad no problem instagram account for more updates on the topic. 

More Division I NLI Signings; Final USTA Australian Open Wild Card Standings; US Davis Cup Team Takes on Italy Thanksgiving Day

National Letter of Intent Signings will continue to be announced over the next few weeks, but this will probably be my last post of them, with the upcoming Florida tournaments occupying my attention for the rest of the year. My first post with signings, on Thursday November 10th can be found here; I posted an additional set of signings a week ago, on November 15th.

WOMEN:

Arizona State has signed Emilija Tverijonaite of Lithuania.

Maryland has signed Diya Challa.

North Carolina has signed Theadora Rabman. 

Oklahoma has signed Tiantsoa Sarah Rakotomanga Rajaonah of France.

Rice has signed Anushka Ashar.

Utah has signed Kat Lyman, a graduate transfer from Xavier.

MEN:

Arkansas has signed Gerard Planelles Ripoll of Spain and Connor Smillie. Planelles Ripoll will start in January.

Boise State has signed Teague Burger, a transfer from Bryant, and Idriss Haddouch of Belgium.

Georgia has signed Ignacio Buse of Peru.

Ohio State has signed Bryce Nakashima, brother of Next Gen ATP Champion Brandon Nakashima.

Stanford has signed Nicholas Godsick, Kyle Kang and Hudson Rivera.

Tennessee has signed Nicolas Kobelt of Switzerland. 

TCU has signed Duncan Chan of Canada, Julian Alonso of Spain and Kaj Quirijns of Switzerland. 

Wisconsin has signed Collin Beduhn, Matthew Fullerton, Tomas Zlatohlavek of the Czech Republic and Oliver Olsson of Germany. 

The USTA announced the final standings of its annual Australian  Open Wild Card Challenge for men and women. It's likely that the wild cards will end up going to Christopher Eubanks and Taylor Townsend. Today's press release:

Final Standings -- Australian Open Wild Card Challenge   ORLANDO, Fla., November 22, 2022 – The final standings for the men's and women's Australian Open Wild Card Challenge are below. Ben Shelton and Caty McNally finished first but are both likely to earn direct entry into Melbourne. The wild cards will go to the highest-finishing players who do not earn direct entry. Each player's point total and current ranking (in parenthesis) are below:     Men   1. Ben Shelton (No. 97) -- 240 2. Chris Eubanks (No. 124) -- 130 3. Tennys Sandgren (No. 272) -- 107 4. Michael Mmoh (No. 110) -- 87   Women   1. Caty McNally (No. 94) -- 189 2. Madison Brengle (No. 59) -- 161 3. Taylor Townsend (No. 131) -- 130 4. Alycia Parks (No. 150) -- 126   The USTA and Tennis Australia have a reciprocal agreement in which main draw wild cards for the 2023 Australian Open and US Open will be exchanged.   Wild card recipients will have to follow all Australian Open protocols as it relates to quarantine or vaccination.

The United States Davis Cup team will play Italy Thursday in the quarterfinals of the 2022 competition in Spain. The winner of that match will take on the winner of the quarterfinal between Germany and Canada, also Thursday. In the first quarterfinal match of this final stage, Australia defeated the Netherlands 2-0 today and will play the winner of tomorrow's match between Croatia and Spain. 

The team members for Italy and the United States can be found here.

Bowers Sweeps in Bolivia, Earns Second Straight J2 Singles Title; Bhakta, Dunyon and Chandler Also Go Back-to-Back on ITF Junior Circuit; Campana Lee and Moyano Top Seeds as ITF JA Merida Begins

Two weeks ago, Americans claimed 16 titles on the ITF Junior Circuit; last week they went one better, with 17 titles, including the three I covered on Saturday at the J1 in Guadalajara Mexico.

Ashton Bowers won the singles and doubles titles last week at the J2 in La Paz Bolivia, after claiming the singles title last week in Cochabamba Bolivia. The 17-year-old from Georgia, seeded No. 3, defeated No. 2 seed Tania Andrade Sabando of Ecuador 6-1, 6-0 in the final. The only set she lost in either week was in the semifinals to Naomi Xu of Canada, who was the No. 1 seed both weeks.

