Pro Circuit Round-up: Top-200 Wolf wins Champaign

JJ Wolf may not have returned to Ohio State for his senior season, but he's still the big man on campus—this time on the professional level, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. On the indoor hard courts of the school's Atkins Tennis Center, Wolf (pictured above with family) won his second ITF title of 2019 at the USTA Pro Circuit and ATP Challenger 80 event in Champaign, Ill.

The No. 9 seed defeated No. 14 Sebastian Korda, 6-4, 6-7, 7-6, in an all-American final, sealing the title with an overhead smash that bounded high over his opponent's head. Korda held a match point at 6-5 in the deciding tiebreak, but Wolf won the final three points in a row for the victory.

He also took out No. 6 seed Chris Eubanks, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, in the Round of 16, and won his other three matches in straight sets.

The 20-year-old, who officially turned pro in July, rises into the ATP's Top 200 for the first time with the win; he now sits at a career high of No. 189. It rounds out a promising 2019 for the youngster that also featured a Challenger title in Columbus, Ohio, in January and a final run at another Columbus Challenger in September.

Rounding out the top singles performers in Illinois, Alexander Brown (l. to Korda) was a semifinalist, while Stefan Kozlov (l. to Wolf) and Martin Redlicki (l. to Korda) reached the quarters.

Wolf was not the lone American champion in Champaign, as Christopher Eubanks and Kevin King took the doubles title, the unseeded duo topping Redlicki and Evan Hoyt, 7-5, 6-3, in the final.

Other notable American results on the ATP Challenger and ITF circuits include: 

Men:

• Marcos Giron was a singles champion at the Oracle ATP Challenger 125 event in Houston, where Mitchell Krueger reached the semifinals, and Michael Mmoh and Michael Redlicki were quarterfinalists. Giron clinched first place in the USTA's Australian Open Wild Card Challenge with his victory.
• Ulises Blanch was a singles quarterfinalist at the ITF WTT M25 event in Orlando, Fla., where Charlie Emhardt and Alfredo Perez reached the doubles final.
• Patrick Kypson reached the singles quarterfinals at the ITF WTT M15 event in Heraklion, Greece.
• Dennis Uspensky reached the singles quarters at the ITF WTT M15 event in Maputo, Mozambique.

Women:

• CoCo Vandeweghe was a singles finalist at the Oracle WTA $125K Series event in Houston, where Irina Falconi reached the semis, and Caty McNally and Taylor Townsend reached the last eight. Vandeweghe clinched the top spot in the USTA's Australian Open Wild Card Challenge with her final run.
• Maria Mateas was a singles semifinalist at the ITF WTT W25 event in Orlando, where Claire Liu reached the quarters and Kate Fahey was a doubles champion.
• Hurricane Tyra Black reached the singles final at the ITF WTT W25 event in Hua Hin, Thailand.
• Vanessa Ong and Sofia Sewing were singles semifinalists at the ITF WTT W15 event in Cancun, Mexico, where Elle Christensen reached the quarters, and Allura Zamarripa and Maribella Zamarripa were doubles finalists.
• Emma Davis was a doubles finalist at the ITF WTT W15 event in Solarino, Italy.