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HomeTennisMartin Advances to First Challenger Final at Bloomfield Hills; Vidmanova Reaches Another...

Martin Advances to First Challenger Final at Bloomfield Hills; Vidmanova Reaches Another W100 Final; Honer and Anderson Meet for Florence W35 Title; Meri and Friend Win Singles Gold at World University Games

Wild card Andres Martin will play in his first ATP Challenger final Sunday at the Bloomfield Hills 100, after he avenged two previous Challenger losses to No. 5 seed Eliot Spizzirri(Texas) 6-1, 7-6(5).  The former Georgia Tech All-American, who completed his eligibility last May, had been in just one Challenger semifinal before this week, but he now is in the thick of the race in the USTA’s US Open Wild Card Challenge. 

He will play unseeded 22-year-old Mark Lajal of Estonia, who has now made one Challenger final in each of the last three years, beating Yu Hsiou Hsu of Taiwan today 6-3, 6-0. 

Hsu and partner Tsung-Hao Huang, also of Taiwan, won the doubles title today, beating wild cards Theodore Winegar(Columbia, Duke) and Michael Zheng(Columbia) 4-6, 6-3, 11-9. Winegar, who will be playing in the US Open main draw in doubles after he and Cooper Williams(Duke) won the USTA Collegiate US Open Playoff, and Zheng led 7-5 in the match tiebreaker, lost four straight points, saved those two match points, then dropped the third to give the Taiwanese pair their fifth doubles title, but first at the Challenger level.

2024 NCAA fall singles champion Dasha Vidmanova continues to rack up the wins on the USTA Pro Circuit, with the recent University graduate now 20-2 since completing her eligibility in May, including a title at the W100 in Cary at the beginning of this month. The 22-year-old from the Czech Republic, seeded No. 7, defeated No. 6 seed and 2018 NCAA singles champion Arianne Hartono(Ole Miss) of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-4 today at the W100 in Evansville Indiana. She will face No. 3 seed Caty McNally in the final, hoping to avenge one of those two losses, which McNally inflicted earlier this month in the first round of the WTA 125 in Newport Rhode Island. McNally defeated No. 5 seed Xiyu Wang of China 6-3, 6-1 for her ninth straight victory.

At the W35 in Florence South Carolina, top seed Robin Anderson(UCLA) will face wild card Amelia Honer(UC-Santa Barbara). Anderson defeated Haley Giavara(Cal) 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 in today’s semifinals, while Honer, an All-American who just concluded her collegiate career this spring, beat qualifier Shilin Xu of China 6-3, 3-2, retired. Honer’s only Pro Circuit title came last fall at a W35 in Bakersfield California.

The doubles title went to top seeds Giavara and Hiroko Kuwata of Japan, who beat unseeded Sofia Cabezas(Iowa State, Tennessee) of Venezuela and Kylie Collins(Texas, LSU, Oklahoma State) 6-0, 6-4 in the final. 

Both unseeded Americans in the semifinals at the USTA Pro Circuit M25 in Champaign Illinois lost today, with top seed Paul Jubb(South Carolina) of Great Britain defeating Ryan Dickerson(Duke, Baylor) 7-5, 6-3, and No. 8 seed Blaise Bicknell(Florida, Tennessee) of Jamaica beating Quinn Vandecasteele 6-3, 6-2.

No. 3 seeds Zachary Fuchs(Gonzaga, BYU) and Wally Thayne(Utah, BYU) took the doubles title, beating the unseeded all-Illinois team of Hunter Heck and Japan’s Kenta Miyoshi 6-3, 2-6, 10-5.

The tennis competition at the World University Games in Germany concluded today, with two current D-I student-athletes, University of Arizona rising senior Jay Friend of Japan and University of Texas rising sophomore Eszter Meri of Slovakia, claiming gold medals in singles.

No. 13 seed Friend, 21, defeated No. 12 seed Toby Samuel(South Carolina) of Great Britain 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 to add a second gold medal, after winning the mixed doubles title yesterday.

The 22-year-old Meri, seeded 11th, beat WTA No. 342 and No. 2 seed Alevtina Ibragimova of Russia 6-3, 1-6, 7-5 to take gold in the women’s singles. 

Japan was the overall winner in the country standings for tennis, claiming women’s doubles, mixed doubles and men’s singles titles.

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