Thirty-three Americans in Wimbledon Draws; Roehampton J1 Qualifying Underway; USTA Wild Card Challenge Set for July; Collegians Advance to Semifinals at USTA Pro Circuit Tournaments

The Wimbledon draws were released this morning, with the United States leading all nations with 33 participants: 15 men and 18 women. Six US men are seeded, the most in the 32-seed era (2001), and seven US women are seeded, the most since 8 were seeded in 2004.

Here are the Americans competing; I'll post the matchups for Monday's first round in my Sunday post. The women's draw is here; the men's draw is here.

Reilly Opelka[15]
John Isner[20]
Christian Harrison[Q]
Frances Tiafoe[23]
Steve Johnson
Tommy Paul[30]
Jenson Brooksby[29]
Brandon Nakashima
Maxime Cressy
Jack Sock[Q]
Marcos Giron
Taylor Fritz[11]
Mackenzie McDonald
Denis Kudla
Sam Querrey

Claire Liu

Catherine Harrison[Q]

Sloane Stephens

Emina Bektas[Q]

Shelby Rogers[30]

Jessica Pegula[8]

Louisa Chirico[Q]

Coco Gauff[11]

Madison Brengle

Lauren Davis

Amanda Anisimova[20]

Christina McHale[Q]

Serena Williams[WC]

Danielle Collins[7]

Ann Li

Allison Riske[28]

Madison Keys[19]

Bernarda Pera

The doubles draws were also released today, with Rajeev Ram(USA) and Joe Salisbury(GBR) No. 1 in the men's draw and Elise Mertens(BEL) and Shuai Zhang(CHN) the top seeds in the women's draw.

Qualifying at the ITF Grade 1 in Roehampton began today, with the main draw beginning on Sunday. Four Americans have advanced to Saturday's final round of qualifying: Jelani Sarr, Jonah Braswell, Kaitlin Quevedo and Theodora Rabman.  Aidan Kim was initially in qualifying, but he is playing the J1 in Nottingham and is into the boys doubles final, with Nicholas Godsick, and either moved into the main draw or got a special exemption, as he's not able to play qualifying. 

No. 2 seed Qavia Lopez, the last American remaining in the Nottingham singles, lost to unseeded Ela Nala Milic of Slovenia 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-1 in today's semifinals. Milic will play No. 3 seed Taylah Preston of Australia in the final. The boys final features No. 4 seed Bor Artnak of Slovenia and No. 5 seed Martin Landaluce of Spain. Top seed and Roland Garros boys champion Gabriel Debru of France lost to unseeded William Jansen of Great Britain in the quarterfinals. 

The USTA today announced the return of its US Open Wild Card Challenge, which was not held in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. As with the recent Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge, the points accumulated at any hard court event at the $25K level and above will be counted, with the best three results comprising a player's total. The men's race begins July 11 and runs for five weeks; the women's race begins July 18 and runs for four weeks. 

College players have fanned out across the country this month after the NCAA tournament and they've had a lot of success on the USTA Pro Circuit the past three weeks.  That has continued this week, with two wild cards reaching the semifinals of the $25,000 men's tournament in Tulsa.  It comes as a surprise to me that USC rising senior Stefan Dostanic didn't have an ATP point until this week, but the 20-year-old Southern Californian hasn't played all that many USTA Pro Circuit events and was usually in qualifying when he did. This week in Tulsa, he has defeated Donald Young, No. 4 seed Yunseong Chung of Korea, both by retirements, and today got a 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over No. 6 seed Omni Kumar(Duke). He will face No. 5 seed Sho Shimabukuro of Japan in the semifinals.

Wild card Andres Martin, a rising junior at Georgia Tech, defeated qualifier Murphy Cassone(Arizona State) 6-0, 6-2 and will play No. 3 seed Govind Nanda(UCLA) in the semifinals. Martin, also 20, reached the final of the $25K in East Lansing two weeks ago as a qualifier, and he is 7-1 on the Pro Circuit since losing to Stanford's Arthur Fery in the second round of the NCAA singles competition last month. Martin had not played a Pro Circuit event until East Lansing.