For some reasons the points from Cochabamba are showing as "non countable," for both Xu and Bowers, so Bowers' ranking didn't improve as it normally would, but she is at 113 in the ITF rankings now. 

Bowers, who has verbally committed to Auburn, partnered with Katie Rolls to take the doubles titles in La Paz, with the No. 3 seeds beating the unseeded team of Sara Alba Verastegui and Maria Vargas Triana of Colombia 6-3, 6-3 in the final.

Ria Bhakta won her second straight title at a J4, this week in Guatemala, with the top-seeded 17-year-old defeating No. 2 seed Nicole Alfaro of Costa Rica 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the final. Bhakta won the singles and doubles last week at the J4 in El Salvador. 

Americans also claimed the doubles titles in El Salvador last week, with unseeded Amy Lee and Paola Lopez defeating No. 2 seeds Nina Marcela Chavez Vicente of Guatemala and Sofia Corte Real of Portugal 7-6(5), 4-6, 10-7 in the final. It's the first ITF Junior Circuit title for both Lee, 15, and Lopez, 16.

Humza Noor won his first ITF Junior Circuit title in doubles, partnering with Daniel Phillips of Bermuda. The No. 2 seeds, who didn't drop a set all week, defeated No. 3 seed Samuel Heredia and Cesar Mahecha of Colombia 6-2, 6-4 in the final. 

In Cameroon, Jane Dunyon won her second J5 singles title in as many weeks there, with the unseeded 16-year-old defeating 13-year-old Lucy Oyebog Atang, the No. 5 seed, 7-6(1), 6-0 in the all-USA final. Oyebog Atang and her partner Stad Fani Fanyi Nformi of Cameroon, the No. 1 seeds, defeated No. 2 seeds Charnelle Fozo of Cameroon and Farah Heddar of Algeria 6-0, 6-2 to claim their second consecutive doubles title in Cameroon J5s.

The fourth member of the quartet to take back-to-back singles titles is 15-year-old Summer Chandler, who won another J5 in Jamaica this week. Chandler, who was unseeded, won seven of her ten sets played this week by a 6-0 score; she lost a total of eight games in her five matches. In the final, she defeated unseeded 13-year-old Kalista Papadopoulos, also of the US, 6-0, 6-1. Chandler and Linda Ziets Segura of the US won their second straight doubles title as well. Rain must have been a problem during the week, as the score in another all-US final was 8-1 over Papadopoulos and Ana Avramovic. 

The remaining two singles titles won by Americans last week came on home soil at the J5 in San Diego. 

Playing in his first ITF Junior Circuit tournament, 16-year-old Trevor Svajda, younger brother of ATP 260 and two-time Kalamazoo 18s champion Zachary Svajda, won it without loss of a set. Svajda, a wild card, lost just 12 games during the tournament, beating qualifier William Semler 6-2, 6-3 in the final. 

No. 6 seed Bianca Molnar won her first ITF Junior Circuit title, with the 16-year-old Californian defeating No. 2 seed Alexis Nguyen 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(4) in the final. 

Molnar fell just short of both titles in San Diego, with USTA 16s National singles champion Alyssa Ahn and partner Emily Deming taking the doubles championship over Molnar and Krisha Mahendran of India. The wild cards won their first ITF Junior Circuit titles with a 6-0, 6-4 decision over the No. 2 seeds.

And the seventeenth American title of the week belongs to Aayush Bhat, who won a J4 doubles title in India last week with partner Aman Dahiya of India. Bhat, who now has six ITF Junior Circuit doubles titles, and Dahiya, the top seeds, defeated No. 4 seeds Venkat Rishi Batlanki of the US and Chandan Shivaraj of India 6-2, 6-4 in the final.

The ITF Grade A in Merida Mexico is underway with first round matches in singles and doubles. 

