Tag: Mikael Torpegaard

Buckeyes go 0-4 in opening round of Columbus Challenger

Four current Ohio State Buckeyes competed at the Columbus Challenger professional tennis tournament this week.

The Columbus Challenger is taking place at the Ohio State University this week. As I’ve explained before, the Columbus Challenger series is an excellent opportunity, both for American tennis players in general, Ohio State’s tennis program, and tennis fans around Columbus.

Ohio State hosts multiple Challenger Tour events throughout the year. The Challenger Tour is the second-highest professional men’s tennis tour, right below the ATP World Tour. Challenger tournaments are usually filled by players ranked from 100-400 in the world. Ohio State uses the Challengers in Columbus to increase fan interest, to help with recruiting, and to give current (and former) Buckeyes the chance to compete against some of the best in the world.

Four current members of the Men’s Tennis team were given entry to the Challenger. Unfortunately for them, none managed to advance to the second round this time. However, all of them performed admirably against some of the top opponents–certainly a higher-caliber opponent than you’ll see in most college matchups.

John McNally, likely the most pro-ready Buckeye, took World No. 275 Roberto Quiroz to two tiebreaks. However, the Cincinnati couldn’t win either of them, so he lost 7-6 7-6. Freshman phenom Cannon Kingsley also took Lloyd Glasspool to a first-set tiebreak, but Kingsley lost the tiebreak and the second set as well. Redshirt freshman Andrew Lutschaunig was given a qualifying spot, and he had to take on World No. 208 Zhe Li. Lutschaunig was also able to force a first-set tiebreak, but he lost it and the second set as well. This morning, Justin Boulais fell to World No. 270 Guilherme Clezar in straight sets as well.

So while current Buckeyes might not have won a single set against their four opponents, they all played tough and impressed against top-caliber competition. They might not have earned any ranking points and I’m sure all would have loved to have advanced, but this is a great experience and they played really well.

Former Buckeyes J.J. Wolf and Mikael Torpegaard–each former champions of Columbus Challengers–received first-round byes and are still in the tournament. Wolf begins his tournament today (Tuesday) against World No. 273 James Ward, while Torpegaard begins tomorrow.

J.J. Wolf wins Noumea Challenger title

Former Buckeye J.J. Wolf won the third Challenger title of his career as he prepares for Australian Open qualifying.

Former Ohio State tennis standout J.J. Wolf captured his second straight Challenger Tour title this past week, winning the trophy in Noumea, New Caledonia. (New Caledonia is a French-administered territorial island not too far from Australia.) He easily defeated Top 100 player Yuichi Sugita in the final, 6-2 6-2. In fact, Wolf was dominant all week. The only set he dropped was a second-set tiebreaker to World No. 80 Roberto Carballes Baena.

Wolf is now on an 11-match winning streak, as he won the Champaign Challenger–on the campus of the University of Illinois back in November, before tennis’ off-season.

Wolf was the No. 1 NCAA player in the country for most of last season, and his transition to the professional circuit has been smoother than most college stars. The former Buckeye is not yet competing in top-level ATP Tour events, but he is consistently performing well and winning on the Challenger Tour, the sport’s second-highest professional circuit. Wolf now has won three Challenger Tour titles, including one at Ohio State in Columbus last year.

Last week also witnessed a Challenger tournament in Ann Arbor, where many former and current NCAA players competed. Like the Columbus Challengers, that tournament is one of a growing number of Challenger tournaments hosted by college tennis programs. Instead of staying near home to compete there (against a much weaker field), Wolf chose to play in New Caledonia because he will be competing in qualifying for the Australian Open this week.

With a career-high ranking of World No. 181, Wolf begins his qualifying campaign on Wednesday. He has to win matches on three consecutive days to reach the main draw. He will be joined in qualifying by former Buckeyes Blaz Rola and Mikael Torpegaard, who are also ranked inside the Top 200.

On the women’s side, former Buckeye Francesca Di Lorenzo is ranked No. 121 in the world and is seeded 14th in the qualifying draw. She begins her qualifying campaign on Tuesday against Julia Grabher.