Altamirano adds NCAA team title to resume

Sacramento's Collin Altamirano, the 2013 USTA 18-and-
under champion, helped No. 3 Virginia topple No. 1 Okla-
homa 4-1 for the NCAA title. 2014 photo by Paul Bauman

   Collin Altamirano is building quite an amateur resume.
   The 19-year-old Sacramentan today added an NCAA team title to his 2013 USTA 18-and-under national championship. He also reached last year's USTA 18-and-under final, losing to Wimbledon junior boys champion Noah Rubin.
   Altamirano, a freshman, won both of his matches as third-ranked Virginia toppled No. 1 Oklahoma 4-1 in Waco, Texas, for its second NCAA team crown in three years.
   "I couldn't be more proud of the players," Virginia coach Brian Boland said on virginiasports.com. "They have bought in to being a true team, and the culture was tremendous. It has been a great journey with this group, and I am so glad we could end this season with a championship. There is nothing more special for me than to see a group of young men work hard, come together and do things the right way, and then celebrate in the end." 
   The No. 4 Vanderbilt women (25-6) beat No. 6 UCLA (23-5), the defending champion, 4-2 for their first title.
   The Virginia men had lost to Oklahoma 4-3 on March 10 in Norman, Okla. Also, the Cavaliers had been 0-2 this season against tournament host Baylor before defeating the No. 2 Bears 4-2 on Monday.
   Virginia (29-3) became the sixth program in the 70-year history of the NCAA Men's Tennis Championships to win multiple titles. The Cavaliers joined USC (21), Stanford (17), UCLA (16), Georgia (six) and William and Mary (two).
   Oklahoma (29-3), seeking its first NCAA title, lost in the final for the second consecutive year under coach John Roddick. His younger brother, former world No. 1 Andy Roddick, attended the match.
   Altamirano and J.C. Aragone clinched the doubles point for Virginia with an 8-5 victory over Axel Alvarez and Jose Salazar 8-5 on Court 3. Altamirano, ranked 77th in singles, later gave the Cavaliers a 2-1 lead by dismissing No. 44 Dane Webb 6-3, 6-3 at the third position.
   No. 20 Mitchell Frank clinched the title for Virginia with a 7-5, 7-5 victory over No. 7 Andrew Harris on Court 2. Harris won the 2012 Wimbledon and French Open junior boys doubles titles with fellow Australian Nick Kyrgios, now ranked 30th in the world at age 20.
   Frank, a senior from Annadale, Va., also clinched the Cavaliers' 2013 crown but under much more stress. He saved a championship point in a 0-6, 7-5, 6-4 win over UCLA's Adrien Puget at the third spot.
   "I said it last time we won a national championship: If there was one player we could have on the court to clinch a match, it would be Mitchell Frank," Boland said. "They guy is a warrior. He loves the game and is incredibly unselfish. To his credit, he really put the team above himself this year." 
   Frank was named the NCAA Men's Championship Most Outstanding Player, and Altamirano made the All-Tournament team at No. 3 singles and No. 3 doubles.
   Altamirano did not earn a berth in the NCAA 64-player singles or 32-team doubles tournament. Singles play will begin on Wednesday and doubles on Thursday.
   UCLA's Mackenzie McDonald, a sophomore from Piedmont, is seeded third in men's singles. He will open against Lloyd Glasspool of Texas.
   Cal's Andre Goransson will face fifth-seeded Sebastian Stiefelmeyer of Louisville, and Stanford's Tom Fawcett will meet the seventh-seeded Rubin of Wake Forest.
   Stanford's John Morrissey and Robert Stineman are seeded 5-8 in doubles, and UCLA's McDonald and Martin Redlicki are unseeded.
   Among the women's singles seeds are No. 2 Carol Zhao of Stanford, No. 4 Maegan Manasse of Cal and No. 9-16 Giuliana Olmos of USC and Fremont.
   The field also includes Stanford's Taylor Davidson and Caroline Doyle; Cal's Klara Fabikova, Zsofi Susanyi and Denise Starr; and Fresno State's Sophie Watts.
   Davidson and Zhao are seeded second in doubles, and Manasse-Starr and Fabikova-Susanyi are each seeded 5-8. Doyle-Ellen Tsay and Olmos-Zoe Scandalis are unseeded.  

No. 3 Virginia 4, No. 1 Oklahoma 1

Doubles

   1. No. 2 Luca Corinteli and Ryan Shane (Virginia) def. No. 57 Andrew Harris and Alex Ghilea 8-4.
   2. No. 42 Mac Styslinger and Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Virginia) def. Dane Webb and Spencer Papa 8-5.
   3. Collin Altamirano and J.C. Aragone (Virginia) def. Axel Alvarez and Jose Salazar 8-5.
   Order of finish: 1,3,2

Singles

   1. No. 8 Ryan Shane (Virginia) vs. No. 1 Axel Alvarez 4-6, 5-5, DNF.
   2. No. 20 Mitchell Frank (Virginia) def. No. 7 Andrew Harris 7-5, 7-5.
   3. No. 77 Collin Altamirano (Virginia) def. No. 44 Dane Webb 6-3, 6-3.
   4. No. 19 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Virginia) def. No. 103 Alex Ghilea 6-3, 6-4.
   5. Spencer Papa (Oklahoma) def. Alexander Ritschard 6-3, 6-2.
   6. J.C. Aragone (Virginia) vs. Florin Bragusi 6-7 (5), 4-6, 1-0, DNF.
   Order of finish: 5,3,4,2

Altamirano wins, but Virginia falls at Indoors

   Here's how loaded the University of Virginia men are: Top-ranked Thai-Son Kwiatkowski played No. 3 singles against Baylor on Saturday. And Collin Altamirano, a freshman from Sacramento who won the USTA 18 national title in 2013 and reached last year's final, played No. 4.
   Still, the third-ranked Cavaliers lost to No. 11 Baylor 4-3 in the quarterfinals of the ITA National Team Indoor Championship in Chicago. The Bears will take on No. 2 Oklahoma today, and No. 1 USC will meet No. 4 Georgia in the other semifinal.
   Virginia (6-1) will face No. 7 North Carolina in a consolation match. No. 13 Cal (6-2), which lost to No. 15 Columbia 4-3 in a consolation quarterfinal, will play No. 22 Penn State.
   Altamirano overwhelmed Diego Galeano 6-1, 6-2 but lost at No. 3 doubles with Mitchell Frank, 6-3. Kwiatkowski fell to No. 27 Tony Lupieri 6-4, 7-6 (10).
   Mate Zsiga gave Baylor the victory by defeating Alexander Ritschard 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 at No. 5.
   No. 10 Julian Lenz of Baylor humbled Frank, unranked only because he has been playing in professional instead of college tournaments, 6-2, 6-0 at No. 1. 
   Frank won two Futures tournaments last summer, beating former world No. 1 junior Yuki Bhambri for the title in Edwardsville, Ill. Bhambri was ranked No. 152 among the world's men at the time.
   In 2013, Frank clinched Virginia's only NCAA team title in men's tennis with a 0-6, 7-5, 6-4 win over UCLA's Adrien Puget at No. 3, saving a championship point. 

No. 11 Baylor 4, No. 3 Virginia 3

Doubles

   1. No. 37 Luca Corinteli and Ryan Shane (Virginia) vs. No. 40 Mate Zsiga and Tony Lupieri, 6-6, did not finish.
   2. Julian Lenz and Diego Galeano (Baylor) def. No. 41 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski and Mac Styslinger, 7-6 (2). 
   3. Vince Schneider and Felipe Rios (Baylor) def. Collin Altamirano and Mitchell Frank, 6-3.
   Order of finish: 3, 2*.
   *Clinched the doubles point.

Singles

   1. No. 10 Julian Lenz (Baylor) def. Mitchell Frank, 6-2, 6-0.
   2. No. 4 Ryan Shane (Virginia) def. No. 67 Max Tchoutakian, 4-6, 6-1, 6-1.
   3. No. 27 Tony Lupieri (Baylor) def. No. 1 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, 6-4, 7-6 (10).
   4. Collin Altamirano (Virginia) def. Diego Galeano, 6-1, 6-2.
   5. Mate Zsiga (Baylor) def. Alexander Ritschard, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
   6. J.C. Aragone (Virginia) def. Vince Schneider, 6-3, 6-4.
   Order of finish: 1, 4, 6, 2, 3, 5**.
   **Clinched the overall match.

