JJ Wolf Advances to Kzoo Final; Hansson & Ram-Harel Advance to Edwardsville Final; Eubanks Gets a Big Win in Cincy

Ohio State rising sophomore JJ Wolf is one win away from earning a main draw wild card into the US Open after he defeated Cornell commit Alafia Ayeni 6-3, 6-1 in the semifinals of the USTA Boys 18 National Championship in Kalamazoo. Wolf’s previous best singles performance at the Zoo was two years ago when he made it to the semifinals of the Boys 16 before falling to Patrick Kypson who then went on to win the title the next day. It just so happens that Wolf’s opponent in Sunday’s final will be Patrick Kypson after the 17 year-old from Greenville, North Carolina, rolled to a 6-0, 6-3 win over Ryan Goetz. Colette Lewis has plenty of quotes from Saturday’s action in her recap on ZooTennis so make sure you check that out.  

The final is best of five sets and there will be a live broadcast available at this link. 

Ole Miss rising senior Gustav Hansson and former Tulsa standout Or Ram-Harel advanced to the singles final at $25K USA F27 Futures in Edwardsville, Illinois. Hansson only needed 58 minutes to dispatch the No. 7 seed Genaro Olivieri 6-1, 6-1 while Ram-Harel defeated Hunter Callahan (Ohio State ’15) 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 in 1 hour and 59 minutes. It’ll be the first singles final for both guys which means we’re guaranteed a first-time winner. 

Sebastian Fanselow (Pepperdine ’13) and Lukas Storck (Flagler Jr) won the doubles title at the $15K Germany F10 Futures in Wetzlar with a 5-7, 6-4, 10-6 win over Marvin Greven and Jannis Kahlke. The title was the first of Storck’s career while it was Fanselow’s second career doubles title. 

Bernardo Saraiva (San Francisco ’15) won his second doubles title of the year, third career, as he and Nikola Cacic defeated Bogdan Bobrov and Goran Markovic 6-2, 3-6, 11-9 in the finals of the $15K Turkey F29 Futures in Mersin. Saraiva has played in six doubles finals, with five different doubles partners, in the last three months. 

Georgia Tech rising senior Chris Eubanks advanced to the final round of qualies at the ATP Masters 1000 in Cincinnati after defeating Bjorn Fratangelo (ATP 121) 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-6(7). Eubanks hit 14 aces in the match and with the win he earns 16 ATP points.

Eubanks will meet Janko Tipsarevic (ATP 58) on Sunday after the former world No. 8 came back from 4-2 down in the third to defeat incoming Ohio State freshman John McNally 5-7, 6-1, 7-6(5). McNally had a break point to go up 5-2 in the third but Tipsarevic managed to hold and then he broke McNally from 30/40 to even it at 4-4. McNally fought off two match points to hold for 5-5 and then he fought off two more in the tiebreak but Tipsarevic converted on the fifth to close it out. 

Joao Monteiro (Virginia Tech ’16) won his ninth straight match and will attempt to win a Futures title for the second straight week after he defeated Rafael Matos 7-5, 6-3 at the $15K Portugal F15 Futures in Caldas Da Rainha. Monteiro will face Sergio Gutierrez-Ferrol in the final and if he can pull it out it’ll be his fourth singles title of the year.