Former junior world No. 5 Nava seals maiden pro title
Former junior world No. 5 Emilio Nava won his first professional singles title on the ITF World Tennis Tour after overcoming home hope Nikolas Sanchez Izquierdo in the final on Spanish soil at M15 La Nucia.
The 19-year-old American, who finished runner-up in the boys’ singles at the 2019 US Open, secured the milestone triumph following a 7-6(8) 7-5 victory - his eighth in a row having also come through three rounds of qualifying at the event.
There were also title wins for three other 19-year-old players who had progressed from juniors at a similar time to Nava, with fellow American Zane Khan securing a second title in as many weeks and Brazilian Matheus Pucinelli De Almeida and Austrian Filip Misolic grabbing their maiden ITF singles crowns.
Khan continued his perfect March on Indian soil after defeating Great Britain’s Aidan McHugh 6-7(8) 7-6(6) 7-6(4) at M15 Indore. The former junior world No. 16 had won his first ITF singles title the previous week at M15 Lucknow, and followed that win by denying McHugh a fourth ITF crown following a tense final.
De Almeida - also a youngster with great potential having reached as high as No. 20 in the boys’ rankings - overcame Serbia’s Miljan Zekic 6-4 6-4 in the final at M15 Antalya.
Misolic, who won three titles at junior level, translated those successes to the professional realm by collecting his first professional silverware at M15 Porec.
Meanwhile, Kaichi Uchida and Gijs Brouwer won the two marquee events on the ITF World Tennis Tour over the weekend at M25 Vale do Lobo and M25 Trimbach.
The M25 events were two of 10 men’s tournaments that took place on the tour last week as competitive playing opportunities continue to steadily increase.
Uchida won his first $25,000-level tournament since 2017 after beating German Sebastian Fanselow 5-7 7-6(3) 7-6(5) in Portugal. It was the seventh ITF singles crown of his career, and first since he won at M15 Monastir at the turn of the year.
Twenty-six-year-old Uchida was one of three Japanese winners on the Tour over the weekend, joining his compatriots Naoki Nakagawa, who won his first title in over seven years at M15 Monastir, and Yuriko Lily Miyazaki, who won the women's title at W15 Sharm El Sheikh.
Dutchman Brouwer, meanwhile, overcame Germany’s Elmar Ejupovic 7-5 6-0 to win his fifth ITF title at M25 Trimbach in Switzerland.
There were also wins for Turkey’s Yanki Erel who won his maiden pro singles title at M15 Kazan, Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan, who won at M15 Bratislava and Yu Hsiou Hsu, a winner at M15 Sharm El Sheikh.