Eubanks Qualifies for BB&T, Sandgren Wins Again in Illinois, Withrow/Smith Wins Dubs Title

What had already been a good week for Chris Eubanks turned into a great week after the Georgia Tech rising junior upset world #104 Thiago Monteiro to qualify for the main draw at the BB&T ATP 250 Atlanta Open. Eubanks had to earn a spot in the qualifying field by winning a Wild Card playoff over teammate Cole Fiegel and 2013 Samford graduate Zac Dunkle and then he had to beat world #210 Tommy Paul in the opening round of qualies just to get to today's match against Monteiro.

Eubanks earned the only break of the first set when he broke Monteiro's 2-2 service game to go ahead 3-2 and three holds later he had the opening set 6-4. Eubanks broke Monteiro's 3-3 service game in the second set but Monteiro broke back to even it at 4-4. Eubanks fought off a set point to hold for 5-5 and then he broke from 30/40 to go up 6-5. Eubanks went up 40/15 on his serve and held from 40/30 to win it 6-4, 7-5.

Pro Circuit Update - Plenty of Doubles Success and Libietis Wins Again

#474 Mikelis Libietis (Tennessee '15) won his tenth straight match and second straight Futures after defeating #1626 Alberto Brizzi 7-6(6), 7-6(6) in the finals of the $10K Futures in Parnu, Estonia. Libietis broke Brizzi to start the match and then held in a four-deuce game to go ahead 2-0. Brizzi took the next four games to open up a 4-2 lead but Libietis took the next two to even it at 4-4. It stayed on serve until the tiebreak and then Libietis won the pivotal 6-6 point on Brizzi's serve and then took the next point to take the opening set tiebreak 8-6. The second set started with six straight holds then Brizzi broke from 15/40 to go up 4-3. Libietis broke back at love to even it at 4-4 and then it was all holds until the tiebreak. Libietis led 6-3 in the tiebreak but Brizzi fought off three match points (two on his own serve and one on Libietis's serve) to even it at 6-6. Libietis took the last two points to close out the title.

Coaching Changes, Kentucky Planning a $20M Facility, Pro Circuit Update

Friday was a busy day for the coaching carousel with Cal Irvine, Old Dominion, and Iowa each announcing head coaching hires.

UC Irvine announced that Mike Saunders, who served as the interim men's head coach last season, has been named as the permanent men's head coach. Saunders, who is a 1990 UC Irvine graduate, took over as the interim coach last October after Trevor Kronemann, 117-126 (.481), stepped down to become the Director of Junior Tennis at the Southern California Tennis Association (SCTA). Saunders led the Anteaters to a 17-9 record last season before they bowed out to UCSB in the Big West semifinals.

Mai-Ly Tran to Drake, Sabogal New Assistant at Kentucky, Pro Circuit Update

Drake Associate Athletic Director Brian Brown announced the hiring of Mai-Ly Tran as the Bulldogs new women's coach. Tran, who played at Cal State Fullerton from 2004 to 2007, comes to Des Moines after serving as an assistant coach at Cal State Fullerton for the last three seasons. John Hollimon was the interim coach last season and led Drake to a 15-12 record and a semifinal appearance at the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.

Cummings to Norfolk State, Eubanks Wins BB&T Q-WC, Massey Ratings, Matt Hill Feature

Norfolk State Athletics Director Marty Miller announced the hiring of Darryl Cummings as the Spartans new men's and women's head coach. Cummings was most recently the men's and women's coach at D3's Virginia Wesleyan during the 2014 and 2015 seasons but he's most known for his 20 years at Old Dominion from 1992-2011. Cummings replaces Worth Richardson who stepped down after two seasons to take a position at the Smith Stearns Tennis Academy.

Coaching Updates, Novikov Wins in Toronto, BB&T WC Challenge, #TheSol

As we head into August the coaching carousel should start slowing down with the beginning of the fall semester just around the corner. Two more women's positions were filled in the last few days which leaves the number of openings on the women's side in the single digits.

Bowling Green State Director of Athletics Bob Moosbrugger announced the hiring of Stephanie Damacio as the Falcons new women's head coach. Damacio, a 2011 Wichita State graduate, had been the assistant coach at BGSU for the last two seasons with the squad going 2-36 (.053) in that time frame. Damacio replaced Olga Elkin who departed for Nebraska-Omaha after a rocky two seasons which saw a slew of losses (36) and a lot of outbound transfers (7).

ITA Summer Circuit - Week 5 Results

The ITA Summer Circuit finished up its fifth of six weeks with nine 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 fourth week.  Wake Forest commit Sean Hill will take over the top spot in the men's race after a semifinal showing at the Azusa Pacific regional.

