My Conversation with USTA National Coach Jose Caballero; ITF J500 Milan Acceptances Include 13 Americans; Joint Reaches W75 Charlottesville Semifinal; Woestendick and Razeghi Play for Vero Beach $15K Doubles Title Saturday

When I travel to major junior tournaments I see many of the same players, families, officials and coaches. In that latter category are the USTA National Coaches, many of whom have been in those positions for many years. One of those is Jose Caballero, a National Coach for men's tennis, and with all the talk last month about the Jose Higueras email criticizing the USTA management and board for their lack of support for Player Development, I thought it might be a good idea to talk to someone on the PD side. Although I'm aware of most of the duties of a USTA National Coach, just from observing them over the years, many people in the junior tennis world aren't quite sure what the job entails. 

So, while at the ITF J300 in San Diego, I sat down with Caballero to discuss how he came to be a coach and a USTA coach, and what his responsibilities are, whether he is traveling or back at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona. We also discussed the impact of the recent budget cuts and why he's unlikely to follow many of his former colleagues now coaching college tennis. The interview appears today on the Tennis Recruiting Network. 

The acceptances for next month's ITF J500 Trofeo Bonfiglio in Milan Italy were released this week, with eight US boys and five US girls getting into the main draw.

The US boys entered are Kaylan Bigun, Cooper Woestendick, Jack Kennedy, Ian Mayew, Alexander Razeghi, Maxwell Exsted, Roy Horovitz and Matthew Forbes. Jagger Leach is next in.

The US girls entered are Tyra Grant, Kaitlyn Rolls, Iva Jovic, Thea Frodin and Shannon Lam. A trio of US girls are first, third and fourth out of the main draw: Kate Fakih, Kristina Penickova and Christasha McNeil. 

As of now, both 2024 Australian Open junior champions, Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia and Rei Sakamoto of Japan, are entered. The tournament, finishing just one week before the Roland Garros Junior Championships, often has fields nearly as strong as those in Paris. The RG acceptance list should be out next week.

Eighteen-year-old Maya Joint of Australia continues to post wins at the top level of the ITF women's World Tennis Tour, advancing to Saturday's semifinals with a 6-3, 6-4 win over No. 7 seed Hanna Chang at the W75 in Charlottesville Virginia. Joint, a University of Texas signee, will face unseeded Luisa Chrico in the semifinals; Chirico defeated No. 4 seed Valentini Grammatikopoulou of Greece 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

In the top half, No. 1 seed Kayla Day will face No. 3 seed Lulu Sun(Texas) of Switzerland. Day defeated No. 8 seed Varvara Lepchenko 7-6(6), 7-5, while Sun got past No. 5 seed Elvina Kalieva 6-2, 3-6, 6-4.

The only American still alive at the Savannah Challenger, No. 6 seed Tristan Boyer, lost in the quarterfinals today to unseeded Maxime Janvier of France 2-6, 6-2, 6-3. Janvier will face qualifier Andres Andrade of Ecuador. The former University of Florida star, a member of the 2021 NCAA championship team, had never reached a Challenger quarterfinal until this week in Savannah.  Former University of Virginia standout Alexander Ritschard of Switzerland, also an NCAA team champion, is the only seed left, at No. 5. He will play Dmitry Popko of Kazakhstan in the top half semifinal.

With Boyer's loss, Nicolas Moreno de Alboran will clinch the USTA Roland Garros wild card, according to Challenger expert Damian Kust, who has been tracking it the past month.

2021 US Open girls champion Robin Montgomery has inserted herself in the conversation for the women's Roland Garros wild card, by using her wild card to reach the third round of the Madrid WTA 1000 this week. Today she beat WTA No. 28 Katie Boulter of Great Britain 1-6, 6-3, 6-4. 2021 USTA National 18s champion Ashlyn Krueger has also advanced to the third round, beating WTA No. 16 Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia 6-3, 6-3.

Four Americans have advanced to the semifinals of the $15,000 men's USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Vero Beach Florida: No. 2 seed Garrett Johns, Will Grant, Victor Lilov and Miles Jones.

