Riffice, Andreescu Win ITF Grade 4 Titles in South Carolina; Maria Mateas Claims Grade 3 Championship in Bolivia; Rubin Qualifies for Champaign Challenger

Fifteen-year-old Sam Riffice won his third ITF Grade 4 title and second in a row yesterday, taking the singles championship in Lexington, South Carolina. No. 3 seed Riffice, who won the championship last week in Atlanta, defeated No. 4 seed Nathan Perrone 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the final.

Fourteen-year-old Bianca Andreescu of Canada, the reigning Les Petits As champion, won the girls singles title, the third of her brief ITF junior career.  No. 11 seed Andreescu defeated surprise finalist Taylor Russo, a qualifier, 6-0, 6-2 in the final. Andreescu beat top seed Jade Lewis of New Zealand in the semifinals and No. 3 seed Alexandra Sanford in the quarterfinals.

No. 2 seeds Perrone and Trent Bryde won the the doubles, defeating top seeds Riffice and Vasil Kirkov 6-1, 6-7(6), 10-5. Top seeds Sanford
and Kayla Day defeated No. 6 seeds Andreescu and Anca Craciun, also of Canada, 6-3, 6-3 for the girls doubles title.

The third ITF Junior Circuit tournament in this series is the Grade 4 at the Evert Academy in Boca Raton.  Riffice is the top seed in the boys draw.   Top seed in the girls draw is Panna Udvardy of Hungary, who did not play the Atlanta and Lexington tournaments the past two weeks.

Fifteen-year-old Maria Mateas won her first ITF title last week at the Grade 3 in Bolivia. Mateas, who was unseeded, defeated No. 3 seed Lara Escauriza of Paraguay 6-4, 6-2 in the final.  Top seeds Olivia Hauger and Catalin Mateas lost in the semifinals.

Qualifying was completed today at the $50,000 Champaign Challenger, with Noah Rubin earning a place in the main draw with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over Virginia first-year Alexander Ritschard of Switzerland. Rubin will play former Texas star Ed Corrie in the opening round Tuesday evening, and I plan to be in Champaign for that one.  Rubin was the only American to advance via qualifying.

The women's USTA Pro Circuit events have finished for the year, but in addition to Champaign, there are two more $10,000 Futures events for the men: this week in Niceville, Florida and next week in Pensacola. Former Virginia Tech player Patrick Daciek was the only American to qualify for Niceville, where former Ohio State Buckeye Connor Smith is the top seed.   Reilly Opelka received a special exemption due to his quarterfinal appearance in Birmingham, with Alex Rybakov, Spencer Papa and China's Yuanfeng Li receiving wild cards.  Former Georgia star Wil Spencer, who is a teaching pro now in North Carolina, grew up in the Florida Panhandle, and he received the fourth main draw wild card.

Schnur, Elbaba Take USTA/ITA Indoor Titles; Libietis and Reese Win Knoxville Challenger Doubles Championship

Virginia's Julia Elbaba and North Carolina's Brayden Schnur gave the ACC both singles champions Sunday at the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships.

Elbaba, seeded sixth, defeated fifth seed Maegan Manasse of Cal 6-2, 7-5 to claim her first major title and the program's second, with the first captured by teammate Danielle Collins at May's NCAA championships.

Elbaba, a junior who received an ITA wild card as her entry into the field, told the ITA staff she was not interested in finishing second again.

"I got to the finals of All-Americans in my first year, so I really did want to win this one. That was the only kind of pressure I felt. I didn't want to go home as a second place runner-up again. I just used that pressure to my advantage and told myself to stick with the plan, and that's what we did."

Schnur, a sophomore from Canada, defeated Vanderbilt senior Gonzales Austin 6-4, 7-6(2) to win his first major, and the second in the program's history. Current Florida women's coach Roland Thornqvist won the Indoor title back in 1993. Schnur, who won the Carolinas regional to earn entry into the tournament, saved match points in his  6-4, 6-7(5), 7-5 first round victory over Columbia's Winston Lin.

"Winning that match and pulling that out after saving match points was probably the highlight of my tournament," Schnur told the ITA staff.

I spoke with Schnur last May at the NCAAs, and my interview with him can be found at the Tennis Recruiting Network (subscription required for full article.)

