Golovin Commits to LSU; Semifinals Set in USTA/ITA Indoor but without Top Seeds; Brady into Captiva Semis

My Tennis Recruiting Network article on blue chip Jessica Golovin's commitment to LSU was published today. It was an interesting profile for me, because unlike many juniors, Golovin was not considering college tennis until the summer before her senior year. How and why she and her family and her coach came to the decision to put off pro tennis for a few years is discussed in the article.

The semifinals are set for the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships, with none of the top seeds in either men's or women's draws making it through today.

Defending champion Jamie Loeb of North Carolina, seeded No. 1, lost to Julia Elbaba of Virginia 7-6, 4-6, 6-2. Elbaba had lost to Loeb in the American Collegiate Invitational final in September and in the final of the All American consolation tournament in October, but the most recent loss was 7-6 in the third, so Elbaba had reason to hope her luck would change.  It did, and she will now play No. 4 seed Brooke Austin of Florida, who took her out of the All-American Championships in the first round and went on to reach the semifinals.  The Gator freshman defeated No. 8 seed Viktoriya Lushkova of Oklahoma State 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.  Cal's Maegan Manasse, seeded fifth, reached the semifinals with a 6-2, 6-3 win over unseeded Stephanie Nauta of Virginia.  She will play unseeded Stephanie Wagner of Miami, who beat unseeded Lynn Chi of Cal 6-1, 6-3.  Chi had eliminated NCAA champion and No. 7 seed Danielle Collins in the second round 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, while Wagner had taken out No. 2 seed Chanelle Van Nguyen of UCLA 6-2, 6-2 in the second round.

The four men's semifinalists are all unseeded.  Ryan Shane of Virginia ousted top seed and All-American champion Sebastian Stiefelmeyer of Louisville 7-6, 7-6 in the second round, then won two more tiebreakers against No. 6 seed Axel Alvarez Llamas of Oklahoma in a 2-6, 7-6, 7-6 quarterfinal victory. He will play Gonzales Austin of Vanderbilt, who defeated Ronnie Schneider of North Carolina 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in quarterfinals.

No. 2 seed Yannick Hanfmann of Southern Cal was ousted by Dominik Koepfer of Tulane 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 and Koepfer, who has won all his matches in three sets, will take on North Carolina's Brayden Schnur in the other semifinal.

For complete results from the two rounds of singles and one round of doubles, see the ITA tournament page.

Jennifer Brady continued her stellar play this fall, defeating Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada 6-1, 7-5 to reach the semifinals of the $50,000 Captiva Island Pro Circuit event.  Brady is the only player who can keep Irina Falconi from claiming the USTA's Australian Open wild card, and she has to win the tournament this week to do so, but regardless, it has been few months on the Pro Circuit for the UCLA sophomore. She will play wild card Edina Gallovits-Hall of Romania Saturday, after Gallovits-Hall beat Louisa Chirico 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.  The other semifinal features qualifier Tatjana Maria of Germany against unseeded Petra Martic of Croatia.

At the Birmingham Futures, Reilly Opelka lost to 33-year-old qualifier Julio Peralta of Chile 6-4, 6-2.  Next up for Peralta is Miami freshman Piotr Lomacki, who defeated 18-year-old Naoki Nakagawa of Japan 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. The other semifinal has No. 5 seed Catalin Gard against No. 3 seed Jean Yves Aubone.

Denis Kudla was unable to play his Knoxville Challenger quarterfinal match due to illness. Tim Smyczek, the No. 5 seed, will play top seed Malek Jaziri of Tunisia tonight.