It was a great day for several former collegians on the pro tour with two picking up singles titles and five others moving on to a Sunday final.
Alejandro Gomez (Kentucky ’14) won his first career pro singles title at the Cartagena, Columbia, F1 Futures (Hard) with a thrilling three-set win over #551 Juan Sebastian Gomez. Alejandro broke Juan in a one-deuce game to go up 2-1 in the first set and he made that break lead hold up and took the opening set 6-4. Juan broke Alejandro from 30/40 to go up 3-1 in the second and then broke him again from 30/40 to take the set 6-2. Juan broke Alejandro in a one-deuce game to go up 2-0 in the third but Alejandro broke back from 15/40 to put it back on serve at 2-1. Juan broke Alejandro at love to go up 4-2 and then held in a one-deuce game to go up 5-2. Alejandro held for 3-5 but Juan had a pair of match points on his serve after he went up 40/15. Alejandro won four straight points to break for 4-5 and then he fought off a match point on his serve to hold for 5-5. Each held quickly to send it to a tiebreak and then Alejandro got the first mini-break to go up 3-1. Juan got it back on serve at 3-4 but Alejandro took three of the next four points to win it 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(4).
Peter Nagy (Texas A&M Corpus Christi ’15) won his second career Futures singles title with a three-set win over #565 Marcin Gawron at the Warsaw, Poland, F4 Futures (Clay). Nagy broke Gawron to start the match but Gawron broke back to even it at 2-2. Nagy broke on the next game from 15/40 to go up 3-2 but Gawron put it back on serve at 4-4 after breaking from 30/40. Nagy broke from 15/40 to go up 5-4 and then served out the opening set from 40/15 to take it 6-4. Gawron handed Nagy a second set bagel and then made it eight straight games by going up 2-0 in the third set. Nagy broke back in a one-deuce game and then held in a one-deuce game to even it at 2-2. The turning point of the match came when Nagy held in a six-deuce game, which included three break points, to even it at 3-3. Nagy broke from 30/40 to go up 4-3 and then held from 40/30 to go up 5-3. After Gawron held at love, Nagy came back from 0-30 down to get the hold to seal the 6-4, 0-6, 6-4 win in a match that took 2 hours and 47 minutes.
Blaz Rola (Ohio State ’13) earned a spot in the finals of the Blue Panorama Airlines Tennis Cup $42K Challenger (Clay) in Perugia, Italy with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 over #293 Juan Ignacio Londero. Rola will be seeking his first title since winning the Santos, Brazil, Challenger in April 2015 and his finals opponent will be #160 Nicolas Kicker.
Remi Boutillier (Fresno State ’12) advanced to the finals at the Martos, Spain, F17 Futures (Hard) with a 6-7(5), 6-2, 3-0 ret. win over #511 Mario Vilella Martinez. The only person standing between Boutillier and career title #9 is #434 Frederik Nielsen.
Arthur Rinderknech (Texas A&M Rising Jr) has made his first-ever singles final after rallying for a 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 win over #574 Enzo Couacaud at the Binche, Belgium, F1 Futures (Clay). Rinderknech trailed 6-4, 4-2 before holding and then breaking from 30/40 to even it at 4-4. Rinderknech broke again from 30/40 to take the set 7-5. Rinderknech broke in a two-deuce game to go up 4-2 in the third and then he broke in a one-deuce game to finish it. Rinderknech will face #362 Niels Desein in the finals; Desein has won 25 singles titles over the last 10 years but he’s yet to win one this year.
Sekou Bangoura (Florida ’11) came back from 5-2 down in the third to advance to the finals at the Winston-Salem USA F18 Futures (Hard) with a 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(1) win over #399 Alex Kuznetsov. Bangoura held in a two-deuce game to pull within 5-3 in the third and then broke in a one-deuce game to put it back on serve at 5-4. After three quick holds, Bangoura pulled away in the tiebreak to move on to his first final since winning in the Dominican Republic last December.
Evan King (Michigan ’13) won a Futures title last week in Japan and here he is back in the finals of another Futures but this one is in Buffalo, New York. King won his ninth match in a row with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Tigre Hank at the USA F19 Futures (Clay). King will face #331 Gavin Van Peperzeel in the finals after Van Peperzeel defeated Mikael Torpegaard (Ohio State Rising Jr) 6-4, 6-1.
Tucker Vorster (Ole Miss ’11) was trying to make it back to a final for the first-time since Gabon last August but he went down 6-1, 6-0 to #696 Marc Polmans at the Maputo, Mozambique F2 Futures (Hard).
Probably will go to the St. John's head coach but clearly UM isn't too enthusiastic about it. I think it should have gone to one of the Power 5 assistants
Heard they were interviewing some P5 assistants and at least 1 non-P5 head coach that has won several conference titles – little surprised that they haven't made selection yet.
Any rumos on who will be the new head coach at U of Miami?
Ayrton Wibowo went from Oregon to Auburn-Montgomery to Clemson. Although of one those was NAIA.
It doesn't happen often but there have been a few that have transferred more than once. Off the top of my head the only I can think of is when Spencer Newman transferred from Florida to Michigan and back to Florida again a few years back. He didn't have to sit out any when he made the first transfer but he did have to sit out a year on the second transfer. <br /><br />
unc needs to replace Schnur, back to being mediocre for the heels
Anonymous that's a pretty broad generalization and a poor one at that – how did the Jerry Lopez, Peter Bertran, Julian Cash, Florian Lakat, Michael Redlicki, Jose Salazar, and the Hunter and Yates Johnson transfers work out last year. All solid performers after transferring from one school to another. There are plenty of reasons why guys/gals transfers – here was a good article article that explains some of the reasons why – http://parentingaces.com/college-recruiting-transferring/<br />
If I was a coach I would stay the hell away from transfers. Usually they are poor teammates and have questionable work ethic, why they are transferring in the first place.
how can Goldin transfer again? he already went from FSU to Bama.
Don't be shocked if Lovett ends up a tarheel Thats the latest from his friends
I think several of the guys at Bama were probably looking for fresh start somewhere else. Kerznerman and Edwards only played in a handful of matches and likely wouldn't have been in the lineup next season and Goldin played a lot earlier in the season but didn't play at all down the stretch. Now Lovett started all season near the top of the lineup so it's surprising to see him leave. <br /><br />Not sure when everyone decided to transfer but I've heard of instances where transfer arrangements were made early in the season (Jan-Feb) due to known scholarship availabilities for the next season.
Does anyone know what is happening in Raleigh?.. Shota and Dempster are transferring. Cloer(assistant) just left to be the assistant to the former unpaid assistant at a racket club? NC State has a tradition of developing American players. The only American left on the roster is a utr 11.0? What happened…
Are you implying Alabama's coach purposely got rid of 4 players to clear up space for more potential in the future? If so, then damn.
That's a good question – the only thing I can think of is that next year is a make or break year for Husack and he has a number of guys lined up to come in so he needed the space. I'm hearing Grayson Goldin, Korey Lovett, Danny Kerznerman, and Sam Edwards are all transferring though I haven't heard a landing spot yet for Lovett, Kerznerman, and Edwards. Heard that Goldin is going to South Florida.
Bobby what happened to Alabama's team? Heard a lot of their players left. Which ones left and where to?