The doubles titles went to Los Angeles Pac-12 schools, with the UCLA team of Catherine Harrison and Kyle McPhillips taking the women's championship and Southern Cal's Yannick Hanfmann and Roberto Quiroz claiming the men's championship.

Harrison and McPhillips, who were unseeded, beat No. 2 seeds Pleun Burgmans and Emily Flickinger of Auburn 6-2, 6-3 in the final, becoming the first Bruin women's Indoor doubles champions since Keri Phebus and Susie Starrett in 1995. They had beaten top seeds Beatrice Gumulya and Jessy Rompies of Clemson in the semifinals Saturday.

Top seeds Hanfmann and Quiroz, who defeated unseeded Ross Guignon and Tim Kopinski of Illinois 6-3, 7-5 in the final, also ended a title drought for the Trojans as well. The last USC men's team to win an Indoor doubles title was Brian McPhie and Jon Leach back in 1992.

The women's singles consolation title (for first round losers) went to Florida freshman Josie Kuhlman, who defeated Zsofi Susanyi of Cal 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.  The men's singles consolation title went to Baylor's Julian Lenz, who defeated Mackenzie McDonald of UCLA 7-6(2), 0-6, 6-4.

Ohio State's Kevin Metka and Ralf Steinbach won the men's (second round) doubles consolation final with a 6-3, 7-6(3) win over defending National Indoor champions Ashok Narayana and Max Schnur of Columbia. Manasse and Denise Starr of Cal won the women's (second round) doubles consolation final 7-6(5), 7-6(3) over Emina Bektas and Alex Najarian of Michigan.

Gonzales Austin of Vanderbilt and Viktoriya Lushkova of Oklahoma State won the sportsmanship awards.

For complete results, see the ITA tournament page.

The top-ranked men's doubles team in the country, Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese of Tennessee, did not play the Indoor, where they reached the final last year.  Instead, the NCAA champions elected to stay home and play as wild cards in the singles and doubles of the Knoxville Challenger. Both lost in the first round of singles, but they won the doubles title today, defeating Gastao Elias of Portugal and Sean Thornley of Great Britain 6-3, 6-4 in the final.  Although it was the second match in a row where the Tennessee seniors were dominant, they did face a couple of tight spots.  After breaking Elias for a 4-2 first set lead, Reese went down 30-40 in the next service game, but saved both break points to take a 5-2 lead.

In the second set, Thornley was broken at 1-1 but serving at 4-3, Reese again faced a break point at deuce. As in the first set, Reese missed his first serve, but a good second serve forced Elias' return wide and they held.

Serving for the match, Libietis was impressive. He started with an ace and got every first serve in, holding at love for the victory, which was obviously a popular one with the large, partisan crowd.

For more on their title, see the Tennessee website.

No. 2 seed Adrian Mannarino of France won the singles title in Knoxville, defeating No. 3 seed Sam Groth of Australia 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-4.

At the Birmingham Futures, qualifier Julio Peralta of Chile defeated No. 3 seed Jean Yves Aubone 6-2, 6-1.  Peralta also took the doubles title, with former D-III UC-Santa Cruz standout Matt Seeberger, with the No. 3 seeds defeating wild cards Alex Rybakov and Catalin Gard 6-3, 6-4 in the final.

The singles final of the women's $50K in Captiva was rained out and will be played Monday.  The doubles final was completed, with top seeds Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada and Anna Tatishvili beating No. 2 seeds Asia Muhammad and Maria Sanchez 6-3, 6-3.

I will be going to the final Challenger of the USTA Pro Circuit next week at the University of Illinois in Champaign, and am planning to be there Tuesday. The final round of qualifying is Monday, with Wake Forest's Noah Rubin taking on Virginia's Alexander Ritschard. Illinois freshman Aleksandar Vukic is also in the final round of qualifying as are former Florida Gators Sekou Bangoura and Greg Ouellette.  2013 NCAA champion Blaz Rola is the No. 3 seed and will play his first round match in the main draw tomorrow, as will wild card Jared Hiltzik, the Illinois junior.  Hiltzik plays former Duke star Henrique Cunha, who beat Hiltzik in the second round of the NCAA singles championship in 2013. Former Illini Rajeev Ram is also on Monday's schedule.