Azusa Pacific - Draw Size W-54 ; M-64
M - [6] Josh Ortlip (Cal Poly) d. [5] Robert Baylon (HS Class of '18)
W - Seira Shimizu (HS Class of '17) d. [8] Margo Pletcher (Utah) 7-5, 6-2

Sandgren, Hanfmann, and Shaffer Win Futures Singles Titles while JP Smith Wins a Challenger in Dubs

Tennys Sandgren (Tennessee '11) won his 11th career pro singles title with a straight set win over Facundo Mena in the finals of the $25K USA F24 Futures in Godfrey, Illinois. The match started just after 10 a.m. central with temperatures already approaching 90 degrees and the heat index just short of 100.

Sandgren dominated the opening set winning 29 of 41 points in route to taking a 6-0 set in 31 minutes. More than 5 of those minutes came when Sandgren took a medical timeout, after going up 3-0, due to a blister ripping open on his right hand during the opening game of the match. The opening game tied for the longest game of the match with Sandgren holding in a five-deuce ten-minute service game. Mena had one break point at 30/40 but he couldn't convert and he was unable to convert much of anything the rest of the set. Mena gave away too many points with an unforced error count that was in the double digits.

Luke Siegel Update, Bellis Commits to Stanford, Libietis and Dima Win Pro Singles Titles, Doubles Success

There was plenty of action today on the pro circuit but before I get into those results I wanted to give everyone an update on Luke Siegel who is the 10-year old son of former Texas Tech men's coach Tim Siegel. I'm sure many know the story but for those that don't Luke was involved in a golf cart accident almost a year ago (July 28, 2015) which caused serious head and chest trauma and left Luke with an anoxic brain injury. The Siegels were told that Luke would never regain the use of his limbs, eyes, or voice but he has managed to make progress over the last several months. KAMC TV in Lubbock did a story on Luke and the community support earlier this week with Tim talking about the kind of progress that Luke has made in the last couple of weeks - make sure you check out that story here.

The Lubbock and tennis community has rallied around the Siegels and raised almost $100,000 to help with medical expenses and care through this GoFundMe page. There is a Facebook page, Pray for Luke Siegel, that gives updates and posts videos about Luke's progress so if you are able to help in any way please do and make sure you keep Luke and the Siegels in your prayers.

Schnur Turns Pro, Reinberg/Ponwith Win First Title, Mariana Cobra Heading to UNF, Blumberg to UNC in January

North Carolina junior Brayden Schnur announced today that he would be foregoing his final year of eligibility and turning pro effective immediately. Schnur compiled a 49-25 overall singles record, 38-22 in dual-match play, with all but three dual-matches coming at the top spot in the singles lineup. Schnur battled injuries in each of the last two seasons but when he was healthy he was a very tough out. Brayden's top individual accomplishments came during the fall of 2014 (only fall he played) when he went 11-0 and won the prestigious USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships. Brayden will make his pro debut on Saturday afternoon against Radek Stepanek in qualies at the ATP Masters Series Rogers Cup in Toronto.

Chang Streaking in Godfrey, Perez Wins Another Doubles Title, Kirchheimer Gets E-Ville WC, Ole Miss Schedule

The weather in Greater St. Louis has been extremely hot and humid this week but that hasn't slowed down 2013 Rice graduate Jonathan Chang as he has blazed his way into the quarterfinals at the $25K Godfrey, Illinois, USA F24 Futures. Chang came into this week's Futures event having won just one main draw match but he's managed to come through qualies and knock off a pair off a pair of guys that spent most of last year in the ITA top 10. Chang defeated Georgia Tech's Chris Eubanks 6-2, 6-3 in the opening round then today he came back from a 5-2 third set deficit to beat recent Tulane graduate Dominik Koepfer 6-7(3), 6-2, 7-5 in a match that lasted 3 hours and 2 minutes. Chang's quarterfinal opponent will be former Tennessee All-American Rhyne Williams while the other quarterfinal match in the top half of the draw will be between former Tennessee Vol Tennys Sandgren and former Georgia Bulldog Wil Spencer.

Women's Coaching Updates, Olympics, UGA Schedule, First ATP Points

Seton Hall Athletic Director Patrick Lyons announced that former UCLA All-American Riza Zalameda has been named as the Pirates new women's head coach. Zalemeda, who graduated from UCLA in 2008, has spent the last four years as an assistant coach at Columbia. Zalameda replaces Greg Wyzykowski who resigned after going 64-111 (.366) over the last nine seasons at the South Orange, New Jersey, school.

