Australian Open Draws; Six American Men Reach Final Round of Qualifying at AO, US Women Go 6-2 in First Round; Sad News in College Tennis

The main draw was revealed for the Australian Open this evening (Friday morning in Melbourne) with 16 US women and nine US men.

The US women are: Serena Williams[2], Venus Williams[13], Vania King, Alison Riske, Madison Brengle, Shelby Rogers, Nicole Gibbs, Louisa Chirico, Lauren Davis, Samantha Crawford, Christina McHale, Varvara Lepchenko, Anna Tatishvili, CoCo Vandeweghe, Irina Falconi and Kayla Day.  US Open girls champion Day, who won the USTA's reciprocal wild card last fall, will play Andrea Petkovic of Germany in the first round.

Two of the first round matches are between Americans, with Davis and Crawford and Riske and Brengle meeting in their openers.

Complete women's draw is here.

The US men are: John Isner[19], Jack Sock[23], Sam Querrey[31], Donald Young, Taylor Fritz, Ryan Harrison, Steve Johnson, Jared Donaldson and Michael Mmoh.  Kalamazoo champion Mmoh, who won the USTA's reciprocal wild card last fall, will play No. 25 seed Gilles Simon of France. Taylor Fritz has drawn Gilles Muller of Luxembourg.

Complete men's draw is here.

The women's second round of qualifying is underway at the Australian Open and the second round of the men's qualifying will be completed, with both final rounds set for Saturday (Friday night in the United States.)

Five of the ten US men remaining played their matches Thursday and all won.

Frances Tiafoe[2] def. Yannik Reuter(BEL) 6-4, 6-0
Dennis Kudla[18] def. Darian King(BAR) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4
Bjorn Frantangelo[6] def. Stefanos Tsitsipas(GRE) 4-6, 6-1, 6-3
Tim Smyczek[25] def. Mohamed Safwat(EGY) 6-4, 6-3
Ernesto Escobedo[21] def. Tatsuma Ito(JPN) 6-1, 6-3

Smyczek and Tiafoe will play Saturday for a place in the main draw, with Fratangelo facing Hiroki Moriya of Japan, Escobedo meeting Yuki Bhambri of India and Kudla playing No. 10 seed Lukas Lacko of Slovakia.

Friday's men's second round matches for Americans, with Rubin an early winner:

Luca Vanni(ITA) def. Alex Sarkissian 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
Noah Rubin def. Roberto Carballes Baena[32](ESP)  6-4, 3-6, 6-2
Marcelo Arevalo(ESA) v. Rajeev Ram[20]
Mitchell Krueger v. Reilly Opelka

US women went 6-2 in Thursday's first round matches in Melbourne.

Lina Gjorcheska(MKD) def. Sachia Vickery[18] 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
Jennifer Brady[4] def. Victoria Kamenskaya(RUS) 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-3
Taylor Townsend[14] def. Tereza Smitkova(CZE) 6-0, 7-6(2)
Julia Boserup[6] def. Ayumi Morita(JPN) 6-1, 6-2
Jamie Loeb def. Shuko Aoyama(JPN) 6-4, 6-4
Bethanie Mattek-Sands def. Silvia Soler-Espinosa[10](ESP) 6-3, 6-0
Barbora Krejcikova(CZE) def. Asia Muhammad 6-3, 4-6, 6-2
Jennifer Elie def. Catalina Pella(ARG) 6-1, 7-5

Friday's second round matches for American women, three of which were completed early Friday in Melbourne:

Jennifer Brady[4] def. Barbora Stefkova(CZE) 6-7(2), 6-4, 6-1
Taylor Townsend[14] def. Francoise Abanda(CAN) 6-4, 6-4
Julia Boserup[6] def. Julia Glushko(ISR) 6-2, 3-6, 6-2
Rebecca Sramkova[7](SVK) v. Jamie Loeb
Bethanie Mattek-Sands v. Amandine Hesse(FRA)
Lin Zhu[12](CHN) v. Jennifer Elie 

Qualifying draws can be found at ausopen.com.

Sad news from the University of Miami(Ohio), which announced yesterday that Erin Rodriguez, a junior on the women's tennis team, had passed away on Tuesday.  Rodriguez is survived by her younger brother Matthew, also an outstanding junior tennis player, who has verbally committed to Oklahoma.  All of us in the junior and college tennis community extend our condolences to Erin's family, friends and teammates.