Duke senior Johns, the No. 2 seed, defeated wild card Rudy Quan 6-4, 6-4 and will face former Florida Gator Grant, who came back to beat wild card Chad Kissell(Valparaiso) 5-7, 6-2, 6-4. Jones ended the run of qualifier Dian Nedev of Bulgaria 6-3, 6-1 and Lilov, the No. 3 seed, defeated Louisville fifth-year Etienne Donnet of France, the No. 8 seed, 6-1, 6-3. 

Cooper Woestendick and Alexander Razeghi hadn't partnered in doubles before this week, but the two 17-year-olds are rolling through the draw, advancing to the final with a 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 3 seed Miguel Angel Cabrera of Chile and Ivan Marrero Curbelo of Spain. Razeghi and Woestendick, the latter with nine ITF Junior doubles titles, including the Australian Open boys championships this year, beat top seeds Sekou Bangoura(Florida) and Noah Schachter(Texas A&M) 6-3, 6-4 yesterday. They will play the unseeded Jones brothers, Miles and Alex, who defeated another all-junior team of Meecah Bigun and Mitchell Lee 6-3, 3-6, 10-7.

Exsted Reaches Quarterfinals at ITF J500 Offenbach; Joint, Quan Advance to USTA Pro Circuit Quarterfinals; FSU Seeking Masters Student for Tennis Research; SEC, Big Ten, ACC Announce Men's Conference Awards

The quarterfinals are set for the ITF J500 in Offenbach Germany, with 17-year-old Max Exsted advancing to the quarterfinals of a J500 for the first time in his career. Exsted, the No. 11 seed, defeated unseeded Joaquin Guilleme of Nicaragua 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(1) today and will face top seed Nicolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway on Friday. Budkov Kjaer defeated unseeded Samuele Seghetti of Italy 6-0, 6-0 in today's third round. 

Katie Rolls is through to the quarterfinals in the girls doubles, with partner Jeline Vandromme of Belgium, who are the No. 5 seeds.

The majority of the teenagers in action today at the USTA Pro Circuit events in Charlottesville Virginia and Vero Beach Florida lost, but two 18-year-olds have advanced to Friday's quarterfinals.

At the W75 in Virginia, University of Texas signee Maya Joint of Australia defeated No. 2 seed Ann Li 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the quarterfinals against No. 7 seed Hanna Chang. Joint, who started the year by reaching the final round of women's qualifying at the Australian Open, has played nine ITF women's events this year (including a W125) and has made at least the quarterfinals in all of them.  Now inside the WTA Top 250 in the live rankings, Joint can start thinking about Roland Garros and Wimbledon women's qualifying.

Qualifier Akasha Urhobo and Liv Hovde both had to finish their first round matches held over from Tuesday, with Urhobo losing to Kathinka Von Deichmann of Lichtenstein and Hovde falling to No. 8 seed Varvara Lepchenko, both 7-5 in the third.

Of the five US juniors competing in the second round of the men's $15,000 tournament in Florida, only one advanced to the quarterfinals, and he got through by beating another junior.

UCLA signee Rudy Quan avenged his 2023 ITF J300 Indian Wells loss to 17-year-old Cooper Woestendick with a 6-3, 6-2 victory in the second round today, advancing to the quarterfinals of a USTA Pro Circuit tournament for the first time. Quan, a wild card, will face No. 2 seed Garrett Johns, a senior at Duke, who beat Alex Razeghi 6-3, 6-4. 

At the ATP Masters 1000 in Madrid today, 16-year-old wild card Darwin Blanch lost to Rafael Nadal 6-1, 6-0 in a first round match.

I received an email this week notifying me of an opportunity for tennis-related research for a Masters student at Florida State University. If you are, or will soon be, a college graduate with a tennis background, please contact Dr. Rodenberg about this position.

"Starting Fall 2024, Florida State University will offer a fully-funded Masters student position (tuition waiver, stipend, and health insurance) for one individual looking to do tennis-specific research and teaching.

The position will have both on-court and off-court elements, including co-authorship publication potential.

College and professional tennis players are encouraged to apply. All applicants must possess an undergraduate degree before Fall 2024, but a GRE score is not required.

