Thursday wasn’t a great day to be a top 8 seed at the USTA Clay Court Invitational in Orlando with seeds in the Gold singles flight scratching out a sub-par 2-6 record. Of course the seeds were based on the preseason ITA rankings and didn’t take into account whether guys had much clay court experience and as you’ll see below the guys with clay court experience excelled. Women’s seeds on the other hand faired very well going 6-2..
The #1 seed Florida’s State Michael Rinaldi (13.62) was upset by Troy’s Giovani Samaha (12.94) 7-5, 6-3 though Samaha had to be much more comfortable with the surface and having played in multiple clay court Futures events over the summer plus he played 4 rounds of qualies in Birmingham over the weekend. Rinaldi on the other hand last played a competitive match on clay at this same event in 2013 and he failed to win in either of those 2 matches.
South Carolina’s Harrison O’Keefe (13.50) whipped the #3 seed Central Florida’s Mariano Porter (12.73) 6-2, 6-2 though based off the UTRs it would have been a surprise if Porter had won.
Stetson’s Loic Blanco (13.03) upset the #4 seed Michigan’s Runhao Hua (13.62) 6-4, 6-2 though Blanco likely grew up playing on the clay courts over in France while Hua has played exclusively hard court events.
Michigan freshman Myles Schalet (13.33) beat the #5 seed Louisville senior Alex Gornet (13.26) 6-3, 6-4. Schalet had already played 15 clay courts matches this year on the Futures circuit while I don’t show Gornet had stepped on a clay court prior to today’s match.
South Carolina junior Alex Fennell (12.95) upset the #6 seed Florida State senior Marco Nunez (13.57) 6-1, 2-6, 7-5 while Fennell’s former Penn State teammate senior Matt Barry (13.66) was upset by Florida Gulf Coast senior and Spain native Ricky Ventura (13.08) 6-3, 6-2.
The only seeded winners were Georgia Tech’s #2 Nathan Rakitt (12.82) beating Florida State’s Jose Gracia (13.31) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 and South Carolina sophomore and #7 seed Gabriel Friedrich (13.70) blowing out Penn State junior Marc Collado (13.01) 6-2, 6-0.
Full draws/results are here
| Men’s Open Singles – Gold | ||
| 32 | (2) Nathan Rakitt d. Jose Gracia | 4-6; 6-3; 6-2 |
| 32 | Tuki Jacobs d. Niclas Genovese | 7-6; 7-2; 6-4 |
| 32 | Pedro Iamachkine d. Daniel Bustamante | 6-2; 6-2 |
| 32 | Ricky Ventura d. (8) Matt Barry | 6-3; 6-2 |
| 32 | Harrison O’Keefe d. (3) mariano porter | 6-2; 6-2 |
| 32 | Aws Laaribi d. Nile Clark | 6-4; 7-5 |
| 32 | Jimmy Bendeck d. Terrell Whitehurst | 5-7; 6-4; 6-4 |
| 32 | Myles Schalet d. (5) Alex Gornet | 6-3; 6-4 |
| 32 | Alex Fennell d. (6) Marco Nunez | 6-1; 2-6; 7-5 |
| 32 | William Little d. Andres Alfonzo | 7-6; 7-3; 6-3 |
| 32 | Guilherme Hadlich d. Terrance Whitehurst | 6-2; 6-1 |
| 32 | Loic Blanco d. (4) Runhao Hua | 6-4; 6-2 |
| 32 | (7) Gabriel Friedrich d. Marc Collado | 6-2; 6-0 |
| 32 | Jeffrey Brown d. Cole Fiegel | 6-7(3); 7-6(3); 7-6(5) |
| 32 | Christopher Barrus d. Gabriel Sidney | 6-4; 6-3 |
| 32 | Giovani Samaha d. (1) Michael Rinaldi | 7-5; 6-3 |
| Men’s Open Singles – Garnet | ||
