ITA Summer Circuit - Week 3 Results

The ITA Summer Circuit finished up its third of six weeks with eight different sites hosting regionals. Below are the singles winners and you can view the doubles winners through each draw link. Here are the series points race through the second week.

Colorado - Draw Size W-18; M-26
M - [1] Casey Ross (HS Class of '17) d. Ignatius Castelino (Denver) 7-6 (3), 6-2
W - [1] Rebecca Weissmann (LSU commit) d. [2] Julieta Dalmau (Tulane commit) 7-5, 6-0

Nick Crowell Heading to Norman; Rob Hubbard to Sam Houston State, Wurtzman Adds 2 More at IU

Oklahoma Athletic Director Joe Castiglione announced the hiring of Nick Crowell as the Sooners new men's head coach. Crowell, who is a 2000 Texas graduate, spent the last 13 years at Florida State with the first five as an assistant coach and the last eight as an associate head coach. Crowell will have some big shoes to fill after John Roddick took the Sooners to three straight NCAA finals and won 153 dual-matches in the last seven years. Crowell's first task will be attempting to replace both Axel Alvarez and Andrew Harris which is going to be awfully tough to do on short notice.

Ellen Perez Pulls Off The Double in Belgium, Farah Just Misses Out at Wimbledon, Cameron Norrie & Aleks Vukic Qualify in Winnipeg

Sunday capped off a terrific week for Georgia rising junior Ellen Perez as the Australia native won a total of 12 matches in route to sweeping both the singles and doubles titles at the ITF $10K in Brussels, Belgium. Since Perez entered the week unranked she had to play singles qualies and after winning all three of those matches in straight sets she mowed down the competition in the main draw. Perez didn't drop more than 5 games in any main draw match which included today's championship match against #673 Kimberley Zimmermann.

Vorster Wins In Harare & Doubles Success In Several Places

$106.5K Braunschweig, Germany Challenger (Clay) - James Cerretani (Brown '04) and Phillip Oswald won a Challenger for the second week in a row with a 4-6, 7-6(5), 1-0 (2) win over Mateusz Kowalczyk and Antonio Sancic. Kowalczyk and Sancic served for the match twice but Cerretani and Oswald broke both times to force a second set tiebreak. Cerretani and Oswald went down an early mini-break but quickly regained the upper-hand and took both the second set and third set supertiebreak to win it all. It was Cerretani's fourth title this year and 26th overall.

Pro Circuit Update, Week 3 ITA Summer Circuit, Buffalo Signing Class

Friday was a pretty slow news day so I'll mainly just have a pro circuit roundup today.

$42.5K Bastad, Sweden, Challenger (Clay) - Virginia commit Carl Soderlund had a great week but his run came to an end today after falling to #115 Roberto Carballes Baena 6-4, 6-0. Soderlund entered the week ranked 611 but should rise inside the top 480 with the semifinal showing.

Johan Brunstrom (SMU '03) and Andreas Siljestrom (Middle Tennessee State '07) moved into the finals in Bastad after defeating Thomas Fabbiano and Jurgen Zopp 6-4, 3-6, 1-0(7). Brunstrom and Siljestrom will be seeking their fourth doubles title this year when they meet Isak Arvidsson and Fred Simonsson.

Huey and Ram Fall at Wimbledon, Szabo Named Assistant at Texas Tech, Pro Circuit Update

Treat Huey (Virginia '08) and his doubles partner Max Mirnyi made it to the doubles semifinals at Wimbledon but they came up just short falling 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-4 to the top seeded team of Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert. Huey and Mirnyi got broke while serving at 4-4 in both the fourth and fifth sets.

Rajeev Ram (Illinois '03) and Raven Klaasen also saw their run at Wimbledon come to an end after falling to Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 7-5, 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(5).

Browning Promoted to HC at GW, Mosley to Appalachian State, Clark Steps Down at UTC, Pro Circuit Highlights

Two more head coaching openings were filled today while another one opened up.

George Washington Athletic Director Patrick Nero announced that Torrie Browning has been named as the new women's head coach. Browning served as the interim head coach of both the women's and men's programs for the majority of last season after Greg Munoz resigned five matches into the season. Browning guided the men's team to an Atlantic 10 Championship and a NCAA Tournament berth while the women's team finished 8-15 and lost in the semifinals of the conference tournament. As a side note I just noticed that Munoz is now a tennis coach and personal fitness trainer in Indonesia.