The deadline to apply is June 1, 2024. For further details, please contact Dr. Ryan Rodenberg:

Ryan M. Rodenberg, JD/PhD
Professor
Florida State University       
850-645-9535

Three more conference award announcements came out today, for the Big Ten men, ACC men and SEC men. That leaves the ACC women, the Big 12 men and women and the Pac-12 men and women to be announced. Click on the headings to see the all-conference teams.

Big Ten Men's Awards

Player of the Year: Ozan Baris, Michigan State

Freshman of the Year: Aristotelis Thanos, Michigan State

Coach of the Year: Ty Tucker, Ohio State

SEC Men's Awards

Player of the Year: Johannus Monday, Tennessee

Freshman of the Year: Danil Panarin, Vanderbilt

Coach of the Year: Cedric Kauffmann, Kentucky

ACC Men's Awards

Player of the Year: Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc, Florida State

Freshman of the Year: Dylan Dietrich, Virginia

Coach of the Year: Dwayne Hultquist, Florida State

Previously announced awards:

SEC Women's Awards

Player of the Year: Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

Freshman of the Year: Lucciana Perez, Texas A&M

Coach of the Year: Drake Bernstein, Georgia

Big Ten Women's Awards

Player of the Year: Kari Miller, Michigan 

Freshman of the Year: Luciana Perry, Ohio State

  

Coach of the Year: Ronni Bernstein, Michigan 

Top Three Girls Seeds Out at ITF J500 Offenbach; First ATP Points for Lee, Woestendick at Vero Beach $15K; 122nd Edition of The Ojai Underway; SEC and Big Ten Women's Conference Awards Announced

The round of 16 is set at the ITF J500 in Offenbach Germany, with just one American and neither of the top two girls seeds still in contention. No. 11 seed Max Exsted advanced to the third round with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Sergio Planella Hernandez of Spain today; on Thursday he will face unseeded Joaquin Guilleme of Nicaragua for a spot in the quarterfinals.

The top two seeds in the boys draw, Nikolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway and Luca Preda of Romania, have moved into the third round with two routine straight-sets wins, but the top three girls seeds are out, exiting in the first round. Top seed Emerson Jones of Australia lost to Nellie Taraba Wallberg of Sweden 6-0, 6-3, No. 2 seed Hannah Klugman of Great Britain was beaten by Vittoria Paganetti of Italy 6-4, 7-6(1) and Mingge Xu of Great Britain fell to Neus Torner Sensano of Spain 7-6(6), 6-1. It may be some consolation to that trio of seeds that all of the girls who beat them won their matches today and are through to the round of 16. 

No. 8 seed Katie Rolls, who won the last J500 this year, at the Banana Bowl in Brazil, lost in the second round to Eliska Tichackova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-2.

In my post Tuesday, I mentioned all the top juniors competing at this week's $15,000 men's USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Vero Beach Florida, and five advanced to Thursday's second round.  Seventeen-year-old Cooper Woestendick and 18-year-old Mitchell Lee earned their first ATP points, with Woestendick beating Jake Van Emburgh(Oklahoma/Ohio State) 7-5, 6-4 and Lee getting a 6-4 retired win over No. 4 seed Jaimee Floyd Angele of France. 

Kaylan Bigun, wild card Rudy Quan and Alexander Razeghi already have ATP rankings but added another point to their totals today. Bigun defeated Sekou Bangoura(Florida), who was playing in his first event in almost a year, 6-0, 6-1 in 57 minutes; Quan took out No. 6 seed Nathan Ponwith(Georgia/Arizona State) 6-0, 7-6(5) and Razeghi beat fellow 17-year-old Nikita Filin, a qualifier, 6-4, 6-4.

Razeghi gets No. 2 seed Garrett Johns(Duke) next, while Bigun faces qualifier Dian Nedev of Bulgaria, who beat top seed Christian Langmo(Miami)6-4, 6-7(2), 6-4.  Quan and Woestendick will play for a spot in the quarterfinals; in their only previous meeting, in the quarterfinals of last year's ITF J300 in Indian Wells, Woestendick won 6-3, 6-1. Lee will face fellow wild card Chad Kissell(Valparaiso) in the second round, after Kissell defeated qualifier Cody Benton 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.

