Five Americans advance to semifinals of ITF J300 Ecuador; Gaines reaches Palm Coast M15 quarterfinals; Four qualifiers advance to Orlando W50, seven Americans reach Cleveland Challenger quarterfinals; UTR Pro Tennis Tour update

The semi-finals will be played on the ITF J300 in Salinas Ecuadorwith three American girls and two American boys still competing for singles titles.

Top seed Michael Antonius, who won the J300 title in Colombia last week, defeated qualifier Koki Nara of Japan 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 in today’s quarter-finals. For the second week in a row, he will play Canadian No. 3 seed Xavier Massotte in the semifinals. Massotte, who lost 6-3, 6-0 to Antonius last week, defeated Christopher Thies of Germany 6-4, 7-5. Unseeded Navneet Raghuram advanced to his first J300 semi-final with a 1-6, 6-0, 6-4 win over Japan’s Takahiro Kawaguchi. He will play No. 8 seed Lucas Yunez of Ecuador, who defeated No. 2 seed Mathys Domenc of France 7-6(6), 6-1.

No. 6 seed Yael Saffar defeated No. 2 seed Pietra Rivoli of Brazil 6-3, 6-1 and will face No. 3 seed Janae Preston, who knocked out Lani Chang 6-3, 6-2. Preston, who won the ITF J300 title in Costa Rica two weeks ago, did not play against the Colombia J300 last week.

The player preventing a second all-American semifinal is Sona Depesova of Slovakia, who defeated qualifier Kathryn Cragg 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(5). She will play No. 7 seed Sarah Ye, who defeated Great Britain’s Daniella Britton 7-5, 6-4.

Antonius and Kawaguchi, the No. 2 seeds, will play for their second straight doubles title on Friday.

After earning his first ATP point with a win yesterday, 16-year-old Jerrid Gaines Jr didn’t stop there and advanced to Friday’s quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Charles Bertimon (VCU) of France at the M15 in Palm Coast, Florida. He will next play against unseeded Fermin Tenti from Argentina.

Andy Johnson lost to No. 5 seed Ignacio Monzon of Argentina 6-2, 6-1. Top seeds Andrew Fenty (Michigan) and Ryan Colby (USC, Georgia) are the two Americans, alongside Gaines, in the quarterfinals.

At the W50 in Orlandothere are four qualifiers and only two seeds left after today’s second round. Qualifier Sofia Cabezas (Iowa State, Tenn.) defeated Stanford freshman Monika Ekstrand 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 and will play LSU sophomore Kayla Cross of Canada, the No. 5 seed. Cross obviously won’t be in Chicago for her team’s first-round game against Tennessee, which also recently announced signing Katrina Scott. Scott defeated fellow wildcard Lea Ma (Georgia) 6-3, 7-5 to advance to the quarterfinals. She will play the qualifier Martina Capurro Taborda (Oklahoma) from Argentina.

Former USC All-American Eryn Cayetano defeated No. 2 seed Maria Carle (Georgia) of Argentina 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 and will face former Cal All-American Haley Giavara, who defeated qualifier Ena Koike of Japan 7-5, 6-2.

The other quarterfinal also pits two Americans, with No. 7 seed Mary Stoiana (Texas A&M) playing Kayla Day.

Seven of the eight quarterfinalists at the ATP Challenger 75 in Cleveland, Ohio are Americans, including three qualifiers.

Daniel Milavsky (Harvard) will face qualifier Joshua Sheehy (Abilene Christian), who will be competing in his first Challenger quarterfinal.

Borno Gojo (Wake Forest) of Croatia will play qualifier Quinn Vandecasteele (Oregon) and No. 7 seed Stefan Kozlov will face Keegan Smith (UCLA).

Defending champion Colton Smith (Arizona), the No. 2 seed, will face qualifier Stefan Dostanic (USC, Wake Forest). The two met in the second round of the Cleveland Challenger last year, with Smith winning 6-4, 6-4. Smith saved a match point in his 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-4 first-round victory over Cannon Kingsley (Ohio State).

The first month of the UTR Pro Tennis Tour is in the books, with the results of the tournaments in the United States below. The prize money is $20,000 for events without an asterisk.

GENTLEMEN:

December 27 Knoxville TN
Aleksa Ciric d. Asahi Harazaki 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-4

December 27 Newport Beach CA
not finished due to the weather

Dec 29 Waco TX
Cooper Woestendick d. Chad Kissell 6-3, 6-3

WOMEN: