Pro Circuit Round-up: Wolf reaches Columbus final

With the conclusion of the 2019 US Open earlier this month, the USTA Pro Circuit is now the main attraction for professional tennis in the United States. Last week’s action featured four tournaments across three states, with a total of six Americans claiming titles.

Former Ohio State star JJ Wolf (pictured) had the biggest American result of the week, reaching the final of the ATP Challenger 90 event in Columbus, Ohio, as the No. 13 seed.

The 20-year-old knocked out top seed Emilio Gomez in the semis and No. 3 Michael Mmoh in the Round of 16, but ultimately fell to Canada's Peter Polansky in the final. The result takes him to a new career high of No. 248, just two months after he officially turned pro by signing on with Topnotch Management after his junior year with the Buckeyes.

The result is the second best of his professional career, only behind his Columbus Challenger victory in January.

There was more success for former collegians in the doubles competition, where Martin Redlicki (UCLA) and Jackson Withrow (Texas A&M) took the title, topping Nathan Pasha and Max Schnur, 6-4, 7-6, in an all-American final. Former UVA standout Thai-Son Kwiatkowski reached the singles quarterfinals at the event.

Current Florida Gators Oliver Crawford and Sam Riffice continued the trend by winning the ITF World Tennis Tour M25 event in Houston. In another all-U.S. final, they took down Austin Rapp and Preston Touliatos, 7-5, 3-6, [10-3]. Rapp was also a singles semifinalist at the event, along with Alexander Sarkissian, while Crawford and Lukas Greif reached the quarterfinals.

There was one American singles champion on the week: Jessica Livianu at the W15 event in Lubbock, Texas. The 21-year-old qualifier claimed her first career ITF title, topping Dalayna Hewitt, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, in the championship match. Each of her last three matches went the distance, and she won the first and last set in all three.

Dasha Ivanova and Lauren Proctor both reached the Lubbock semis, while Savannah Broadus and McCartney Kessler were quarterfinalists. Sofia Sewing was a doubles champion, and Ashlyn Krueger reached the doubles final.

Finally, at the M15 event in Fayetteville, Ark., Nick Chappell was a singles and doubles (with Reese Stalder) finalist, while Trent Bryde was a singles quarterfinalist.

Other notable American results on the ITF Circuit include:

Women:

• Asia Muhammad was a singles champion and a doubles finalist at the W25 event in Cairns, Australia.
• Maria Sanchez was a singles quarterfinalist and doubles finalist at the W25 event in Roehampton, Great Britain.
• Alex Pitt reached the singles quarterfinals at the W15 event in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• Holly Verner was a doubles finalist at the W15 event in Anning, China.

Men:

• Evan King and Hunter Reese teamed to reach the doubles final at the ATP Challenger 125 event in Kaohsiung, Taipei.
• Junior Ore won the doubles title at the M25 event in Madrid, Spain.
• Dusty Boyer reached the singles final at the M15 event in Nanchang, China.
• Adam El Mihdawy won the singles title at the M15 event in Cancun, where Tyler Mercier reached the quarterfinals.
  
• Dennis Uspenksy claimed the doubles title at the M15 event in Cairo, Egypt.

Wheelchair:

• Casey Ratzlaff was the men’s singles and doubles champion at the International Wheelchair Club Tennis Porto ITF Futures event in Portugal.
• Emmy Kaiser was a women’s singles semifinalist at the PTR Hilton Head $22,000 ITF 2 Series event at Hilton Head Island, S.C. Shelby Baron was a singles quarterfinalist at the event, and also reached the doubles final with Mackenzie Soldan.
• Bryan Barten reached the quad singles final at the South Carolina event, while Nick Taylor was a singles semifinalist and a doubles champion.