For more on today's action in Vero Beach, including quotes from Kaylan Bigun and Rudy Quan, see this article from Harvey Fialkov. 

One of the oldest and most revered tennis tournaments in the United States began this week in Ojai California. The 122nd edition of the tournament will feature the final Pac-12 conference tournaments, with the upcoming realignments leading to the demise of undoubtedly the most significant conference in college tennis. Past Ojai competitors Bob and Mike Bryan are being honored this year for their contributions to the sport and will perform with their band after a fundraising dinner. A junior clinic with the twins is also on the schedule.

The tournament also features community college, Division III, juniors, boys high school and men's and women's opens in a festival of tennis on courts throughout the region. Draws for all events can be found under the tournament information tab on the Ojai home page.

Each year I try to post the Power Five (plus Ivy) conference awards, which are released in no particular order and no discernible schedule. The first two came out today, with the SEC announcing its women's all-conference first and second teams and all-freshmen team, as well as these top awards:

Player of the Year: Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

Freshman of the Year: Lucciana Perez, Texas A&M

Coach of the Year: Drake Bernstein, Georgia

It was a good day to be a Luciana and a Bernstein, as the Big Ten's freshman and coach of the year mirroring those of the SEC. The Big Ten also revealed its team sportsmanship awards as well as all-conference teams.

Player of the Year: Kari Miller, Michigan 

Freshman of the Year: Luciana Perry, Ohio State

  

Coach of the Year: Ronni Bernstein, Michigan 

Juniors Flood Vero Beach $15K; Urhobo Qualifies at Charlottesville $75K; Schwaerzler Beats Top Seed Wolf at Savannah Challenger; USTA Roland Garros Wild Card Race Update; No Change Atop ITF D-I Rankings

The USTA Pro Circuit features three tournaments this week: a $15K in Vero Beach Florida for men, the ATP Challenger 75 in Savannah Georgia and a W75 for women in Charlottesville Virginia.

With the ITF's Junior Reserve program, the $15,000 tournaments always feature top juniors, but given the paucity of events at this level this year, the Vero Beach is particularly popular with younger players, especially those preparing for a trip to Europe next month for the Milan ITF J500 and the Roland Garros Junior Championships. 

The boys who received main draw entry based on their junior rankings are Alexander Razeghi, Cooper Woestendick and Kaylan Bigun. ITF J300 Indian Wells champion Rudy Quan received a wild card, and Mitchell Lee won a wild card tournament for his spot in the main draw. Nikita Filin qualified for the main draw today, as did 19-year-old Cody Benton, a North Carolina State signee. Filin will play Razeghi in the first round; Razeghi is 4-0 in their previous meetings, but the most recent was back in the semifinals of Kalamazoo in 2021, where Razeghi claimed the 16s title.

The other two wild cards were given to Chad Kissell(Valparaiso) and Matthew Segura.

Christian Langmo(Miami) is the top seed; Garrett Johns, in his fifth year at Duke, is the No. 2 seed.

The field for the women's tournament in Charlottesville obviously has attracted a significant number of top players, including top seed Kayla Day, currently 84 in the WTA rankings. 

Qualifying concluded today, with 17-year-old Akasha Urhobo reaching the main draw with a three-hour 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 win over former Baylor standout Melany Solange Krywoj of Argentina. Other Americans qualifying include Sophie Chang, Jaeda Daniel(Auburn/NC State), Victoria Flores(Georgia Tech/Pepperdine), Gabriella Price and Rasheeda McAdoo(Georgia Tech). 

Wild cards were awarded to University of Virginia senior Hibah Shaikh, Texas signee Ashton Bowers, Katrina Scott and Alana Smith(NC State). Bowers lost  6-3, 6-4 to Louisa Chirico, whom she had beaten two weeks ago in Boca Raton. The other three wild cards play qualifiers in the first round Wednesday.

The latest USTA Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge standings have changed dramatically with two weeks remaining for women and just one, this week, for men. Tallahassee Challenger finalist Mitchell Krueger has tied Nicolas Moreno de Alboran atop the men's race,and Sachia Vickery has moved into women's top spot. Standings below, with the current ATP/WTA rankings in parentheses.

