Osuigwe Wins Second Straight Grade 1 Title at Banana Bowl; Loeb Claims $60K in Australia; Semis Set at ITA Women's Team Indoor

Whitney Osuigwe  (photo courtesy Banana Bowl twitter)

Whitney Osuigwe's winning streak on the South American clay has reached ten matches after the 14-year-old Floridian defeated top seed Emily Appleton of Great Britain 7-5, 6-4 to capture the ITF Grade 1 Banana Bowl title in Brazil.  Osuigwe won last week's Grade 1 tournament in Paraguay and in her ten victories she has lost only two sets.  I spoke to Osuigwe's father Desmond, a coach at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, after her title last week in Paraguay for this USTA Florida article.

No. 9 seed Marko Miladinovic of Serbia won the boys title, the 16-year-old's first at the Grade 1 level, beating Thiago Seyboth Wild of Brazil 6-3, 6-4.

The two Banana Bowl doubles championships were guaranteed to go to Americans, with all four teams from the US.  Unseeded Elysia Bolton and Vanessa Ong defeated No. 5 seeds Osuigwe and Hailey Baptiste 4-6, 6-4, 10-5 in the girls championship match, while No. 2 seeds Gianni Ross and Danny Thomas won the boys title, beating unseeded Alexandre Rotsaert and Sangeet Sridhar 4-6, 6-3, 10-6. It's the second ITF Grade 1 title this year for Ross and Thomas, who won the Coffee Bowl last month.

The final rounds of qualifying for the Grade A Campeonato Internacional Juvenil de Tenis in Porto Alegre Brazil are Sunday, with Katie Volynets and Peyton Stearns one win away from the girls main draw, and Arnav Dhingra the one US boy who can advance to the main draw with a victory.

2015 NCAA champion Jamie Loeb won the biggest title of her pro career at the $60,000 ITF Women's Circuit event in Launceston Australia. Seeded No. 6, Loeb defeated No. 4 seed Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia 7-6(4), 6-3 in the final, after beating top seed Xinyun Han of China in the quarterfinals and No. 5 seed Asia Muhammad in the semifinals, both wins coming after she dropped the opening set. Loeb, who turns 22 next month, will move up to around 155 in the WTA rankings with the title, a career high.

The ITA Women's Team Indoor Championships quarterfinals were played today, with the top two seeds Florida and North Carolina advancing, along with No. 5 seed Georgia and No. 6 seed Ohio State.

No. 1 Florida defeated unseeded Texas Tech 4-1, and will face SEC rival Georgia, who took out No. 4 Pepperdine by the same score.

No. 2 North Carolina eliminated defending champion and No. 7 seed Cal 4-2 and will play Ohio State, who won the only 4-3 match of the day, against No. 3 seed Oklahoma State.

For more on the day's matches, see the ITA tournament page.

Connor Smith Returns from Injury; Elbaba Feature; Osuigwe Reaches Banana Bowl Final; Texas Tech Ousts Vanderbilt at Women's Team Indoor

©Colette Lewis 2017--
Orlando FL--

I spent the day at the opening round of qualifying of the $15,000 Orlando Futures, being played at the USTA's new National Campus.

With a full 128 draw, there was no shortage of matches to watch, and I admit I wasn't familiar with the majority of competitors. Many mismatches resulted, including 50-year-old wild card Anthony Fortunati's 6-1, 6-0 loss to 15-year-old Govind Nanda or Mexico's Rodrigo Reyna's 6-0, 6-0 loss to Michael Zhu.

Some lopsided scores could be attributed to bad draws. Certainly drawing No. 2 seed Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia, the ITF's No. 1 junior, was bad luck for Jack Vance.  Although the two teens played some entertaining points and a couple of close games, the 17-year-old Kecmanovic, who has already won a Futures title this year on Florida clay, came away with a 6-1, 6-1 victory.

Former St. John's standout Vaidik Munshaw of India also wasn't favored by the draw gods, finding himself facing top seed Connor Smith, whose ATP ranking has been as high as 200.   Smith was hardly in top form, however, as the former Ohio State Buckeye was recovering from a broken shoulder he sustained last November in a Futures in El Salvador.

"I ran into a net post, hit something and went shoulder first into the net post," said the 26-year-old from Tampa. "After that I was going to play the Columbus Challenger. I was lucky, I didn't have to have surgery, but I fractured something, tore something, and was out for a while."

Smith, who trains at Saddlebrook, wasn't planning to play singles in his first tournament of the year.

"I was just going to play doubles, but then I decided at the last minute that I'll go sign in for Qs," Smith said. "I literally got in the car yesterday, and said, yeah, I'll do it. David [ITF supervisor Littlefield] gave me a wild card, or I wouldn't have gotten in, because there were so many people here."

