Oracle ITA Summer Circuit Powered By UTR – Weeks 2 and 3 Highlights

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By Steve Pratt

Here are some selected highlights from Weeks 2 and 3 of tournament play on the Oracle ITA Summer Circuit Powered by UTR : 

Week 3 Event Locations and Directors: Jon Carlson, Gustavus Adolphus College, Minn.; Jordan Smith, Kansas State University; Greg Kennett, St. Mary’s College, Calif.; Michaela Gorman, UNC-Charlotte; Jenny Mainz, University of Alabama; Bryan Whitt, UT Dallas, Texas; Jose D. Martinez, Warner University, Fla.; Ryan Tomlinson, Western Michigan University and James Ciuffo, Cal-State Northridge. 

Week 3 SoCal Highlight: The tournament took place at Cal-State Northridge and was directed by longtime Matadors women’s assistant coach Ciuffo. Mexico teenager Arturo Kam beat Weil Academy’s Fernando Fonseca in the “A” singles final, 6-4, 7-6. It was the second final in three weeks for Fonseca. On the women’s side, No. 2 seed Eryn Cayetano outlasted Lindsay Hung in an exciting final, 7-5, 3-6, 10-8. Cayetano is from Corona and a high school senior at St. Anthony’s High School in Long Beach who has committed to play her college tennis at nearby USC. 

Doubling Up: At the Minnesota event during Week 3 held at Gustavus Adolphus College, top-seeded Jackson Allen of Shakopee, Minn., beat No. 2 Chase Johnson of Golden Valley, Minn., in the singles final, 6-2, 6-1. The pair then teamed to win the doubles. Allen plays for the University of Minnesota while Johnson plays for the host Gustavus Adolphus College. 

Prepping: During Week 2 at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, high school players Joseph Barrett (Needham, Mass.) defeated No. 8 Ben Powis (Greenwich, Conn.), 6-1, 6-2. Barrett will be a Roxbury Latin School junior while Powis will be a senior at Brunswick School. In the women’s final, No. 2 Maggie Dorr (Concord, Mass.) beat No. 4 Olivia Leavitt (Falmouth, Maine), 6-1, 6-1. The recent Concord-Carlisle High graduate Dorr one week before advanced to the final of the MIAA state individual singles tennis championship. She will play her college tennis at Tufts University. Leavitt will be a senior at Brandeis University. 

Going With No. 1: Both top-seeded players captured singles titles at the University of Alabama event during Week 3. Edson Ortiz and Andie Daniell both won straight-set finals, and neither dropped a set the entire weekend. It was the second straight win for Ortiz, who also won during Week 2 at the University of Illinois. He was ITA-ranked nationally in doubles during his sophomore year at the University of Alabama. Daniell is a Crimson Tide senior. 

Going to Carolina: Elon University in Elon, N.C., hosted a Week 2 event directed by Elizabeth Anderson. Thomas Brown of Sumter, S.C. beat recent high school graduate Vikash Singh of India who plays out of the Smith-Stearns Tennis Academy on Hilton Head Island. Duke junior Meible Chi beat Peyton Pesavento of Advance, N.C., in the women’s final.  Pesavento plays out of the Randy Pate Academy and will play for Wake Forest. Her father played football and baseball at Notre Dame. 

“What’s Your UTR?” Ryan Tomlinson directed the Week 3 event at Western Michigan University. It was nice to see the UTR number listed for each player next to their name in the draw. Go here to view the PDF draws and results from Tomlinson’s event.

Repeating the Feat: Recent Villa Park High graduate Solymar Colling won her second straight ITA Summer Circuit event during Week 2 taking the Chapman College event. Colling will play for the University of San Diego in the fall. She beat Sydney Van Alphen in the final. Newport Beach’s Van Alphen was a member of USC’s ITA All-Academic Team last year as a sophomore. 

Youth Gone Wild: At the Rutgers University event during Week 2, 16-year-old Matthis Ross of Great Britain beat Scott Altmeyer in the final. Ross plays out of the Sanchez-Casal Academy in Florida. 

Hey, I Know That Guy: Incoming UC Davis player Alex Scemanenco recently graduated from Torrey Pines High School in San Diego County. That’s the same school that current ATP World Tour Pro Taylor Fritz played for. At the Week 2 UC Davis event, Scemanenco advanced to the final where he fell to Wilhelm Saiga of Tiburon, Calif. Saiga played for UC-Santa Barbara last year as a freshman. 

Familiar Foes: In the women’s final at UC Davis, former high school teammates Yana Gurevich and Sasha Bahsoun of Los Gatos High met in the final with Gurevich’s winning and exciting final, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 10-4. The high school senior Gurevich plays out of the Eagle Fustar Tennis Academy. She and Bahsoun teamed to win the 2017 CIF Central Coast Section doubles title.

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