Men's Standings:
T1. Nicolas Moreno de Alboran (138) -- 63
T1. Mitchell Krueger (239) -- 63
3. Michael Mmoh (114) -- 50
4. Stefan Kozlov (451) -- 38
5. Tennys Sandgren (260) -- 28

Women's Standings:
1. Sachia Vickery (129) -- 110
2. Katie Volynets (105) -- 57
3. Katrina Scott (407) -- 49
4. Varvara Lepchenko (244) -- 48
5. Akasha Urhobo (564) -- 37

Krueger is through to the second round of the Savannah Challenger after beating No. 8 seed Clement Tabur of France 6-3, 6-2 this afternoon. His quarter has opened up with No. 2 seed Michael Mmoh retiring in his match with alternate Aidan Mayo at 4-6, 6-4, 2-0. The other two players in Krueger's quarter are qualifiers.

JJ Wolf's struggles continue, with the former Ohio State All-American losing in the first round for the third straight week.  As was the case last week, Wolf lost to a top ITF junior using the ATP Accelerator program to secure entry, with No. 1 junior Joel Schwaerzler beating Wolf 6-2, 6-1 tonight in Savannah. Schwaerzler, who lost to Krueger in the quarterfinals last week at the Tallahassee Challenger, is up to 740 in the ATP live rankings.

The latest Division I team and individual rankings came out today, and these are the last ones before the NCAA selection show, which is Monday April 29 for the men's and women's team events. The individual selections will be announced via a press release Tuesday April 30.

The biggest change is the move of the Big 12 conference champions Texas men, who are now No. 2, behind Ohio State. I'm including the Top 17 in the women's singles and doubles, due to the injury to North Carolina's Reese Brantmeier, who will not be participating despite her rankings.

ITA Women's D-I Team Top 16, April 23, 2024

1. Oklahoma State

2. Michigan

3. Stanford

4. North Carolina

5. Virginia

6. Pepperdine

7. Georgia

8. UCLA

9. Texas

10. Cal

11. Southern Cal

12. Ohio State

13. Texas A&M

14. NC State

15. Florida

16. Tennessee

Singles:

1. Mary Stoiana, Texas A&M

2. Amelia Rajecki, NC State

3. Kari Miller, Michigan

4. Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina

5. Ange Oby Kajuru, Oklahoma State

6. Fiona Crawley, North Carolina

7. Rachel Gailis, Florida

8. Carolyn Ansari, Auburn

9. Connia Ma, Stanford

10. Ayana Akli, South Carolina

11. Alexa Noel, Miami

12. Lisa Zaar, Pepperdine

13. Sofia Cabezas, Tennessee

14. Savannah Broadus, Pepperdine

15. Celia-Belle Mohr, Vanderbilt

16. Anastasiya Komar, Oklahoma State

17. Sarah Hamner, South Carolina

Doubles:

1. Elizabeth Scotty and Reese Brantmeier, North Carolina

2. Janice Tjen and Savannah Broadus, Pepperdine

3. Ange Oby Kajuru and Anastasiya Komar, Oklahoma State

4. Alina Shcherbinina and Dana Guzman, Oklahoma

5. Fiona Crawley and Carson Tanguilig, North Carolina

6. Metka Komac and Avelina Sayfetdinova, Texas Tech

7. Mary Stoiana and Mia Kupres, Texas A&M

8. Jaedan Brown and Kari Miller, Michigan

9. Sofia Cabezas and Elza Tomase, Tennessee

Men's D-I Team Top 16:

1. Ohio State

2. Texas

3. Virginia

4. TCU

5. Kentucky

6. Tennessee

7. Columbia

8. Wake Forest

9. Florida State

10. Oklahoma

11. Arizona

12. Harvard

13. Duke

14. NC State

15. South Carolina

16. Mississippi State

Singles:

