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Saturday, November 22, 2008

Orange Bowl Wild Cards Announced; Rus, Vandeweghe Drop Out; Yucatan Cup Begins Monday

The USTA yesterday announced the wild card recipients for the Orange Bowl. The eight in the girls 18s went to Brooke Bolender, Julia Boserup, Alexandra Cercone, Nicole Gibbs, Christina McHale, Asia Muhammad, Alison Riske and Sloane Stephens. The boys 18s wild cards were given to Sekou Bangoura, Jr. Frank Carleton, Denis Lin, Kyle McMorrow, Ryan Noble, William Parker and JT Sundling. The eighth one is reserved for Matt Kandath, who is next in and probably won't need it.

The girls 16s wild cards went to Melissa Kopinski, Kelsey Laurente, Anna Mamalat, Stephanie Nauta, Denise Starr and Lynda Xepoleas. Skylar Kuykendall and Lauren Herring are second and third out, so may not need the two wild cards reserved for them.

In the boys 16s, two wild cards were reserved for Jeremy Efferding and Spencer Newman, but Efferding is already in, so Dante Terenzio is likely to receive his spot. The other six: Marcos Giron, Dan Kosakowski, Dennis Mkrtchian, Jack Sock and Evan Song.

CoCo Vandeweghe had said she was planning on playing the Orange Bowl and was in the initial acceptances posted at the end of last month, but she has withdrawn, as has ITF World No. 1 junior Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands. Rus is currently in the final of a $25,000 Women's ITF circuit event in Poland. For the Nov. 21 update of the Orange Bowl acceptance lists, go to the wild card section of the Dunlop Orange Bowl page at usta.com.

The Yucatan Cup, a Grade 1 that has recently been scheduled after the Orange Bowl, complicating the race for year-end champion, is back to its previous spot before the Eddie Herr. The main draw begins on Monday and the U.S. is likely to have four of the top eight seeds in the boys tournament with Denis Kudla, Harry Fowler, Bob vanOverbeek and Bo Seal all making the trip. Mallory Burdette is the sole U.S. girl in line for a seed. See the tournament's website for more information.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

How come Seal was not given a wildcard ?

Anonymous said...

It's Lynda Xepoleas, not Kepoleas.

Colette Lewis said...

Corrected,
Thanks.

Colette Lewis said...

Seal is in the main draw.

Unknown said...

Congratulation Kelsey Laurente, nice girl, classy family, tough competitior!

bullfrog said...

Why did Coco drop out? I thought her coaches were trying to get her a lot of matches so she could "catch up" on experience level?