It was a big weekend in upstate New York for Mikael Torpegaard as the Ohio State rising senior swept both the singles and doubles titles at the USA F20 Futures in Rochester. Torpegaard won his third career pro singles title after dispatching former Big Ten rival Sam Monette (Indiana ’16) in straight sets. Torpegaard jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the opening set and had three set points when serving up 40/0 but Monette managed to take the next five points to break for 1-5. Monette made it two straight with a hold for 2-5 but Torpegaard served out the set at love to take it 6-2 (note – there was a brief rain delay before Torpegaard’s 5-2 service game). Torpegaard broke at love to start the second set and would lead *3-2 when the rain came again and delayed play for over three hours. Once things started back up Torpegaard maintained his break lead and closed out Monette 6-2, 6-4 in 57 minutes.
Alexa Graham had a good week in British Columbia as the North Carolina rising sophomore won her second pro singles title and finished as a doubles runner-up at the ITF $15K in Victoria. Graham defeated 29 year-old American Tori Kinard 6-1, 6-4 in the singles final while she and 2016 Vanderbilt graduate Frances Altick fell 7-5, 6-4 to Andrea Renee Villarreal (Southeastern Louisiana ’16) and Marcela Zacarias in the doubles final. Graham’s other singles title came in 2015 at the ITF $10K in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. The doubles title was Villarreal’s first pro title and I’m guessing that it’s probably the first pro title from anyone from Southeastern Louisiana as well. Here was an article and some video clips on Graham’s singles win.
2016 Virginia Tech graduate Joao Monteiro won his third career pro singles title by coming from behind to edge Mississippi State rising junior Nuno Borges in the final of the $25K Portugal F8 Futures in Lisbon. Borges won his first career pro title on Saturday by winning the doubles title and when he led Monteiro 4-2* (15/40) in the third set of the singles final it looked like a weekend sweep was just moments away. However Monteiro would come back to hold after fighting off three break points and then after Borges went up 40/0 in the next game Monteiro would take the next five points to break for 4-4. It looked like the match was headed towards a tiebreak however Monteiro would break from 30/40 to close it out 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 in 2 hours and 4 minutes.
Two-time NCAA singles champion Nicole Gibbs won her fifth career pro singles title with a straight set win over Ohio State rising junior Francesca Di Lorenzo at the ITF $25K in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The former Stanford Cardinal star jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the opening set and would add one more break to take the set 6-3. Gibbs went up 2-0 to start the second set as well however Di Lorenzo break and hold for 2-2. Gibbs broke at love to go up 4-2 but Di Lorenzo broke back in a one-deuce game to put it back on serve at 4-3. Gibbs broke at love again for 5-3 and then served it out in a one-deuce game to win 6-3, 6-3. James Brewer of The Advocate (Baton Rouge newspaper) had some quotes from Gibbs which can viewed at this link.
Beyond thrilled to win my first singles title of 2017 at home?Big shoutout to @cjlock96 for helping me go all the way! #Twiza pic.twitter.com/nDVnnRaQrf
— Benjamin Lock (@Benjamm1ng) June 25, 2017
2016 Florida State graduate Benjamin Lock won the singles title in his hometown of Harare, Zimbabwe, with a 6-3, 6-1 win over France’s Baptiste Crepatte. The singles title at the Zimbabwe F2 Futures was the third of Lock’s career and he almost won the doubles title as well but he and Nate Lammons (SMU ’16) fell to Nicolaas Scholtz (Ole Miss ’15) and Mark Fynn 3-6, 6-1, 10-7.
Nicholas Bybel (Bucknell ’16) and Giovani Samaha (Troy ’16) each won their first pro doubles title with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Scott Duncan and Nicolas Rosenzweig at the $15K Colombo, Sri Lanka F1 Futures. Each of Bybel and Samaha’s earlier matches were all close with the quarterfinal and semifinal matches decided in a third set supertiebreak. Neither player had ever made it past the quarterfinals prior to this week.
Former USC Trojan Connor Farren and 2015 San Francisco graduate Bernardo Saraiva won the doubles title at the $15K Tumon, Guam F1 Futures with a come from behind 7-6(1), 7-6(4) win over Japan’s Masaki Sasai and Shunrou Takeshima. Farren and Saraiva trailed 5-3 in the first set and 5-2 in the second set but managed to battle back to force tiebreaks which they ultimately won. The title is the second for both Farren and Saraiva but the first for them as a team.
A full list of all the winners and runner-ups is down below – if there’s someone I’ve missed please let me know.