ITA Summer Circuit - Week 4 Results

The ITA Summer Circuit finished up its fourth of six weeks with ten 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 third week and once these week four results are added in Northwestern's Jason Seidman will be in first place by one point after a regional for the third week in a row. Wake Forest commit Sean Hill also won his third regional in four weeks and finished as runner-up the other week.

Alabama - Draw Size W-45 ; M-60
M - Michael Durham (Auburn commit) d. [11] Jackson Wood (HS Class of '17) 6-4, 6-1
W - [1] Kourtney Keegan (Florida) d. [2] Kylie Wilcox (Boston College commit) 6-3, 6-3

Ben Dunbar Gets Promoted at New Mexico & Davis Cup Group 3 Results

New Mexico Vice President of Athletics Paul Krebs announced the hiring of Ben Dunbar as New Mexico's new men's head coach. Dunbar, who played at New Mexico from 2008 to 2012, was an assistant coach at New Mexico for the last two seasons. Dunbar replaces Bart Scott who resigned last month after two years at the helm of the Lobos.

Joao Monteiro Wins In Portugal, Di Lorenzo Sweeps Winnipeg, Torpegaard with a Huge Davis Cup Clincher

Joao Monteiro (Virginia Tech '16) capped off a weekend of firsts by winning pro singles title No. 1 with a straight set win over #608 Hugo Grenier at the $10K Idanha-A-Nova, Portugal, F8 Futures (Hard). Monteiro had break points on each of Grenier's four first set service games and broke on two of them to take the opening set 6-3. Monteiro broke from 15/40 to go up 2-1 in the second set and then broke again at love to go up 5-2. Monteiro served out the match at love to take it 6-3, 6-2. 

Hanfmann Takes Austria, Monteiro and Musialek into finals in Portugal and France

#500 Yannick Hanfmann (USC '15) won his second singles title this year and fourth of his career with a straight set win over #357 Stefanos Tsitsipas at the $10K Kramsach, Austria, F2 Futures (Clay). Hanfmann broke Tsitsipas to start the match and made the break lead hold up to take the opening set 6-4. Hanfmann broke for 2-1 in the second and made that break hold up as well to close out the 6-4, 6-4 win in 1 hour and 8 minutes. 

South Carolina Makes Some Additions, Women's Doubles Success, Davis Cup Scores, Pro Circuit,

South Carolina men's head coach Josh Goffi announced the hiring of Kyle Bailey as the Gamecocks new assistant coach. Bailey, who was the head coach at Monmouth last season, replaces Ryan Young who left two weeks ago to take the assistant job at Clemson.

South Carolina women's head coach Kevin Epley announced that Mia Horvit (UTR 11.32) has signed a National Letter of Intent to play at South Carolina next season. Horvit was ranked as high as No 5 in her high school class as a sophomore and junior per The Tennis Recruiting Network and was ranked No. 11 last season.

Coaching Updates, Davis Cup, Pac-12 Network/Twitter, Pro Circuit Update

Duquesne Athletic Director Dave Harper announced the hiring of Vanessa Steiner as the Dukes new Director of Tennis (Men's/Women's Coach). Steiner, who had been the women's assistant the last two seasons, replaces Rob Gregoire who resigned on March 1st which was in the middle of his second year on the job. Steiner graduated from Boston University in 2011 but played at Duquesne in 2012 since she had a year of eligibility remaining.

Paige Madara was named as the new men's and women's head coach at Grinnell College (D3) in Grinnell, Iowa. Madara replaces Andy Hamilton who was recently promoted to Director of Athletics and Recreation after serving as the men's coach for the last 21 years and the women's coach for the last 9 years. Madara played at Wash U STL from 2009 to 2013 and was most recently the women's assistant coach at Washington and Lee.

Davis Cup

The Davis Cup is back on the schedule this week with several current and former college guys playing for their respective home countries.  Below is a look at who is playing and where.

World Group Quarterfinals

John Isner (Georgia '07), Mike Bryan (Stanford '98), and Bob Bryan (Stanford '98) will represent the United States versus Croatia.

Dominic Inglot (Virginia '09) will represent for Great Britain versus Serbia. 

Ashley Fisher Gets the Nod at South Florida & Mauricio Antun is Named Head Coach at Belmont

South Florida Athletic Director Mark Harlan announced that assistant coach Ashley Fisher has been promoted to men's head coach. Fisher, who is a 1998 TCU graduate, played professionally for 14 years and coached for several more before becoming South Florida's assistant coach this past January after Brandon Wagner departed to go coach in the private sector. Fisher replaced Matt Hill who had an extremely successful four-year run before leaving to take the Arizona State men's job.

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.