Altamirano to face seed in Sacramento Challenger

Fifth-seeded Denis Kudla, playing in last year's Sacra-
mento Challenger, will meet 18-year-old hometown
favorite Collin Altamirano. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Fifth-seeded Denis Kudla of Boca Raton, Fla., will meet Collin Altamirano, an 18-year-old wild card playing in his hometown, on Monday in the first round of the $100,000 Sacramento Pro Circuit Challenger.
   The match is scheduled to begin not before 4:30 p.m. at the Natomas Racquet Club.
   Kudla, 22, will be playing his second match since July after being diagnosed with mononucleosis. Seeded seventh in this week's $50,000 Napa Challenger, he lost to countryman Alex Kuznetsov 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 in the first round.
   Both Kudla and Kuznetsov were born in Kiev, Ukraine, and moved to the United States at a young age. Kuznetsov, however, is five years older.
   Kudla was seeded first in last year's Sacramento Challenger but lost in the first round to Daniel Cox of Great Britain 7-5, 6-0.
   Altamirano won last year's USTA Boys 18 National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich., and was the runner-up there this year to Noah Rubin, the reigning Wimbledon boys champion.
   Also on Monday, Ryan Harrison will face teenage sensation Stefan Kozlov in a matchup of top American hopes.
   Kozlov, a 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) right-hander who's named after International Tennis Hall of Famer Stefan Edberg, is ranked No. 762 in the world. But Jim Courier, the U.S. Davis Cup captain and a Tennis Channel commentator, asserted during the recent U.S. Open that Kozlov "will be in the top 50 by the time he's 20."
   Harrison did exactly that two years ago at 20, ascending to a career-high No. 43. However, the intense, volatile Boca Raton resident has plunged to No. 183.
   Meanwhile, 31-year-old Robby Ginepri, the only active American man to reach a Grand Slam singles semifinal, will play James McGee of Ireland not before 3:30 p.m. Ginepri lost to Andre Agassi in five sets in the 2005 U.S. Open semis. 
   In the second round of Sacramento qualifying on Sunday, Mitchell Frank of Annandale, Va., ousted top-seeded Matt Reid of Australia 6-2, 6-3.  Reid gained direct entry in last year's Sacramento Challenger and advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to eventual champion Donald Young.
   The 57th-ranked Young is playing in Tokyo on the elite ATP World Tour next week.
   Frank clinched Virginia's first NCAA team title with a 0-6, 7-5, 6-4 win over UCLA's Adrien Puget at No. 3 singles in last year's final, saving a championship point in the process.     
   Now a senior at Virginia, Frank will meet fifth-seeded Dimitar Kutrovsky of Bulgaria today at 11 a.m. for a berth in the main draw.
   Admission to the Sacramento Challenger is $5 daily through Thursday, $10 for Friday's quarterfinals and $15 daily for Saturday's semifinals and the Oct. 5 finals.

$100,000 SACRAMENTO PRO CIRCUIT CHALLENGER

At Natomas Racquet Club

Second-round singles qualifying

   Liam Broady (3), Great Britain, def. Lovedeep Singh, Sacramento, 6-1, 6-0.
   Alexander Ritschard, Switzerland, def. Spencer Papa, United States, 6-2, 6-4.
   Thomas Fabbiano (2), Italy, def. Philip Bester, Canada, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (6).
   Eric Quigley, United States, def. Dennis Novikov, San Jose, 7-6 (6), 6-4.
   Nils Langer (4), Germany, def. Sekou Bangoura, United States, 7-6 (1), 6-3.
   Mitchell Frank, United States, def. Matt Reid (1), Australia, 6-2, 6-3.
   Marcos Giron (8), United States, def. Alexios Halebian, United States, 6-4, 7-6 (3).
   Dimitar Kutrovsky (5), Bulgaria, def. Lucas Gomez, Mexico, 6-1, 6-2.