Gerard Campana Lee of Korea is the top boys seed, with his first round opponent tonight Jonathan Irwanto of the United States. They met in the final of the most recent Grade A in Osaka Japan, with Campana Lee taking it 6-3, 5-7, 6-4. 

American boys in the draw in addition to Irwanto are qualifiers Ariel Zauber and Carel Ngounoue, Meecah Bigun, Kaylan Bigun, Roy Horovitz, Kurt Miller, Adhithya Ganesan, Quang Duong, Evan Wen and No. 7 seed Cooper Williams. 

Although matches go late into the evening at this event, some first round results have been posted. Ngounoue, the Biguns, and Duong lost their first round singles matches, Williams and Ganesan have won theirs. (Correction: Williams plays his first round match Tuesday). 

Twenty-three US girls reached the main draw, including qualifiers Oziera Ahmad, Mia Saveljic, Ava Bruno and Briana Baldi. Ginger Foster received the lucky loser spot when Wimbledon girls finalist Luca Udvardy of Hungary, who was to be the No. 2 seed, withdrew. Wild card Luciana Moyano of Argentina is the top seed.

The other US girls in the main draw are Valeria Ray, Ava Krug, No. 5 seed Clervie Ngounoue, wild card Daniela Livson, Victoria Osuigwe, Ahmani Guichard, Kaitlin Quevedo, Arina Oreschenkova, Maya Iyengar, No. 7 seed Tatum Evans, Martina Marica, No. 14 seed Theadora Rabman, Sage Loudon, Alexia Harmon, Brooke Lynn Schafer, No. 9 seed Mia Slama, Anya Murthy and Ariana Pursoo. 

Krug, Ngounoue, Guichard and Slama have advanced to the second round, with Livson, Osuigwe, Iyengar, Evans and Marica losing their first matches.

USTA Pro Circuit Titles for Bernard and Michelsen; Lilov Claims First Title at $15K in Peru; Shelton Makes History with Third Straight Challenger Title; Ram and Salisbury Champions at ATP Finals

Three teens from the United States claimed their first pro singles titles today, with 19-year-old Alexander Bernard winning the $25,000 tournament in Columbus Ohio, 18-year-old Alex Michelsen winning the $15,000 tournament in East Lansing Michigan and 18-year-old Victor Lilov winning the $15,000 tournament in Lima Peru. 

No. 5 seed Bernard, playing in his first Pro Circuit final, captured the title when qualifier Matej Vocel of the Czech Republic retired trailing 2-6, 6-1, 3-1. Bernard, a freshman at Ohio State, won three of his five matches during the week from a set down. Vocel, 25, played at Ohio State last season, after transferring from Oklahoma State for his final year of eligibility. Bernard, the 2019 Kalamazoo 16s champion, should move inside the ATP Top 600 when the points are added.

Michelsen, who won the doubles title yesterday with Learner Tien, got his second career title today, with the No. 3 seed defeating unseeded Alex Kotzen(Columbia) 7-6(2), 6-1. Michelsen, who lost in the final of the $15K in Winston-Salem a week ago, has gone 13-3 this fall in main draw matches on the Pro Circuit, including his first ATP Challenger main draw victory. He should be right around 600 in the ATP rankings when the points are added.

Lilov has been playing on South American clay this fall, with his best showing before this week a quarterfinal in early October. But this week in Peru, he defeated the No. 2 seed in the semifinals, and today beat top seed Jorge Panta of Peru 2-6, 6-3, 6-1. Lilov has won two ITF World Tennis Tour men's doubles title this year.

The $15,000 men's Pro Circuit tournament in Boca Raton Florida will finish on Monday, due to rain, with No. 5 seed Blu Baker of Great Britain facing unseeded Arvid Nordquist(Mississippi State) of Sweden for the singles title. Baker and Auburn senior Finn Murgett, also of Great Britain, won the doubles title Saturday, with the No. 4 seeds defeating No. 2 seeds Younes Lalami Laaroussi(Old Dominon) of Morocco and Brandon Perez(Virginia Tech/Nebraska) of Venezuela 3-6, 7-6(3), 10-8.

