Eleven Americans advance to the final round of qualifying for the Australian Open; Smith continues to win at Winston-Salem M25; USTA’s Lake Nona Campus Expansion Plans Approved

Six of the nine American men and five of the seven American women in Wednesday’s second-round action advanced, with Nishesh Basavareddy (Stanford) scoring the most dramatic victory. Basavareddy, whose ATP rankings plummeted after failing to defend his semi-final points at the ATP 250 in Auckland this time last year, trailed No. 19 seed Sebastian Ofner of Austria 7-1 in the final set tiebreak.

Ofner, apparently forgetting that all slam tiebreakers now require ten points instead of seven, celebrated and started walking to the net for the handshake when the referee told him the match wasn’t over yet. Basavareddy won eight of the next nine points to reach match point, but he could not convert, and Ofner had match points at 10-9 and 11-10, which he did not convert, with Basavareddy taking the last three points.

Results from Wednesday’s Australian Open second round qualifying:

Last week’s champion, Keegan Smith (UCLA), has extended his winning streak to 11 games. The 27-year-old from Southern California, who won an M15 in New Zealand last month, defeated wildcard Marcel Latak, the reigning Kalamazoo 16s champion, 6-3, 6-2.

Last week’s finalist Shunsuke Mitsui (Tennessee) of Japan lost today, falling to former teammate Alex Kotzen (Columbia, Tenn.), a qualifier, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(5).

Wild card Matt Forbes, a sophomore at Michigan State, breezed past No. 7 seed DK Suresh 6-1, 6-1. The Wake Forest senior reached the quarterfinals of the ATP Challenger in India last week, so that travel may have been a factor.

Wake Forest newcomer Aryan Shah of India was the top seed, but he was defeated 6-1, 4-6, 6-0 today by Wake Forest junior Luca Pow of Great Britain, who reached the semifinals last week, also as a wild card. No. 2 seed Daniel Milavsky (Harvard) lost to Quinn Vandecasteele (Oregon) 6-3, 6-3 on Tuesday and No. 3 seed Raphael Perot (Texas A&M) of France lost to Wake Forest freshman Mees Rottgering of the Netherlands 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 Tuesday. That leaves Smith at No. 4 as the highest seed remaining.

The fourth wild card went to Wake Forest sophomore Charlie Robertson of Great Britain, who lost to Alan Magadan (UT-San Antonio) of Mexico 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Jack Kennedy, a semifinalist last week, lost to Strong Kirchheimer (Northwestern) on Tuesday, 2-6, 7-6(2), 6-1.

Just over a year ago, when the NCAA announced that the USTA National Campus had been given a 10-year anniversary grant to host the Division I team event beginning in 2028, that announcement was accompanied by a promise from the USTA that infrastructure improvements would be made. The first step in these improvements, which include six additional indoor courts, with seating for all twelve indoor courts, shade for the outdoor courts and permanent scoreboards, came this week when Orlando’s Development Review Committee approved the USTA’s plans.