Against Munshaw, who was known for his doubles play while at St. Johns, Smith got a workout despite the 6-3, 6-0 score.

"He was having fun, hitting a lot of drop shots," said Smith, who, despite his layoff, was in better shape than his opponent. "I wasn't having too much fun chasing them. It was good exercise. I was actually nervous, because I didn't know if I was going to get in, and then I had to wait until [sign in] closed, and I was like, do I really want to do this?"

One of Smith's motives for making the short drive east was to see the USTA's new National Campus.

"I kind of wanted to check out this place," said Smith. "It's crazy. It's super impressive. It kind of fits in for Orlando, because there's amusement parks everywhere and it's like the tennis amusement park."

Smith was one of several players I spoke to who were wide-eyed at the facility's scope and quality.  The only negative mentioned was the near constant air traffic overhead, with plane after plane, landing gear down, making its final approach to the Orlando airport. Often there were three or four planes within a 10-minute span and never a gap of more than nine minutes.  But the many positives include water dispensers, phone charging stations and rest rooms all easily accessible to the courts,  along with a grill, an observation deck with seating and the Tennis Channel on TV, plus courtside seating on nearly every court. On a sunny 70-degree day, the place sparkled.

"It has a new flavor to it, that new car smell," Smith said.

When I was in Midland for the Dow Tennis Classic, I had the opportunity to chat with former University of Virginia All-American Julia Elbaba about her first few months on the pro tour.  We talked about how college helped her mature, what stroke she improved the most in college and how she is trying to keep from obsessing about her tennis now that she no longer has the balance provided by academic requirements.  One way she is processing all her new experiences is through her blog, which can be found here.  My interview with Elbaba is available at the Tennis Recruiting Network.

Fourteen-year-old Whitney Osuigwe aims for her second consecutive Grade 1 title Saturday at the Banana Bowl in Brazil.  Osuigwe, the No. 11 seed, defeated No. 12 seed Hailey Baptiste 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 and will face top seed Emily Appleton of Great Britain in the final. Appleton ended the run of unseeded Victoria Flores, defeating Flores 1-6 7-6(2), 6-4.

Baptiste and Osuigwe, the No. 5 seeds, will take on unseeded Vanessa Ong and Elysia Bolton in the all-USA girls doubles final.

No. 6 seed Gianni Ross lost in the semifinals to unseeded Thiago Seyboth Wild 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-2. Seyboth Wild's opponent will be No. 9 seed Marco Miladinovic of Serbia.

The boys doubles final is also an all-American affair.  Ross and Danny Thomas, the No. 2 seeds, will play unseeded Alexandre Rotsaert and Sangeet Sridhar.

The first day of the ITA Women's Team Indoor saw seven of the eight seeds advance to the quarterfinals. No. 8 Vanderbilt's 4-2 loss to Texas Tech was the only match that did not go according to seeding.

Round of 16
Florida[1] def. Michigan 4-1
Texas Tech def. Vanderbilt[8] 4-2
Pepperdine[4] def. Texas A&M 4-2
Georgia[5] def. Duke 4-1
Ohio State[6] def. Auburn 4-1
Oklahoma State[3] def. Ole Miss 4-0
Cal[7] def, Georgia Tech 4-0
North Carolina[2] def. Yale 4-0.

See the ITA tournament page for more on today's action.

Grade 1 Banana Bowl Semifinals Feature Four Americans; Qualifying for Orlando Futures Begins Friday; New Tennis Recruiting Network Site for College Tennis

The semifinals are set for Friday at the ITF Grade 1 Banana Bowl, with three US girls and one US boys advancing to the final four.

No. 6 seed Gianni Ross, who has been the highest seed remaining since the second round, defeated No. 15 seed Alexandre Rotsaert 6-2, 7-5 in Thursday's all-US quarterfinal.  Ross will face unseeded Thiago Seyboth Wild of Brazil for a place in the final.

In the girls semifinals, doubles partners Whitney Osuigwe and Hailey Baptiste will meet for the second time in ITF junior play, with Osuigwe winning their previous meeting last year at a Grade 4.  Today, No. 11 seed Osuigwe defeated No. 15 seed Draginja Vukovic  6-1, 6-2, the second straight week Osuigwe has downed the Serbian, after beating her in the final of the Grade 1 Asuncion Bowl.  Baptiste, seeded No. 12, beat No. 13 seed Anhzelika Isaeva of Russia 6-2, 0-6, 6-1.  Unseeded Victoria Flores joined them in the semifinals, beating unseeded Layne Sleeth of Canada 6-1, 6-0 to reach her first Grade 1 semifinal.  Flores will face top seed Emily Appleton of Great Britain, who defeated No. 10 seed Ann Li 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.

