The Kalamazoo Boys 18 singles final is set and it will match up the top seed Michael Mmoh and the seventh seed Vasil Kirkov. Mmoh cruised into the finals with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Trent Bryde while Vasil Kirkov came back from a 4-0 first set deficit to win 12 straight games to defeat Zeke Clark 6-4, 6-0.
Cincinnati’s John McNally and JJ Wolf, the fourth seed, won the Boys 18 doubles title with a 6-2, 6-3 win over unseeded Sean Sculley and Nick Stachowiak. McNally and Wolf earned a main draw wild card into this year’s US Open with the win.
Kalamazoo Champs with my brother JJ Wolf. Couldn’t be happier right now, can’t wait to play in the US open! ?? pic.twitter.com/6lM9IIoy33— John McNally (@McNally1998) August 13, 2016
Colette Lewis has all the quotes from today’s winners over at ZooTennis so make sure you give that a read.
#1 Michael Mmoh
- 18 years old (1/10/98)
- Right handed
- Previous Results at the Zoo
- 2015: B18s – Quarterfinals (lost to Taylor Fritz 6-2, 6-3)
- 2014: B18’s – Quarterfinals (lost to Noah Rubin 7-6(1), 2-6, 7-5)
- Current ATP Ranking of 376 (career high 317)
- # of Pro Singles Titles – 4 (2014 USA F29, 2015 USA F22/F30, 2016 USA F10)
- High ITF Junior Ranking of 2
- Best Junior Grand Slam Results
- 2015 French Open Semis (lost to Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-3)
- 2015 US Open Quarters (lost to Alex De Minaur 6-4 in 3rd)
- 2015 Wimbledon R16 (lost to Alvaro Lopez San Martin 6-3, 7-6(5)
- 2014 Wimbledon R16 (lost to Johan Sebastien Tatlot 7-5, 6-3)
- 2015 Australian Open R64 (lost to Sumit Nagal 6-2, 4-6, 6-4)
- Other Junior Accolades (2014 forward)
- 2015 Nike Junior International Roehampton Champion, 2014 Orange Bowl Quarterfinals, 2014 Eddie Herr Finals, 2014 III Abierto Juvenil Mexicano Champion. 2014 Pan American ITF Champion, 2014 Prince George’s County International Hard Court Semifinals
- 2016 Tennis Recruiting Network Blue Chip
- Born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Resides in Bradenton, Florida
- Universal Tennis Rating 14.58
#7 Vasil Kirkov
- 17 years old (3/13/99)
- Right handed
- Previous Results at the Zoo
- 2015: B18’s – 4th Round (lost to Michael Genender 6-2, 6-1)
- 2014: B16’s – 3rd Round (lost to Sam Riffice 6-3, 7-6)
- Current ATP Ranking of 1141 (career high 1133)
- # of Pro Singles Titles – 0
- High ITR Junior Ranking of 47
- Best Junior Grand Slam Results
- 2016 Wimbledon R32 (lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-1, 3-6, 6-1)
- 2016 French Open R64 (lost to Jurij Rodionov 6-1, 4-6, 7-5)
- 2015 US Open R64 (lost to Mikael Ymer 6-3, 4-6, 6-3)
- Other Junior Accolades
- 2016 Easter Bowl Closed Semifinals, 2016 Campeonato Internacional Quarterfinals, 2015 Astrid Bowl Belgium Quarterfinals, 2015 Ecuador Grade 1 ITF Semifinals
- 2018 Tennis Recruiting.Net Blue Chip
- Resides in Tampa, Florida
- Universal Tennis Rating 13.88
The Tennis Recruiting Network went with Michael Mmoh at the start of the week in it’s analytical round-by-round predictions and they still like Mmoh in Sunday’s final.
H2H:
First-Ever Meeting
[1] Mmoh’s path to the final:
BYE in R1
def. Ivan Thamma 6-4, 6-4 in R2
def. Joshua Marchalik 6-0, 6-1 in R3
def. [18] Keegan Smith 6-2, 6-2 in R4
def. [10] Oliver Crawford 6-1, 7-6(4) in R5
def. [5] Gianni Ross 6-4, 6-2 in QF
def. [8] Trent Bryde 6-2, 6-1 in SF
[7] Kirkov’s path to the final:
BYE in R1
def. Vishnu Joshi 7-5, 6-1 in R2
def. Peter Lohrbach 6-4, 6-3 in R3
def. John Carlin 6-1, 6-3 in R4
def. [11] Alexandre Rotsaert 6-4, 6-2 in R5
def. [2] John McNally 6-7(1), 6-2, 7-6(2) in QF
def. [6] Zeke Clark 6-4, 6-0 in SF
# of sets dropped
0 – Mmoh
1 – Kirkov
# of games dropped
29 – Mmoh
42 – Kirkov
Pro Circuit Update
#551 Petr Michnev (Hawaii Pacific ’14) advanced to his first final of the year at the $10K Slovakia F3 Futures in Slovenska Lupca. Michnev defeated #734 Gibril Diarra 6-1, 6-4 in the semifinals and will face #419 Gregoire Jacq in Sunday’s final. Michnev has one career pro singles title with that coming last November at the Estonia F4.