Koniecko to UCF, Camerota Gets Promoted at CSU, Britton New Assistant at Ole Miss

Two more head coaching positions were filled today with Central Florida announcing that Bryan Koniecko had accepted the women's head coach position while Colorado State promoted assistant coach Jarod Camerota to head coach.

Koniecko, who was a five-time All-American at Ohio State from 2006 to 2009, had been the men's head coach at Brown for the last two years after being the assistant women's coach at Ohio State the two years prior. Koniecko replaces Stephanie Nickitas who announced her retirement back in April after going 105-80 over the last 9 seasons.

ITA Summer Circuit - Week 2 Results

The ITA Summer Circuit finished up its second of six weeks with eight different sites hosting regionals. Below are the singles winners and you can view the doubles winners through each draw link.

Cal State Northridge
M - [2] Ben Goldberg (UCLA Commit) d. [4] Sean Hill (Wake Forest Commit) 4-6, 7-6, 1-0 (10)
W - [2] Zoe Katz (USC) d. [1] Angela Kulikov (USC Commit) 7-5, 7-6(5)

Cameron Norrie Wins In Wichita

Cameron Norrie's summer just keeps getting better as the TCU Horned Frog won his 10th straight match on Sunday by beating recent Illinois graduate Jared Hiltzik to claim the $25K Wichita, Kansas, USA F23 Futures. The match started off with five consecutive breaks before Norrie fought off a pair of break points to hold for 4-2. After a Hiltzik hold, Norrie would take the next five games to close out the opening set 6-3 and go up 3-0 in the second set. It was all holds the rest of the way with Norrie fighting off a break point to hold in a one-deuce game to close it out 6-3, 6-3.

Norrie has now won back-to-back Futures events after taking the singles title last week in Tulsa. Sunday's win brings Norrie's record in singles finals to 3-1 with the wins in Wichita, Tulsa, and Mansfield and the lone loss coming back in 2014 in Israel.

Steve Johnson Rocks On At Wimbledon, Quiroz Rules Colombia, J. Hiltzik/Norrie Will Meet in Wichita Finals

Wimbledon (Grass) - Steve Johnson advanced to the fourth round at a Grand Slam for the first time in his career after taking out #37 Grigor Dimitrov in four sets. The match started on Friday and Johnson was serving up 4-3 in the first set when the rain came and suspended the match for the rest of the day. When play resumed today Johnson held for 5-3 but Dimitrov held and then broke from 15/40 to even it at 5-5. The set went to a tiebreak and Johnson had a set point up 6-5* but Dimitrov took the next three points to take the set 7-6(6).

The second set was break-free but Johnson rolled through the tiebreak 7-3. Johnson jumped out to a double-break 3-0 lead in the third set and despite giving one break back he'd take the set 6-4. Johnson broke Dimitrov to start the fourth set and then broke again at love to go up 5-2. Following another rain delay Johnson served it out after fighting off three breaks points to win it 6-7(6), 7-6(3), 6-4, 6-2.

Kelcy McKenna to Wisconsin, New Assistant at NCST, Jackson State Probation, Pro Circuit Update

Wisconsin Director of Athletics Barry Alvarez announced the hiring of Kelcy McKenna as the Badgers new women's coach. McKenna spent the previous four years at New Mexico with the first three as an assistant/associate before taking over as the head coach last season (went 15-7). McKenna replaces Tina Samara who resigned after three seasons to take the Pacific job.

Audra Cohen Goes to Oklahoma, Isner & Johnson Roll at Wimbledon, Koepfer Upsets Krueger

Oklahoma filled one of its two openings on Thursday by announcing the hiring of Audra Cohen as its new women's head coach. Cohen won a NCAA singles championship as a player at Miami in 2007 and spent the last five seasons in Jacksonville as the head coach at North Florida. Cohen's North Florida teams won almost 75 percent of its matches in that five-year period and made four NCAA Tournament appearances. Here is the full release from Oklahoma on the hire and here is North Florida's release as well.

Clemson head coach John Boetsch announced the hiring of Ryan Young as the Tigers new assistant coach. Young played at Clemson from 2004 to 2007 and spent the last three years in Columbia as Josh Goffi's assistant coach at South Carolina.

Matt Hill Heading To Tempe & Pro Circuit Update

For the second time in two weeks Arizona State has a new men's head coach with South Florida's Matt Hill chosen to jumpstart the program just five days after Adam Steinberg's announcement that he would not take the job and would remain at Michigan. Hill had done a tremendous job at South Florida over the last four years accumulating a 73-33 (21-9, 21-7, 19-7, 12-10) record and leading the Bulls to the NCAA Tournament in each of the last three years. Hill guided South Florida to its first-ever trip to the NCAA Sweet 16 during the 2014-15 season and this past season they hosted a Kick-Off Regional for the first time in school history.  Here is the full release from Arizona State with more information about Hill. In my opinion this is an A+ hire so now we'll have to see who South Florida gets to fill Hill's shoes.