JJ Tracy, the rising junior at Ohio State, is into the semifinals at the $15,000 tournament in South Bend after defeating No. 8 seed Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M) 3-6, 6-2, 6-1. It's the third three-set victory for Tracy this week. He will play No. 5 seed Sekou Bangoura(Florida), while in the bottom half, 2015 NCAA champion Ryan Shane(Virginia) will face Tennessee rising junior Johannes Monday of Great Britain.

The only collegian still competing at the women's $25,000 tournament in Wichita is former North Carolina State star Adriana Reami. The unseeded 24-year-old, who has yet to drop a set, beat No. 2 seed Ana Sofia Sanchez of Mexico in the second round and defeated No. 5 seed Ashlyn Krueger, the 2021 USTA National 18s champion, 6-2, 6-2 today. Reami will play No. 4 seed Elli Mandlik, who beat No. 7 seed and 2022 NCAA singles champion Peyton Stearns(Texas) 6-4, 6-1. In the top half, No. 1 seed Kayla Day will play unseeded Samantha Crawford, a meeting between two former US Open girls champions, with Day winning in 2016 and Crawford in 2012.

At the $15,000 women's tournament in Colorado Springs, Texas A&M rising sophomore Gianna Pielet defeated top seed Connie Hsu(Penn) of Taiwan 6-3, 6-1 to advance to the semifinals of a USTA Pro Circuit event for the first time. Pielet will play No. 3 seed Katarina Kozarov(Furman) of Serbia, who beat No. 5 seed Ivana Corley(Oklahoma) 6-0, 6-3. In the bottom half, Virginia rising junior Hibah Shaikh continued her run, beating No. 8 seed Paris Corley(LSU) 1-6, 6-3, 6-4. The 19-year-old, who earned her first WTA points this week, will face wild card Veronika Miroshnichenko(Loyola Marymount) for a place in the final. 

Six Americans Qualify for Wimbledon Main Draw; USTA Announces Summer Collegiate Team; Martin, Tracy Oust Top Seeds in Men's Pro Circuit Events; Shaikh and Reami Upset No. 2 Seeds in Women's Pro Circuit Tournaments

Catherine Harrison in action at
WTA 125 Dow Classic in Midland in 2021

Catherine Harrison had never gotten into qualifying at a slam until this week, when she moved from her position as alternate into the women's qualifying after several withdrawals. The 28-year-old from Tennessee, who was accepted into the Wimbledon doubles draw, traveled to Great Britain last week and competed in singles and doubles at the WTA 250 tournament in Birmingham. This week she played on the Roehampton courts for the first time since 2012, when she qualified for the Junior Championships on those same courts.

The former UCLA standout did not drop a set in her three qualifying wins, and today she beat a seed for the second consecutive day. Up 6-1, 5-2 and serving for the match against No. 15 Yue Yuan of China, Harrison had a match point, but lost the next four games. She held to force a tiebreaker and recovered for a 6-1, 7-6(3) victory over a player more than 100 places ahead of her in the WTA rankings. Harrison will not earn any points for this run, so her ranking will not improve, but the $50,000 British pounds she earns for reaching the main draw will help ease that pain. When I spoke with Harrison last fall for this Tennis Recruiting Network article, she discussed how difficult it is to fund the travel necessary to move up into the top echelons of the game.

For more on Harrison's win, see this article from Wimbledon.com. The tournament does a fantastic job covering the qualifying, and you can see interviews with or articles about nearly all the qualifiers here.

In addition to Harrison, the other American women who advanced to the main draw are Emina Bektas(Michigan), Christina McHale and Louisa Chirico. The men's qualifiers are Jack Sock and Christian Harrison. Today's results are below. The draw will be held at 10 am local time in London Friday.