This is the final tournament of the USTA's Australian Open Wild Card Challenge, but since no American has won either of the previous two Challengers, the race is far from over. Mannarino and Malek Jaziri of Tunisia are the top two seeds.

Schnur, Austin in Men's National Indoor Final; Manasse and Elbaba Play for Women's Title; Reese and Libietis Reach Knoxville Challenger Doubles Final; Brady Loses In Captiva

North Carolina's Brayden Schnur and Vanderbilt's Gonzales Austin will play for the men's title at the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships Sunday, with Cal's Maegan Manasse and Virginia's Julia Elbaba meeting for the women's title at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.

Schnur, a sophomore from Canada, defeated Dominik Koepfer of Tulane 6-4, 7-6(4) in one Saturday semifinal, while senior Austin moved into the final with a 7-5, 2-3 def. win over Ryan Shane of Virginia.  Shane suffered a persistent nose bleed in the second set and after a medical timeout at 2-1, the bleeding continued at the next changeover resulting in the match being called in Austin's favor. This is similar to the circumstances at this year's NCAAs, when UCLA's Robin Anderson was defaulted from a first round doubles match for the same reason.

Regardless which one of the unseeded men claims tomorrow's final, the winner will be the first National Champion from his school. (Correction:  Current Florida women's head coach Roland Thornqvist won the Indoor for North Carolina in 1993).

The women's final features fifth-seeded sophomore Manasse, who played No. 6 for Cal last year, and sixth-seeded junior Elbaba, who will be playing in her second major final having reached the All-American final as a freshman.  Manasse, who has yet to lose a set in the tournament, defeated unseeded Stephanie Wagner of Miami 6-3, 7-6(4).  Elbaba suffered no letdown after her big win Friday over top seed Jamie Loeb, beating No. 4 seed Brooke Austin of Florida 6-2, 6-4 to avenge her first round loss to the freshman at the All-Americans.

The University of Southern California's Yannick Hanfmann and Roberto Quiroz will take on the University of Illinois' Ross Guignon and Tim Kopinski in the men's doubles final.  Hanfmann and Quiroz, the top seeds, defeated No. 3 seeds Austin and Rhys Johnson 7-6, 6-3; Guignon and Kopinski outlasted Mackenzie McDonald and Martin Redlicki of UCLA 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 in a semifinal between unseeded teams.

In the women's doubles final, UCLA's Catherine Harrison and Kyle McPhillips will play Auburn's Pleun Burgmans and Emily Flickinger. The unseeded Harrison and McPhillips beat top seeds and All-American champions Beatrice Gumulya and Jossy Rompies of Clemson 5-7, 7-5, 11-9. Second seeds Burgmans and Flickinger topped unseeded Kelsey Laurente and Viktoriya Lushkova of Oklahoma State 6-3, 6-3.

For complete results, including consolation matches, see the ITA tournament page.

Hanfmann and Quiroz, the All-American finalists, were the top seeds in the Indoors due to the absence of champions Hunter Reese and Mikelis Libietis of Tennessee, who were given a wild card into the Knoxville Challenger this week. The NCAA champions, both seniors, defeated No. 2 seeds Kevin King and Juan Spir in the first round, then received a walkover in the quarterfinals.  In today's semifinals, Reese and Libietis defeated Alex Kuznetsov and former Texas Longhorn Ed Corrie of Great Britain 6-4, 6-2 and will play unseeded Sean Thornley of Great Britain and Gastao Elias of Portugal in Sunday's final.  All the buzz at the tournament today was about a fantastic point that ended in an jaw-dropping around-the-post winner from Hunter Reese.  See the video below:

The singles final will feature Australian Sam Groth, the No. 3 seed, against No. 2 seed Adrian Mannarino of France. Groth defeated No. 5 seed Tim Smyczek 6-3, 6-4 and Mannarino beat Liam Broady of Great Britain 6-0, 6-4.  Live streaming of the doubles can be found here beginning at 1 p.m Sunday.

