$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.
$106.5K Braunschweig, Germany (Clay) – James Cerretani (Brown ’04) and Phillip Oswald are into the doubles final after a 7-5, 7-6(3) win over Facundo Bagnis and Karen Khachanov. Cerretani will attempt to win his 26th overall doubles title on Saturday when he and Oswald face Mateusz Kowalczyk and Antonio Sancic.
$50K Cali, Colombia, Challenger (Clay) – #360 Jose Hernandez-Fernandez (North Carolina ’12) moved into his first Challenger semifinal since last October with a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(4) over #183 Joao Souza. Jose trailed 4-2 in the third set but he held, broke in a three-deuce game, and held again for 5-4. Jose jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the tiebreak and cruised to a 7-6(4) win.
#300 Nicolas Barrientos (West Florida ’08) was trying to make his second semifinal of the year but he retired after dropping the first set 6-3 to the top seed #77 Victor Estrella Burgos.
$50K Winnetka, Illinois, USA Challenger (Hard) – JP Smith (Tennessee ’11) and Stefan Kozlov moved into the doubles final with a 3-6, 6-2, 1-0 (6) win over Alex Lawson (Notre Dame ’16) and Jackson Withrow (Texas A&M ’16). Smith and Kozlov will face Sekou Bangoura (Florida ’11) and David O’Hare (Memphis ’14) who defeated Dean O’Brien (Georgia Tech ’11) and Andrey Golubev 6-2, 7-6(7).
$10K Telfs, Austria, F1 (Clay) – #490 Yannick Hanfmann (USC ’15) advanced to his second final this year after defeating #571 Sebastian Ofner 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. Hanfmann will attempt to win his fourth career Futures singles title on Saturday against #513 Goncalo Oliveira.
$10K De Haan, Belgium, F4 (Clay) – #899 Collin Altamirano (Virginia Jr) lost in the quarterfinals against #1614 Yannick Vandenbulcke when he retired down 4-1 in the first set.
$10K Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, F14 (Hard) – #1707 Jarmere Jenkins (Virginia ’13) is back into the semifinals at a Futures for the first time since November 2014 after a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over #820 Aziz Dougaz (Florida State Soph) – next up for Jenkins is the top seed #217 Aldin Setkic.
$10K Saarlouis, Germany, F6 (Clay) – #1945 Johann Willems (Texas Tech ’14) advanced to his first ever semifinal with a 6-3, 7-6(6) win over #648 Nik Razborsek – next up #669 Marvin Netuschil who defeated #1064 Jakob Sude (Oklahoma State ’15) 6-1, 6-2.
Julian Lenz (Baylor ’16) and Sebastian Fanselow (Pepperdine ’13) advanced to the doubles final with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Yannick Born (Middle Tennessee State ’15) and George von Massow. Lenz will be seeking his first pro title of any kind when he and Fanselow go up against Marcel Felder and Manuel Pena Lopez in the finals. Fanselow has won a pair of singles titles but he’s never won a doubles title.
$10K Harare, Zimbabwe, F3 (Hard) – #342 Nik Scholtz (Ole Miss ’15) and #356 Tucker Vorster (Ole Miss ’11) will meet in the finals of a Futures event for the third time after both won their semifinal matches on Friday. Scholtz defeated #783 Andrea Vavassori 6-1, 4-6, 6-3 while Vorster ousted #434 Hugo Nys 6-3, 7-6(10). Scholtz leads the H2H against Vorster 5-2 with each winning one Futures title over the other in 2014.
Benjamin Lock (Florida State ’16) and Courtney Lock (UNLV Jr) were trying to win a double title for the second time in their last three tournaments but they fell in the finals to the top seed Hugo Nys and Vishnu Vardhan. The Locks took the opening set 7-6(5) but Nys and Vardhan grabbed the second 6-4. The Locks led 5-4, on serve, in the third set supertiebreak but Nys and Vardhan took the next six points to close it out 10-5.
$25K Saskatoon, Canada, F5 (Hard) – All remaining guys with college ties fell on Friday in Canada. #629 Brayden Schnur (North Carolina Jr) lost to #311 Philip Bester 6-3, 6-2, Matthew Brooklyn (UCLA ’10) lost to #357 Blake Mott 6-2, 7-6(6), and David Volfson (Cornell Soph) and Christian Lakoseljac (Penn State Fr) fell to Philip Bester and Peter Polansky 6-3, 6-2.
$25K Bourg-en-bresse, France, F13 (Clay) – Ruben Gonzales (Illinois ’08) and Catalin-Ionut Gard (Ole Miss ’05) teamed up to win their first doubles title with a 2-6, 6-3, 1-0 (7) win over Marc Fornell-Mestres and Lamine Ouahab. It was Gonzales’s second title this year and 15th overall (13 Futures/2 Challengers) while Ionut Gard won his fifth title this year and 21st overall (all Futures).
#553 Alexis Musialek (Kentucky ’12) was attempting to reach his first semifinal since last June but he lost to #439 Lamine Ouahab 6-4, 6-1.
This will be week three for the ITA’s Summer Circuit with eight regionals taking place this weekend. You can view draws for each at the ITA’s Summer Circuit page.
Buffalo head coach Lee Nickell announced his five-member signing class for next season with all five hailing from different countries. Here are the Universal Tennis Ratings of each – Filip Grbib (13.51), Petr Vodak (12.61), Villheld Friedell (12.59), Hao Sheng Koay (12.22), and Konstantinos Tsakiris (11.39). Nickell lost four starters off last year’s team to graduation so several of these guys should see action next season.
Mckenzie Mcdonald won an atp match as a junior or after his freshmen year (masters level at either Cincinnati I think), I though McEnroe won French mixed as a junior, and got to Wimbledon semis after college?
McEnroe was a qualifier.
Coach Nickell does quite a bit with very little scholarships and a school with zero tennis tradition. Some AD is going to look very smart one day if they give him a shot at a Power 5 school.
That itself is a curiosity. Why on earth would he waste his time at Stanford after a result like that?
I can't think of any recent examples though I feel like there should be one. John McEnroe made the semis at Wimbledon back in the day before he started at Stanford.
Soderlund has probably the easiest first round match in an ATP tournament possible in Gastad. Bobby has there ever been a college player that has come in with having won a match on the ATP tour?