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Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Five Pre Qualifiers Earn Spots in ITA All-American Championships; Loeb, Lenz Top Seeds; Kozlov Reaches Quarterfinals at Napa



The qualifying for the ITA All-American Championships is over and the main draws are out, with the men's first round beginning at 8 a.m. Thursday in Tulsa.

One woman and four men made it through two grueling rounds of qualifying to earn a place in the main draw.   University of Florida freshman Josie Kuhlman won three rounds in the pre qualifying over the weekend, then two matches yesterday and one today in qualifying, today's victory coming over qualifying No. 2 seed Taylor Davidson of Stanford 6-4, 7-6(3).  The other seven qualifiers on the women's side were Kuhlman's teammate Brooke Austin, also a freshman, Sydney Campbell of Vanderbilt, Klara Fabikova and Maegan Manasse of Cal, Rachel Pierson and Saska Gavrilovska of Texas A&M, and Caroline Doyle of Stanford.  Davidson also made it into the main draw as a lucky loser.

NCAA champion Danielle Collins of Virginia, who was originally entered, is no longer in the main draw due to tendinitis in her wrist, and Francis Altick of Vanderbilt was a late scratch, opening a spot for Davidson.  Top 20 players Beatrice Capra of Duke and Sabrina Santamaria of Southern Cal were not on the original entry list.

Jamie Loeb of North Carolina will be defending her title as the top seed.  NCAA champions Erin Routliffe and Maya Jansen of Alabama are the top seeds in the doubles competition. The women's singles seeds:

1. Jamie Loeb, North Carolina
2. Robin Anderson, UCLA
3. Hayley Carter, North Carolina
4. Julia Elbaba, Virginia
5. Lauren Herring, Georgia
6. Channelle Van Nguyen, UCLA
7. Lynn Chi, Cal
8. Silvia Garcia, Georgia

The draws are available at the ITA hub page.

The four men who advanced through pre qualifying with six wins in the past five days are Jonathan Ho of Wake Forest, Jack Murray of North Carolina, Tomas Stillman of Texas-San Antonio and AJ Catanzariti.  Catanzariti, being an unseeded freshman, did not have a pre qualifying bye, so he has won seven singles matches in the past five days.  The other 12 men's qualifiers: Piotr Lomacki, Miami;  Thais Kwiatkowski, Virginia; Quentin Monaghan, Notre Dame; Sebastian Stiefelmeyer, Louisville; Ralf Steinbach, Ohio State; Dominik Koepfer, Tulane; Albert Wagner, Louisville; Adrien Berkowicz, Texas; Andre Goransson, Cal; Nicolas Alvarez, Duke; Ben Lott, Drake and Denys Pume, UNLV.

Julian Lenz of Baylor is the top seed, but defending champion Mitchell Frank of Virginia was a late withdrawal and is not in the draw.  John Morrissey and Maciek Romanowicz of Stanford were also originally among the entrants, but are not playing.  The three lucky losers in their places are Gordon Watson of Florida, Bruno Semenzato of Duke and Andreas Bjerrehus of Virginia Tech.  Brayden Schnur of North Carolina withdrew quite some time ago, and Farris Gosea of Illinois, another Top 10 player, is competing in ITF men's circuit events this fall.  The top doubles seeds are defending champions Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese of Tennessee.

The men's singles seeds:
1. Julian Lenz, Baylor,
2. Yannick Hanfmann, Southern Cal
3. Axel Alvarez Llamas, Oklahoma
4. Soren Hess-Olesen, Texas
5. Jared Hiltzik, Illinois
6. Winston Lin, Columbia
7. Gonzales Austin, Vanderbilt
8. Harrison Adams, Texas A&M
9. Austin Smith, Georgia,
9. Nathan Pasha, Georgia
9. Denis Nguyen, Harvard
9. Mackenzie McDonald, UCLA
9. Dane Webb, Oklahoma
9. Amerigo Contini, Virginia Tech
9. Shane Vinsant, Texas A&M
9. Roberto Cid, South Florida

For all draws and a link to live scoring see the ITA's tournament hub page.

At the $100,000 Sacramento Challenger today, 16-year-old Stefan Kozlov reached the quarterfinals, defeating former Tennessee All American JP Smith of Australia 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.  Kozlov will play another former Volunteer, Rhyne Williams, on Friday. Williams defeated Wayne Odesnik 6-4, 4-2 ret. to advance to the quarterfinals. Tim Smyczek(2) and Denis Kudla(5) also won Wednesday to set up a quarterfinal meeting.

4 comments:

Thanks said...

Colette, any update on Noah Rubin? And why he's not in the All-American draw?

Lisa Stone said...

Colette, any word from some of these top college players as to why they aren't playing this tournament? I get the ones who are injured, but why are the others skipping it? Do you think the no-ad scoring has anything to do with their decision?

Priorities said...

I know several top players not there because they are in the middle of midterms. All Americans are great, but so is passing your classes. A week at this point in the term for some is brutal.

Maybe the freshman didn't want to deal with qualifying - it is a long road from PQs and again, a lot of time out of class.

general sherman said...

lisa,
besides mitchell frank( who won the all americans twice) and just played in the Scarameto Challenger and lost final round of quallies, Brayden Schnur ( might be taking the Fall off but might be taking the year off), Farris Gosea( who knows..who cares), and Noah Rubin( probably didn't want to play quallies)….everyone else showed up for Tulsa. here's the format: singles..best two out of three ( no ad)…dbls..best two out of three..no ad… with a 10 point tb in third…you are making a mountain …out of a mole hill…save it for another battle in the war….great tennis is being played in tulsa …come out and cheer on college tennis