#336 Dragos Dima (Cornell ’12) advanced to his seventh singles final of the year at the $25K Romania F12 Futures in Iasi. Dima defeated #896 Dragos Madaras 6-2, 6-7(9), 6-1 in the semifinals and will now face #311 Hernan Casanova in the finals. Dima is 4-2 in singles finals this year.
#429 Matija Pecotic (Princeton ’13) will meet #209 Peter Polansky in the semifinals of the $75K Gatineau, Canada, Challenger. The semifinal match was supposed to be played on Saturday but rain pushed it back to Sunday. If Pecotic beats Polansky he’d meet the winner of the Vincent Millot/Denis Shapovalov match later in the day on Sunday. It was just Pecotic’s second tournament since retiring with an injury from a Challenger in China last October.
#423 Cameron Norrie (TCU Jr) came through qualies and is into his first career Challenger final at the $100K in Aptos, California. Norrie defeated #443 Eric Quigley (Kentucky ’12) 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the semifinals and will now face the top seed #80 Daniel Evans in Sunday’s final.
#340 Yannick Hanfmann (USC ’15) lost 6-3, 6-2 to #308 Jeremy Jahn in the singles final at the $25K Italy F24 Futures in Cornaiana. Hanfmann fell behind 5-1 in both sets and was never able to gain a foothold in the match.
#964 Rhyne Williams (Tennessee ’11) lost to #1101 Christian Harrison 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-4 in the singles final at the $25K USA F27 Futures in Champaign. Williams fell behind 4-0 in the third set but won three straight games after getting two holds and a break. Williams fought off three match points when serving at 3-5 but Harrison served it out from 40/15 to take it 6-4 in the third.
#791 Roberto Cid (South Florida ’16) went 0-2 in finals at the $10K Germany F10 Futures in Wetzlar. Cid dropped the singles final to #606 Marvin Netuschil 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-4 and then he and Naoki Nakagawa lost the doubles final to Jannis Kahlke and Robin Kern 6-0, 6-2 in just 43 minutes.
Cid had a pair of match points in the second set tiebreak in the singles final when he led 6-4 but Netuschil won four straight points to take it 8-4. Netuschil broke Cid to start the third set but Cid got it back on serve by breaking to even it at 2-2. Unfortunately for Cid he was broken at love in the next game and Netuschil would only drop one point on serve the rest of the way.
Honorable Mention
#192 Jason Jung (Michigan ’11) was trying to win his second $125K Challenger in China in as many weeks but he lost 4-6, 6-0, 7-6(5) in the semifinals to #172 Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo.
#443 Eric Quigley (Kentucky ’12) made his first-ever Challenger semifinal in Aptos by coming through qualies before falling to Norrie.
#760 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Virginia Sr) made it to his fourth singles semifinal at the $10K Finland F2 Futures in Hyvinkaa before falling 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 to #436 Tallon Griekspoor. Kwiatkowski took the first set and led 3-1 in the second set but Griekspoor won five of the next six to take the set. Kwiatkowski had a game point while serving at 5-6 in the third but Griekspoor broke in a two-deuce game to win it.
#1136 Jolan Cailleau made it to his second career singles semifinal at the $10K Belgium F9 Futures in Eupen before falling to the eventual champion #442 Jaume Munar 6-3, 6-4.
#745 Vasko Mladenov (St. John’s ’13) made it to his first semifinal this year at the $10K Belarus F1 Futures in Minsk before falling 7-6(3), 6-2 to #763 Yaraslav Shyla.
#754 Jared Hiltzik (Illinois ’16) fell to #1101 Christian Harrison 7-6(6), 6-4 in the semifinals of the $25K USA F27 Futures in Champaign.
#627 Wil Spencer (Georgia ’12) lost to #964 Rhyne Williams (Tennessee ’11) 6-4, 6-2 in the semifinals in Champaign.
I’ll have a full doubles recap on Sunday.
Latest Comments