1. Eliot Spizzirri, Texas

2. Johannus Monday, Tennessee

3. Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc, Florida State

4. Chris Rodesch, Virginia

5. Micah Braswell, Texas

6. Oliver Tarvet, San Diego

7. Jake Fearnley, TCU

8. Toby Samuel, South Carolina

9. Ozan Baris, Michigan State

10. Alex Martinez, Oklahoma

11. Jack Pinnington Jones, TCU

12. Murphy Cassone, Arizona State

13. Andres Martin, Georgia Tech

14. Radu Papoe, Cornell

15. Cooper Williams, Harvard

16. JJ Tracy, Ohio State

Doubles:

1. Garrett Johns and Pedro Rodenas, Duke

2. Robert Cash and JJ Tracy, Ohio State

3. DK Suresh and Holden Koons, Wake Forest

4. Joshua Lapadat and JJ Mercer, Kentucky

5. Sebasian Gorzny and Pedro Vives, TCU

6. Johannus Monday and Angel Diaz, Tennessee

7. Etienne Donnet and Natan Rodrigues, Louisville

8. Tyler Zink and Isaac Becroft, Oklahoma State

Eight Americans Begin Play Tuesday at ITF J500 in Germany; First of Three J100s in Florida Underway; Kovackova Sweeps Another Tennis Europe U14 Super Category Event; Blanch Draws Nadal in Madrid Masters

The third ITF J500 of the year is this week in Germany, with eight Americans competing in the 64-player singles draws, which begin Tuesday in Offenbach. No. 8 Katie Rolls and No. 11 Max Exsted are the seeded Americans, with the others Noah Johnston, Stiles Brockett, Trinetra Vijayakumar, Maya Iyengar, Leena Friedman and qualifier Gabriella Mikaul. Mikaul, the number 1 seed in qualifying, had to play only one match, with neither the boys nor the girls qualifying draws filling up their 32 spots.

The fields are strong however, with the winners of February's Cairo 500, Luca Preda of Romania[2] and March's Banana Bowl 500 Oliver Bonding of Great Britain[3] both in the boys draw; Rolls won the girls title at the Banana Bowl; Cairo girls champion Rositsa Dencheva of Bulgaria is not in Germany this week, but December's Orange Bowl J500 champion, Hannah Klugman of Great Britain, is the No. 2 seed.

Emerson Jones of Australia is the girls top seed, with last week's champion at the J300 in France, Nikolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway, the No. 1 seed in the boys draw.

This tournament will have a major impact on the acceptances for the Roland Garros Junior Championships, with entries closing April 30.

Those who are not traveling to Europe this spring still have ample tournaments on clay here in the United States, with three J100s on the Har-Tru in Florida, beginning this week in Delray Beach.

These are extremely popular events, with both the boys and girls 64-player qualifying draws full this week, with eight girls and eight boys making the 64-player main draws.

Singles action began today, with both top seeds, Calvin Baierl and Nancy Lee, advancing in straight sets. Fourteen-year-old Christina Lyutova, playing for the first time since reaching the quarterfinals at the Indian Wells ITF last month, is the No. 3 seed.

In addition to Tyra Grant's title at the J300 in France last week, one other American claimed a title on the ITF Junior Circuit, with 18-year-old Yontha Tadoum sweeping singles and doubles at the J30 in Cameroon. It was Tadoum's first singles title on the ITF Junior Circuit, and her sixth doubles title.

There were seven more doubles titles, in addition to Noah Johnston's in France and Tadoum's in Cameroon, with the biggest of those won by Mark Krupkin and Dylan Long at the J100 in Canada. The No. 2 seeds defeated unseeded Zackary Kimelman and Aedan Malik of Canada 6-4, 6-2 in the final. 

American teams swept the doubles at the J60 in Panama, with Ava Rodriguez and Ella Olofson taking the girls title and Bardo Bucknell and Jacob Maravillas earning the boys title.

As in Panama, at the J30 in Barbados, both doubles champions were from the United States, with John Gentek and Taylor Yarnell winning the boys title and sisters Aleksandra and Natasha Jerkunica taking the girls title.

Three Americans won doubles titles at the J30 in Mexico City. Dillon Beckles, a singles finalist, and Chase Kelley won the boys doubles, with Londyn McCord, also a singles finalist, and Mexico's Azul Lopez Vazuquez taking the girls doubles championship. 