Final round qualifying results for Americans:

Jack Sock[14] d. Hugo Grenier[21](FRA) 7-5, 7-5, 6-4

Christian Harrison d. Daniel Masur(GER) 4-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1

Dennis Novak[23](AUT) d. Stefan Kozlov[3] 7-5, 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 6-3
Maximillian Marterer(GER) d. Nicolas Moreno de Alboran 7-6(2), 7-6(11), 6-3

Louisa Chirico d. Kathinka Von Deichmann(LIE) 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-1

Christina McHale d. Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove[14](NED) 7-6(3), 7-5

Catherine Harrison d. Yue Yuan[15](CHN) 6-1, 7-6(3)

Emina Bektas d. Fiona Ferro[16](FRA) 6-4, 6-4

Maja Chwalinska(POL) d. Coco Vandeweghe[2] 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 

Nastasja Schunk[21](GER) d. Danielle Lao 6-1, 6-3

In addtion to Harrison and Bektas, former collegians qualifying are Virginia's Alexander Ritschard(Switzerland) and former Vanderbilt stars Fernanda Contreras(Mexico) and Astra Sharma(Australia).

The USTA officially announced the Summer Collegiate teams, with the full release below:

ORLANDO, Fla., June 23, 2022 – The USTA today announced the 10 top American college players named to the 2022 USTA Collegiate Summer Team, the training program designed to help America’s premier college players assimilate to professional tennis in a team-oriented environment via USTA Player & Coach Development:

 

2022 USTA Collegiate Summer Team

 

Men

Murphy Cassone (Fr., Arizona State; Overland Park, Kan.)

Stefan Dostanic (Jr., USC; Irvine, Calif.)

Cannon Kingsley (Jr., Ohio State; Northport, N.Y.)

Sam Riffice (Sr., Florida; Orlando, Fla.)

Ben Shelton (Soph., Florida; Gainesville, Fla.)

 

Women

Eryn Cayetano (Jr., USC; Long Beach, Calif.)

Sarah Hamner (Fr., South Carolina; Boca Raton, Fla.)

Connie Ma (Fr., Stanford; Dublin, Calif.)

Emma Navarro (Soph., Virginia; Charleston, S.C.)

Peyton Stearns (Soph., Texas; Mason, Ohio)

 

Each of the players was selected based on a number of criteria, including rankings, individual collegiate tournament results or Intercollegiate Tennis Association honors. Players on the team are eligible to receive a grant for travel to USTA Pro Circuit events and coaching support over the summer.

 

USC assistant coach Rich Bonfiglio and Louisville assistant coach Mario Rincon will accompany the men and Vanderbilt assistant coach Hayley Carter will accompany the women. All three coaches will also provide assistance to any American collegians playing at tournaments throughout the summer. 

The quarterfinals at the two USTA men's Pro Circuit events this week will not feature either of the top seeds, as two current collegians, neither of whom were selected for the Collegiate Team above, took them out.

JJ Tracy, the Ohio State rising junior, defeated former teammate and No. 1 seed Kyle Seelig 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals at the $15,000 tournament in South Bend. He will face No. 8 seed Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M), the 2017 Kalamazoo 18s champion, who is playing his first tournament since last September.

At the $25,000 tournament in Tulsa, Andres Martin, the Georgia Tech rising junior, defeated top seed Yu Hsiou Hsu of Taiwan 6-3, 6-0 to set up a meeting with Arizona State rising sophomore Murphy Cassone, a qualifier, in the quarterfinals. Martin, currently ranked 843 after reaching the final of the East Lansing $25K two weeks ago, has already been awarded a wild card into next month's ATP 250 in Atlanta.

The top seeds in the two women's Pro Circuit tournaments have advanced to the quarterfinals, with Kayla Day, at the $25,000 tournament in Wichita, and Connie Hsu(Penn) of Taiwan, at the $15,000 tournament in Colorado Springs getting straight-sets wins today. The No. 2 seeds weren't as fortunate. In Colorado Springs, Anna Morgina of Russia lost to University of Virginia rising junior Hibah Shaikh 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, and Adriana Reami(NC State) defeated Ana Sofia Sanchez of Mexico 6-0, 6-4 in Wichita today.

Ten Americans, Thirteen Former Collegians Advance to Wimbledon's Final Round of Qualifying Thursday; Top ITF Juniors Withdraw From Wimbledon

So far the weather has cooperated and the first two rounds of qualifying at Wimbledon are complete, with ten Americans and 13 former collegians set for Thursday's final round of competition at Roehampton.