Singles Champions (5)
ITF $25K Baton Rouge, LA (Hard) – Nicole Gibbs (Stanford ’13*)
$25K Lisbon, Portugal F8 Futures (Hard) – Joao Monteiro (Virginia Tech ’16)
ITF $15K Victoria, BC, Canada (Hard) – Alexa Graham (North Carolina Rising Soph)
$15K Rochester, NY, USA F20 Futures (Clay) – Mikael Torpegaard (Ohio State Rising Sr)
$15K Harare, Zimbabwe F2 (Hard) – Benjamin Lock (Florida State ’16)
Singles Runner-Ups (5)
$25K Winston-Salem, NC, USA F19 Futures (Hard) – Chris Eubanks (Ga Tech Rising Sr)
$25K Lisbon, Portugal F8 Futures (Hard) – Nuno Borges (Mississippi State Rising Jr)
ITF $25K Baton Rouge, LA (Hard) – Francesca Di Lorenzo (Ohio State Rising Jr)
ITF $15K Hammamet, Tunisia (Clay) – Bianca Turati (Texas Rising Soph)
$15K Rochester, NY, USA F20 Futures (Clay) – Sam Monette (Indiana ’16)
Doubles Champions (25)
$127K Ilkley, Great Britain Challenger (Grass) – Adil Shamasdin (Brown ’05)
$64K Poprad Tatry, Slovakia Challenger (Clay) – Andreas Mies (Auburn ’13)
$43K Blois, France Challenger (Clay) – Sander Gille (East Tennessee St ’12)/Joran Vliegen (East Carolina ’14)
$43K Todi, Italy Challenger (Clay) – Ben McLachlan (Cal ’14)
$25K Winston-Salem, NC, USA F19 Futures (Hard) – Kevin King (Ga Tech ’12)/Chris Eubanks (Ga Tech Rising Sr)
$25K Palma del Rio, Spain F18 Futures (Hard) – David O’Hare (Memphis ’14)
$25K Lisbon, Portugal F8 Futures (Hard) – Nuno Borges (Mississippi State Rising Jr)
ITF $25K Baton Rouge, LA (Hard) – Luisa Stefani (Pepperdine Rising Jr)/Ellen Perez (Georgia ’17*)
ITF $15K Victoria, BC, Canada (Hard) – Andrea Renee Villarreal (Southeastern Louisiana ’16)
$15K Gdynia, Poland F2 Futures (Clay) – Boris Arias (LSU ’16)/Nick Chappell (TCU ’15)
$15K Tumon, Guam F1 Futures (Hard) – Bernardo Saraiva (San Francisco ’15)/Connor Farren (USC ’16*)
$15K Hong Kong F1 Futures (Hard) – Francis Alcantara (Pepperdine ’14)/KU Singh (Georgia ’13)
$15K Harare, Zimbabwe F2 Futures (Hard) – Nicolaas Scholtz (Ole Miss ’15)/Mark Fynn (UT-Chattanooga ’07)
$15K Colombo, Sri Lanka F1 Futures (Clay) – Nicholas Bybel (Bucknell ’16)/Giovani Samaha (Troy ’16)
$15K Rochester, NY, USA F20 Futures (Clay) – Hugo Di Feo (Ohio State ’17)/Mikael Torpegaard (Ohio State Rising Sr)
$15K Hammamet, Tunisia F24 Futures (Clay) – Aziz Dougaz (Florida State Rising Jr)/Skander Mansouri (Wake Forest Rising Sr)
Doubles Runner-Ups (15)
$25K Winston-Salem, NC, USA F19 Futures (Hard) – Dominik Koepfer (Tulane ’16)
ITF $25K Baton Rouge, LA (Hard) – Francesca Di Lorenzo (Ohio State Rising Jr)/Julia Elbaba (Virginia ’16)
ITF $15K Victoria, BC, Canada (Hard) – Frances Altick (Vanderbilt ’16)/Alexa Graham (North Carolina Rising Soph)
ITF $15K Taipel (Hard) – Eudice Chong (Wesleyan Rising Sr))/Katherine Ip (Rice ’17)
$15K Havre, Belgium F1 Futures (Clay) – Lukas Ollert (Auburn ’15)
$15K Gdynia, Poland F2 Futures (Clay) – Andre Goransson (Cal ’17)/Fredrik Ask (Arizona ’14)
$15K Harare, Zimbabwe F2 Futures (Hard) – Nate Lammons (SMU ’16)/Benjamin Lock (Florida State ’16)
$15K Rochester, NY, USA F20 Futures (Clay) – Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Virginia ’17)/Luca Corinteli (Virginia ’17)
$15K Alkmaar, Netherlands F1 Futures (Clay) – Sam Riffice (’18 Florida commit)
* means they didn’t stay in school for all four years – year listed is the last year they were in school
Latest Comments