First-round doubles qualifying 

   Sebastian Bader, Austria, and Erik Elliott (2), United States, def. Nils Langer, Germany, and Louk Sorensen, Ireland, walkover.

Today's schedule

Court 1

(Starting at 11 a.m.)

   Mitchell Frank, United States, vs. Dimitar Kutrovsky (5) (final-round qualifying).
   Ryan Harrison, United States, vs. Stefan Kozlov, United States (not before 1 p.m.).
   Alex Kuznetsov and Vahid Mirzadeh, United States, vs. Alexios Halebian and Dennis Novikov, United States.
   Denis Kudla (5), United States, vs. Collin Altamirano, Sacramento (not before 4:30 p.m.).

 Court 7

(Starting at 10 a.m.)

   Thomas Fabbiano (2), Italy, vs. Eric Quigley, United States (final-round qualifying).
   Rhyne Williams, United States, vs. Louk Sorensen, Ireland (not before 11:30 a.m.).
   Thomas Fabbiano and Luca Vanni, Italy, vs. Thiemo de Bakker and Wesley Koolhof, Netherlands.
   Robby Ginepri, United States, vs. James McGee, Ireland (not before 3:30 p.m.).

Court 6

(Starting at 10 a.m.)

   Nils Langer (4), Germany, vs. Marcos Giron (8), United States (final-round qualifying).
   Liam Broady, Great Britain, vs. Alexander Ritschard, Switzerland (final-round qualifying).
   Sekou Bangoura and Tennys Sandgren, United States, vs. Adam Hubble and John-Patrick Smith, Australia.
   Liam Broady, Great Britain, and Jordan Thompson, Australia, vs. Sebastian Bader, Austria, and Erik Elliott, United States (final-round qualifying).

Piedmont's McDonald stars in upset-filled NCAAs

UCLA freshman Mackenzie McDonald, shown in the
2012 Australian Open junior boys tournament, upset
fourth-seeded Mitchell Frank of Virginia in the first
round of singles at the NCAA Championships in
Athens, Ga. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Seven of the top eight men's seeds, including No. 1 Clay Thompson of UCLA, exited today in the first round of singles at the NCAA Championships.
   Pulling off two of the upsets in Athens, Ga., were Mackenzie McDonald of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area and Ben McLachlan of Cal.
   Two Oklahoma players, No. 5 Guillermo Alcorta and No. 7 Axel Alvarez Llamas, withdrew from the singles tournament after the Sooners lost to USC 4-2 in Tuesday's team final. The reasons were not immediately available.
   Stanford's Krista Hardebeck, meanwhile, recorded the biggest upset in the first round of women's singles with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over fourth-seeded Julia Elbaba of Virginia.   
   McDonald, a UCLA freshman ranked 35th, knocked off fourth-seeded Mitchell Frank, a junior at Virginia, 6-2, 7-5.
   Frank gave the Cavaliers their first NCAA team title in tennis last year with a 0-6, 7-5, 6-4 win over UCLA's Adrien Puget at No. 3 singles, saving a championship point in the process.
   "I was pretty excited to play Mitchell again because I lost to him at the beginning of the year," McDonald told reporters. "It's the end of the year, and I thought it would be a great match to see improvements and kind of see where I am. I'm really happy I pulled it out because it shows me that I've improved and done better since the start of the year."
   McLachlan, a senior from New Zealand, held off No. 8 Jared Hiltzik of Illinois 7-5, 4-6, 6-3. 
  Thompson, a 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) senior from Venice Beach, lost to 47th-ranked Roberto Cid of South Florida 6-3, 6-3.
   Also falling were No. 3 Julian Lenz of Baylor and No. 6 Alex Domijan of Virginia.
   No. 2 Marcos Giron of UCLA avoided the upset trend, overwhelming 27th-ranked Hunter Reece of Tennessee 6-1, 6-1.