Four of the seven American men in action today advanced, while six of the 12 American women in the second round will play for a place in the main draw.

Danielle Lao, the former USC standout, was one of the three American women to qualify last year, with Claire Liu and Katie Volynets the others. Liu is in the main draw on her own ranking, while Volynets, the top seed in qualifying this year, lost in today's second round. Lao will face Nastasja Schunk of Germany in the final round of qualifying; Schunk, who will be 19 in August, reached the final of the girls championships last year. Also advancing to the final round of qualifying is 16-year-old Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva of Andorra, the 2020 Australian Open girls champion.

The three US men who qualified last year--Brandon Nakashima, Mackenzie McDonald and Denis Kudla--are in the main draw on their own rankings this year.

Stefan Kozlov, who reached the boys final at Wimbledon in 2014, losing to Noah Rubin, is through to the final round of men's qualifying for the first time; he has never played a men's main draw match at the All England Lawn Tennis Club. He takes on veteran Dennis Novak of Austria Thursday.

All men's matches are best of five sets in the final round of qualifying.

Wednesday's second round results of Americans, plus the Thursday's final round qualifying matches for US players.

Coco Vandeweghe[2] d. Daniela Vismane(LAT) 7-5, 6-1

Danielle Lao d. Cristina Bucsa[4](ESP) 1-6, 6-4, 6-4

Louisa Chirico d. Reka Luca Jani[8](ROU) 6-3, 6-2

Christina McHale d. Viktoria Kuzmova[30](SVK) 6-3, 6-4

Catherine Harrison d. Ysaline Bonaventure[17](BEL) 7-5, 6-1

Emina Bektas d. Arianne Hartono[29](NED) 3-6, 6-2, 6-4

Zoe Hives(AUS) d. Sachia Vickery 6-0, 6-3

Patricia Hon(AUS) d. Katie Volynets[1] 6-2, 6-4

Katarzyna Kawa([6](POL) d. Sophie Chang 6-4, 6-2

Fernanda Contreras[28](MEX) d. Jamie Loeb 7-6(2), 6-4

Katarina Zavatska(UKR) d. Robin Anderson[11] 6-4, 6-3

Fiona Ferro[16](FRA) d. Hanna Chang 6-3, 6-1

Stefan Kozlov[3] d. Dominic Stricker(SUI) 7-6(9), 4-6, 6-3
Nicolas Moreno de Alboran d. Arthur Fery[WC](GBR) 7-6(2), 7-6(3)
Jack Sock[14] d. Constant Lestienne(FRA) 6-3, 7-5
Christian Harrison d. Dalibor Svrcina(CZE) 0-6, 6-3, 7-6(4)

Salvatore Caruso(ITA) d. Mitchell Krueger[27] 7-6(2), 6-3
Radu Albot[7](MDA) d. Michael Mmoh 6-3, 6-4
Lukas Rosol(CZE) d. Christopher Eubanks 7-6(6), 6-4

Thursday's final round qualifying matches featuring Americans:

Kozlov v Dennis Novak[23](AUT)

Moreno de Alboran v. Maximillian Marterer(GER)

Sock v Hugo Grenier[21](FRA)

Harrison v Daniel Masur(GER)

Vandeweghe v Maja Chwalinska(POL)

Lao v Nastasja Schunk[21](GER)

Chirico v Kathinka Von Deichmann(LIE) 

McHale v Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove[14](NED)

Harrison v Yue Yuan[15](CHN)

Bektas v Fiona Ferro[16](FRA)

There are 13 former collegians in the final round of qualifying, with Moreno de Alboran(UC-Santa Barbara), Lao, Harrison(UCLA) and Bektas(Michigan) the four Americans in that group.

The other nine:

Jason Jung, (TPE) Michigan

Alexander Ritschard, (SUI) Virginia

Nuno Borges[13], (POR) Mississippi State

Rinky Hijikata, (AUS) North Carolina

Astra Sharma, (AUS) Vanderbilt

Fernanda Contreras, (MEX) Vanderbilt

Lulu Sun, (SUI) Texas

Maria Carle, (ARG) Georgia

Leolia Jeanjean, (FRA) Lynn

The men's qualifying draw is here; the women's qualifying draw is here.