Baptiste and Osuigwe, the No. 5 seeds in doubles, are through to the semifinals, where they will face unseeded Alexa Noel and Peyton Stearns. Unseeded Elysia Bolton and Vanessa Ong have also advanced to the semifinals.  In the boys doubles, the unseeded team of Rotsaert and Sangeet Sridhar have advanced to the semifinals, as have No. 2 seeds Danny Thomas and Ross.

I am in Orlando, where I'll be checking in on the $15,000 Men's USTA Pro Circuit event at the USTA National Campus.  Qualifying begins tomorrow morning, with no byes in a 128-player qualifying draw. Former Ohio State standout Connor Smith, who took a wild card, and ITF No. 1 junior Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia are the top seeds in qualifying.

At the $100,000 ATP Challenger in San Francisco, Frances Tiafoe[1], Michael Mmoh, qualifier Eric Quigley and Denis Kudla[6] are the Americans through to the quarterfinals, with Reilly Opelka playing his second round match later tonight.

Noah Rubin[7] and Mitchell Krueger have advanced to the semifinals of the $75,000 ATP Challenger in Launceston Australia. Daniel Nguyen is playing his quarterfinal tonight. The $60,000 ITF Women's Circuit event in Launceton has Americans Asia Muhammad[5], Jamie Loeb[6] and Kristie Ahn in the quarterfinals, all in the top half of the draw.

The Tennis Recruiting Network is participating in the new USTA Division I team rankings, and they have added a website explaining how they come up with the rankings they submit every week.  Check out their introduction on TRNet or go to the website, SLAM.tennis.

Six Americans Advance to Quarterfinals at Grade 1 Banana Bowl; New Division I Rankings, with Ohio State's Di Lorenzo and Wake Forest's Chrysochos Retaining No. 1 Spots

The quarterfinals are set in the ITF Grade 1 Banana Bowl in Brazil, with four US girls and two US boys advancing with third round victories today.

Three of the girls are seeded, and none of four play each other in Thursday's quarterfinals.

No. 10 seed Ann Li defeated No. 5 seed Maria Jose Portillo Ramirez of Mexico 6-3, 6-3; No. 11 seed Whitney Osuigwe downed No. 6 seed Fernanda Labrana of Chile 6-3, 6-4 and No. 12 seed Hailey Baptiste beat No. 8 seed Anastasia Iamachkine of Peru 6-1, 6-2.  Victoria Flores, the only unseeded American, reached the second Grade 1 quarterfinal of her career, both coming this year, with a 6-3, 6-3 win over No. 7 seed Viktoria Morvayova of Slovakia. Top seed Emily Appleton of Great Britain, who faces Li on Thursday, is the only single digit seed remaining.

No. 12 seed Patrick Kypson and No. 8 seed Danny Thomas were beaten today, but No. 15 seed Alexandre Rotsaert and No. 6 seed Gianni Ross have advanced to the boys quarterfinals.  Ross defeated No. 11 seed Axel Geller of Argentina 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(3) and Rotsaert eliminated unseeded Matias Soto of Chile 6-1, 7-5. Rotsaert and Ross will play each other in the quarterfinals Thursday.

In doubles, Elysia Bolton and Vanessa Ong took out top seeds Appleton and Thaisa Pedretti of Brazil 6-3, 7-6(9) in the second round. Four all-USA girls teams have advanced to Thursday's doubles quarterfinals, along with Flores, who is playing with Argentina's Paula Baranano. Two all USA boys teams remain in doubles, along with Sam Riffice, who is playing with Brazil's Thiago Seyboth Wild.

The ITA Men's Division I team rankings were released today, but due to this weekend's National Team Indoor, there are no ITA team rankings for women.

ITA Men's Team Top 10 (previous ranking in parentheses)
1. Virginia (1)
2. Wake Forest (2)
3. Ohio State (3)
4. Cal (4)
5. North Carolina (7)
6. Florida (11)
T7. UCLA (6)
T7. Northwestern (9)
9. USC (8)
10. Georgia (5)

The USTA's first poll was released today, with eight college tennis experts submitting their votes.  For the full Top 25 and an explanation of the vote tallying, click on the header link. The ITA's release is here.

