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Saturday, May 27, 2017

Chong, Cuba Win D-III Championships; Semifinals Set for Sunday in Division I; McNally and Osuigwe Capture Grade A Doubles Title in Milan; Liu Reaches Final of $25K in Italy


Eudice Chong of Wesleyan is batting 1000. The top seed and two-time defending champion made Division III history today in Chattanooga by claiming her third consecutive singles title. The junior from Hong Kong defeated No. 2 seed Rebecca Ho of Washington-St. Louis 6-4, 2-6, 6-2, in the final, accomplishment enough for any collegian. But the grueling three-day individual tournament wasn't over for Chong after she claimed the singles title, with the doubles semifinals and if victorious, the doubles final still on her schedule. Chong managed to survive both, as she and Victoria Yu, the top seeds, beat No. 2 seeds Lindsay Brown and Nicole Tan of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 6-2, 6-3 for the doubles title.

The women's Division III tournament page is here.


The top seed in the men's draw, Lubomir Cuba of Middlebury, also claimed both singles and doubles titles. The University of Michigan transfer, now a sophomore, defeated No. 3 seed Nicolai Parodi of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 6-1, 6-1 in the final to become the first player from Middlebury to win a men's singles title.  Cuba and partner William de Quant, the No. 2 seeds, defeated top seeds Brian Grodecki and Alex Taylor of Williams 6-4, 6-2 in the doubles final.

The men's Division III tournament page is here.

The semifinals are set for Sunday at the NCAA Division I individual tournament in Athens Georgia, with two US women and three US men into the final four.

Unseeded Brienne Minor of Michigan reached the semifinals with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Sara Daavettila of North Carolina and will play Vanderbilt's Sydney Campbell, a 9-16 seed Sunday.  Campbell defeated Pepperdine's Ashley Lahey 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

The other women's semifinal will feature two international players: No. 6 seed Belinda Woolcock of Florida and unseeded Estela Perez-Somaribba of Miami.  Woolcock eliminated teammate Anna Danilina 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, while Perez-Somaribba beat Michigan's Kate Fahey 6-4, 6-3.

All four of the men's semifinalists are seeded.  Virginia's Thai Kwiatkowski, a 9-16 seed, will face No. 8 seed Tom Fawcett of Stanford after Kwiatkowski came back for a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over No. 5 seed Chris Eubanks of Georgia Tech and Fawcett beat unseeded Alex Ghilea of Oklahoma 6-2, 6-2.

North Carolina freshman William Blumberg has reached the semifinals

In the other quarterfinals, North Carolina freshman William Blumberg, a 9-16 seed, beat unseeded Jack Findel-Hawkins of North Florida 6-4, 6-4 and No. 2 seed Nuno Borges of Mississippi State defeated Wake Forest's Skander Mansouri, a 9-16 seed, 7-6(2), 6-3.

Both Blumberg and Borges are the first two NCAA singles semifinalists in their program's history.

Doubles semifinals are also set for Sunday, with teams from Georgia, Oklahoma, TCU and Wake Forest still alive in the men's draw, and teams from Ohio State, Alabama, Cal and LSU still competing for the women's title.

Live streaming and times for Sunday can be found at the tournament website.

At the ITF Grade A in Milan, Caty McNally and Whitney Osuigwe won the doubles title, defeating Hsuan Cho of Taiwan and Ayumi Miyamoto of Japan 6-3, 7-6(5).

Axel Geller of Argentina and Nicolas Mejia of Colombia won the boys doubles title, beating Vasil Kirkov and Danny Thomas 6-1, 4-6, 13-11. As with the girls finalists, both teams were unseeded.

No. 13 seed Oliver Crawford, the last US junior still in singles, lost in the semifinals today to Marko Miladinovic of Serbia 6-4, 6-4. Miladinovic will face No. 14 seed Alexei Popyrin of Australia in the boys final.

The girls final is between unseeded Elena Rybakina of Russia and No. 8 seed Iga Swiatek of Poland.

Claire Liu is into the finals of a $25,000 ITF Women's Pro Circuit event in Italy.  The unseeded Liu, who turned 17 two days ago, defeated No. 5 seed Camilla Rosatello of Italy 6-3, 0-6, 7-6(5) today and will face unseeded Paula Badosa Gibert of Spain in Sunday's final.

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