Thirteen-year-old Jana Kovackova of the Czech Republic has added another pair of Tennis Europe Super Category 14-and-under titles to her resumé, sweeping singles and doubles last week in Maia Portugal. The 2023 Junior Orange Bowl 14s champion, seeded No. 1, beating No. 2 seed Viktorija Cesonyte of Lithuania 6-2, 6-2 in the singles final. The doubles final was much closer, with Kovackova and Czech partner Katerina Zajickova, seeded No. 2, saving three match points in their 6-3, 4-6, 12-10 win over No. 3 seeds Ayse Bal of Turkey and Laura Chlumska of the Czech Republic. 

No. 4 seed Eric Lorimer of Great Britain won the boys singles, via a walkover, when No. 8 seed Plamen Kolev of Bulgaria suffered an injury late in his semifinal match and was unable to compete in the final. 

For more on the tournament, see this article from Tennis Europe.

The ATP draw was announced today at the Madrid Masters 1000, and 16-year-old wild card Darwin Blanch was drawn to face Rafael Nadal. His reaction to that news via snapchat went viral. 

Sixteen-year-old Tyra Grant started well in her match with WTA No. 83 Laura Siegemund, but the 36-year-old from Germany came back to post a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 win in the first round of the Madrid qualifying.

Four Top Seeds Win Conference Titles, but Florida State Ends ACC Run of Virginia Men; Madrid Masters 1000 Wild Cards for Grant and Blanch; Stephens Claims WTA 250 Title

Five Power 5 conference tournament titles were decided today (the Oklahoma State women won the Big 12 title last night over Texas) and four of them went, with varying degrees of difficulity, to the No. 1 seeds: the North Carolina women, Texas men, Kentucky men and Georgia women. The shocking result came early in the day, with the Florida State men, seeded No. 6, coming back to defeat three-time defending champion Virginia 4-3 after trailing 3-1.

The match, which began at 10 a.m. and finished at 1:30 p.m., was played indoors at the Cary Tennis Center in North Carolina. Top seed Virginia, who hadn't lost an ACC match in four regular seasons and had claimed the conference tournament title the past three years, looked on their way to a fourth after taking the doubles point with a 6-0 shutout at line 1 and a routine 6-3 win at line 2, although Florida State had taken line 3.

The teams split first sets, so Virginia was in position for a win by just holding on in those three matches, and senior Alex Kiefer did his part at line 5, taking out Joshua Dous-Karpenschif 6-2, 6-3, and giving FSU the daunting task of having to win four of the five remaining singles matches to get the win.

Jamie Connel, the hero of the Seminoles 4-3 win over Wake Forest in Saturday's semifinals, got that uphill climb started when, in the only other match that finished in straight sets, he defeated Jeffrey Von Der Schulenburg 6-4, 7-6(0) at line 3. With the remaining four matches all going to three sets, Florida State was obviously still in it, but when Virginia's Dylan Dietrich closed out Youcef Rihane 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to make it 3-1, the Cavaliers just needed one of the three matches still out.

Even when Loris Pourroy made it 3-2 with a 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 win over Inaki Montes at line 2, and Alex Bulte beat Mans Dahlberg 6-7(1), 6-3, 6-2 at line 6 to tie it at 3, prospects for Virginia's escape looked good, with Chris Rodesch up 5-2 over Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc in the third set. Cornut-Chauvinc had recovered mentally from his third overrule (and point penalty) and the subsequent Rodesch let cord ace that had allowed the Virginia senior to hold for 4-2, and had managed to extend the match by saving two match points with Rodesch serving at 5-3 40-30. But Rodesch earned two more match points with Cornut-Chauvinc serving at 4-5, 30-40 only to fail to convert those, and the FSU senior, who had beaten Rodesch in their previous meeting in Tallahassee in March, took control. He broke Rodesch and served out the match, to deliver the first ACC title in program history.

For more on the historic win for Florida State, see this article from seminoles.com.

The ACC women's championship, played after the men's match, also indoors, went to the University of North Carolina, who defeated No. 2 seeds Virginia 4-1. The Tar Heels took the doubles point, but Virginia came out strong in singles, taking four first sets. 