At the $15,000 women's USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Waco Texas, former Tulsa standout Martina Okalova of Slovakia won her first title, beating No. 8 seed Victoria Hu(Princeton) 6-3, 6-2. A qualifier, the 25-year-old won seven matches in seven days, losing only one set. 

At the ATP Challenger 80 in Champaign Illinois, current NCAA singles champion Ben Shelton overcame a shocking start in the final against Aleks Vukic of Australia, recovering to claim his third straight title in as many weeks with a 0-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory. Vukic, a former star at the University of Illinois, played well in the first half of the contest, but once Shelton found his forehand form, Vukic was unable to match that level. 

With the title, the 20-year-old Shelton enters the ATP Challenger record books as the youngest player to ever win three consecutive Challenger titles, and has now broken into the ATP Top 100 for the first time at 97.  That means the former Florida Gator will not need the Australian Open Wild Card he won in the USTA's annual challenge, and it will go to Shelton's good friend Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech), who finished second. Shelton's ATP ranking was 548 when he won the NCAA title in May, in Champaign.

Michael Mmoh lost in the final of the Drummondville Canada Challenger today, with Vasek Pospisil of Canada winning that match 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-4. 

US Open champions Rajeev Ram(Illinois) and Great Britain's Joe Salisbury(Memphis) won the doubles title today at the ATP Finals, defeating Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic of Croatia 7-6(4), 6-4. Ram and Salisbury went undefeated throughout the group and knockout stages and earned the largest payday in doubles history: $930,000. Salisbury is the first British player to win the ATP finals; Ram is the 18th American to do so. For more on today's match, see this ATP article.  

Novak Djokovic won the singles title, defeating Casper Ruud 7-5, 6-3 for his sixth championship at the year-ending event.

Quevedo, Pursoo and Williams Win ITF J1 Guadalajara Titles; Michelsen, Bernard Reach Pro Circuit Finals; Shelton to Play for Third Straight Challenger Title in Champaign; Fritz Loses to Djokovic in Semis of ATP Finals

Kaitlin Quevedo won her first ITF Grade 1 title today in Guadalajara and did it in style. In six matches, the 16-year-old from Naples Florida lost just 20 games, and four games in her last two matches. Today against No. 8 seed Mingge Xu of Great Britain Quevedo posted a 6-0, 6-2 victory after taking out top seed Ella Mcdonald of Great Britain 6-2, 6-0 in the semifinals Friday. Quevedo is certainly one to watch as the junior circuit heads into the final two Grade As, with the Eddie Herr in between. As of now, Quevedo is entered in all three. 

An American boy was guaranteed to win the boys doubles title, with Cooper Williams nabbing his fourth title of the year, all at J1s or JAs, today with Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez of Mexico. The No. 2 seeds defeated unseeded Cooper Woestendick and Roy Horovitz 6-2, 6-1 in the final.

An American girl was also guaranteed a J1 title in Guadalajara when Quevedo and partner Piper Charney won their semifinal last night, but the No. 7 seeds fell to the unseeded pair of Ariana Pursoo and Mexico's Carolina Alonso 1-6, 6-4, 10-7 in today's final. It's Pursoo's second ITF Junior Circuit doubles title. 

Qualifying began today for next week's Grade A in Merida Mexico.

Alex Michelsen has reached his second straight $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit final, with the 18-year-old from Southern California defeating No. 5 seed Mitchell Harper(Virginia Tech) of Australia 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 in East Lansing. Michelsen, the No. 3 seed, will face Columbia junior Alex Kotzen in the final, after Kotzen defeated LSU junior Ron Hohmann, a qualifer, 6-3, 7-6(7). It is the first Pro Circuit final for Kotzen.

Michelsen and Learner Tien both won their first Pro Circuit titles today, with the unseeded pair, who train together in Irvine California, claiming the doubles title in East Lansing. Michelsen and Tien defeated the unseeded British team of Josh Goodger(Tulsa/Florida) and Emile Hudd(Tennessee) 6-4, 6-3. 

