Wimbledon Qualifying; Kosakowski Turns Pro; Other Odds and Ends

The first round of men's qualifying at Wimbledon is complete, and of the seven Americans in the 128 draw, only two have survived: Alex Kuznetsov and Ryan Harrison. Lester Cook, Bobby Reynolds, Jesse Witten, Zack Fleishman and Rajeev Ram lost their opening matches at Roehampton, the site of the qualifying. Harrison, the No. 14 seed, came back to defeat British wild card Alex Ward 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 6-3, and will play Laurent Rochette of France in the second round. Kuznetsov also lost the first set but came back to beat Gianluca Naso of Italy 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.

Two British juniors who received wild cards also advanced to the second round with Oliver Golding beating fellow wild card Josh Milton 6-3, 6-2 and Liam Broady upsetting No. 31 seed Alessio Di Mauro of Italy 6-3, 1-6, 12-10.

Guy McCrea is doing his daily podcast from qualifying for wimbledon.com and he spoke with Broady, Harrison and Australia's Matthew Ebden in today's show. Harrison's coaching situation is one of the questions McCrea raises, and Harrison reveals that he is working with Sam Querrey's former coach Grant Doyle as well as Scott McCain and his father Pat.

Women's qualifying begins on Tuesday, with six American women in the draw: Julia Cohen, Lindsay Lee-Waters, Irina Falconi(4), Madison Brengle, Alexa Glatch and Sloane Stephens(12).

For draws and results, see wimbledon.com.

Earlier today, I tweeted a link to this Sacramento Bee article about Daniel Kosakowski's win at the Sacramento Futures, which says that Kosakowski had decided to turn pro. The rumor he was not returning to UCLA in the fall had been circulating since early April. And although I don't think this qualifies as a bona fide Sports Illustrated jinx, USC's Steve Johnson, who lost to Kosakowski in the final yesterday, his first loss since March, is featured in this week's Faces in the Crowd.

The USTA is currently holding its annual men's pro transition camp in Boca Raton, and the following players are participating:

Chase Buchanan
Jeff Dadamo
Evan King
Bradley Klahn
Austin Krajicek
Dennis Nevolo
Eric Quigley
Tennys Sandgren
Ray Sarmiento
Michael Shabaz
Rhyne Williams

Juniors participating in the camp are:
Luca Corintelli
Sean Karl
Thai Kwiakowski
Nikko Madregallego
Michael Redlicki

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review did another feature on Bjorn Fratangelo with quotes from Jay Berger that sound a lot more like him than the ones that came out of Paris, and also some from Fratangelo's father and coach, Mario. As for turning pro, the article provides this quote:

"It's just a matter of seeing what happens," Fratangelo said. "The ultimate goal is to turn pro, make men's Grand Slam events and win. If I feel like my game gets good enough, I'll move to the pro level. If I need to develop more, I'll do that in college. Tennis is an up-and-down sport. One tournament doesn't make a career."

2007 NCAA champion Audra Cohen, who is coaching the USTA women's collegiate team along with Jamea Jackson of Oklahoma State this summer, has accepted the women's head coaching position at Jacksonville's University of North Florida, a Division I school in the Atlantic Sun conference. The complete release can be found here.