Alastair Gray & Anna Danilina Shine in Newport; Spencer Furman Takes the Bonk; Alex Bakshi Wins Napa Shootout; Ferran Calvo Makes His Mark in Midland

Tagged with: Alastair Gray, Alex Bakshi, Anna Danilina, Duke James Bonk Invitational, Ferran Calvo, Hall of Fame ITA Grass Court Invitational, Napa Valley Classic, Racquet Club Invitational Midland, Spencer Furman

The second annual Hall of Fame ITA Grass Court Invitational in Newport, Rhode Island, wrapped up on Sunday with TCU freshman Alastair Gray and Florida senior Anna Danilina finishing as the big winners. Gray, who was making his collegiate debut this weekend, earned a main draw wild card into next July’s ATP 250 Dell Technologies Hall of Fame Open after defeating teammate Alex Rybakov 6-3, 6-3. Gray finished the weekend with a perfect 5-0 record (3-0 singles/2-0 doubles) and only dropped one set in his three singles matches. 

Danilina earned a main draw wild card into a $25K USTA Pro Circuit event after edging North Carolina junior Jessie Aney 6-7, 6-1, 10-7. The Florida senior also went undefeated on the weekend while she and teammate Josie Kuhlman won the only doubles match they played. 

Illinois freshman Caleb Chakravarthi went 5-0 on the weekend and won the Gardnar Mulloy singles flight with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Georgia sophomore Alex Phillips.  North Texas junior Maria Kononova won the Althea Gibson singles flight with a 4-6, 6-2, 11-9 over LSU freshman Eden Richardson. Full results are available on the ITA’s event page and they also had some highlights from the finals available in their day 3 recap. 

 

Duke sophomore Spencer Furman (13.75) won the top singles flight at the Duke James Bonk Invite in Cary, North Carolina, with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over North Carolina sophomore Simon Soendergaard (13.61). Furman won three of his four matches in straight sets with the first set against Soendergaard the only one he dropped.

North Carolina sophomore Josh Peck (13.77) won the A2 singles flight with a 6-2, 6-4 win over wins over NC State junior Georgiy Malyshev (13.25). Peck, who was the No. 3 seed in the draw, defeated both of the players who knocked out the top two seeds. Full results from all men’s draws are available here.  

Duke juniors Ellyse Hamlin and Kaitlyn McCarthy, NC State sophomore Adriana Reami, North Carolina sophomore Makenna Jones, and LSU freshman Elyse Lavender won singles flights on the women’s side at the Bonk Invite. Full results from all men’s draws are available here.

 

 

Oklahoma junior Alex Bakshi, who transferred to OU from Texas A&M over the summer, won the Audi Napa Valley Classic and he did it by defeating a pair of former teammates in the Solinco USTA Wild Card Shoot-Out. Bakshi won his singles group after defeating USC senior Thibault Forget 6-3, ret. and then each of the group winners faced off in a tournament with each match consisting of a 10-point tiebreak. 

Bakshi defeated Cal senior JT Nishimura 11-9 in the quarterfinals, A&M senior AJ Catanzariti 18-16 in the semifinals, and then A&M sophomore Valentin Vacherot 10-7 in the finals. By winning the shootout Bakshi earns a wild card into a USTA Pro Circuit event. 

All singles results from the weekend are available at this link. 

 

 

Oklahoma junior Ferran Calvo defeated Texas junior Colin Markes 6-4, 6-4 to win the top singles flight at the Racquet Club Collegiate Invitational in Midland, Texas. Calvo won all five of his matches in straight sets and only dropped more than four games in a set on one occasion. 

Freshman Tamara Arnold won an all-Tyler JC final on the women’s side with a 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 win over the top seed Maria Shishkina. Arnold knocked out the No. 2 seed in the semifinals when she defeated Arkansas sophomore Natsuho Arakawa 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. Full results from the top singles flight are available here. 

 

If you are a College Tennis Today subscriber you can see draws/results from all the other touraments over the weekend in my fall hub.