Pro Circuit Recap – Norrie Nearing Top 100; Bayerlova Takes Charge in Charleston; Schneider Sweeps Fountain Valley; Lesniak Bags Another Title

Cameron Norrie officially started his pro career in June, after three stellar years at TCU, and since then he’s won a match at an ATP 250, qualified for the US Open, and made three Challenger finals, two of which he won. The second of those Challenger titles came last week in Tiburon, California, when Norrie dropped just five games in the finals in a straight set win over former Tennessee Volunteer Tennys Sandgren. Norrie was ranked 243 when he turned pro and with these 90 points he now has a new career high ranking of 136. Norrie talked to Mike Cation after the match about his week in Tiburon with those comments available at this link.

Washington State freshman Michaela Bayerlova won her second pro title in the last three months after defeating the top seed Montserrat Gonzalez (WTA 388) 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the finals of the ITF $15K in Charleston, South Carolina. Bayerlova defeated South Carolina junior Ingrid Gamarra Martins (#1 singles) in the first round, Virginia Tech sophomore Natalie Novotna (#2 singles) in the second round, former Syracuse No. 1 Amanda Rodgers in the quarterfinals, and Texas sophomore Anna Turati (#4 singles) in the semifinals. Bayerlova earned 12 ranking points with the title and when those points are added in next week she’ll climb to around 625 in the WTA rankings.

Recent North Carolina graduate Ronnie Schneider swept the singles and doubles title at the $15K USA F32 Futures in Fountain Valley, California. The singles title was the first of Schneider’s career and it came over the guy that he teamed up with to win the doubles title the previous week – Virginia graduate and 2015 NCAA singles champion Ryan Shane. Schneider led the opening set 5-3, and served for it up 5-4, but Shane rallied to take it 7-5. Schneider bounced back and took the second set 6-2 and then he went up 5-3 in the third set but Shane came back to force a tiebreak. Schneider won the first three points of the tiebreak and cruised to a 7-1 win. 

Schneider won a doubles title for the second straight week by teaming up with recent Florida graduate Elliott Orkin. Schneider and Orkin got a walkover win in the final when UCLA graduate Karue Sell had to withdraw due to a back injury. The doubles title was the first of Orkin’s career while it was Schneider’s third doubles title since graduating.  

SMU graduate Marta Lesniak won her fourth singles title of the year after rolling through the field at the ITF $15K in Antalya, Turkey. Lesniak defeated Amina Anshba (WTA 536) 6-3, 6-1 in the final and that was actually her second closest match of the week with the closest a 6-2, 6-4 win in the quarters. Lesniak picked up 12 ranking points with the title and should move into the top 500 next week which isn’t too far off her career high of 445 which she achieved in 2004 when she was just 16. Lesniak is 19-1 in the last four tournaments that she’s entered with that one loss coming in the final.   

Recent Cal graduates Andre Goransson and Florian Lakat won the doubles title at the $100K Tiburon Challenger with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Marcelo Arevalo and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela. Goransson and Lakat won all their matches in straight sets except for their first round match when they had to fight off two match points in a 2-6, 6-4, 14-12 win over former Florida Gator Sekou Bangoura and former Michigan Wolverine Evan King. Goransson and Lakat split the $6200 winner’s purse and each earned 90 ATP doubles points.

Below is a list of last weekend’s winners and runner-ups on the pro circuit.