Travel Day; Gibbs Wins $50K in Denver, Smith Takes Winnetka Challenger, Bogdanovic Claims Pittsburgh Futures
It's a travel day for me, and I'll be returning from London to Kalamazoo and to a climate where summer clothes are appropriate. With the heat wave over, I hope the adjustment won't be too great, going from what I would consider autumn or early spring weather back to midsummer.
But I wanted to pass along congratulations to Nicole Gibbs and JP Smith, who won the $50,000 tournaments in Denver and Chicago, respectively. Gibbs, the 2012 NCAA champion from Stanford playing in her first tournament since winning the singles and doubles in Athens in May, won three qualifying matches and five main draw matches to claim the singles title, and also reached the doubles final with Lauren Embree. Gibbs and the NCAA team tournament Most Outstanding Player Embree lost to Marie-Eve Pelletier of Canada and Shelby Rogers of the US 6-3, 3-6, 12-10.
Gibbs is scheduled to play in this week's WTA Bank of West Classic at Stanford as a wild card. She has drawn qualifier Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand, the 2009 Wimbledon girls champion, in the first round and if she wins that, will play 2012 Wimbledon ladies champion Serena Williams. Grace Min also qualified, and will play No. 6 seed Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa in the first round.
Like Gibbs, Smith also qualified and won the singles title, beating Ricardas Berankis in the final 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(3), and also lost the doubles final in a match tiebreaker. Smith and former Baylor star John Peers fell to Devin Britton and Jeff Dadamo 1-6, 6-2, 10-6 in the doubles final. For more on former Tennessee Volunteer Smith's win, including his match points saved in the singles final, see this article from utsports.com.
At the Pittsburgh Futures, top seed Alex Bogdanovic of Great Britain didn't drop a set en route to the title, beating unseeded Matheson Klein of Australia 6-2, 6-4 in the final. Jason Tahir, who will be a sophomore at Duke, and Michael Redlicki, who will start in Durham this fall, won the doubles title unseeded and without losing a set. They beat No. 2 seeds Ruben Gonzales of the Phillippines and Joe Kielbowicz of the US 7-6(4), 6-3 in the final.
The men's draws, including the qualifying draws for this week's Futures in Rochester, NY are here.
The women's Pro Circuit draws, including the qualifying draws for this week's $50,000 tournament in Yakima, Washington, are here.
6 comments:
Colette, is Nicole's win (50k) the highest level tournament won by an active college player? I can't recall an active college player winning anything this big.
Is there any chance gibbs might turn pro?
@Julie--
Chelsey Gullickson won a $25K before she started at Georgia, and Julia Cohen won a $25K while I think she was still considered an active college player at D-II California-Pa. But I don't recall any active college player who has won a $50K.
@10is menace
I asked Gibbs about turning pro after she won NCAAs, and at that time, she said she was looking to next season at Stanford and that playing pro tennis after college was her plan.
Ok thanks. Might be interesting if she wins her first rd at Stanford and keeps up her great play. Has Grace Min turned pro?
The ATP Hall of Fame Tournament website is a disgrace. The click-on for the draw keeps disappearing. Extremely annoying!!
Stanford's human dynamo, Nicole Gibbs, with barely a day's rest after her gruelling week at Denver where she annexed the Singles and Dubs Runnerup titles, she overcame early jitters and a 1st serve that played hide-and-seek most of the match to win her 1st round match at Bank of the West in straights.
If Gibbs's energy were harnessed, it could power the 11 western states with enough leftover to electrify Caltrains..
Her reward comes Wednesday when she'll have the honor of facing across the net another personage of daunting accomplishment, the 2012 Wimbledon Singles and Doubles champion. Hope the Stanford junior relaxes given that opponent and just have fun playing the game of tennis.
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