Ohio State freshman Alex Bernard reached his first USTA Pro Circuit final today in his new collegiate home with a three-hour,  win over former Ohio State All-American and No. 4 seed John McNally 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 6-3 at the $25K in Columbus. The 19-year-old from Florida, seeded No. 5, will play qualifier Matej Vocel of the Czech Republic in Sunday's final. Former Oklahoma State star Vocel, who played his fifth-year at Ohio State in 2021-22, defeated Alexander Cozbinov(UNLV) of Moldova 6-2, 6-3 in the other semifinal.

McNally did get a title in his collegiate hometown however, taking the doubles final with partner Eduardo Nava(TCU/Wake Forest). The No. 2 seeds defeated the unseeded pair of current Oregon Ducks Joshua Charlton(AUS) and Quinn Vandecasteele 6-4, 6-4. 

At the women's $15,000 tournament in Waco, No. 8 seed Victoria Hu(Princeton) is through to her first Pro Circuit final, defeating 16-year-old Lexington Reed 7-6(1), 6-4 in today's semifinals. The 20-year-old Hu, who turned pro after her freshman year in 2021-22, will face former Tulsa standout Martina Okalova of Slovakia in the final. Okalova, a qualifier, defeated No. 4 seed Maria Kozyreva(St. Mary's) of Russia 2-6, 6-4, 6-1. 

In the doubles final, No. 2 seeds Alicia Herrero Liana(Baylor) of Spain and Maria Kononova(North Texas) defeated unseeded Melany Krywoj(Baylor) of Argentina and Baylor freshman Vanda Vargova of Slovakia 4-6, 6-3, 10-7. 

Current NCAA champion Ben Shelton is through to his third consecutive ATP Challenger final in as many weeks after defeating No. 7 seed Aleks Kovacevic(Illinois) 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-4 in Champaign. The 20-year-old left-hander from Gainesville Florida, seeded No. 4, bombed a career-high 25 aces to get his second win over Kovacevic in the past three weeks. Shelton, up to 105 in the live rankings, will face another former Illinois star in No. 6 seed Aleks Vukic, who prevented a third straight final between Shelton and Christopher Eubanks with a 7-6(7), 6-4 win today over the former Georgia Tech star. If Shelton wins tomorrow, he should move into the ATP Top 100, which means he will not need the Australian Open wild card he clinched yesterday. Eubanks is currently in second place, so he would receive it.

In the Champaign doubles final, top seeds Robert Galloway(Wofford) and Mexico's Hans Hach Verdugo(Abilene Christian) earned the title, beating unseeded Zeke Clark(Illinois) and Alfredo Perez(Florida) 3-6, 6-3, 10-5. 

Michael Mmoh can't move ahead of Eubanks in the race, but the 24-year-old is getting closer to the Top 100 and direct entry after reaching the final of this week's ATP Challenger 80 in Drummondville Canada. No. 2 seed Mmoh, currently 109 in the live rankings, will face No. 3 seed Vasek Pospisil of Canada for the title Sunday. 

In Drummondville doubles, the British team of Julian Cash(Mississippi St/Oklahoma St) and Henry Patten(UNC-Asheville) won their eighth Challenger title of the year, tying a record, when they defeated unseeded compatriots Arthur Fery(Stanford) and Giles Hussey(Georgia St/Tennessee) 6-3, 6-3 i the final. 

The ATP Finals in Turin Sunday will feature Novak Djokovic and Casper Ruud in singles. Djokovic defeated Taylor Fritz 7-6(5), 7-6(6) in today's semifinals, while Ruud took out Andre Rublev 6-2, 6-4. In tomorrow's doubles final, Rajeev Ram(Illinois) and Great Britain's Joe Salisbury(Memphis) will face Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic of Croatia. Ram and Salisbury, who are undefeated this week, lost in the championship match at last year's ATP Finals to Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut of France.