Smith, Rohrbacher Capture New Balance High School Titles; Auger-Aliassime Wins Again in Granby Challenger; Teens Reach Quarterfinals in Sacramento, Granby, Godfrey and Evansville

The New Balance High School Tennis Championships concluded today in Boston, with Keegan Smith and Olivia Rohrbacher winning the titles.
From the tournament:

Keegan Smith of San Diego defeated Jaird Meyer of Los Angeles 6-1, 6-3 to win the boys’ title. Keegan was able to get off to a quick start early in the match. After that he used his big game to dictate play throughout to get the victory.

Olivia Rohrbacher of Sandusky, OH defeated Jenna Moustafa of Los Angeles (a finalist last year as well) 6-4, 6-4 to win the girls’ title. Olivia and Jenna had a very tight match, but Olivia came up big on some important points  throughout. She moved up on her return of serve and was dictating the points early in play to close it out.

In addition to the titles, Smith and Rohrbacher also receive wild cards into the ITF Grade 1 International Hard Court Championships in College Park Maryland next month.  Complete draws are at the tournament's TennisLink site.

Fourteen-year-old Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada defeated ATP No. 205 Darian King of Barbados 7-5, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals of the $100,000 Granby Challenger. Auger-Aliassime, who turns 15 in two weeks, is the youngest player to ever reach an ATP Challenger quarterfinal.  He will play No. 4 seed Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan, who, at 19, is a seasoned veteran compared to Auger-Aliassime.  

Former Florida State star Jean-Yves Aubone, who lost to Auger-Aliassime in the final round of qualifying, got into the main draw as a lucky loser and has advanced to the first Challenger quarterfinal of his career.  Eric Quigley, the 2012 NCAA finalist from Kentucky, has also reached a Challenger quarterfinal for the first time, beating Peter Polansky of Canada tonight 6-3, 0-6. 7-5.  

Overshadowed by Auger-Aliassime is another Canadian teenager having a breakout tournament in Granby.  Sixteen-year-old Charlotte Robillard-Millette, who received a wild card into the $50,000 ITF Women's event in Granby moved into the quarterfinals with a 0-6, 6-4, 7-6(5) win over No. 8 seed Amandine Hess of France.  Eighteen-year-old Ellie Halbauer has reached her second quarterfinal at the $50,000 level, beating Laura Robson of Great Britain 6-2, 4-6, 6-2. Robson had been injured and out of competition for more than a year until last month, but regardless of the circumstances, that's a great win for Halbauer.

Sixteen-year-old CiCi Bellis and 19-year-old Brooke Austin have advanced to the quarterfinals of the $50,000 Women's Pro Circuit event in Sacramento. Bellis, the No. 3 seed, defeated Asia Muhammad 2-6, 6-1, 6-1, while Austin beat No. 2 seed and WTA 165 Eri Hozumi of Japan 7-5, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals of a $50K for the first time in her career.  Austin will play fellow wild card Robin Anderson, who just returned from the Hall of Fame Championships in Newport, where she received her ITA Player of the Year Award.  Anderson defeated teammate Jennifer Brady, the No. 5 seed, 6-3, 6-2 to pick up her second career win at the $50,000 level, with her opening round victory over Lauren Embree having been her first.  Bellis will play No. 8 seed Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine, the 2014 US Open girls finalist, in the quarterfinals.

At the $50,000 Binghamton Challenger, the teens fared less well. Frances Tiafoe lost to No. 2 seed Bjorn Fratangelo 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, while wild card Tommy Paul was beaten by Mitchell Krueger 7-5, 6-4.  Noah Rubin took the second set from top seed Kyle Edmund in a tiebreaker and they were at 1-1 in the third set when play was suspended due to darkness. 

At the $15,000 Futures in Godfrey, Illinois, Michael Mmoh reached the quarterfinals. No. 6 seed Mmoh, the only quarterfinalist without college ties, will face former Cal star Ben McLachlan of New Zealand on Friday.

The $10,000 women's event in Evansville saw its top two seeds eliminated Thursday, with qualifier Frances Altick (Vanderbilt) taking out No. 1 seed Bianca Botto of Peru 6-2, 6-2 and North Carolina recruit Sara Daavettila defeating No. 2 seed Naomi Totka of Hungary 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Tiafoe, Rubin Win Opening Round Matches at Binghamton Challenger; Auger Aliassime, 14, Reaches Second Round at Granby $100K; Sarkissian Posts First ATP Victory

It was a busy day in the Americas, with noteworthy wins from Canada to Colombia.

Frances Tiafoe, who has struggled a bit since his Challenger run this spring, picked up his first main draw win since May in the opening round of the $50,000 Challenger in Binghamton, New York. He defeated Gregoire Barrere of France 6-4, 7-6(1) today to set up a second round match against No. 2 seed Bjorn Fratangelo, who he beat back in April during the run that secured the USTA's French Open wild card.

Wild card Noah Rubin picked up his second Challenger level win, defeating Omar Jasika of Australia 6-3, 6-3 in a battle between two recent junior slam champions.  Rubin will play top seed Kyle Edmund of Great Britain in the second round Thursday. Edmund beat Ernesto Escobedo 7-5, 6-7(4), 6-1.