USTA MEN'S TOP TEN: (votes received in parentheses)
1. Virginia (146)
2. Ohio State (140)
T3. Wake Forest (135)
T3. Florida (135)
5. California (114)
6. USC (112)
7. UCLA (110)
T8. North Carolina (108)
T8. Northwestern (108)
10. Georgia (94)

USTA WOMEN'S TOP TEN:
1. Florida (149)
2. North Carolina (143)
3. Stanford (129)
4. Pepperdine (128)
T5. Ohio State (126)
T5. Oklahoma State (126)
7. Georgia (116)
8. California (105)
9. Vanderbilt (99)
10. Georgia Tech (93)

Individual rankings were released today for the first time in five weeks with Francesca DiLorenzo of Ohio State retaining her No. 1 ranking. The big movers were Vanderbilt's Sydney Campbell, who went from 19 to 8 and Stanford's Melissa Lord, who was unranked in January, but now is 13.  The ITA's release is here.

ITA Women's Singles Top 10: (previous ranking in parentheses)
1. Francesca DiLorenzo, Ohio State (1)
2. Sara Daavettila, North Carolina (3)
3. Ena Shibahara, UCLA (4)
4. Astra Sharma, Vanderbilt (2)
5. Hayley Carter, North Carolina (5)
6. Sinead Lohan, Miami (6)
7. Luisa Stefani, Pepperdine (8)
8. Sydney Campbell, Vanderbilt (19)
9. Blaire Shankle, Baylor (7)
10. Viktoriya Lushkova, Oklahoma St (11)

ITA Women's Doubles Top 5:
1. Aldila Sutjiadi  and Mami Adachi, Kentucky (1)
2. Hayley Carter and Jessie Aney, North Carolina (2)
3. Kate Fahey and Alex Najarian, Michigan (4)
4. Christine Maddox and Mayar Sherif Ahmed, Pepperdine (3)
5. Vladica Babic and Carla Tur Mari, Oklahoma State (11)

Not much change in the men's Top 10, with the only newcomer in the Top 10 Florida's Alfredo Perez.

ITA Men's Singles Top 10: (previous ranking in parentheses)
1. Petros Chrysochos, Wake Forest (1)
2. Mikael Torpegaard, Ohio State (2)
3. Nunon Borges, Mississippi State (T6)
4. Christopher Eubanks, Georgia Tech (9)
5. Christian Sigsgaard, Texas (T6)
6. Mike Redlicki, Arkansas (3)
7. Tom Fawcett, Stanford (8)
8. Hugo Di Feo, Ohio State (5)
9. Alfredo Perez, Florida (13)
10. Skander Mansouri, Wake Forest (4)

ITA Men's Doubles Top 5:
1. Christian Seraphim and Skander Mansouri, Wake Forest (1)
2. Jack Findel-Hawkins and Lasse Muscheites, North Florida (12)
3. Filip Bergevi and Florian Lakat, Cal, (2)
4. Jathan Malik and Kevin Wong, Michigan (6)
5. Arjun Kadhe and Julian Cash, Oklahoma State (5)

Full rankings can be found by clicking on the headers above.

Top Five Boys Seeds Exit in Grade 1 Banana Bowl Second Round, Ong Ousts No. 2 Seed in Girls Second Round Action; Florida Top Seed at ITA Women's Team Indoor

Today was the first day that seeded players took the court at the ITF Grade 1 Banana Bowl in Brazil and it didn't end well for many of them.

The top five boys seeds lost their opening matches to players who already won a first round match on Monday, leaving No. 6 seed Gianni Ross as the the highest seeded player in the boys draw.

Top seed Yuta Shimizu of Japan lost to Matias Soto of Chile 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(2).  No. 2 seed Sam Riffice was beaten by Juan Otegui of Argentina 7-5, 6-4, No. 3 seed Oliver Crawford fell to Sergio Hernandez Ramirez of Colombia 6-4, 6-3, No. 4 seed Tomas Etcheverry of Argentina went out to Javier Rodriguez Sanchez of Peru 6-3, 6-2 and No. 5 seed Francisco Vittar of Argentina lost to Thiago Seyboth Wild of Brazil 6-3, 6-4.

In addition to Ross, who earned a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Mateus Alves of Brazil, three other US boys advanced to the the third round.  No. 8 seed Danny Thomas beat wild card Igor Gimenez of Brazil 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, No. 12 seed Patrick Kypson defeated Moerani Bouzige of Australia 6-2, 6-2 and Alexandre Rotsaert downed Juan Hernandez Serrano of Mexico 6-1, 6-3.  No. 14 seed Alafia Ayeni and unseeded Sangeet Sridhar, the other two American boys in the draw, lost, with Ayeni falling to Nicolas Mejia of Colombia 7-6(5), 6-4 and Sridhar going out to No. 7 seed Gabriel Decamps of Brazil 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.

