Newly crowned NCAA singles champion Reese Brantmeier won’t have much time to celebrate her victory in yesterday’s final, with the North Carolina senior leading the USA team in next month’s 18th annual Master’U BNP Paribas university championships in France.
Today, the ITA announced the team that will be representing the United States in the eight-team competition which will take place December 5-7 in Reims France. The other seven teams, who will be trying to end the United States’ five-year winning streak, are Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland and Switzerland.
The US team will consist of Samir Banerjee of Stanford, Aidan Kim of Ohio State, Nicolas Kotzen of Columbia, Luciana Perry of Ohio State, Valerie Glozman of Stanford and Brantmeier.
The United States won its fifth straight Master’U BNP Paribas international collegiate team competition last year, beating Great Britain 4-1. Gavin Young(Michigan), Sebastian Gorzny(Texas), Michael Zheng(Columbia), Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M), Amelia Honer(UC-Santa Barbara) and Savannah Broadus(Pepperdine) defeated Germany 4-1 in the quarterfinals, and France 4-1 in the semifinals in the three-day event in Riems France.
Unfortunately, Andres Santamarta Roig of Spain, the defending champion in both tournaments, has withdrawn, while Ksenia Efremova of France and the Czech Republic’s Kovackova sisters have also withdrawn from both events. This leaves the Orange Bowl, one of the most prestigious tournaments in junior tennis, without a Top 10 player in the girls draw, and just two Top 10 boys: Yannick Alexandrescou of Romania and Jack Kennedy of the United States.
Another San Diego resident, 16-year-old Yilin Chen, won the girls title, with the No. 4 seed defeating No. 6 seed and defending champion Amira Kockinis 6-1, 6-3 in the final. Chen also won the January J60 in San Diego, which was her first ITF Junior Circuit title.
Kockinis, 15, won the doubles title, with Mexico’s Montserrat Temprana Falco. The top seeds defeated unseeded Sydney Barnhart and Ariana Morris 3-6, 6-1, 11-9 in the final. No. 2 seeds Jerry Han of Canada and Sean Peng won the boys doubles title, beating unseeded Adrien Abarca and Darren Wei 4-6, 7-6(3), 10-7 in the final.