Wimbledon champion Reilly Opelka lost his Challenger debut to qualifier Sekou Bangoura 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 after leading 4-2 in the final set.  Bangoura held and broke to pull even in the third set, and then a huge wind gust tore the wind screen from the fence, which basically made the court unplayable. After the storm passed, the players returned to the court and Bangoura held (from deuce), then broke Opelka for the win.

No. 5 seed Jared Donaldson had just completed his 6-3, 6-2 win over Takuto Niki of Japan when play was suspended. Due to the delay, Tommy Paul's match with Gonzalo Escobar of Ecuador was postponed until Wednesday.

At the $15,000 Futures in Godfrey, Illinois, the top two seeds are out. Clay Thompson advanced over top seed Deiton Baughman 3-6, 7-5, 3-0 retired, and Fred Saba, the former Duke star, beat No. 2 seed Kaichi Uchida of Japan 6-4, 6-1.  Nick Chappell, the recent TCU standout, defeated No. 4 seed Harry Bourchier of Australia 7-5, 6-3.

The top two seeds in the women's $10,000 tournament in Evansville, Indiana--Bianca Botto of Peru and Naomi Totka of Hungary--will begin play on Wednesday. A host of US college and junior players are in the draw, with wild card Sara Daavettila collecting her first professional level main draw victory. No. 7 seed Alexa Graham, Daavettila's future teammate at North Carolina, defeated Francesca Di Lorenzo 1-6, 7-6(4), 6-4.

Qualifying for the women's $50,000 Sacramento Challenger was completed today, with Michaela Gordon moving into the main draw with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Jacqueline Cako. Nicole Frenkel defeated Kelly Chen in the final round of qualifying, but both reached the main draw, with Chen taking a lucky loser spot.  Gordon will play wild card Brooke Austin and Chen will meet wild card Jamie Loeb, with Frenkel drawing No. 6 seed Mayo Hibi of Japan.  In first round action today, No. 3 seed CiCi Bellis, No. 8 seed Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine and No. 2 seed Eri Hozumi of Japan advanced to the second round with straight-set wins.

In Granby, Canada, at the $100,000 men's Challenger, Felix Auger-Aliassime recorded his first Challenger victory, beating fellow qualifier Andrew Whittington of Australia 6-3, 6-2.  Auger-Aliassime, who turns 15 next month, made a big splash in March when he qualified for the Drummondville Challenger, but an injury forced him to withdraw before he could play his first round match.  In Granby qualifying, he beat fellow Canadian teen Jack Lin and Jean-Yves Aubone to advance to the main draw.  Auger-Aliassime's ITF junior ranking is not high enough to get him into the junior slams, and, although he has had good results this summer in ITF events on European clay, he has yet to win an ITF tournament above a Grade 3. He will play No. 8 seed Darian King of Barbados in the second round, after King defeated qualifier Raymond Sarmiento 6-2, 6-3.

Young Canadians Katherine Sebov and Charlotte Robillard-Millette are playing the women's $50,000 tournament in Granby, with Sebov qualifying for the main draw and Robillard-Millette getting a first round win.  Qualifier Ellie Halbauer advanced to the second round with a 6-3, 6-1 win over wild card Erin Routliffe of Canada, a two-time NCAA doubles champion at Alabama.

At the ATP 250 in Bogota, Colombia, 2014 NCAA finalist Alex Sarkissian won his first ATP-level match tonight, defeating ATP No. 97 John Millman of Australia 6-3, 6-3.  The former Pepperdine star will play No. 7 seed Malek Jaziri of Tunisia in the second round.

The Tennis Recruiting Network has begun its Clay Courts Championship Week coverage with recaps of the 12s tournaments. The article on Saud Alhogbani's title is here, and Elvina Kalieva's championship is here.

The USTA's New Balance High School Championships began on Monday in Boston, and the draws can be found here.

My Interview with Noah Rubin; Tommy Paul Turns Pro; USTA Names Pan American Team; New Balance High School Tournament Registration Closes Thursday; New Bollettieri Scholarship Available

At last month's NCAAs, I sat down to talk to with Noah Rubin, who was on his way to reaching the singles final. At that time, he was still undecided about returning for his sophomore year at Wake Forest, but earlier this month he decided not to go back.  I spoke to him briefly after he made that decision, and those questions are included at the end of this interview for the Tennis Recruiting Network.

For more on Wake Forest's reaction to Rubin's decision, see this article from the Winston-Salem Journal.

Wimbledon boys champion Rubin won a junior slam and decided to go to school, but Tommy Paul, who won the French Open boys title and two Futures since the beginning of May, has decided not to attend the University of Georgia.  Paul, 18, signed with Nike this week, although he is not currently represented by a sports management agency. He is back in Europe now, where he is entered in both the Roehampton Grade 1 and Wimbledon Junior championships after being home for a week.

The USTA announced the team that will represent the United States at the Pan Am Games next month in Toronto.  Louisa Chirico, Lauren Davis and Sachia Vickery are the women's team, coached by Kathy Rinaldi.  Jean-Yves Aubone, Dennis Novikov and recent Vanderbilt graduate Gonzales Austin are the men's team, coached by Brad Stine.
For more on the team, see this article at USTA.com.

The New Balance High School tournament, now in its second year, will be held next month in Boston.  Registration closes Thursday, June 18 at 11:59 am (click the above link or the banner at the top left of this page). For more about the tournament, read this recent post at the Tennis Recruiting Network.

I just received an announcement on a new scholarship available at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.  Developed in honor of Nick Bollettieri, this scholarship will be given to a rising senior interested in spending the upcoming school year at the Academy.  The deadline to apply is July 10, 2015.  See this article for more information.

Daavettila's Golden Season; US Open National Playoff Update; Day Defeats Top Seed in Charlotte $10K

When I interviewed Sara Daavettila back in February for this article on her commitment to North Carolina, she told me she wanted to play another year of high school tennis, although she had already won a singles title as a sophomore at Williamston High School.
Daavettila's decision to play again led to an unimaginable accomplishment.  She went through the entire high school season without losing a game.

A golden set, extremely rare in tennis at any level, is one player winning every point, 24 in a row. When the player wins 15 or 16 points to start, I'm sure the pressure mounts, but that suspense is over in a matter of minutes.  Daavettila dealt with it for weeks and weeks, and then came into the state high school championships, not only to defend her title, but to try to achieve a form of tennis perfection.

Although this Mlive.com article about Daavettila and the Division III tournament displays a maddening lack of tennis knowledge, I think any credibility it may lack is counterbalanced by Daavettila's high school coach, who is obviously in a position to know.

"I've never been nervous in a 6-0, 5-0 match before, but I was nervous," coach Nate Schwarzbek is quoted as saying in the article. "But other than that, she plays well -- her opponents play her well too, but she just wins the crucial points."
Daavettila is in action this weekend in Midland, where the Midwest section's US Open National Playoffs are being held.  She is the No. 1 seed.

Four of the USTA sections have completed their USO National Playoff tournaments.  This year there is a main draw wild card in both men's and women's doubles up for grabs for the first time.  The singles wild cards are for qualifying, the mixed doubles wild card is for the main draw.

Southwest:
Women’s Singles: Jacqueline Cako
Men’s Singles: Joel Kielbowicz
Mixed Doubles: Cako and Kielbowicz
Women’s Doubles: Savannah Slaysman and Allie Sanford
Men’s Doubles: Ben Newell and Zachary Newell

Intermountain:
Women’s Singles: Gail Brodsky
Men’s Singles: Chris Wettengel
Mixed Doubles: Brodsky and Brian Wilson
Women’s Doubles: Jacqueline Cako and Keri Wong
Men’s Doubles: Jordan Kerr and Travis Parrott

Missouri Valley:
Women’s Singles: Sophie Chang
Men’s Singles: Dusty Boyer
Mixed Doubles: Boyer and Julia Schiller
Women’s Doubles: Katherine Cao and Jaci Cochrane
Men’s Doubles: Julio Peralta and Matt Seeberger

Mid-Atlantic:
Women’s Singles: Nika Kukharchuk
Men’s Singles: Mikelis Libietis
Mixed Doubles: Sydney Rider and Matt Stillwagon
Women’s Doubles: Lizzie Baker and Mackenzie Clark
Men’s Doubles: Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese

Articles on each section's tournament can be found at the US Open website.

Qualifying was completed today and first round action began at the $10,000 Charlotte, North Carolina women's Pro Circuit event.  Four seeds were in main draw action today and three of them lost.  Fifteen-year-old wild card Kayla Day defeated top seed Ana Neffa de los Rios of Paraguay, who is only 18 herself, 1-6, 6-4, 6-2.  Day has played only four Pro Circuit tournaments over the past two years prior to this week, advancing out of qualifying once and winning a round, but she doesn't yet have a WTA ranking.  Caroline Price, a recent UNC graduate, defeated No. 3 seed Rianna Valdes, the USC incoming freshman 6-0, 6-4.  Andie Daniell, the incoming Alabama freshman, defeated No. 6 seed Maria-Fernanda Alves of Brazil 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Easter Bowl Videos; Ojai Results; Rubin Sweeps ACC Men's Awards

Finally finished processing all the videos from the Easter Bowl over the weekend. Below are videos of all eight champions. Videos of the eight finalists can be found by clicking on their names below.

Jameson Corsillo
Emma Jackson
Jaycer Calleros
Alexa Noel
Brian Cernoch
Natasha Subhash
Sam Riffice
Katie Swan

The complete results from the Ojai tournament are below.  For more on unseeded UCLA Bruin Catherine Harrison's win at the Pac-12 women's individual tournament, see this article from the UCLA website.

CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH RESULTS FROM THE 115TH (2015) OJAI TENNIS TOURNAMENT

Men’s Open Singles: Philip Bester (Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada) d. Lester Cook (Los Angeles, CA), 7-5, 6-4.

Women’s Open Singles: Ena Shibahara (Rancho Palos Verdes, CA) d. Emma Higuchi (Los Angeles, CA), 7-5, 3-6, 6-4

Men’s Open Doubles: Quinn Borchard/Calle Hansen (Newbury Park) d. Jochem Hoefnagels (Azusa)/Peter Lucassen (Rolling Hills), 6-4, 6-3

Women’s Open Doubles: Jada Hart (Colton, CA)/Ena Shibahara (Rancho Palos Verdes, CA) d. Kaitlyn Christian (Rancho Cucamonga)/Amy Zhu (Newark, DE), 6-0, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3

Pac-12 Men’s Championship: No. 2 USC def. No. 1 Stanford, 4-3

Pac-12 Women’s Singles Championship: Catherine Harrison (UCLA) d. Klara Fabikova (Cal), 6-4, 6-0

Pac-12 Women’s Doubles Championship: Taylor Davidson/Carol Zhao (Stanford) d. Caroline Doyle/Ellen Tsay (Stanford), 7-5, 6-2

Pac-12 Women’s Singles Invitational: Meredith Xepoleas (USC) d. Terri Fleming (UCLA), 6-2, 6-3

Pac-12 Women’s Doubles Invitational: Gabriella DeSimone/Zoe Katz (USC) d. Capucine Gregoire/Riko Shimizu (Washington), 8-4

CIF Boys’ Singles: Michael Genender (Harvard-Westlake HS) d. Bjorn Hoffmann (Corona del Mar HS), 6-1, 6-4

CIF Boys’ Doubles: Bradley Cummins/Alex Kuperstein (Palm Desert HS) d. Keegan Smith/Ivan Thamma (Point Loma HS), 6-3, 7-6 (7-3)

Girls’ 18s Singles: Ryan Peus (Santa Barbara, CA) d. Seira Shimizu (Ojai, CA), 7-6, 6-7, 6-4

Girls’ 18s Doubles: Madison Hale/Mattea Kilstofte (Santa Barbara, CA) d. Kelsie Bryant (Carpinteria, CA)/Sophia Whittle (Nipomo, CA), 6-4, 6-4

Boys’ 16s Singles: Matthew Tsolakyan (Glendale, CA) d. Connor Rapp (Rancho Mirage, CA), 6-3, 6-3

Girls’ 16s Singles: Alexa Ryngler (Calabasas, CA) d. Rika Tanaka (Tokyo, Japan), 6-2, 6-2

Boys’ 14s Singles: Miles Jones (Marina del Rey, CA) d. Jacob Bullard (Calabasas, CA), 6-1, 4-6, 6-1

Girls’ 14s Singles: Delanie Dunkle (Arroyo Grande, CA) d. d. Hina Inoue (Huntington Beach, CA), 6-3, 6-3

Men’s Independent College Singles: Brendan Aguilar (San Diego Christian) d. Adrian Legarreta (Grand Canyon), 6-2, 6-2

Men’s Independent College Doubles: Adrian Legarreta-Mitchell Maroscher (Grand Canyon) d. Alexander Roggenkamp-Felix Schueller (Grand Canyon), 6-4, 7-5

Women’s Independent College Singles: Erin Walker (Abilene Christian) d. Brittney Reed (Abilene Christian), 6-1, 7-5

Women’s Independent College Doubles: Lucile Pothier-Erin Walker (Abilene Christian) d. Kaysie Hermsdorf-Brittney Reed (Abilene Christian), 7-6 (10-8), 6-1

Men’s Division III West Singles: Warren Wood (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps) d. Skyler Butts (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps), 7-6 (8-6), 6-4

Men’s Division III West Doubles: Skyler Butts/Daniel Morkovine (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps) d. Joe Dorn/Warren Wood (Claremont-Mudd-Scripps), 1-6, 6-4, 6-2

Men’s California Community College Athletic Association Championship: Irvine Valley def. Foothill, 5-2

Men’s California Community College Athletic Association Singles: Hironori Koyanagi (Ventura) def. Corentin Haener (San Diego Mesa), 6-2, 6-3

Men’s California Community College Athletic Association Doubles: Valentin Baize/Maxime Rumeau (Irvine Valley) d. Simon Guillin/Guillermo Ucelay (Irvine Valley), 6-4, 6-1

Women’s California Community College Athletic Association Championship: Mt. San Antonio def. Modesto, 5-4

Women’s Community College Athletic Association Singles: Mayra Jovic (Santa Monica) d. Chieko Yamada (Shasta), 6-1, 6-2

Women’s Community College Athletic Association Doubles: Mayra Jovic/Izabel Nazdracheva (Santa Monica) d. Polina Gorshinina/Van Nguyen (De Anza) 6-2, 7-5

The ACC has announced its men's award winners, with Noah Rubin of Wake Forest claiming both Freshman of the Year and Player of the Year honors, the first time in conference history those awards have gone to the same player in the same year. Virginia Tech's Jim Thompson was named Coach of the Year. For a complete list of the all-ACC teams, see this article.

115th Ojai Underway; Austin and Austin Win SEC Player of the Year Awards; Liu Out of Junior Fed Cup Qualifying with Injury; Stewart Beats Konta in Dothan

The Southern California tennis festival that is the Ojai tournament is underway, for the 115th year, and while the centerpiece is usually the PAC-12 tournaments, there's plenty of other tennis to follow this weekend.

The Men's Open began today, with Canadian Philip Bester the top seed in the 32-draw, with Connor Farren No. 2, Clay Thompson No.3 and Haythem Abid No. 4.  I presume Farren's appearance in the Open draw means he will not be playing for the USC Trojans when they begin team play Friday against the winner of tonight's UCLA-Washington match.

The Women's Open starts Friday, with Emma Higuchi the top seed in the 16-player draw.  The No. 2 seed is Ena Shibahara, Felicity Maltby in No. 3 and Megan McCray is No. 4.

There is a total of $22,500 in prize money available in the Open tournaments.

In the CIF tournament for boys high school players, which began today, Michael Genender and Connor Hance are among the favorites, with Brandon Holt and Riley Smith also in the draw.

Top juniors competing in the Girls 18s are Ryan Peus, Seira Shimizu and Kenadi Hance.

In the Pac-12 women's tournament, which, unlike the men, continues to be an individual tournament, Giuliana Olmos of Southern Cal and Chanelle Van Nguyen of UCLA are the top two seeds.  UCLA's Jennifer Brady, the defending champion, is not seeded after taking the fall off and playing little this spring due to an injury.  She needs to pick up some good wins this week to qualify for the NCAA singles tournament next week.

Stan Smith is being honored at tonight's opening barbecue and will be the featured guest at a wine reception/fundraiser for the tournament on Friday.  For more on Smith's experience at The Ojai, see this recent interview.

For links to all the draws, see the tournament's website.

The ACC has announced its women's awards, with North Carolina's Jamie Loeb named Women's Player of the Year and North Carolina's Brian Kalbas named Coach of the Year.  Miami's Sinead Lohan was named the Freshman of the Year.

With its postseason tournaments completed, the SEC has announced its award winners for both men and women.

Brooke Austin of Florida was named SEC Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year. Vanderbilt's Geoff Macdonald was named Coach of the Year.  The list of the All-SEC teams can be found here.

Gonzales Austin of Vanderbilt was chosen as the SEC men's Player of the Year, with Steven Denton of Texas A&M the Coach of the Year and Wayne Montgomery of Georgia the Freshman of the Year.  The list of the All-SEC teams can be found here.

The USTA sent out a release regarding the upcoming Junior Fed Cup, Junior Davis Cup and World Junior Tennis North/Central American qualifying in Boca Raton next weekend, which I will be covering onsite, with the news that Easter Bowl champion Claire Liu will not be participating due to injury.  Kayla Day will be joining CiCi Bellis and Michaela Gordon on the Junior Davis Cup team.  The boys Junior Davis Cup team is Sam Riffice, Gianni Ross and Vasil Kirkov. The 14-and-under boys team is Govind Nanda, Adam Neff and Brandon Nakashima. The 14-and-under girls team is Hurricane Tyra Black, Caty McNally and Amanda Anisimova.

At the $50,000 Women's Pro Circuit event in Dothan, 17-year-old wild card Katerina Stewart beat WTA 147 Johanna Konta of Great Britain 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals, where she will face Samantha Crawford. It's Stewart's first quarterfinal at the $50,000 level.  Louisa Chirico, Jessica Pegula and wild card Alexandra Stevenson are the other Americans to have reached the quarterfinals.  Fourth seed Chirico will play Pegula, while Stevenson faces Paula Goncalves of Brazil. There are no seeds remaining in the top half of the draw.

Ruud Takes ITF Grade 1 Coffee Bowl Title; Daavettila Wins Two Wild Cards for Dow Corning Classic; Rain Continues to Plague Pro Circuit Events

Last night in Costa Rica, 16-year-old Casper Ruud of Norway won his first ITF Grade 1 event, taking the boys singles title at the Coffee Bowl.  The fifth-seeded Ruud, the son of former ATP top 40 pro Christian Ruud, defeated No. 2 seed Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in front of the usual large stadium court crowd at the Costa Rica Country Club.   Next for Ruud is the Grade 1 Copa Gatorade in Venezuela next week, where he is the No. 3 seed.

The field in Venezuela is not as strong as Costa Rica, with several the top players leaving for Australia's Grade 1 in Traralgon and the Australian Open juniors. Americans in the draw in Venezuela include No. 2 seed Ulises Blanch, No. 4 seed Emil Reinberg, No. 8 seed Ndindi Mwaruka, No. 13 seed Anna Dollar, No. 14 seed Andrea Kevakian and Micheline Aubuchon.  Marcelo Barrios Vera of Chile and Evgeniya Levashova of Russia are the top two seeds.

I plan on covering the women's $100,000 Dow Corning Tennis Classic in Midland early next month, for a few days at least, so I was particularly interested in the tournaments they held this weekend for wild cards into the main draw of singles and doubles, and Williamston High School junior Sara Daavettila won them both. Daavettila, who won the Division 3 state high school title last spring, lost in the first round of qualifying at the Dow Corning as a wild card last February.  In this weekend's tournament, she was the No. 4 seed, and she defeated No. 2 seed Caroline Dolehide 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 in semifinals and No. 1 seed Elizabeth Profit 6-1, 6-0 in the final.  She and 14-year-old Alyvia Jones of Midland won the doubles wild card, beating top seeds Profit and Bianca Moldovan 6-4, 7-5.  Complete results can be found at the TennisLink site.

Rain in Florida and in California made for a difficult day for the Pro Circuit events there.  The semifinals of the Los Angeles $15,000 Futures, rained out completely yesterday, were finished just a short while ago, with Mitchell Krueger defeating Dimitar Kutrovsky of Bulgaria 6-4, 6-2 and Jason Jung outlasting Taylor Fritz 1-6, 7-6(7), 6-4.  Jung and Krueger will play the final later tonight.  The qualifying for the $15,000 Futures in Long Beach next week was also washed out.

I'm not sure on the status of the final of the $10,000 Futures in Plantation, where Baylor's Julian Lenz and Sweden's Christian Lindell were tied 3-3 in the first set when rain set in there this morning.  The first round of qualifying for the $25,000 women's event in Plantation was rained out with just a few matches completed, and the qualifying for the $10,000 men's tournament in Sunrise is also behind schedule due to the rain.

At the $50,000 Challenger in Happy Valley, Australia, Ryan Harrison won his first tournament since claiming the Savannah Challenger back in 2013, defeating Marcos Baghdatis 7-6(8), 6-4 in the final.  At the $75,000 Noumea Challenger, Austin Krajicek and Tennys Sandgren took the doubles title, beating Jarmere Jenkins and Bradley Klahn 7-6(2), 6-7(5), 10-5 in an all-collegiate final.

Bellis Wins Second Consecutive $25K in South Carolina; Fritz, Pedraza and Horvit Seeded at ITF Grade A Osaka Mayor's Cup; Sell Goes Undefeated, Wins Michigan High School Championship

Fifteen-year-old CiCi Bellis won her second straight singles title at a $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit event today in Florence, South Carolina. Bellis received a special exemption into the main draw this week based on her inability to play qualifying because she was competing in the final of the Rock Hill tournament. In today's final, Bellis defeated No. 6 seed Ysaline Bonaventure of Belgium 6-2, 6-1, giving her ten straight Pro Circuit victories and 15 wins in a row counting her five at No. 1 singles for the US Junior Fed Cup team late last month.

Because Bellis is only 15, she is restricted to just 10 WTA/ITF pro tournaments between April of 2014 and April of 2015, when she turns 16. She has played seven, and will almost certainly receive an additional two tournament entries based on finishing the year in the ITF Junior Top 5, but the restrictions will certainly impact her schedule in the next six months.

University of North Carolina sophomore Jamie Loeb and former Tar Heel Sanaz Marand won the doubles title in Florence, with the No. 2 seeds beating No. 3 seeds Keri Wong(Clemson) and Danielle Lao(USC) 6-3, 7-6(5).

At the Mansfield Futures, top seed Liam Broady of Great Britain won both titles, beating former Texas Longhorn Dimitar Kutrovsky of Bulgaria 1-6, 7-6(2), 6-0 in the singles final and teaming with Dennis Novikov for the doubles title. Broady and Novikov beat Henrique Cunha(Duke) and Kutrovsky 4-6, 6-3, 10-7.

Former Alabama star Saketh Myneni of India won the first Challenger singles title of his pro career today at the $50,000 tournament in Indore, India. The unseeded Myneni, who turns 27 today, beat top seed Aleksandr Nedovyesov(Oklahoma St) of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3 in the final.

American participation at the Grade A Osaka Mayor's Cup in Japan is generally not great due to the distance and time of year, but this year there are a number of US juniors in the draws.  Taylor Fritz, the No. 4 seed, is joined in the boys draw by Alexander Lebedev, and five US girls are competing: No. 11 seed Raquel Pedraza, No. 14 seed Mia Horvit, Emma Higuchi, Mimi Levine and Jenna Friedel.  Horvit reached the semifinals of this week's Grade 2 in Nagoya Japan, losing to top seed Katie Swan of Great Britain.  Swan lost to No. 10 seed Chihiro Muramatsu of Japan 3-6, 6-1, 7-6(5) in the final.  No. 3 seed Johan Nikles of Switzerland won the boys title, beating unseeded Uosuke Watanuki of Japan 7-6(6), 6-4.

Youth Olympic Games gold medalist Shilin Xu of China is the top girls seed, while Duck Hee Lee of Korea is the top boys seed in Osaka.

At the ITF Grade 5 in Vancouver Canada this week, two US juniors made the finals. No. 2 seed Sangeet Sridhar lost to Canada's Kyryll Kryvchun, the No. 1 seed, 6-3, 6-2 in the final.  Qualifier Alexandra Belaya won her first ITF title, beating unseeded Oleksandra Gorchanyuk of Canada 6-3, 6-3 in the final.  

I mentioned on my twitter account (@zootennis) Friday that I was at Stowe Stadium to watch the Michigan State High School Division II boys championships.  The top two seeds were from the local Portage schools, with senior Steward Sell of Portage Northern No. 1 and freshman Bill Duo of Portage Central No. 2. Duo was the runner-up at this year's USTA Boys 14s Nationals in San Antonio, but obviously is much younger and less experienced than Sell.  Both won in less than 40 minutes in the third round matches I watched Friday, and yesterday they met, as expected, in the final at No. 1 singles, with the match played indoors due to rain.  Sell won 6-3, 6-4, his fourth victory over Duo this year, to finish his season undefeated.