Stanford's Krista Hardebeck overcame her troubles
this season to oust No. 4 seed Julia Elbaba of Virginia
in the first round of singles at the NCAA Champion-
ships. Tri Nguyen/TriNguyenPhotography.com

  Hardebeck, the nation's top recruit coming out of high school in Santa Ana in 2012, rebounded from three consecutive straight-set losses in singles in the women's team tournament. No. 11 seed and defending champion Stanford fell to No. 7 North Carolina 4-3 in the semifinals.
   "I haven't really had the best season, and my team, unfortunately, lost in the semis, so I just came out here and tried to give it all and just swing away," said Hardebeck, who improved to 17-13 in singles this season. "At this point, I don't really have anything to lose. I was really happy that everything was going well and that it worked out in my favor."
   Hardebeck's teammate, third-ranked Kristie Ahn, bounced back from a 6-7 (4), 6-0, 6-0 loss to No. 1 Jamie Loeb in the deciding match against North Carolina. Ahn, a senior from Upper Saddle River, N.J., pounded Stephanie Nauta of Virginia 6-3, 6-0.
   Two Cal women eliminated 9-16 seeds. Zsofi Susanyi, a junior from Hungary and NCAA semifinalist as a freshman, defeated Cristina Stancu of Texas A&M 6-0, 6-4. Lynn Chi, a sophomore from Weston, Fla., outlasted Emina Bektas of Michigan 2-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1. 
   Also advancing were Stanford freshmen Carol Zhao, Taylor Davidson and Caroline Doyle; Cal's Anette Schutting; Saint Mary's Jenny Jullien, seeded 9-16; and USC's Giuliana Olmos, from Fremont in the San Francisco Bay Area.
   Falling were Ellen Tsay of Stanford, Denise Starr of Cal and Katie Le of Santa Clara.
   The men's and women's doubles tournaments begin on Thursday. All singles and doubles finals are scheduled for Monday.
   Collegiate Hall of Fame -- Matt Anger, who was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and former Stanford star Alex Kim are being inducted in the Men's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame today with five others in Athens.
   Anger was a three-time All-American at USC, helping the Trojans finish third in the 1983 NCAA Championships. Before his collegiate career, he won the Wimbledon junior boys singles title in 1981 and was ranked as the No. 1 junior in the world by Tennis Magazine. 
   Anger played on the ATP tour for eight years, climbing to a career high of No. 23 in singles and reaching the round of 16 in singles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 1986.
   The 50-year-old Anger is in his 20th season as the men's head coach at Washington.
   Kim was a two-time All-American, won the 2000 NCAA singles title as a junior and played on two national championship teams (1998 and 2000).
   Joining Anger and Kim in the Hall of Fame are coaches Billy Chadwick (Mississippi), Timon Corwin (Kalamazoo) and James Wadley (Oklahoma State), player Juan Farrow (Southern Illinois-Edwardsville) and contributor Doug Conant (Northwestern).

College, junior stars to meet in Napa qualifying

   Mitchell Frank will face Thanasi Kokkinakis on Saturday in a matchup of top young players in the first round of qualifying for the inaugural $50,000 Napa Valley Challenger at the Napa Valley Country Club.
   The match will follow the 10 a.m. encounter between wild cards Robert Stineman of Stanford and Matt Seeberger, a former UC Santa Cruz star, on the Stadium Court.
   Frank gave the University of Virginia its first NCAA team title in tennis last May. Now a junior, the Annandale, Va., resident saved a championship point in a 0-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory over Adrien Puget of UCLA at No. 3 singles.
   Kokkinakis, 17, of Australia this year reached the boys singles final in the Australian Open and U.S. Open and won the boys doubles title at Wimbledon with countryman Nick Kyrgios.
   Frank's teammate, sophomore Mac Styslinger, will play in the next match on the Stadium Court. Styslinger, who won the NCAA doubles title with Jarmere Jenkins, will play wild card Philip Holbrook of Napa.
   At 10 a.m. on Court 7, Stanford teammates Jamin Ball and Anthony Tsodikov will meet. Both are wild cards.
   Seeberger won a record eight NCAA Division III titles (two team, three singles and three doubles) at UC Santa Cruz.
   Here are links to the qualifying draw and Saturday's schedule:
   http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/qualifying_draw285.PDF
   http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/schedule288.PDF