Wimbledon Qualifying Begins Monday with Seven US Men in Draw; Thompson Wins Mexico Futures; More Juniors Take ITF Pro Circuit Titles

Wimbledon qualifying begins Monday at Roehampton with the men's first round matches. Seven US players are attempting to reach the main draw, all of them 25 years old or younger.  Three are seeded, with Austin Krajicek No. 13, Bjorn Fratangelo No. 18 and Ryan Harrison No. 24.  Jarmere Jenkins plays Evgeny Donskoy of Russia, Fratangelo plays Amir Weintraub of Israel and Dennis Novikov plays No. 23 seed Paul- Henri Mathieu of France. Harrison's first round opponent is Guido Andreozzi of Argentina and Krajicek plays Yannick Mertens of Belgium, while Chase Buchanan meets Tristan Lamasine of France and Jared Donaldson faces No. 14 seed Ivan Dodig of Croatia.  It should be mentioned that Jason Jung is in the draw, but in the past month he has been playing under the flag of Taiwan rather than that of the US.

For the complete order of play, see the Wimbledon website. Draws with the players' names and countries are available here.

The final wild cards were announced today, with Denis Kudla getting the last men's main draw wild card as expected.  Three men's qualifying wild cards were not awarded, although Stefan Kozlov, last year's boys finalist, said on twitter that he requested one. Instead, the next three players on the list got in.  After giving a women's wild card to Laura Robson, who is returning after being out with an injury for more than a year, the club did not award the final three women's wild cards, putting three players--Elizaveta Kulichkova of Russia, Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic and Misaki Doi of Japan--into the main draw and out of qualifying.

The full list of wild cards is available here.

In Mexico, 2014 UCLA grad Clay Thompson won his first pro title at the $10,000 tournament in Manzanillo. Thompson won three rounds in qualifying and five main draw matches all in straight sets, beating 19-year-old Lucas Gomez of Mexico, the No. 8 seed, 6-2, 6-3 in the final.

In the USTA Pro Circuit finals today, No. 6 seed Kaichi Uchida of Japan won the $10,000 Buffalo Futures singles title, beating No. 8 seed Maximiliano Estevez of Argentina 6-4, 6-1 in the final.

The $25,000 women's Pro Circuit tournament in Sumter, SC had a bruising final, with No. 3 seed Mayo Hibi of Japan defeating No. 5 seed Lauren Embree 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.  Embree led 4-1 and was serving in the final set of the three-hour match, but Hibi managed to fight back in the 97 degree heat for the victory.

Two juniors won ITF Pro Circuit title yesterday--Marketa Vondrousova and Sumit Nagal--and five more juniors claimed titles today.

Anastasiya Komardina of Russia won the $25,000 tournament in Uzbekistan, with the unseeded 17-year-old defeating No. 3 seed Sabina Sharipova of Uzbekistan 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 in the final.

Eighteen-year-old Darya Kasatkina of Russia, last year's French Open girls champion, won her second consecutive $25,000 tournament in Minsk, Belarus. The No. 2 seed defeated 17-year-old qualifier Iryna Shymanovich of Belarus 6-1, 6-1 in the final.

In $10,000 tournaments, US Open girls champion Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic, 16, won both the singles and doubles in Mauritius.

Seventeen-year-old Australian Sara Tomic, younger sister of Bernard Tomic, won her first pro circuit title in Egypt after reaching the final last week and the semifinals the week before.

The youngest winner this week was 15-year-old Katarina Zavatska of Ukraine, who won the $10,000 tournament in Georgia.

And although not a junior, there was a notable winner in the Victoria British Columbia $10,000 ITF women's circuit event, with Gail Brodsky, as a qualifier, taking the title. Brodsky, now 24 and a mother, started her comeback in the Intermountain section's US Open National Playoffs, winning that. Brodsky defeated top seed Naomi Totka of Hungary 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(3) in the final.