Forest Hills Central ended Midland Dow's impressive five-year winning streak of team titles.  For more on Sell and Duo, see this Kalamazoo Gazette article.

Clarke, Kuhar Win New Balance National High School Championships; Coric Advances to Quarterfinals at ATP's Umag; Papa, Chen, Arconada Reach Futures Quarterfinals

The first annual New Balance High School Tennis Championships were completed today in Cambridge, Mass, with No. 2 seeds in both the boys and girls draws winning the title. Madison Clarke, a rising senior from Phoenix, won the girls championship, defeating No. 5 seed Jenna Moustafa of Los Angeles, a rising sophomore, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the final. The boys final was also a three-setters, with Matt Kuhar of Rhode Island, who will be competing for Bryant University this fall, defeating No. 7 seed Maxwell Cancilla, a rising junior from Huntington Beach, Calif., 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.  For complete draws, see the TennisLink site.

Another week, another 17-year-old making waves on the ATP Tour. 2013 US Open boys champion Borna Coric of Croatia received a wild card into Umag, in his home country, and he has beaten tour veterans Edouard Roger Vasselin of France, the No. 7 seed, and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina, to advance to the quarterfinals. He will play top seed Fabio Fognini of Italy next.  

After so many years without any male teenagers in the top 200, all of sudden we have three: Nick Kyrgios of Australia, Alexander Zverev of Germany and with his win today, Coric.  Is this a trend? It's too early to tell, but for more on Coric's win today, see this from Steve Tignor at tennis.com. (Don't put much stock in his ATP height references. Those are notoriously inaccurate.)

Teenagers at the Austin, Texas $10,000 tournament for women and the Godfrey, Illinois $10,000 tournament for men, also had a good day. Eighteen-year-old Spencer Papa, who had beaten No. 3 seed and current Wimbledon boys champion Noah Rubin in the first round, defeated TCU's Nick Chappell 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals.  Papa, who starts at Tulsa this fall, had advanced to the final of a Futures in Mexico earlier this month, and reached the quarterfinals at last week's Futures tournament on his future campus. One of the unfortunate results of the current entry system for the Nationals is that Papa, who will not be 19 until October, was unable to get a wild card into Kalamazoo, with all eight going to other (deserving) players.  Certainly setting aside four wild cards for qualifying should be considered when suggestions for improving the new system are solicited.

Papa is one of five Americans in the quarterfinals, with UNC's Ronnie Schneider, Virginia's Mitchell Frank and former collegians Daniel Nguyen(USC) and Jeff Dadamo(Texas A&M) the others.

In Austin, 15-year-olds Usue Arconada and Kelly Chen are through to the quarterfinals, with Chen going directly from the Clay Courts in Memphis to the qualifying in Austin.  Arconada and Chen are joined in the quarterfinals by three former US collegians: Alex Guarachi of Alabama (last week's Vancouver $10K winner), 2013 NCAA finalist Mary Weatherholt (Nebraska), who play each other in a rematch of the 2013 NCAA semifinals, won 6-0, 6-3 by Weatherholt,  and recent Florida graduate Alex Cercone of Florida, who faces Chen.

At the $50,000 Lexington Challenger, two-time NCAA champion Nicole Gibbs kept her hopes for a third straight US Open wild card alive, saving a match point in her 3-6, 7-6(7), 6-2 win over UCLA rising sophomore Jennifer Brady.  Gibbs, Oudin and Brengle, all into the quarterfinals, still have an opportunity to win the USTA's Wild Card Challenge.

At the men's $50,000 Challenger in Lexington, Chase Buchanan(Ohio State) and Wayne Odesnik are the sole Americans still in the singles draw.

For those waiting for a release from the University of Virginia on Andres Pedroso's decision to leave his position as men's assistant, it's here.

New Balance High School Tournament Underway; Sarkissian Wins Futures in Canada; Teens Making Inroads; Pasha Receives ATP Atlanta Wild Card

The inaugural New Balance High School tournament began today in Cambridge, Mass., with Grant Solomon and Stephanie Schrage the top seeds.  So far, the seeding, which I understand was done with the help of the Universal Tennis Rating system, has held up well, with only 4 seeds--2 boys and 2 girls--losing in today's first round of the 64-player draw. The complete draws can be found at the TennisLink site.

Scott Gerber of OhioTennisZone.com compiled a review of this week's fields, using the Tennis Recruiting Network as a basis for his analysis.  Some of the players have since dropped out, but it provides data to assess the strength of the field.  Gerber also recently put together a detailed report on all the participants in June's Midwest Closed.

Last night after I posted my review of the Pro Circuit, 2014 NCAA finalist Alex Sarkissian(Pepperdine) won his first Futures title, at a $15,000 tournament in Canada.  Sarkissian, the No. 6 seed, defeated top seed Connor Smith(Ohio State) 7-6(3), 6-4. No. 2 seeds Daniel Chu of Canada and Kyle McMorrow(Washington) won the doubles title, beating unseeded  Riaan Du Toit and Alejandro Tabilo of Canada 6-2, 5-7 10-7.