The withdrawal deadline for the Wimbledon Junior Championships was yesterday, so it's a good time to look at the fields again, after the first acceptance list was posted, two weeks ago. Initially, nine of the Top 10 for both boys and girls were entered, but now there are seven Top 10 boys and six Top 10 girls (these are not their current rankings, but their rankings at the time of acceptance two weeks ago). I mentioned last week that ITF No. 1 Bruno Kuzuhara had withdrawn, and Daniel Vallejo of Paraguay, No. 2 in the rankings, withdrew this week.

San Diego $15K champion Ethan Quinn, who was accepted into qualifying at the Wimbledon Junior Championships, has withdrawn and is expected to play the second half of the SoCal Pro Circuit beginning next week in Los Angeles.

Alexander Frusina and Sebastian Gorzny, who were just a few spots out of the main draw initially, are now in. 

The top two in the girls rankings are also out, with Australian Open girls champion Petra Marcinko of Croatia and Roland Garros girls champion Lucie Havlickova of the Czech Republic withdrawing in the past few days. Also out is Roland Garros finalist Solana Sierra of Argentina.

Mia Slama and Sonya Macavei, who were in qualifying initially, have now moved into the main draw.

The quarterfinals of the ITF J1 in Nottingham are set, with two US girls advancing. Slama, the No. 7 seed, defeated No. 10 seed Olivia Lincer(POL) 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 and will face No. 3 seed Taylah Preston of Australia next.  No. 2 seed Qavia Lopez beat Zhanel Rustemova of Kazakhstan 6-0, 6-7(6), 6-3 and will play No. 9 seed Aysegul Mert of Turkey in the quarterfinals. 

Aidan Kim and Kaylan Bigun, the only American boys to advance to the third round, lost today.

A Dozen US Women Advance to Second Round of Wimbledon Qualifying; Four USTA Pro Circuit Tournaments Underway, with Many New Faces

Day Two of Wimbledon qualifying featured the women's first round, with 17 Americans in action in Roehampton. Twelve of them have advanced to Wednesday's second round, along with the seven US men who won their first round matches on Monday. 

Among those twelve women were Sophie Chang and Hanna Chang, who played in Sunday's final at the $25,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Sumter South Carolina. At 277 and 271 in the WTA rankings, they were not assured of getting in, but they did, and both got there in time to play their first matches Tuesday. Sophie, who beat Hanna in a third-set tiebreaker in Sumter, defeated Raluka Serban of Cyprus 6-4, 7-6(4) today and Hanna defeated 14-year-old British wild card Mingge Xu 6-4, 6-3.

The first round results for Americans today:

Katie Volynets[1] d. Anna-Lena Friedsam(GER) 6-3, 6-3
Sachia Vickery d. Justine Mikulskyte(LTU) 1-6, 6-3, 6-4

Coco Vandeweghe[2] d. Ella McDonald[WC](GBR) 5-7, 6-1, 7-6(8)

Danielle Lao d. Carline Alves(BRA) 7-5, 6-3

Sophie Chang d. Raluka Serban(CYP) 6-4, 7-6(4)

Jamie Loeb d. Talia Neilson Gatenby[WC](GBR) 6-2, 6-2

Louisa Chirico d. Anna Siskova(CAE) 1-6, 6-1, 6-0

Robin Anderson[11] d. Ellen Perez(AUS) 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2

Christina McHale d. Laura Ioana Parr(ROU) 2-6 6-4, 6-4

Catherine Harrison d. Eden Silva[WC](GBR) 6-1, 7-5

Hanna Chang d. Mingge Xu[WC](GBR) 6-4, 6-3

Emina Bektas d. Sara Bejlek(CZE) 7-6(3), 6-3

Lucrezia Stefanini(ITA) d. Grace Min 4-6, 6-3, 6-2

Mariam Bolkvadze(GEO) d. Alycia Parks 6-1, 6-2

Nadia Podoroska(ARG) d. Asia Muhammad[19] 6-3, 6-3

Viktoria Kuzmova[30](SVK) d. Elvina Kalieva 6-1, 6-4

Ysaline Bonaventure[17](BEL) d. Francesca Di Lorenzo 6-4, 6-4

In addition to Lao(USC), Loeb(North Carolina), Anderson(UCLA), Harrison(UCLA) and Bektas(Michigan), there are seven other former collegians who have advanced to round two: Maria Carle(Georgia), Leolia Jeanjean(Baylor, Arkansas, Lynn), Fernanda Contreras(Vanderbilt), Lulu Sun(Texas), Astra Sharma(Vanderbilt), Andrea Lazaro(Florida International) and Arianne Hartono(Mississippi). 