At the $50,000 women's Pro Circuit tournament in Florida, Jennifer Brady lost to wild card Edina Gallovits-Hall of Romania 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals. Brady's loss means the USTA"s Australian Open wild card now goes to Irina Falconi.  Brady played well throughout the match, but failing to capitalize on a break point at 4-all in the second set was costly, with Brady committing a rare unforced forehand error at 30-40,  and she was broken in the next game.  Brady trailed 2-0 and 3-1 in the final set, but got the breaks back to make it 4-all. Gallovits-Hall held for 5-4, and Brady went down 15-40 in the final game. Gallovits-Hall, who will be 30 next month, hit a gorgeous lob on her first match point to claim the victory, and she will play Croatian Petra Martic in Sunday's final.

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.

Six Seeds Out in Opening Round of USTA/ITA Indoor Intercollegiate Championships; Brady Keeps AO Wild Card Hopes Alive; Opelka into Quarterfinals in Birmingham Futures

With only 32 players in the singles draws, the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships are bound to have first round upsets, and that was the case today, with five of the eight seeds in the men's singles and the No. 3 seed in the women's singles already out.

Top women's seeds Jamie Loeb of North Carolina and Chanelle Van Nguyen of UCLA advanced in straight sets, as did men's top seeds Sebastian Stiefelmeyer of Louisville and Yannick Hanfmann of Southern Cal.

But both No. 3 seeds were sent to the consolation draw, with UCLA's Mackenzie McDonald falling to Amerigo Contini of Virginia Tech 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 and North Carolina's Hayley Carter losing to Rice's Natalie Beazant 7-6(2), 6-4.

In addition to McDonald, No. 4 seed Julian Lenz of Baylor, the ITA preseason No. 1, lost, going out to Gonzales Austin of Vanderbilt 6-4, 6-4. No. 5 seed Romain Bogaerts of Wake Forest fell to Nathan Pasha of Georgia, No. 7 seed Cameron Norrie of TCU lost to Dominik Koepfer of Tulane 6-4, 6-7(7), 6-3 and No. 8 seed Soren Hess-Olesen of Texas was replaced in the draw by alternate Denis Nguyen of Harvard when Hess-Olesen suffered a minor injury in practice prior to his match.

The live scoring has been error-prone and often not timely, but the USTA's Pat Mitsch is doing a live chat throughout the tournament, and he is much more reliable when it comes to scores and results. Follow along here beginning at 9 a.m. Friday.

For complete results, see the ITA tournament page.

UCLA sophomore Jennifer Brady kept her hopes for the Australian Open wild card alive today at the $50,000 Captiva Island Florida Pro Circuit event. Brady defeated No. 6 seed Irina Falconi, who had beaten her on Sunday in the $50,000 New Braunfels final, 6-4, 6-4 in the second round and will play Canada's Gabriela Dabrowski in the quarterfinals. The unseeded Dabrowski won the $50,000 tournament in Toronto last week.  Brady would need to win the tournament this week to pass Falconi, who has her two best results as a semifinal and a title, to earn the USTA's reciprocal wild card.  Unseeded Louisa Chirico and Sachia Vickery also advanced to the quarterfinals, with Chirico beating top seed Grace Min 7-6(5), 5-7, 7-5 and Vickery defeating No. 8 seed Mariana Duque Marino of Colombia 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(3).

At the Knoxville Challenger, Denis Kudla took the lead in the men's wild card race, defeating Taro Daniel of Japan 7-6(4), 6-3, with other contenders Alex Kuznetsov, Tennys Sandgren and Michael Russell losing. Tim Smyczek, the No. 5 seed, beat Jared Donaldson 6-0, 6-4 so he has a chance to make a move in the wild card race this week. There is one more Challenger for the men that counts in the race next week in Champaign.

At the $10,000 Birmingham Futures, wild card Reilly Opelka defeated friend and fellow 17-year-old Alex Rybakov 6-4, 6-4 to advance to his second career Futures quarterfinal.  He will play qualifier Julio Peralta of Chile, who beat Deiton Baughman 6-3, 6-2.  Louisiana-Lafayette junior Jake Wynan has picked up his first ATP points this week, with the 20-year-old Australian qualifier set to face No. 3 seed and former Florida State star Jean Yves Aubone in the quarterfinals. Miami freshman Piotr Lomacki also reached the quarterfinals, where he'll face unseeded 18-year-old Naoki Nakagawa of Japan.

Rybakov has reached the doubles final with former Ole Miss star Catalin Gard of Romania.