17 Americans Begin Play Monday at Wimbledon; Seven of 16 US Juniors Bow Out in Roehampton ITF G1 First Round; Smith Takes Bermuda Grade 5; Norrie, Chang win Pro Circuit Titles

Wimbledon begins on Monday, with 11 American women and six American men taking the courts at the AELTC (weather permitting). The women in action are Nicole Gibbs, Madison Keys(9), Louisa Chirico, Madison Brengle, Varvara Lepchenko, Venus Williams(8), Vicky Duval, Irina Falconi, Shelby Rogers, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Samantha Crawford. The US men playing Monday are Sam Querrey(28), Denis Kudla, Jack Sock(27), Bjorn Fratangelo(Q) and Brian Baker.  I am heading to Europe Monday, and will be taking a short vacation in Germany prior to covering the Wimbledon Juniors, so I will not be able to monitor the results as closely as I usually do for a slam when I'm at home and at my computer.  I hope to post with updates on the Roehampton ITF Grade 1, the Wimbledon Junior qualifying and any big college coaching news, but I will not be able to follow the Pro Circuit here in the US like I've been doing the past few weeks.

The Roehampton tournament, which ends on Friday so that the Wimbledon Junior Championships can begin on Saturday, started today, with several seeds falling at their first grass hurdle, including both No. 3 seeds who were this year's French Junior finalists.  The boys No. 3,  Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, lost to Great Britain's Ryan Storrie 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-4 and Amanda Anisimova fell to lucky loser Ida Jarlskog of Sweden 6-2, 6-1.  No. 11 seed Benjamin Sigouin of Canada was beaten by former junior No. 1 Casper Ruud of Norway 6-3, 6-2, avenging a loss suffered on clay to Sigouin at the Eddie Herr last December, and No. 8 seed Genaro Olivieri of Argentina lost to Alistair Gray of Great Britain 6-4, 6-2. US boys advancing were No. 2 seed Ulises Blanch, No. 14 seed John McNally and qualifier Gianni Ross. Sam Riffice, JJ Wolf and qualifiers Vasil Kirkov and Trent Bryde suffered first round losses today.

In addition to Anisimova, five other girls seeds were beaten in today's first round. Taylor Johnson defeated No. 10 seed Yuki Naito of Japan 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(6), with Switzerland's Ylena In-Albon beating No. 12 seed Katarina Zavatska and Argentina's Maria Carle downing No. 16 seed Panna Udvardy of Hungary 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-4. Wild card Ali Collins of Great Britain beat No. 11 seed Kaja Juvan of Slovenia 7-5, 6-3 and Ludmilla Samsonova of Italy defeated No. 13 seed Mai Hontama of Japan 6-4, 6-4.

Michaela Gordon, Claire Liu, Kayla Day(5) and Maria Mateas join Johnson in the second round, with Alexandra Sanford and Morgan Coppoc losing their openers today.  Mateas was scheduled to play No. 2 seed and French Open girls champion Rebeka Masarova of Switzerland in the first round, but instead got a lucky loser, Daniela Vismane of Latvia.  No. 7 seed Sonya Kenin will have to finish her first round match with Tatiana Pieri of Italy on Monday, the only first round match that wasn't completed today.

At the ITF Grade 5 in Bermuda, top seed Alana Smith, 16, won her first ITF singles title, defeating qualifier Christina Sisti 6-4, 6-4 in the final. No. 8 seed Blaise Bicknell lost in the boys final to Santiago Hinojosa of Mexico 6-4, 6-2.   Robert Hammond won the boys doubles title, partnering El Salvador's Alexander Rushin for a 6-1, 6-4 win over Andy Sun of Canada and Marcus Ferreira. In the girls doubles final, No. 4 seeds Lucia De Santa Ana of Uruguay and Marina Figueiredo of Brazil defeated Sisti and Michelle Sorokko 2-6, 6-3, 10-2.

Cameron Norrie, the TCU rising junior, won the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Tulsa today, defeating 35-year-old Ryan Haviland 6-1, 6-1 in less than an hour.  It is Norrie's second Futures title, with the 20-year-old, who plays under Great Britain's flag, winning a $15,000 Futures last fall in Texas.

At the women's $25,000 event in Baton Rouge, Valeria Solovyeva of Russia won her second title since May, beating Jennifer Elie 5-7, 6-3, 6-0. Solovyeva, a finalist last week in Sumter, will no longer need to qualify for events at this level after less than two months of playing them.

No. 2 seed Kaichi Uchida of Japan won the Rochester $10,000 Futures event, the third singles title of his career, beating Juan Benitez Chavarriaga of Colombia 6-4, 6-4 in the final. The doubles title went to top seeds Hans Hach of Mexico and Gavin van Peperzeel of Australian, who beat No. 4 seeds Uchida and Damon Gooch of South Africa 7-6(5), 6-2. 

In the $25,000 Pro Circuit event in British Columbia, No. 5 seed Peter Polansky of Canada defeated No. 1 seed Jason Jung of Taiwan 6-1, 6-4 to add the singles title to the doubles title he won yesterday.

Eighteen-year-old Hanna Chang, who has been playing both ITF junior and ITF women's circuit events in the past couple of years, won her first title on the professional circuit at a $10,000 event in Korea. Chang, who was unseeded, beat the top three seeds to win the event, defeating No. 1 seed Ji-Hee Choi of Korea 6-2, 6-3 in the final.