Eleven American Men in Australian Open Qualifying; Day, Neel Qualify at Daytona Beach $25K; Four US Juniors Compete in Venezuela Grade 1

Qualifying for 2016's first major has begun, with 11 American men looking to earn a spot in the main draw.  Of those 11--Bjorn Fratangelo(17), Tim Smyczek(3), Daniel Nguyen, Ryan Harrison(19), Frances Tiafoe, Jared Donaldson(21), Taylor Fritz, Mitchell Krueger, Dennis Novikov(32), Tennys Sandgren and Connor Smith--ten could reach the main draw, with only Donaldson and Tiafoe in the same 1/16th, and they meet in the first round. That is unlikely of course, with only Smyczek expected to qualify according to the seedings, but Fritz has already advanced to the second round, beating Hiroki Moriya of Japan 6-3, 6-1 in under an hour.

Two junior boys were given wild cards into qualifying: 16-year-old Eddie Herr finalist and US Open boys semifinalist Alex De Minaur and 17-year-old Oliver Anderson.

The women's qualifying draw is not yet out; it will come out overnight here in the Eastern time zone, with play beginning for them Thursday(Wednesday evening here in the US).

The qualifying draws are available at the Australian Open website.

The final few main draw wild cards were announced and here are the complete lists:
Men:
James Duckworth
Matthew Ebden
Lleyton Hewitt
Omar Jasika
Jordan Thompson
Quentin Halys (FRA)
Noah Rubin (USA)
Yoshihito Nishioka (JPN)

Women:

Kimberly Birrell

Priscilla Hon 

Maddison Inglis 

Tammi Patterson 

Storm Sanders 

Samantha Crawford (USA) 

Oceane Dodin (FRA) 

Xinyun Han (CHN)

The first three Australians are juniors and all three are entered in the Australian Open Junior Championships as well. Birrell has reached the second round of the WTA Hobart tournament this week as a wild card.

Qualifying is complete at the $25,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit event in Daytona Beach, with juniors Ingrid Neel and Kayla Day advancing to the main draw.  Neel defeated Sofiya Kovalets of Ukraine 6-3, 6-1 and Day beat Jacqueline Cako 7-6(5), 6- 3.  University of Florida sophomore Brooke Austin also advanced, beating Sharon Fichman of Canada 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-4 despite 17 double faults.  Ellie Halbauer and 16-year-old Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic also qualified. CiCi Bellis, the No. 5 seed, won her first round match in the main draw, beating Natela Dzalamidze of Russia 1-6, 6-1, 6-2.  

Four US juniors have made the trip to the ITF Grade 1 in Venzuela this week. Gui Gomez, an Illinois recruit, qualified and won his first round match. Andrew Fenty won his first round match, but lost in the second round today.  Tristan McCormick defeated No. 16 seed Camilo Ugo Carabelli of Argentina 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 to advance to the third round.   Thirteen-year-old Whitney Osuigwe, the only US girl in the main draw, lost her second round match to No. 16 seed Tatiana Pieri of Italy 6-2, 7-5.