Pro Circuit Resumes in Claremont and Redding; Hong, Bourguignon Top Seeds at ITF Grade 2 in Canada

After a lengthy layoff for the US Open, the USTA Pro Circuit is back this week in California, with a $10,000 Futures in Claremont for the men and a $25,000 Challenger in Redding for the women.  Of course, there were many other tournaments in the past few weeks that I was unable to report on, but some of the notable results from those were included in my August Aces for the Tennis Recruiting Network.

Christian Harrison was to have been the top seed in Claremont, but withdrew today for medical reasons and will be replaced by lucky loser Alan Nunez Aguilera of Mexico. Former UCLA Bruin Nick Meister in the No. 2 seed. Among those qualifying for the main draw are USC's Michael Grant, UCLA freshman Joe DiGiulio and recent Cal Poly graduate Andre Dome. Main draw wild cards went to USC's Ray Sarmiento, UCLA's Clay Thompson, junior Deiton Baughman and former Santa Clara player Kyle Dandan.

For the Claremont draws and notes, see the USTA Pro Circuit page. The notes say that Alex Sarkissian of Pepperdine turned pro, but he's on the Waves' 2013-14 roster.  The notes also say Dennis Novikov is still at UCLA, but he has turned pro.

Current college players qualifying for the women's event in Redding are UCLA's Catherine Harrison, Clemson's Liz Jeukeng and Duke's Trice Capra. Seventeen-year-old Christina Makarova, who lost in the second round at the US Open junior championships last week, also qualified and beat No. 8 seed Sanaz Marand in the first round today.  The sole wild card was given to Stanford's Krista Hardebeck, who lost today to UCLA's Robin Anderson.  2012 US Open girls champion Samantha Crawford is back in action after being out with an injury since May and is the No. 6 seed. Lauren Embree defeated Ashley Weinhold in a first round match today.  Olivia Rogowska of Australia, with a WTA ranking of 151, is the top seed.

For the tournament notes and draws, see the USTA Pro Circuit page.

There are two ITF Grade 2 tournaments this week, one in Serbia, and one in Canada.  There are no Americans in the Serbia event, but there are plenty of them in Canada, with Madison Bourguignon and Dasha Ivanova the top two seeds in the girls 32-player draw.  Bourguignon served as a practice partner for Tornado Alicia Black last week in Black's run to the final, as both train at L'Academie de Tennis in Boynton Beach, Florida. Seong Chan Hong of Korea is the top seed, with Michael Mmoh(2), Dan Kerznerman(4) and Alex Rybakov(5) the top-seeded Americans.  After this tournament, the ITF fall circuit in the US begins, with the Grade 5 in Waco, the Grade 4 in Wichita Falls, and the big Grade B1 in Tulsa, which I will again be covering live.