US Open Junior Acceptances Feature a Dozen US Players, Gavrilova to Defend Girls Title; Other Notes

The acceptance list for the US Open Juniors has been published at the ITF Junior website, with six US boys and six US girls receiving direct acceptance into the main draw.

The boys, with their current ITF rankings, are: Bjorn Fratangelo(3), Marcos Giron(23), Shane Vinsant(28), Mitchell Krueger(32), Mac Styslinger(41) and Alexios Halebian(44). Connor Farren and Dennis Novikov, a quarterfinalist last year at the Open, are in the qualifying draw.

The girls who received direct acceptance, with their current ITF rankings, are: Lauren Davis(14), Madison Keys(17), Vicky Duval(24), Grace Min(25), Christina Makarova(42), and Jessica Pegula. Pegula received direct entry based on her WTA ranking of 341. She is at 350 this week.

Gabby Andrews is the first alternate, which means she will almost certainly get in, and she has earned a wild card, in any case, with her victory at the Clay Courts on Sunday. Stephanie Nauta, Kyle McPhillips and Allie Kiick were placed in qualifying based on their ITF rankings, while Krista Hardebeck and Nicole Gibbs are in qualifying based on their WTA rankings. McPhillips has earned a wild card into the main draw with her Easter Bowl victory, but that won't be officially announced until much closer to the date of the tournament.

The girls field features the defending champion in Daria Gavrilova of Russia, who recently took the top ranking back from An-Sophie Mestach of Belgium. Russian Yulia Putintseva, who was a finalist last year, and has been successful on the ITF Women's Circuit this summer, is also returning. Australian Open girls champion Mestach, who has not played in juniors or on the professional circuit since May, is not entered in New York, and two other top 10 junior girls are also passing: No. 5 Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, the French Open champion, and Puerto Rico's Monica Puig, a finalist at the Australian and French junior championships this year.

The boys field has all of the top 10, and the only notable boys not entered are No. 14 Roberto Carballes Baena, the European champion, and fellow Spaniard Andres Artunedo Martinavarr, who together won the French Open boys doubles this year.

The complete entry lists can be found at the ITF junior website.

In other news, I've just gotten through all my Google Reader entries from last week and found a couple of interesting items to pass along.

The Evansville Indiana Courier and Press spoke with Brooke Austin about her tennis ambitions in this article, published last week in conjunction with the $10,000 Pro Circuit Women's event there.

The Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland is the subject of this Baltimore Sun feature, with its role as the prototype for USTA Regional Training Centers spotlighted.

Cal Poly's men's head coach Justin McGrath has resigned, according to this article in the San Luis Obispo's The Tribune. McGrath denies that an NCAA investigation into the program is the reason for his departure.

And finally, ignore the headline, and read Kamakshi Tandon's article at espn.com about the young US women looking to have an impact on the WTA tour.