Pro Circuit Round-up: Brengle wins third title of 2018

Three USTA Pro Circuit events last week ended with a combined six American champions, one in singles competition and five in doubles play.

Madison Brengle won her third Pro Circuit title of 2018 – the most she has ever won in a single year – at the $60,000 event in Stockton, Calif., defeating Danielle Lao in an all-American final. At the same event, Hayley Carter and Ena Shibahara teamed up to win the doubles title. Noah Rubin was a doubles champion at the $100,000 Challenger event in Stockton, while Sophie Chang and Alexandra Mueller won the doubles crown as the top seeds at the $25,000 event in Charleston, S.C. 

Brengle, who moved up to No. 88 in the WTA rankings after her title, lived up to her billing as the No. 1 seed in Stockton, winning the tournament without dropping a set. Lao provided her toughest test of the week in a 7-5, 7-6 final. 

The 28-year-old Brengle achieved a career-high ranking of No. 35 in 2015. She has competed in each of the last 17 Grand Slams, and she has registered 12 career major wins, with at least one victory in each Slam. Prior to that streak, she fell in qualifying in 24 consecutive Slams after making four main-draw appearances from 2007-08. 

The victory improves her record to 13-7 in ITF finals, all of which have come in the U.S. She also has six ITF doubles titles, but is still seeking her first WTA trophy. Brengle previously won two ITF titles in 2013, 2014 and 2017.  Her victory at the $100,000 event in Midland, Mich., in February was the biggest title of her career, and she followed it up with another trophy at the $60,000 event in Landisville, Pa., in August.

Her final opponent in Stockton, the unseeded Lao, faced a tougher road to the championship match. Bidding for her first title since 2015, Lao won a pair of three-setters, including a come-from-behind victory in the semifinal against American No. 2 seed Jessica Pegula.

Also at the Stockton event, Ann Li, Robin Anderson and Whitney Osuigwe all reached the singles quarterfinals.

In the doubles event, Carter and Shibahara needed a third-set match tiebreak to knock off American Quinn Gleason and her Brazilian partner, Luisa Stefani, 7-5, 5-7, [10-7]. The final’s second stanza was the only set the unseeded champions dropped in four matches. 

At the men's event in Stockton, Noah Rubin and Chris Eubanks both reached the singles quarterfinals, while Rubin teamed with Darian King of Barbados to win the doubles title. The champions defeated the No. 1-seeded duo of Sanchai Ratiwatana and Christopher Rungkat, 6-3, 6-4, in the final.

Rounding out the Pro Circuit action, Ellie Halbauer scored the best singles result in Charleston by reaching the final, while Hailey Baptiste and Emma Navarro reached the semis. Nadja Gilchrist and Kennedy Shaffer were both quarterfinalists. Chang and Mueller won the doubles title by defeating the No. 4-seeded pair of Chieh-Yu Hsu and Gabriela Talaba, 6-4, 6-4, in the final.

Other notable results for Americans on the ITF Circuit include:

Men:

• Dusty Boyer was a semifinalist at the $25,000 ITF Futures event in Brisbane, Australia.
• William Bushamuka was a doubles finalist at the $25,000 ITF Futures event in Lagos, Nigeria.
• Ryan Shane was a singles semifinalist at the $25,000 ITF Futures event in Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal.
• Felix Corwin was a singles quarterfinalist at the $15,000 ITF Futures event in Hua Hin, Thailand.

Women:

• Haley Giavara was a singles quarterfinalist at the $15,000 Event in Herzlia, Israel, where Madeleine Kobelt was a doubles champion and Aimee Tarun reached the doubles final.