| 32 | Gabe Tishman d. (2) Jake Albo | 3-6; 6-4; 7-5 |
| 32 | Sam Swank d. Pierre-Emmanuel Fossier | 6-4; 6-2 |
| 32 | (7) Jose Sangroniz d. Daniel Yun | 6-0; 4-6; 6-2 |
| 32 | Andre Baldo d. Parker Evertsen | 6-1; 3-6; 6-2 |
| 32 | (3) Lautaro Pane d. Laurynas Antropikas | 6-1; 6-0 |
| 32 | Jack Thiessen d. Nika Dolidze | 7-6; 2-6; 6-1 |
| 32 | (5) Sean Donohue d. Lucas Gonzalez | 6-2; 7-6(3) |
| 32 | Kevin Dondar d. Arjun Watane | 6-3; 6-2 |
| 32 | Reece Acree d. Gonzalo Arroyo | 4-6; 7-6(1); 6-1 |
| 32 | (4) Andrew Li d. Juan Troglia | 7-6; 8-6; 6-4 |
| 32 | Tyler Pate d. Jack Haffey | 6-4; 6-4 |
| 32 | (8) Eduardo Alfonzo d. Christopher Morin | 6-3; 6-1 |
| 32 | Wood Benton d. Lucas Vaz | 6-0; 6-0 |
| 32 | (6) Inaki Espindola d. Gerhard Gruindelingh | 6-3; 6-0 |
| 32 | Pablo Moreno d. Yancy Dennis | 6-1; 6-4 |
| 32 | (1) Tomas Hanzlik d. Nico De Fraia | 6-1; 2-6; 6-4 |
| 64 | Lucas Gonzalez d. Coilin MacNamara | 6-3; 6-0 |
| 64 | Wood Benton d. Simon Julin | 6-2; 6-1 |
| Women’s Open Singles – Gold | ||
| 32 | (2) Brianna Morgan d. Quetzali Vazquez | 6-3; 6-3 |
| 32 | Sofia Baptista d. Mariana Gould | 6-4; 6-4 |
| 32 | (7) Silvia Garcia d. Jazmin Britos | 6-4; 6-4 |
| 32 | Gabriella Castaneda d. Toby Miclat | 6-2; 6-1 |
| 32 | (3) Ellen Perez d. Nikol Hristova | Wd (inj) |
| 32 | Theresa Piontek d. Isabela Fernandez | 6-4; 6-4 |
| 32 | (5) Ilinca Stoica d. Dominkia Lackova | 6-1; 6-0 |
| 32 | Jiayuan Xue d. Peggy Porter | 6-5; 6-4 |
| 32 | Elena Cerezo-Codina d. Caroline Eberhart | 6-3; 6-0 |
| 32 | (8) Daneika Borthwick d. Sanae Ohta | 6-2; 6-4 |
| 32 | Ana Garcia-Navas d. Joselyn Treyes | 6-3; 6-0 |
| 32 | Martina Frantova d. (4) Kennedy Shaffer | 6-5; 6-4 |
| 32 | Yukako Noi d. Alexandra Starkova | 2-6; 7-5; 6-4 |
| 32 | Alexandria Stiteler d. (6) Hannah King | 3-6; 3-0Ret (inj) |
| 32 | Joanna Nalborska d. Breana Stampfli | 4-6; 6-4; 6-3 |
| 32 | (1) Josie Kuhlman d. Natalia Vlasova | 6-1; 6-0 |
 |
| Photos Courtesy of LSU |
Justin Butsch/Tam Trinh (LSU) def. Tom Colautti/Alex Day (Princeton), 8-2
Gabor Csonka/Simon Freund (LSU) def. Kial Kaiser/Diego Vives (Princeton), 8-6
Jimmy Wasserman/Josh Yablon (Princeton) def. Frankie Colunga/Max Lunkin (Texas A&M), 8-7(5)
Jonathan Carcione/Florin Radu (Princeton) def. Cameron Andry/Boris Arias (LSU), 8-7(6)
James Martell/Kevin Lam (Texas A&M) def. Mohamed El Tonbari/Ben Tso (Princeton), 8-2
Max Lunkin (Texas A&M) def. (118) Tom Colautti (Princeton), 6-2, 6-4
(91) Justin Butsch (LSU) def. Diego Vives (Princeton), 5-0, ret.
Alex Day (Princeton) def. Boris Arias (LSU), 1-6, 6-2, 6-2
Simon Freund (LSU) def. Josh Yablon (Princeton), 6-1, 6-3
Gabor Csonka (LSU) def. Kial Kaiser (Princeton), 6-1, 3-6, 6-3
Jimmy Wasserman (Princeton) def. (85) Tam Trinh (LSU), 7-6(3), 6-3
Jonathan Carcione (Princeton) def. James Martell (Texas A&M), 6-4, 6-2
Cameron Andry (LSU) def. Florin Radu (Princeton), 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(4)
Kevin Lam (Texas A&M) def. Mohamed El Tonbari (Princeton), 6-1, 6-2
Frankie Colunga (Texas A&M) def. Ben Tso (Princeton), 6-4, 5-7, 6-2
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