The 24-year-old Contreras, who qualified at Roland Garros this year and won a round, is playing her first tournaments on grass this month. Reem Abulleil, writing for Wimbledon.com, spoke to Contreras about that adjustment, her family history at Wimbledon, and about having the support of former teammate Sharma in these new experiences at the top of the game.

The women's qualifying draw is here; the men's qualifying draw is here.

Like last week, there are four USTA Pro Circuit tournaments, although the SoCal Pro Circuit is taking the week off, resuming next week in the Los Angeles area.  The men have a $25K in Tulsa and a $15K in South Bend; the women's have a $25K in Wichita and a $15K in Colorado Springs. 

Qualifying is complete in all four tournaments, with varying scheduling strategies employed to counteract the heat.

In South Bend, five Americans qualified: Patrick Maloney(Michigan), Ronan Jachuck(Harvard), Perry Gregg(Holy Cross), Trice Pickens(Northwestern) and Presley Thieneman(Northwestern).

Wild cards were given to Matthew Che(Notre Dame), Noah Schachter(Texas A&M), Aditya Vashistha(Notre Dame) of India, and Yu Zhang(Notre Dame) of China.

The top seed is Kyle Seelig(Ohio State), with the No. 2 seed Felix Corwin(Minnesota).

In Tulsa, qualifiers from the United States are: Murphy Cassone(Arizona State), Jacob Brumm(Cal, Baylor), Emmett Ward, Avery Zavala(Arkansas), George Goldhoff(Texas), Nathan Chavez and Ron Hohmann(LSU).

Wild cards went to Andres Martin(Georgia Tech), Pierce Rollins(Texas A&M), Bjorn Swenson(Michigan) and Stefan Dostanic(USC). 

The top seed is Yu Hsiou Hsu of Taiwan, with Dane Sweeney of Australia the No. 2 seed.

In Colorado Springs, the women's qualifiers from the United States include Texas high school rising sophomore Meghna Arun Kumar, California high school rising senior Isabella Chhiv(Princeton), Filippa Bruu-Syversen(UC-Santa Barbara) and 

Meisha Kendall-Woseley.  

Wild cards were given to Meredith Jones of the Philippines, rising high school sophomore Mia Yamakita and Veronica Miroshnichenko(Loyola Marymount) of Russia. Yamakita lost to No. 5 seed Ivana Corley(Oklahoma) 6-4, 6-7(2), 6-1 in the first round today. 

Connie Hsu(Penn) of Taiwan is the No. 1 seed; the No. 2 seed is Anna Morgina of Russia.

In Wichita, where the men played last week, American qualifiers are: Malaika Rapolu(Texas), Carolyn Campana(Wake Forest) and Allura Zamarripa(Texas).

Wild cards were given to Harriet Hamilton(Wichita State) of Italy, Victoria Hu(Princeton) and Rushri Wijesundera.

Kayla Day and Ana Sofia Sanchez of Mexico are the top two seeds.