Had I not been covering the Girls 18s Clays last week, I would have paid much more attention to the impressive results of 17-year-old Alexander Zverev of Germany, the 2013 ITF World Junior Champion and 16-year-old Ana Konjuh of Croatia, who won two junior slams last year.  Zverev, as a wild card, reached the semifinals of the ATP 500 in Hamburg and Konjuh reached the semifinals of the WTA International in Instanbul.  Teen breakthroughs may have slowed a bit on the women's side, but still exist, while on the men's side, teenagers have had difficulty just getting into the Top 100, let alone going deep in ATP tournaments or slams.  Whether Zverev, and 19-year old Nick Kyrgios of Australia are outliers or the start of a trend remains to be seen, but Zverev's week has put him in the company of some impressive players when viewed historically.  Ben Rothenberg of the New York Times spoke with both Konjuh and Zverev after their dream weeks for this article.

Qualifying for this week's ATP tournament in Atlanta is complete, and due to late withdrawals of Gael Monfils, Richard Gasquet and Radek Stepanek, three lucky losers got into the main draw, as well as four qualifiers. Kevin King(Georgia Tech), who lost to JP Smith(Tennessee) in the final round of qualifying was the only loser in the final qualifying round who did not get into the main draw.  Wild cards went to Ryan Harrison, Robby Ginepri and the University of Georgia's Nathan Pasha.  Pasha's wild card was originally offered to Georgia's Austin Smith, but his failure to withdraw from the Godfrey Futures this week left him unable to accept the wild card, so it went to teammate Pasha instead.  Pasha will play Lucas Lacko of Slovakia in the first round Tuesday night. For more on the wild card situation, see this article from georgiadogs.com.

May Aces; Bellis Reaches French Girls Doubles Final; Smith Receives Wild Card for July's ATP Tournament in Atlanta; Donaldson Makes Futures Final

May was a busy month in tennis, and it resulted in 18 aces for my monthly Tennis Recruiting Network column.  As always, current and former college players as well as juniors are represented, some for the second straight month, some for the first time ever.  While you're there, check out the commitment announcement of blue chip Kyle Seelig, who will be an Ohio State Buckeye in the fall of 2015, and the spring recruiting class rankings, where the Stanford men and Florida women topped the lists.  TRN also had a question and answer session with New Balance on the inaugural High School Championships they have organized for next month in Boston. If you played high school tennis this past school year, you can enter. For more information, click on the ad to the left.

Three US juniors began the day still alive at the French Open championships, but only CiCi Bellis advanced to Championship Saturday.  Bellis and Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic, seeded seventh, reached the girls doubles final, defeating unseeded Luisa Stefani of Brazil and Renata Zarazua of Mexico 6-4, 6-3. They will face the unseeded Romanian team of Ioana Ducu and Ioana Rosco, who beat No. 4 seeds Naiktha Bains of Australia and Tornado Alicia Black 6-3, 6-3.

Top boys seeds in the doubles, Stefan Kozlov and Andrey Rublev of Russia, lost to the unseeded French team of Benjamin Bonzi and Quentin Halys 6-3, 6-0.  Bonzi and Halys will play another unseeded team in the final, Lucas Miedler of Austria and Akira Santillan of Australia. It will be the second straight junior slam final contested between Miedler and Halys, who met in the Australian boys doubles final in January, with different partners.  Miedler and Bradley Mousley of Australia defeated Halys and Johan Sebastien Tatlot of France 6-4, 6-3 in the final.

The girls singles title will be decided between top seed Ivana Jorovic of Serbia and No. 8 seed Darya Kasatkina of Russia. Jorovic defeated No. 10 seed Francoise Abanda of Canada 6-4, 6-0, while Kasatkina downed Vondrousova 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

Rublev, the No. 4 seed in singles, will play Juame Munar Clar of Spain in the boys singles championship. Rublev defeated No. 2 seed Orlando Luz of Brazil 7-5, 6-3, while Munar Clar beat Halys 6-4, 6-2.  Munar Clar has a recent win over Rublev in an April Grade 1 final in Spain.

For more on the singles semifinals, see this article from the ITF Junior website.

For complete draws and Saturday's schedule, see the Roland Garros website.

The University of Georgia announced today that rising junior Austin Smith has been awarded a main draw wild card into the ATP's BB&T Atlanta tournament next month.  The tournament has traditionally provided wild cards, usually in qualifying, for both Georgia and Georgia Tech student-athletes.

In Turkey, 2013 Kalamazoo finalist Jared Donaldson has reached his second Futures final, both in the past four months. Donaldson, the No. 3 seed, will meet top seed Nikola Milojevic of Serbia, who turns 19 later this month.

In South Africa, Nik Scholtz, a rising senior at Ole Miss, and Tucker Vorster, who played at Ole Miss until 2011, will decide that $10,000 Futures title in their home country on Saturday. They've already collected the doubles title there this week.

Eighteen-year-old Allie Kiick has reached the semifinals of the $100,000 Challenger in Marseille unseeded.