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Sunday, February 26, 2012

Wiersholm, Elbaba Take ITF Grade 4 Titles in El Salvador; Barty Wins Another $25K; Emory Repeats as D III Men's Indoor Champions; Kudla Gets Delray WC


Fourteen-year-old Henrik Wiersholm won his first ITF title in El Salvador over the weekend, in only his second ITF tournament. Wiersholm qualified for the Grade 4 Copa La Libertad and dropped only one set in his nine wins. In the final, he beat 17-year-old top seed Santiago Munoz Quiroga of Mexico 6-4, 6-2.


Julia Elbaba, who has committed to the University of Virginia, won the girls singles title as the No. 1 seed. Elbaba beat fellow American Marie Norris, a qualifier, 6-3, 6-4 in the final. The 17-year-old Elbaba didn't lose a set in her five wins. Norris got a measure of revenge in the all-American doubles final, when she and Usue Arconada, who were unseeded, beat top seeds Elbaba and Alejandra De Lasa 6-4, 6-2.

Fifteen-year-old Ashleigh Barty won her second consecutive $25,000 ITF Women's Circuit tournament in her home country of Australia this weekend, defeating top seed Channel Simmonds of South Africa in the first round and 17-year-old wild card Viktorija Rajicic of Australia 6-1, 7-6(8) in the final. The Wimbledon girls champion, who received a special exemption into the grass court event in Mildura based on her previous week's title, has won 13 straight matches in the past two weeks.

The Division III Men's Team Indoor tournament was played this weekend, and top seed Emory University defended its 2011 title, defeating No. 3 seed UC-Santa Cruz 7-2. For more on the weekend's action, see the ITA coverage and division3tennis.com.

In the finals at the $15,000 Brownsville Futures today, top seed Peter Polansky of Canada beat No. 4 seed Daniel Cox of Great Britain 6-1, 6-3 for the singles title, while former Tennessee teammates Rhyne Williams and Tennys Sandgren, seeded third took the doubles title 7-6(4), 6-0 over No. 2 seeds Chris Kwon and Ruben Gonzales. Complete draws can be found at the USTA Pro Circuit page, which also has the qualifying draw for next week's $15,000 Futures in Harlingen.

The ATP Delray Beach International qualifying will be completed on Monday, and there will also be several first round main draw matches, including wild card Denis Kudla's contest with Dudi Sela of Israel. Two former NCAA doubles champions are in the final round of singles qualifying, with Texas A&M's Austin Krajicek and USC's Robert Farah getting three-set wins today. Krajicek will play former Tar Heel Nick Monroe and Farah takes on No. 6 seed Marinko Matosevic of Australia. No. 7 seed Michael Yani, who starred at Duke, will face Mischa Zverev of Germany and Tim Smyczek will play Jack Sock. I was a little surprised not to see Alexios Halebian in the qualifying, as he won the USTA 18s Clay Courts last year, and that has meant a wild card into the Delray qualifying. Halebian, who has been struggling this year, lost in the Harlingen qualifying today.

The draws and order of play for Delray Beach can be found here.

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