Seven US Men Advance at Wimbledon Qualifying, 17 US Women Begin Qualifying Tuesday; Junior Grass Season Underway at J1 in Nottingham; UTR Pro Tennis Tour Update

The first round of Wimbledon men's qualifying is complete, with seven Americans advancing to Wednesday's second round. Monday's results:

Mitchell Krueger[27] defeated Luca POW[WC](GBR) 6-1, 6-4

Stefan Kozlov[3] defeated Evan Furness(FRA) 7-5, 6-3

Nicolas Moreno de Alboran defeated Manuel Guinard[20](FRA) 6-3, 6-4

Michael Mmoh defeated Gerald Melzer(AUT) 6-1, 6-3

Christopher Eubanks defeated Tomas Barrios Vera[11](CHI) 4-6, 6-4, 6-3

Jack Sock[14] defeated Andrea Collarini(ARG) 6-4, 6-2

Christian Harrison defeated Anton Matusevich[WC](GBR)

Andrea Vavassori(ITA) d. Bradley Klahn 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-3

Facundo Mena(ARG) d. Thai Kwiatkowski 7-5 6-3

Zhizhen Zhang(CHN) d. Ernesto Escobedo[17] 6-4, 7-5

Next up for Moreno de Alboran is Stanford rising junior Arthur Fery, a wild card, who beat Thomas Fabbiano of Italy 6-4, 6-2. Last year the 19-year-old from Wimbledon reached the final round of qualifying before losing to Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands 4-6, 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(5), 6-2.

While Fery is the only current collegian in qualifying, there are a total of six (correction:seven) former collegians through to the second round: Eubanks(Georgia Tech), Moreno de Alboran(UC-Santa Barbara) Jason Jung(Michigan), Yannick Hanfmann[8](USC), Alexander Ritschard(Virginia), Nuno Borges(Mississippi State) and Rinky Hijikata(North Carolina).

The first round of women's qualifying will begin Tuesday, with 17 Americans competing for a place in the main draw.  With that many players in the 128-player draw, it's fortunate that none of them have drawn another American in the first round.  The US women are: Katie Volynets[1], Sachia Vickery, Coco Vandweghe[3], Danielle Lao(USC), Sophie Chang, Grace Min, Jamie Loeb(North Carolina), Louisa Chirico, Robin Anderson[11](UCLA), Alycia Parks, Asia Muhammad[19], Christina McHale, Elvina Kalieva, Catherine Harrison(UCLA), Francesca Di Lorenzo(Ohio State), Hanna Chang and Emina Bektas(Michigan).

Both Sophie and Hanna Chang had to jump on a plane to London after playing in the Sumter South Carolina $25K final Sunday, with, if they were lucky, having just today to acclimate to the grass.

The complete women's qualifying draw is available here.

The junior grass season is now a week longer than it used to be, with the introduction, in 2019, of the ITF Grade 1 in Nottingham. Due to the pandemic, the tournament was not held in 2020 or 2021, but it's back this year, with 48-player draws.

Most Americans competing at the Wimbledon Junior Championships are not playing this week, relying on the Grade 1 next week in Roehampton as their warmup, but nine US juniors are in the Nottingham draw, six boys and three girls.

The boys are: Nicolas Godsick[7], Aidan Kim, Jelani Sarr, Kaylan Bigun, Alexander Frusina[13] and Leanid Boika[16]. The seeds had byes in today's first round, but Kim, Sarr and Bigun all advanced to the second round with wins today.

The girls are Kate Mansfield, who got in despite an ITF junior ranking of 513 and lost in the first round today, Mia Slama[7] and Qavia Lopez[2].

The top seeds are Roland Garros boys champion Gabriel Debru of France and Luca Udvardy of Hungary.

The UTR Pro Tennis Tour continues this week with two events, a men's $25K in Atlanta and a women's $25K in Newport Beach California. Here's the results from the finals of the tournaments in the United States from the second week of May until last week.  For a complete schedule of the tournaments in the Americas, click here.

Women:

May 16 Newport Beach CA
Megan McCray d. Taylor Cataldi 3-6, 6-4, 6-1

May 23 Austin TX
Luciana Perry d. Ellie Pittman 6-2, 6-3

May 29 Boca Raton FL
Melodie Collard d. YeXin Ma 6-2, 1-6, 6-1

June 6 Charleston SC
Mia Horvit d. Tenika Mcgiffin 7-6(1), 6-1

Men:

