Rybakov & Gray To Play in All-TCU Newport Singles Final; Furman/Soendergaard to Meet in Bonk Final; Napa Enters Final Day, Markes Looking to Repeat in Midland

Tagged with: Duke James Bonk Invitational, Hall of Fame ITA Grass Court Invitational, Napa Valley Classic, Racquet Club Invitational Midland

TCU teammates Alex Rybakov and Alastair Gray remained undefeated on the grass at Newport and will face each other on Sunday with a nice prize awaiting the winner. The TCU junior and freshman won the Woodbridge/Woodforde doubles flight at the Hall of Fame ITA Grass Court Invitational by defeating last season’s NCAA runner-ups Georgia’s Jan Zielinski and Robert Loeb 8-7. In the Andy Roddick singles flight, Rybakov won his semifinal match over Columbia’s Jackie Tang 6-4, 7-5 while Gray edged Georgia’s Jan Zielinski 6-7, 6-1, 10-3. The winner of Sunday’s match will earn a main draw wild card into next July’s ATP 250 Hall of Fame Open while the loser will get a wild card into the qualifying draw.

North Carolina junior Jessie Aney and Florida senior Anna Danilina will meet in the final of the Kim Clijsters singles flight after Aney edged Florida senior Josie Kuhlman 6-3, 3-6, 10-8 while Danilina rollled over Princeton senior Katrine Steffensen 6-1, 6-2. The winner of Sunday’s final gets a main draw wild card into a $25K USTA Pro Circuit event while the loser gets a qualifying wild card. 

Georgia’s Alex Phillips and Illinois’s Caleb Chakravarthi will meet in the final of the Gardnar Mulloy singles flight while LSU’s Eden Richardson and North Texas’s Maria Kononova will square off in the Althea Gibson singles final. Full results are available on the ITA’s event page. 

 

Duke sophomore Spencer Furman and North Carolina sophomore Simon Soendergaard won a pair of matches on Saturday to advance to the final of the top singles flight at the Duke James Bonk Invite in Cary, North Carolina. Furman, who finished last year at the top of the Duke lineup, defeated VCU’s Javier Amantegui and Elon’s Mario Paccini in straight sets. Soendergaard, who played at No. 3 and No. 4 last year for the NCAA runner-ups, came back from a set down to defeat George Washington’s Maximilian Scholl in the quarterfinals and then beat Duke’s Nick Stachowiak in straight sets in the semifinals. 

North Carolina sophomore Josh Peck advanced to the singles final of the A2 singles flight with wins over North Florida’s Till Von Winning and NC State’s Igor Saveljic. Peck will meet another NC State Wolfpack in the final after Georgiy Malyshev defeated VCU’s Arvid Noren and Duke’s Ryan Dickerson. Full results are available here.  

On the women’s side, Duke will have representation in the three of the five singles finals with all the singles flights pretty strong from top to bottom. Meible Chi and Ellyse Hamlin will face each other, newcomer Kelly Chen will meet UNC’s Makenna Jones, and Kaitlyn McCarthy takes on Florida’s Brooke Austin. The two other finals will match Georgia Tech’s Kenya Jones versus LSU’s Elyse Lavender and Northwestern’s Erin Larner versus NC State’s Adriana Reami. Full results are available here. 

 

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Texas A&M, Cal, and Oklahoma had a good showing on Day 2 of the Audi Napa Valley Classic. A&M went 3-0 in singles with AJ Catanzariti, Valentin Vacherot, and Juan Carlos Aguilar picking up wins. Cal went 3-1 for the second day in a row with Billy Griffith, Jack Molloy, and JT Nishimura each winning while Oklahoma went 3-1 as well with Jochen Bertsch, Jake Van Emburgh, and Stefano Tsorotiotis coming out on top. 

The players that are undefeated through the first two days are Baylor’s Constantin Frantzen and Roy Smith, Cal’s Nishimura and Grififth, Oklahoma’s Aleksandre Bakshi, Texas A&M’s Catanzariti and Vacherot, Notre Dame’s Tristan McCormick, and the USTA’s Jaycer Lyeons.

The winners of each group will play on Sunday in the Solinco USTA Wild Card Shoot-Out with the winner earning a wild card into a USTA Pro Circuit event. 

All singles results from the past two days are available at this link. 

 

 

Texas junior Colin Markes will attempt to win the Racquet Club Collegiate Invitational for the second year in a row after picking up a pair of wins on Saturday to advance to the final. Markes defeated Tyler JC’s Jorge Martinez in the quarterfinals and then he knocked out the top seed Oklahoma’s Adrian Oetzbach in the semifinals. Markes’s opponent in the final will be Oklahoma newcomer Ferran Calvo. Calvo, who transferred to Norman from Tyler Junior College, defeated Rice’s Eric Rutledge in the quarterfinals and UT Arlington’s Guanarteme Nuez in the semifinals.

I’ll continue to update draws for all the other events in my fall hub which is available to all College Tennis Today subscribers.