The girls seeds fared much better in their second round matches, but No. 2 seed Yang Lee of Taiwan was eliminated, with 15-year-old Vanessa Ong posting a 6-2, 6-3 win. Ong, who reached the quarterfinals of the US Open Junior Championships last September as a lucky loser, is one of three unseeded American girls in the round of 16, along with 17-year-old Victoria Flores and 14-year-old Victoria Hu. Flores defeated No. 9 seed Lulu Radovcic of Switzerland 7-5, 6-4 and Hu took out No. 16 seed Sofia Munera Sanchez of Colombia 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Last week's Grade 1 Asuncion Bowl champion Whitney Osuigwe, the No. 11 seed this week, advanced with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Daniela La Fuente Straassburger of Bolivia.  No. 12 seed Hailey Baptiste defeated Funa Kozaki of Japan 6-2, 7-6(2) and No. 10 seed Ann Li beat Ania Hertel of Poland 6-2, 7-6(6).

Qualifiers Alexa Noel and Katie Volynets lost their second round matches, as did Katya Townsend, Lea Ma and No. 14 seed Elysia Bolton.

The order of play for Wednesday, draws, and news can be found at the tournament website.

The ITA Women's National Team Indoor Championship begins Friday, with Yale hosting the event this year. Top-ranked Florida is the No. 1 seed.  Friday's pairings:

Florida[1] v Michigan 3:30 pm
Vanderbilt[8] v Texas Tech 3:30 pm
Pepperdine[4] v Texas A&M 6:30 pm
Georgia[5] v Duke 6:30 pm
Auburn v Ohio State[6] 9:00 am
Ole Miss v Oklahoma State[3] 9:00 am
Georgia Tech v Cal[7] noon
Yale vs North Carolina[2] noon

The seedings do vary from last week's rankings. No. 4 Stanford is not playing, so Vanderbilt moves into the No. 8 spot, with Georgia, Ohio State and defending champion Cal moving up one spot.  Pepperdine, which lost to Florida last weekend, dropped from 3 to 4, with Oklahoma State moving from 5 to 3.

The ITA's preview can be found here.

FloTennis will be providing streaming coverage that requires a subscription.  For more information, see their website.

Georgia Tops 2017 Women's Recruiting Class Rankings; ITF Grade 1 Banana Bowl Features 20 American Juniors in Second Round

The Tennis Recruiting Network released its 2017 Women's Winter Recruiting Class rankings, with Georgia finishing in the No. 1 spot, followed by UCLA, LSU, Duke and Columbia.  Unlike the men's rankings published last week, where only one point separated No. 1 Cal from No. 2 Florida, this vote was not particularly close, with Georgia taking 14 of the 19 first place votes.  Georgia has blue chips Morgan Coppoc and Annette Goulak as well as Serbia's Katarina Jokic, who has been ranked as high as 604 in the WTA rankings, committed to the Bulldogs.

The ITF Grade 1 Banana Bowl is underway in Brazil, with eight US boys and 14 US girls reaching the 48-player draws.  All but one of the US boys is seeded and had byes into the second round: Sam Riffice[2], Oliver Crawford[3], Gianni Ross[6], Danny Thomas[8], Patrick Kypson[12], Alafia Oyeni[14] and Alexsandre Rotsaert[15].  The only unseeded US boy, Sangeet Sridhar, won his first round match over qualifier Gabriel Currlin of Switzerland 6-2, 7-6(3).  Yuta Shimizu of Japan is the top boys seed.

Four US girls qualified into the main draw, joining the ten direct entries. Katie Volynets and Alexa Noel won their opening round matches today, both in three sets, with Volynets defeating Moyuka Uchijima of Japan 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 and Noel rebounding for a 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 win over Vitoria Okuyama of Brazil.  Qualifiers Chloe Beck and Camille Townsend dropped their first round matches today, but they were the only US players to lose.  In addition to Volynets and Noel, the other US girls advancing to the second round with wins today are Victoria Hu, Victoria Flores, Katya Townsend, Chloe Hamlin, Vanessa Ong and Lea Ma.

The seeded US girls, who had byes into the second round, are Ann Li[10], Whitney Osuigwe[11], Hailey Baptiste[12] and Elysia Bolton[14]. Emily Appleton of Great Britain is the top girls seed.

For draws and order of play, see the tournament website. The tournament is also providing update scores via twitter @bananabowl

There are no USTA Pro Circuit events this week, but there is a $100,000 ATP Challenger in San Francisco.  Qualifying was completed today, with Canadian Brayden Schnur(UNC), Raymond Sarmiento(USC) and Eric Quigley(Kentucky) moving into the main draw. Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz are the top two seeds.