McNamara Back at Yale, Novikov Wins Opener at Wimbledon, Assistant Hires, Konfederak Feature

Who says you can't come home again - certainly not Danielle McNamara after she named as the new head coach at Yale. McNamara was the head coach at Yale from 2006 to 2014 before leaving for personal reasons and then ending up at Texas. She spent one year at Texas, going 10-11 and finished ranked #37, but missed out on the NCAAs due to the dreaded .500 rule. Shortly after the season she resigned to go back to Connecticut to start Little Rockets Tennis. Her resignation at Texas was partly and possibly largely due to the lack of a facility and the penny pinching that was going on under now former Athletic Director Steve Patterson.  For full details on the hire you can check out Yale's release.

US Open National Playoff Recap

All 15 sectionals of the US Open National Playoff have been completed so now those winners will meet in another tournament to determine who gets wild cards into the 2016 US Open. The tournament will take place in New Haven, Connecticut during the WTA's Connecticut Open from August 19-27. Each draw will have 16 entries so that means at least one sectional runner-up will make it in.

The Men's and Women's Singles Championships will take place August 19-22 with the winners earning wild cards into the US Open Qualifying Tournament.

Below are the 15 men's sectional winners sorted by Universal Tennis Rating (UTR). Jesse Witten, Martin Joyce, and Henry Craig were the three repeat winners though Witten won a different section last year. Witten won last year's tournament but fell in the opening round of qualies 7-6, 6-1 to former Tennessee Vol JP Smith.

Pro Circuit Wrap Up - Norrie Bags #2 & Lots of Doubles Success

It was a tremendous week on the pro tour with four guys winning singles titles and another nine winning doubles titles. If you forgot to check out my Saturday recap may sure you give that a read to see how Steve Johnson, Benjamin Lock, and Roberto Cid won singles titles and Nate Lammons and Dane Webb won doubles titles.

$25K Tulsa, OK, USA F21 (Hard) - TCU rising junior Cameron Norrie won his second career Futures singles title with a quick 53-minute win over Ryan Haviland (Stanford '02). Haviland held in a three-deuce game to start the match but Norrie won the next nine games to take an insurmountable 6-1, 3-0 lead. Haviland held from 40/30 to pull within 3-1 but Norrie won the next three to close it out 6-1, 6-1. (Will post a picture if I see one)

Johnson, Lock, and Cid Win Titles on the Tour + USONP Update

Saturday was a great day for former collegians with Steve Johnson, Benjamin Lock, and Roberto Cid each winning pro singles titles.

ATP 250 Nottingham, Great Britain (Grass) - Steve Johnson (USC '12) won his first-ever ATP level singles title after knocking off #25 Pablo Cuevas in straight sets. There were no breaks of serve in the opening set but Cuevas got the first mini-break in tiebreak and led 3-1. Johnson took the next four points to go up 5-3 and would end up taking the tiebreak 7-5. Johnson opened up a 4-2 lead in the second set but Cuevas fought off a break point to hold in a two-deuce game, broke from 30/40, and then held at love to go up 5-4. Johnson then held from 40/15, broke from 15/40, and then served it out in a one-deuce game to win it 7-6, 7-5 in 1 hour and 33 minutes.

Plenty of Coaching News, Strong Day on Tour, USONP Update

The coaching carousel spun so fast this afternoon that the top popped right off and I've called a mechanic to get it running again. The first shoe to drop came in Ann Arbor where Michigan announced its new head coach would be none other than Adam Steinberg. Steinberg accepted the job at Arizona State just nine days ago but apparently within the last 24 hours he decided he wanted to stay at Michigan. Michigan's release said Steinberg contacted them to see if he could return while Arizona State's release said Steinberg told them he couldn't continue as its head coach for personal reasons.

I'm sure those personal reasons will eventually come out but for Arizona State it is back to the drawing board. It'll be interesting to see if ASU opens its search back up or if they go back to the other finalists to see if they are still interested. It'll also be interesting to see how Steinberg does next season at Michigan because he is going to have to regain the buy-in that he had with the guys before his departure.

