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Saturday, July 31, 2010

Kudla, Ore Fall in Qualifying at Legg Mason; Cox and King Win Doubles TItle in Godfrey; Puig Wins Central American Caribbean Games Gold

Qualifying has begun for next week's ATP Legg Mason Classic in Washington DC and the WTA Mercury Insurance Open in San Diego, as well as the $100,000 Challenger in Vancouver. There were quite a few interesting matches, so I'll start in on the east coast and work my way west.

Junior Ore and Denis Kudla, who train together at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, MD, received qualifying wild cards for the second straight year, and both lost in straight sets. Ore was beaten by Kei Nishikori of Japan, 6-3, 6-1 and Kudla lost to Somdev Devvarman 6-1, 6-1. Devin Britton also received a qualifying wild card and took the first set from Argentina's Brian Dabul, ranked 92, but lost 5-7, 6-2, 6-2. Donald Young, the subject of this Washington Post profile, beat Virginia senior Michael Shabaz, another wild card, 6-4, 6-2. Qualifying results are available here. The main draw wild cards went to Gasquet, Blake, Nalbandian and Verdasco.

In San Diego, the qualifying wild cards went to local player Amelia Herring, who is going to Stanford, and Stacey Tan, a sophomore on the 2010 NCAA Championship team, Texas A & M sophomore Nazari Urbina and Tori Kinard. The last three won their wild cards in a recent opportunity tournament. Unfortunately, all of them lost in today's opening round of qualifying. Herring was beaten by Sloane Stephens, Urbina by CoCo Vandeweghe Tan by Greta Arn and Kinard by Jill Craybas. Jamie Hampton took out No. 1 qualifying seed Kimiko Date Krumm and Ajla Tomljanovic beat Urzula Radwanska. The qualifying draws can be found here. The three wild cards in the main draw went to established WTA players: Dominika Cibulkova, Gisela Dulko and Ana Ivanovic. Ken Thomas is webcasting qualifying at radiotennis.com.

The Vancouver Challenger is a combined event, with the men's qualifying beginning today. Christina McHale is entered in the women's event, with Beatrice Capra and Shelby Rogers getting main draw wild cards according to the ITF Women's Circuit entry page. Former ITF world junior champion Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand is also entered, but she is still in St. Joseph, Missouri, where as the No. 1 seed, she has reached the singles final against doubles partner Gabriela Paz of Venezuela, the No. 7 seed. The unseeded pair lost in the doubles final today to USC's Maria Sanchez and Ellen Tsay, the No. 7 seeds.

In Godfrey, Ill., the site of the men's $10,000, Evan King and Jordan Cox won the doubles title over the University of Texas team of Josh Zavala and Jean Anderson 4-6, 6-3, 12-10. For more on King's first professional title, see the Michigan athletic site. Friday's play was completely rained out, so the quarterfinals and semifinals were both played today. Texas A & M senior Austin Krajicek beat Blake Strode and Rhyne Williams to advance to the singles final, where he'll meet Robbye Poole, the former Ole Miss player, who is going for his second straight Futures title.

For complete results, see the Pro Circuit results page.

At the Central American Caribbean Games in Mayaguez, Monica Puig, playing for Puerto Rico, won the singles gold medal in women's tennis. She was the No. 3 seed. For a photo, click here.

And finally, the Women's US Open National Qualifying Playoff will be between No. 1 seed Alina Jidkova and No. 2 seed Alexandra Mueller tomorrow at the Bank of the West Classic. Jidova beat No. 3 seed Brittany Augustine in three sets and Mueller got by unseeded Jessica Pegula, also in three sets. Pegula had beaten No. 4 seed Courtney Dolehide on Friday.


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