The M15 title Jack Kennedy won in Boca Raton early this month was just the start of his success the past three weeks, with a semifinal last week at the Tallahassee Challenger 75 and now an appearance in the final of the Challenger 75 in Savannah Georgia tomorrow.
The 17-year-old from New York, who has committed to Virginia for this fall, defeated qualifier Kilian Feldbausch of Switzerland 7-6(2), 6-3 this afternoon to become the first player born in 2008 to reach a Challenger final. As has been the case all week, Kennedy has been the steadier player when it mattered, and he did not let the disappointment of failing to serve out the first set affect his performance in the tiebreaker, where he took the final six points.
In the second set, Kennedy rebounded from giving back his break serving at 4-2, but he immediately broke Feldbaush to get an opportunity to serve for the match. Kennedy fell behind 15-40, but stayed solid and continued to use his drop shot and capitalized on the 20-year-old Feldbausch’s errors.
Kennedy will face No. 2 seed Nishesh Basavareddy, a former Stanford All-American, who defeated Daniel Galan of Colombia 7-5, 6-4 in this evening’s semifinal. Basavareddy, who turns 21 next month, will be playing in his first Challenger final since November of 2024. The winner will gain 75 points in the USTA’s Roland Garros wild card Challenge, but that isn’t enough for either to move past Emilio Nava, who has added 80 points this week in Madrid. Next week is the final week of the race.
The doubles title in Savannah was won by top seeds Cleve Harper(Texas) of Canada and David Stevenson(Memphis) of Great Britain, who defeated unseeded Luis Martinez of Venezuela and Cristian Rodriguez of Colombia 7-6(4), 6-2 in today’s final.
| Keaton Hance, Jordan Lee, Izyan Ahmad, Tomas Laukys |
Hance earned his first USTA Pro Circuit doubles title today after his semifinal victory in singles. Partnering with 15-year-old Jordan Lee, the unseeded pair defeated wild cards Izyan Ahmad and Tomas Laukys, both 15, 6-3, 6-3 in the final. All four teams in the semifinals of the M15 in Orlando consisted of American juniors.
The doubles title went to Oklahoma State sophomore Rose Marie Nijkamp of the Netherlands and Anita Sahdiieva(Baylor, LSU) of Ukraine. The No. 2 seeds defeated the unseeded team of Midori Castillo Meza of Mexico and Brandelyn Fulgenzi(Incarnate Word, Arizona) 6-7(4), 6-4, 10-6 in today’s final.
Vedder lost in today’s double final with Venezuelan partner Sofia Cabezas(Iowa State, Tennessee), with the top seeds beaten by the fourth-seeded Brazilian team of Luiza Fullana and Thaisa Pedretti 6-4, 6-2.
In the doubles final, No. 4 seeds Alicia Herrero Linana(Baylor) of Spain and Anna Rogers(NC State) won their second title as a pair, beating unseeded Eryn Cayetano(USC) and Allura Zamarippa(Texas) 6-1, 6-3 for the title. It’s the biggest title of the 28-year-old Rogers’ career and she is now at a career-high of 133 in the WTA live doubles rankings; Herrero Linana, 27, has been Top 100 in the WTA doubles rankings and will return there with this title.