Smith Defends Cleveland Challenger Title; Day victories W50 in Orlando; US shuts down Hungary to advance to Davis Cup; Zheng and Svajda receive Dallas Open Wild Cards, TCU Pair Claim Doubles WC

Colton Smith returned to the scene a year ago with his first ATP Challenger title and emerged with his second Cleveland Open Challenger 75 title today. The 22-year-old former All-American was a senior at Arizona when he defeated Eliot Spizzirri (Texas) 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3 in the 2025 final; Now entering his first full season as a pro, the No. 2 seed defeated former Wake Forest All-American Borna Gojo of Croatia 6-4, 7-5 in today’s final, avenging his loss to Gojo in the Sioux Falls Challenger in October 2024.

Smith, who saved a match point in his first round against Cannon Kingsley (Ohio State), rises to place 142 in the live rankings; his career high is 133.

At the USTA Pro Circuit W50 in OrlandoUnseeded Kayla Day won her second title of the year, beating wild card Katrina Scott 6-4, 6-2 in today’s final. Day, the 2016 USTA National 18s champion, is back in the WTA Top 200 with this title.

Ryan Colby (USC, Georgia) fell in the final of the M15 in Palm Coast, Floridawith No. 2 seed Tommaso Compagnucci of Italy defeating Colby 6-3, 7-6(3).

At the W50 in Portugalformer North Carolina All-American Fiona Crawley won the biggest title of her career, with the No. 7 seed defeating 18-year-old Elizara Yaneva of Bulgaria 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-4 in the final. Crawley is ranked No. 202 in his career in the WTA rankings.

The U.S. Davis Cup team secured a spot in September’s second qualifying round today in Hungary as Christian Harrison and Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M) defeated Zsombor Piros and Fabian Marozsan 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in doubles to give the U.S. a 3-0 win. Emilio Nava won the dead rubber against Matyas Fuel 6-2, 6-3 the final score 4-0.

The United States will play an away match in the Czech Republic in September after losing 3-2 to the Czech team in Delray Beach in the second qualifying round last September.

The ATP 500 Nexo Dallas Open begins Monday, with four of the five players on the U.S. Davis Cup team making the trip back from Europe to compete.

Christian Harrison, who won the Dallas title last year with Evan King, will play with Great Britain’s Neal Skupski (LSU) and the Australian Open doubles champions are the No. 2 seeds. Austin Krajicek plays with Nikola Mektic of Croatia and they have drawn No. 1 seeds Marcel Granollers of Spain and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina.

Tommy Paul, the No. 5 seed, will play Jenson Brooksby in the first round, while Ethan Quinn (Georgia) will play wild card Trevor Svajda.

Svajda, the 19-year-old junior at SMU, also received a Dallas Open wild card last year and played Quinn in the first round, falling 6-4, 6-2.

Another interesting rematch features wildcard Michael Zheng, the Columbia senior and two-time NCAA champion, and Sebastian Korda. Last month, Zheng defeated Korda in the first round of the Australian Open after advancing through qualifying.

The third wildcard went to former Texas star Eliot Spizzirri, whose profile was significantly raised after his second-round loss to Jannik Sinner in Australia last month. Spizzirri will play James Duckworth from Australia in the first round.

Qualifying concluded today as Zachary Svajda, Spain’s Rafael Jodar (Virginia), Great Britain’s Jack Pinnington Jones (TCU) and Japan’s Sho Shimabukuro reached the main draw.

Svajda faces No. 3 seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain; Jodar plays defending champion Denis Shapovalov of Canada, ranked No. 7; Pinnington Jones faces No. 4 seed Flavio Cobolli of Italy and Shimabububububuo plays Miomir KecMovic of Serbia.

Duncan Chan and Cosme Rolland De Ravel of TCU won the Collegiate Doubles Wild Card Playoff and will participate in the main tournament. They will face Constantin Frantzen (Baylor) from Germany and Robin Haase from the Netherlands in the first round.

I’m planning on being at the Dallas Open on Wednesday as I’m heading to that city for the ITA Division I Men’s Team Indoor Championshipswhich starts on Friday.

The four semi-finalists on th ITA Women’s Division I Team Indoor had the day off today as Champaign semifinalists Ohio State and Texas A&M travel north to Northwestern. Georgia and Auburn play at 3:30 PM Central Time, followed by Ohio State and Texas A&M, not before 6:30 PM.

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