Four US Men Qualify for Wimbledon, Three US Women Reach Final Round of Qualifying; USA and GBR Meet in Maureen Connolly Trophy Challenge Thursday

Last month three US men qualified for the French Open, and today four qualified for Wimbledon: Wayne Odesnik, Alex Kuznetsov, Bobby Reynolds and Denis Kudla.  Kudla was one of the three who qualified in Paris, so he has proven himself on both surfaces in the space of a month.  Kudla defeated Ruben Bemelmans of Belgium 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 today, and will learn his opponent in the main draw on Friday.

Alex Kuznetsov played in the French with the USTA's reciprocal main draw wild card he won on the Pro Circuit, but he will have three matches under his belt when he plays in the main draw at Wimbledon for the first time in his career after his gritty 6-3, 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 win over Maxime Authom of Belgium.  No. 4 seed Odesnik advanced to the main draw for the second straight year--he got in last year as a lucky loser--with a 2-6, 2-6, 6-4, 3-0 ret. inj. decision over Olivier Rochus of Belgium.  No. 27 seed Bobby Reynolds, who lost in the first round of Wimbledon qualifying the past three years and didn't play the French qualifying this year, will be playing in the main draw at Wimbledon for the first time since 2009 after his 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-2 win over No. 12 seed Rhyne Williams.

No. 8 seed Tim Smyczek, the sixth American in action today at the Roehampton qualifying courts, lost to unseeded Matt Reid of Australia 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(5), 7-5.

The 12 other qualifiers: Stephane Robert(FRA), Bastian Knittel(GER), No. 21 Julian Reister(GER), Dustin Brown(GER), No. 7 Jan-Lennard Struff(GER), Reid(AUS), No. 29 Wang(TPE), James Duckworth(AUS), No. 11 Michal Przysiezny(POL), No. 13 Go Soeda(JPN), No. 15 Marc Gicquel(FRA) and No. 16 Teymuraz Gabashvili(RUS).

For more on today's men's qualifying, see the Wimbledon website.  Ben Rothenberg is also covering the Wimbledon qualifying for the New York Times and he spoke with Kudla about his accomplishment, as well as his lack of wild cards, in this article.

The second round of the women's qualifying was completed today, with three US women reaching Thursday's final round.  Grace Min defeated No. 23 seed Tadeja Majeric of Slovenia 6-3, 5-7, 6-0 to advance against unseeded Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic.  Min qualified for the French Open last month to make her first appearance in the main draw of a slam.  Irina Falconi will play Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia in the final qualifying round after Falconi advanced when No. 5 seed Eleni Danilidou of Greece retired trailing 6-1, 2-0.  No. 10 seed Vania King defeated Samantha Crawford 6-4, 6-4 and will play No. 17 seed Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic Thursday.

Qualifying draws can be found here.

In Eastbourne, where both the ATP and WTA are holding a tournament this week, juniors will take to the grass courts Thursday and Friday for international competition between the United States and Great Britain.  The Maureen Connolly Challenge Trophy, the girls competition that has been held for 37 years, is joined by the boys competition, the LTA Junior Challenge Trophy, in just its second year.

Taylor Townsend leads the US Team in Maureen Connolly
Trophy Challenge

The US girls competing are: Louisa Chirico, Jamie Loeb, Tornado Alicia Black and Taylor Townsend.  The US boys competing are: Stefan Kozlov, Noah Rubin, Luca Corinteli, Spencer Papa and Thai Kwiatkowski. Nicolas Todero and Freddy Rodriguez are the USTA National coaches in charge of the teams.  I haven't seen the names of those on the British teams yet.

For more, including a link to the USTA's release, see the Maureen Connolly Brinker Foundation's website.

And for more on New Yorkers Loeb and Chirico, particularly about their experiences at the French juniors, see this article from The Journal News.