Pro Circuit Update; Odds and Ends from Everywhere

The two Pro Circuit events this week have reached the quarterfinal stage, with the women at a USTA $10,000 event in Charlotte, North Carolina and the men at an ITF $15,000 event in Charlottesville, Virginia.

In North Carolina, two wild cards, a qualifier and a lucky loser have made it to the last eight.  Fifteen-year-old Kayla Day, who had beaten the top seed on Tuesday, again came from a set down to advance, this time over qualifier Caroline Lampl, a Stanford recruit, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. Day will play lucky loser Kourtney Keegan, a rising junior at Florida, who defeated Georgia's Ellen Perez, a qualifier, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.

The only seed in the top half, No. 4 Carla Lucero of Argentina, will play qualifier Lauren Herring, the recent Georgia graduate. Herring has now won five matches in this tournament, all in straight sets.

Wild card Caroline Price, the recent UNC graduate, will play No. 5 seed Renata Zarazua of Mexico and Virginia recruit Sophie Chang will face No. 2 seed Alexandra Mueller.

In Virginia, Collin Altamirano will play No. 6 seed Sekou Bangoura and No. 3 seed Tennys Sandgren and No. 5 seed Rhyne Williams, former Tennessee teammates who met in the 2011 NCAA singles semifinals face off for the second week in row.

In the bottom half of the draw, No. 8 seed Ernesto Escobedo will play No. 4 seed Sanam Singh of India, and qualifier Ryan Haviland will face Hans Hach of Mexico.

At the ITF Grade 1 in Germany, all US juniors have been eliminated in singles, with Megan Kelley reaching the third round but losing today. Olivia Hauger has reached the doubles semifinals, with Jade Lewis of New Zealand.

Hauger trains at Tucker Tennis Academy in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which received the USTA's Team USA award for Best Development Program for 2014.  For more on the TTA, one of five USTA Regional Training Centers, check out its new website.

Speaking of development, last week I ran across this AP article on athletic development programs in the United States, which features comments from new USTA General Manager of Player Development Martin Blackman.

The USTA has introduced Wild Card tournaments for the boys and girls 18s Nationals, which are scheduled for July 20-23 in Arlington, Texas. Lisa Stone at Parenting Aces has details on the tournaments.

For an article about the Longines 12-and-under event, this year for boys, in Paris during the French Open, I stumbled across this one about the British runner-up.

Here's an update on Reilly Opelka, post-French Open Juniors.

I was reminded today by Dave 'The Koz' Kozlowski of the NCAA's Elite 89 award, which is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average participating at the finals site for each of the 89 NCAA sports.

At this year's Division I NCAAs in Waco, the awards went to Drake's Alen Salibasic and Kentucky's Aldila Sutjiadi.  The Koz spoke with Salibasic about this award, his second, and his career at Drake in this interview. The list of all Elite 89 winners is here.