With the USTA National Championships and the ITF 2 pm World Junior Tennis Team competition Last week I had little time to follow the USTA Pro circuit, but three of the four singles titles went to Americans.
2024 Fall NCAA Singles champion Michael Zheng, an emerging senior in Columbia, won his first ATP Challenger title in his third attempt Sunday, on the 75 in Chicago. Zheng, who received access via the ATP/ITA College Accelerator program, defeated no. 3 seed yu hsi hsu of taiwan 6-4, 6-2 in the final, lost a quarterfinals of a quarterfinals to HSU lost to HSU in the week before at the Lexington Challenger 75. Pat. With the title, Zheng will go to a new career-high of 320 in the ATP ranking and is planned to participate next week in the qualification of the US Open Men’s, second in the collegial play-off of the USTA’s Collegiate Wild Card in June.
Zheng was just short of wiping the titles in Chicago, with Onseed Ryan Seggerman (Princeton, UNC) and Mac Kiger (UNC) who defeated Wildcards Zheng and Theo Wineegar (Columbia, Duke) 6-4, 3-6, 10-5 in the final.
By the Men M25 And Ladies W35 In Southaven Mississippi, UCLA Rising Junior Emon van Loben Sels and Kayla Day de Titels earned.
It was the first singles title for the Van Loben Sels, a qualification, which last week only one set in his seven victories. In the final, the 20-year-old from Sacramento defeated former Virginia Tech striking Ryan Fishback 6-4, 6-3.
Non-seeded Alan Magadan (UTSA, Texas A&M) and Karl Poling (Princeton, North Carolina) won the title of the men’s dubbles and beat Jack Anthrop (Ohio State) and Alafia Ayeni (Cornell, Kentucky) 6-0, 6-4 in the final.
The unpredicted day, a 25-year-old from Santa Barbara, won her first title in two years and only dropped one set in her five wins. The USTA National 18S champion of 2016, which was as high last year as 84 in the WTA ranking, defeated top seeds Ana Sofia Sanchez from Mexico with 6-4, 6-1 in the final.
No. 4 Seeds Catherine Harrison (UCLA) and Ashley Lahey (Pepperdine) won the Doubles title in Southaven and did not Sedeededed Hiroko Kuwata and Kyoka Okamura of Japan 6-3, 6-2 in the final.
By the W100 in Landisville Pennsylvania2022 Australian Open Girls Champion Petra Marcinko from Croatia won the title, with the number 3 seed that Niet-Sededed Janice Tjen (Pepperdine) of Indonesia 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-4 beat in the championship match.
Sisters Carmen and Ivana Corley, the No. 3 seeds, took the Doubles title and defeated top seeds Ingrid Martins (South Carolina) of Brazil and Simona Waltert van Switzerland 4-6, 7-6 (4), 12-10 in the championship match. The former stars of the University of Oklahoma have won four titles this year, with Carmen on a career-high live WTA ranking of 82 and Ivana in a career-high ranking of 116.
A ATP Challenger in Sumter South Carolina This week, as a 125 -level tournament that is not part of the USTA Pro Circuit.
Qualification, which has two Byes, including one for ATP No. 57 and top seeds Jake Fearnley (TCU) of Great -Britain, who would have been in the main drawing if he had initially arrived. Almost everyone in qualifying is an alternative and there were no wildcards.
In the main drawing, ATP No. 54 Zizou Bergs of Belgium is the best seed, with no. 2 seeds Kei Nishikori from Japan who withdrew before the game began.
Wild cards were given to Kalamazoo 18S champion Darwin Blanch, 2024 Roland Garros Boys Champion Kaylun Bigun (UCLA) and Alex Rybakov (TCU). Blanch is planned to play Murphy Cassone (Arizona State) in the first round Wednesday.
Bigun plays Australian Open Boys champion REI Sakamoto from Japan on Tuesday 2024, with Rybakov against number 7 seed and 2019 Wimbledon Boys Champion Shintaro Mochizuki from Japan.
When I went through last week’s national championships to post the Honor Roll to the left today, I also looked at the comfort tournament.
It seems as if the dedication to play that tournament is decreasing every year, and I find that trend disappointing, because I appreciate the determination of players who accept that challenge.
When Ian Mayew lost his first 16s match in Kalamazoo in 2023, he went into the comforter as a seed and won 11 games, with only one walkover. He told me in the spring of 2024 that the run gave him a huge reliability boost and he won back-to-back J300S to start 2024 and reached 25 in the ITF Junior ranking. (He lost at the beginning of this year and did not play the consolation, stating injury).
This year in Kalamazoo, even the 16S, who usually play in the comfort tournament with a view to the entry of the following year in Kalamazoo, had a surprising number of walkovers, with not one of the comfort quarterfinals.
18s comfort winner Maximus Dussault, who starts this month at TCU, this year was a remarkable exception, entering the after -departure after loss in the round of 16, and winning five games, with only one walkover, to finish fifth.
Although many coaches and officials propose the USTA to do something about this, the USTA has already added some incentives that do not seem to weigh heavier than the many other considerations. There are many reasons why a player could decide to play the backlog: injury, illness, costs, academics; There are as many reasons as there are players. Recently, a popular reason is to withdraw from the retreat to concentrate on the final rounds of the 18S Double, given that an American open wildcard goes to the winners.
This is a long -winded way to come to who I wanted to recognize tonight: Kristina Penickova. The number 4 seed last week in San Diego, the 15-year-old was upset in the round of 64, her second game. She won 9 games (only one walkover), all in straight sets, to finish in fifth place, and as the USTA National 18S Consolation Champion.
And she did all this while she competed for the most important draw of the US Open Ladies Dubbels Wild Card. She and Thea Frodin, the number 2 seeds, won six games in the midst of both two-day singles games that Penickova played, who claimed the title and the Wildcard on Sunday with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Aya Manning and Catherine Rennard.
Congratulations to Penickova for demonstrating admirable resilience and endurance when taking on the challenges inherent in competing for a national championship. I hope others see the benefit when following her leading role.
#Zheng #claims #Challenger #title #Van #Loben #Sels #Day #Champions #Mississippi #Qualification #underway #ATP #Sumter #Challenger #cheers #Kristina #Penickova