#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.
Joao Monteiro (Virginia Tech ’16) advanced to his first-career Futures final with a tough three-set win over #599 Frederico Gil in the semifinals of the $10K Idanha-A-Nova, Portugal, F8 Futures (Hard). Monteiro fell behind 2-0 in the first set then rattled off six straight games to take the opening set 6-2. The second set stayed on serve until Monteiro was broke from 30/40 while serving at 3-4 and Gil would then hold at love to take the set 6-3. Monteiro broke Gil from 30/40 to go up 3-1 in the third but Gil would break back on a four-deuce game to put it back on serve. The match would go to a third set tiebreak and after Monteiro jumped out to a 3-0 lead Gil would take the next four points to go ahead 4-3. Monteiro fought off a match point when serving at 5-6 and he’d then take the next two points after that to win it 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(6).
#743 Alexis Musialek (Kentucky ’12) advanced to his first Futures final since winning in Toulon, France, last June after defeating #617 Xin Gao 6-1, 6-1 at the Saint-Gervais, France, F14 Futures (Clay). Musialek will meet the top seed #380 Maxime Hamou in the finals with Hamou holding a 2-0 H2H advantage although both matches were very close.
Daniel Nguyen (USC ’12) and Mitchell Krueger won their first doubles title as a team with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Jarryd Chaplin (Tennessee ’14) and Benjamin Mitchell at the $75K Winnipeg Challenger (Hard). It was Nguyen’s sixth career Futures doubles title but first since 2014; it was also Krueger’s sixth doubles title and his first since February 2015.
Winning in Winnipeg ðŸ†ðŸ† @mitch_krueger@DanielNguyen_ 🇺🇸🇺🇸 #YoungGunsOTR#FightOnpic.twitter.com/ocrMSqJxCi— Parsa (@Parsa_Nemati) July 16, 2016
#196 Aleksandr Nedovyesov (Oklahoma State ’10) made his fourth semifinal this year but unfortunately his record fell to 0-4 after a 6-1, 6-2 loss to #92 Radu Albot at the $42.5K Poznan, Poland, Challenger (Clay).
Both Alan Gadjiev (Wake Forest Redshirt Freshman) and #1513 Jarmere Jenkins (Virginia ’13) lost in the semifinals at the $10K Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, F15 Futures (Hard). Gadjiev never led against #720 Luca Pancaldi and fell 6-3, 6-3 while Jenkins pushed #772 Tomas Papik to three sets but ultimately fell 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-2.
Wil Spencer (Georgia ’12) won the $30K USTA/MAS McDonald’s Open Clay Court Championships in Midlothian, Virginia with a 6-4, 7-6(2) win over current Alabama assistant coach and 2006 Illinois graduate Ryler DeHeart. Spencer won $7500 while DeHeart took home $3000 as a finalist – as a reference point the winner and runner-up at a $25K Futures event take home $3600 and $2100. Spencer announced his retirement back in March so it’s interesting to see him back on the court just four month later – he will also be competing next week at the Futures event in Godfrey, Illinois.
I can't think of any other teams that had that many guys in the top 500 at the same time – pretty remarkable what that group has been able to accomplish thus far.
The starting six on the 2008 Virginia team, which lost to Georgia in the semifinals, have all won pro titles although Treat Huey and Dominic Inglot's titles have all been on the doubles side. Somdev Devvarman, Michael Shabaz, Sanam Singh, and Teddy Angelinos all have singles titles.
Add Eric Johnson (USC '15), who was a freshman on that 2012 team and key player on the 2014 NCAA championship team who has career high 510 ATP ranking and has won 2 pro titles. Michael Grant (USC '14) career high is 750 and has a pro doubles title. No doubt Peter Smith knows how to ready players for the tour.
To take this 1 step further, I believe everyone in the top 6 of that 2012 national championship team has now won at least 1 professional singles title. That has to be a historic first, right?
Yannick Hanfmann's win means that he firmly joins his five other teammates from the historic 2012 USC team in the ATP top 500 (Steve Johnson, Ray Sarmiento, Daniel Nguyen, Emilio Gomez, Hanfmann, Roberto Quiroz). Bobby, do you know if something like this has ever happened? On that basis alone, that team might was one of the best ever, although it did lose once (to UCLA in regular season).