May 9 Boca Raton FL

Matija Pecotic d. Connor Farren 7-6(1), 5-7, 6-4

May 15 Newport Beach CA

Aidan Mayo d. Patrick Zahraj 6-2, 6-4

May 22 Newport Beach CA

Sema Pankin d. Giacomo Revelli 6-1, 6-3

June 5 Charleston SC

Johannus Monday d. Matthew Thomson 6-3 6-4

June 12 Boca Raton FL

Sebastian Gorzny d. Colton Smith  6-4, 6-1

Quinn Saves Five Match Points to Claim First Men's Pro Circuit Title; Damm Wins $25K in Dominican Republic; Jones, Chidekh, Sophie Chang Capture USTA Pro Circuit Titles; Ten Americans Competing in Wimbledon Men's Qualifying Monday

The outlook for Ethan Quinn's first professional title was dim this afternoon at the $15,000 SoCal tournament in San Diego when the 18-year-old Californian fell behind 6-2 in the second set tiebreaker to August Holmgren in the men's singles final. Denmark's Holmgren, the 2022 NCAA singles finalist from the University of San Diego, had won the first set 6-3, breaking Quinn twice, and Quinn had been unable to convert his three break point chances with Holmgren serving at 5-6. 

But the 18-year-old, who redshirted at the University of Georgia after entering school this January, reeled off four straight points to stay alive, two of them with Holmgren serving, then saved another match point serving down 6-7, before forcing a third set.

The third set was tight throughout, with Quinn saving the only three break points he faced in the set in the third game, while Holmgren did not face any, and was taken to deuce just once.  But in the tiebreaker, it was Quinn's serve and forehand that were the difference and he built a 6-3 lead. Holmgren saved one match point, but Quinn closed out his first title in three hours and 19 minutes and by a 3-6, 7-6(7), 7-6(4) score.

Quinn had reached the final of a $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Vero Beach at the end of April, on clay; he was obviously comfortable in today's final on the Barnes Tennis Center court where he had his breakout results last year, winning the J1 and making the Easter Bowl final.

Martin Damm won his first $25,000 ITF World Tennis Tour men's tournament today in the Dominican Republic, with the 18-year-old from Florida, seeded No. 6, defeating top seed Dan Added of France 6-3, 6-3. Damm, who, like Quinn, is eligible to compete in Kalamazoo this summer, had eight aces and faced only one break point in today's final. 

Hurricane Tyra Black won the women's singles title at the $25,000 tournament in the Dominican Republic. The 21-year-old from Florida, seeded No. 5, defeated No. 13 seed Jana Kolodynska of Belarus 6-3, 6-3 in today's final. Black has now won five ITF World Tennis Tour women's singles titles in 2021 and 2022, with this the first one above the $15K level.

The women's singles title in San Diego went to Makenna Jones, the former North Carolina star. Jones defeated fellow qualifier Megan McCray 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 for her first singles title on the Pro Circuit. Jones, the 2021 NCAA doubles champion, had won her first doubles title last week at the $15K at the University of San Diego.

Clement Chidekh, who announced after this season that he would not be returning for his final year of eligibility at the University of Washington, won his second ITF World Tennis Tour men's title at the $25,000 tournament in Wichita Kansas. Chidekh, a 21-year-old from France, defeated Canadian Liam Draxl(Kentucky) 6-2, 6-2 in today's final. 

At the women's $25,000 tournament in Sumter South Carolina, Sophie Chang, the No. 2 seed, defeated top seed Hanna Chang 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(5) in a three-hour and seven-minute battle. Sophie now has two $25K singles titles this year.

Qualifying for Wimbledon begins Monday, with the men taking to the courts at Roehampton beginning at 6 a.m. EDT. Ten American men are in qualifying:  Mitchell Krueger[27], Stefan Kozlov[3], Bradley Klahn(Stanford), Nicolas Moreno de Alboran(UC-Santa Barbara), Michael Mmoh, Thai Kwiatkowski(Virginia), Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech), Jack Sock[14], Christian Harrison and Ernesto Escobedo.

The women's qualifying will begin on Tuesday. Draws are available here.

Sock had an opportunity to nab the last Wimbledon main draw wild card in today's final at the ATP Challenger 125 in Ilkley, but Sock, the No. 5 seed, lost to qualifier Zizou Bergs of Belgium 7-6(7), 2-6, 7-6(6) and Bergs received the wild card.