Pro Circuit Update

The final round of qualies at Wimbledon was washed out on Thursday but play rocked on at Pro Circuit events across the globe. Before I dive into those Futures results I wanted to give congratulations to Florida State commit Alex Knaff and NC State commit Alexis Galarneau for picking up their first ATP points earlier in the week.

Knaff picked up his point on Wednesday with a 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 win over #1671 Mason Recci at the $10K Havre, Belgium, F2 Futures (Clay). Knaff's attempt at picking up another point came up short when he fell to former East Carolina #1 Joran Vliegen 6-2, 6-4.

Galarneau won his opening round match on Tuesday with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win over #682 Greg Jones at the $25K Richmond, Canada, F3 Futures (Hard) before falling today to #356 Peter Polansky in the second round.

Aljosa Piric Gets The Miami Job, Wimbledon Qualies Continue, Oosterbaan & Eubanks Get First ATP Point

The coaching carousel kept spinning on Wednesday with Old Dominion head coach Aljosa Piric named as the new head coach at Miami (FL). Piric had been ODU's head coach for the last five years and was named the Wilson/ITA Atlantic Region Coach of the Year this past season after guiding the Monarchs to a 21-5 record and a national ranking of #47. This past season was ODU's best in Piric's tenure with the Monarchs making it to the finals of the Conference USA Tournament before falling to Rice (host). Piric's five-year record in Norfolk was 76-35 (21-5, 16-3, 12-10, 14-7, 13-10) however ODU was unable to reach the NCAA Tournament in any of those five seasons.

Miami didn't renew the contract of Mario Rincon after he went 152-136 over the last 12 seasons. Rincon guided the Canes to the NCAA Tournament in five of his first seven seasons (Sweet 16 in 06 and 09) but this past season was the fifth in a row that they missed out.

Wimbledon Qualies Underway, Witten Wins USONP Hawaii, Genender & Zlobinsky Get First ATP Point

Wimbledon qualies officially got underway on Monday but several matches were pushed back until today due to rain. Former college players performed pretty well today going 6-6 although there were two head-to-head matches that guaranteed at least two winners. Austin Krajicek won the closest match of the day by knocking off former Tennessee All-American JP Smith 11-9 in the third. The only break of serve in the final set came when Smith got broke from 15/40 while serving at 9-10.

Former Memphis Tiger Joe Salisbury, ATP #706, won his first-ever qualifying match at a Grand Slam with a come from behind 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-3 win over ATP #163 Alessandro Giannessi. It didn't look good for Salisbury when he trailed 6-4, 5-3 but he held from 40/30 and then broke from 15/40 to even it at 5-5. Salisbury jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the second set tiebreak and took it 7-3 to force a third set. Salisbury broke to go up 3-2 in the third and then he broke again to go up 5-2. Giannessi broke to make it 5-3 but Salisbury broke on a one-deuce game to win it.

Jeremy Feldman Gets The Charlotte Job, Monday Pro Circuit Qualifiers

Jeremy Feldman was named as the new head coach at Charlotte after serving as Tony Bresky's assistant coach at Wake Forest for the last two years. Feldman is a 2011 Cornell graduate who also served as a volunteer assistant at Wake Forest in 2012-13 and then was Danny Westerman's assistant coach at Denver during the 2013-14 season.

Jeremy Feldman (Picture Via Wake Forest)

Evan King & Sekou Bangoura Win U.S. Futures & Wimbledon Qualies Draw Announced

There were five guys with college ties playing for singles titles on Sunday and after an 0-3 start both Sekou Bangoura and Evan King salvaged the day.

Sekou Bangoura (Florida '11) picked up his fourth career Futures singles title with a straight set win over #274 Darian King in the finals of the the Winston-Salem USA F18 Futures (Hard). Bangoura broke King in a one-deuce game to go up 3-1 in the first but King broke back from 30/40 to make it 3-2. Bangoura made it three breaks in a row when he broke in a two-deuce game to go up 4-2 and a few games later he had a 6-3 first set. Bangoura broke from 15/40 to start the second set and then he broke again in a four-deuce game to go up 4-1. After a pair of holds Bangoura served it out in a two-deuce game to win it 6-3, 6-2.

Bangoura came close to not even making it out of the first round when he trailed Ryan Haviland 5-3 in the third but he won that match and every other match in three sets except for today's straight setter.

Bangoura has now won a title in each of the last four years with three of those coming in the United States. Bangoura came into this week with a career high singles ranking of 271 so when these 27 points are added in next week he should be just inside 265.

Alejandro Gomez Wins Title #1 in Colombia & Peter Nagy Wins #2 in Poland

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).