Top seed friend, No. 3 seed Kim upset on All-American Day at NCAA Division I championships; Payne defeats Top Seed Blokhina at W35 Boca Raton; Three Americans reach Zapopan’s ITF J300 quarterfinals

Top seed and ITA All-American champion Jay Friend of Arizona followed the exit of women’s top seed and ITA All-American Valerie Glozman on Tuesday, losing to Keegan Rice of Virginia 7-6 (4), 6-4. Friend wasn’t at his best today and couldn’t take his chances against Rice. He was unable to beat the second-year Cavalier, who is not known for his big serve. Rice held from 0-40 at 5-all in the first set, and again when serving at 2-1 in the second set, with Friend unable to convert any of the at least ten break points he had. Vriend could not unnerve Rice, who remained calm throughout the match, and it was Vriend who made the unforced errors at 30-all, with Rice serving for the match. Rice will face Petar Jovanovic of Mississippi State, a 9-16 seed, who defeated Sebastian Gorzny of Texas 6-3, 0-6, 6-3.

No. 3 seed Aidan Kim of Ohio State, the ITA All-American finalist, was defeated by former teammate Will Jansen 7-5, 6-2. Jansen played at Ohio State last year before transferring to North Carolina.

The other men’s match I watched closely on ESPN select was Wake Forest senior DK Suresh’s 7-6(4), 6-4 win over No. 5 seed Devin Badenhorst of Baylor. Badenhorst was one of the losers of the draw, while Suresh was clearly one of the strongest players in the field; Suresh was ranked third in the preseason rankings, behind Michael Zheng and Rafael Jodar, and he had done nothing to spoil that shine this fall. But because he withdrew after qualifying for the NCAAs by making the All-American quarterfinals and not playing another college game afterward, he was not seeded this week.

The points were generally longer than I expected in this match, with the first set decided by the narrowest of margins. Suresh got a minibreak and took a 4-2 lead at the change of ends, and that was the difference.

The second set started with a 2-0 and 3-1 lead for Suresh, but Badenhorst got the break back and held on for 3-all. But the Baylor junior buckled under the pressure to serve at 4-5 and Suresh, the 2024 NCAA semifinalist, broke for the victory. Certainly

Of the four Top 8 seeds remaining in the men’s draw, two are from the state of Michigan, with No. 4 seed Matt Forbes and No. 8 seed Ozan Baris winning in straight sets today.

There are six seeded players remaining in the men’s draw, but none of the eight third-round matches will feature more than one seed. An unseeded quarterfinalist is guaranteed, with Suresh playing NC State’s Martin Borisiouk, whose seeding was revoked when Kentucky’s Jack Loutit stepped in as an alternate, and Columbia’s Zheng facing Clemson’s Romain Gales, who defeated No. 2 seed Duncan Chan of TCU in the first round.

The women’s third round will feature one match projected by seed, pitting No. 2 seed Carmen Herea of ​​Texas against Luciana Perry of Ohio State, a 9-16 seed. Herea defeated Eva Shaw of Florida State 6-3, 7-5 and Perry edged past Ni Xi of UNC-Charlotte 6-0, 1-6, 6-1.

Four of the women’s quarter-finalists will be eliminated after losing another four seeds today. Ava Esposito of Auburn knocked off No. 6 seed Anastasiia Grechkina of Pepperdine 6-4, 6-3 and will face 9-16 seed Reese Brantmeier of North Carolina. Brantmeier was again taken to three sets, but defeated SMU’s Sophie Llewellyn 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.

There were three pairs of sisters in his year’s field, but after today only the Charneys remain. No. No. 3 seed Piper of Michigan defeated Zuzanna Kubacha of Baylor 6-4, 7-6(5) and older sister Emma of Southern Cal defeated 9-16 seed Anastasiia Gureva of Georgia 6-3, 7-5.

All players who won their second-round singles matches today earned All-American status. A top 20 ITA ranking at the end of the dual meet season is now the only remaining option to become an All-American, with ITA All-American champions Glozman and Friend already receiving the honor when they claimed those titles.

In doubles, the women’s tournament lost its top-seeded team, with Mississippi State’s Charlotte Kempenaers-Pocz and Gianna Oboniye defeating Wisconsin’s Maria Shokolova and Lucie Urbanova, the ITA All-American champions, 4-6, 7-6(2), 10-4.

Top men’s seeds and ITA All-American champions Benito Sanchez Martinez and Petar Jovanovic of Mississippi State advanced to the second round with a 6-4, 6-4 win over UCLA’s Rudy Quan and Aadarsh ​​Tripathi.

Penickova defeated No. 16 seed Tea Kovacevic of Bosnia 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 and will play No. 6 seed Renee Alame of Australia in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

Reddy, 15, defeated doubles partner Navneet Raghuram 7-6(1), 6-4 to reach his first J300 quarter-final. The 17-year-old Rusher defeated No. 9 seed Aaron Gabet of France 6-0, 6-2 to also advance to his first J300 quarterfinal.

Reddy and Raghuram reached the doubles quarterfinals with a 7-6(0), 6-1 win over No. 2 seeds Rihards Neimanis of Latvia and Daniel Tazabekov of Kazakhstan.