But UNC began to work their way back, led by Elizabeth Scotty, who had dropped the first set 6-0 in her match with Hibah Shaikh at line 2. Scotty took the second set, Reilly Tran closed out her first set and Fiona Crawley was up a set on Annabelle Xu at line 1, so a path began to emerge for the defending NCAA champions. Scotty and Tran closed out those matches to give North Carolina a 3-0 lead, and although Natasha Subhash earned a point for the Cavaliers with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 win over Carson Tanguilig at line 3, and Crawley and Anika Yarlagadda were early in third sets, freshman Tatum Evans closed out the victory, beating Melodie Collard 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 at line 6.  See goheels.com for the full box score.

At the Big 12 conference tournament in Stillwater, Texas easily won the rubber match against rival TCU, with the Longhorns earning a 4-0 victory. After taking the doubles point, Texas got straight-sets singles wins from Siem Woldeab at line 5, Pierre-Yves Bailly at line 4 and Gilles-Arnaud Bailly at line 3 to earn Texas's first Big 12 tournament title since 2018.

Like Texas, Kentucky went undefeated in both the regular season and the conference tournament, with the Wildcats beating No. 11 seed South Carolina 4-2 in Baton Rouge.  After the doubles point was decided in a tiebreaker on Court 1, in favor of Kentucky, South Carolina came out strong in singles and took a 2-1 lead with Toby Samuel beating Taha Baadi at line 1 and freshman Sean Daryabeigi defeating Jaden Weekes at line 3. 

But once Kentucky freshman Eli Stephenson came from 5-2 down in the first set to take it 7-6(4) at line 6, the tide turned in Kentucky's favor. The Wildcats got straight-set wins from Charlelie Cosnet at line 4 and Joshua Lapadat at line 2 to take a 3-2 lead and Stephenson closed out Carter Morgan 6-3 in the second set for the clinch. The only three-set match of the day was at line 5, with Jack Loutit and Jelani Sarr at 4-3 in the third.

The SEC women's final closed out the day, with Georgia defeating No. 2 seed Texas A&M 4-1 at the new indoor tennis facility in Athens. The Aggies, who had struggled a bit in their 4-2 semifinal win over Florida on Saturday, couldn't get going against a Georgia team that appears to be firing on all cylinders now. After taking the doubles point, Georgia got wins from Dasha Vidmanova at line 1, Mell Reasco at line 3 and Anastasiia Lopata at line 4, while Texas A&M picked up their point at line 5, with freshman Lucciana Perez beating Guillermina Grant. Carson Branstine, playing in just her third match since returning to A&M, finished her match with Vidmanova in tears after what appeared to be a hip injury suffered early in the second set. 

The last two conferences to play their tournaments are the Pac-12 and Big Ten, who finished their regular seasons today and will begin tournament play next week.

The WTA and ATP Masters 1000 in Madrid begins with qualifying Monday, and 16-year-old Tyra Grant, who won the ITF J300 in France yesterday has received a qualifying wild card. She will play No. 9 seed Laura Siegemund of Germany in the first round. 

The women's main draw is here.

Sixteen-year-old Darwin Blanch, who reached the semifinals of a men's ITF WTT $15K last week, has been awarded a main draw wild card, as have 2022 US Open boys champion Martin Landaluce of Spain and 2023 US Open boys champion Joao Fonseca of Brazil. The men's main draw will be held Monday.

Mitchell Krueger fell short in his quest for a second Challenger title in 2024, with Zizou Bergs of Belgium winning his second title in as many weeks at the ATP Challenger 75 in Tallahassee. The No. 2 seed defeated Krueger 6-4, 7-6(9) in a match delayed several hours at the start due to rain.

Sloane Stephens won her eighth WTA title today on indoor clay at the 250 event in Rouen France. The 31-year-old, seeded No. 6, defeated unseeded Magda Linette of Poland 6-1, 2-6, 6-2 in the final. 

Taylor Fritz lost in the final of the ATP 250 in Munich, his first career final on clay, with Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany earning his first ATP title at age 33 with a 7-5, 6-3 victory.