Seventeen Americans Begin Qualifying for Australian Open Wednesday; Rain Disrupts Final Round of USTA Pro Circuit Qualifying in Long Beach and Daytona Beach $25Ks

Qualifying for the Australian Open begins on Wednesday (tonight in the United States) with 17 American men vying for a spot in the main draw.  Three will be eliminated in the first round with three all-American matches scheduled: Bjorn Fratangelo plays Mitchell Krueger, Mackenzie McDonald faces Noah Rubin and Christian Harrison takes on Reilly Opelka.  The 14 matches featuring Americans are listed below.

Taylor Fritz[1] v Sam Groth(AUS)

Bjorn Fratangelo[4] v Mitchell Krueger

Stefan Kozlov v Blake Ellis[WC}(AUS)

Evan King v Yannick Hanfmann[10](GER)

Christian Harrison v Reilly Opelka

Tommy Paul v Blaz Rola(SLO)

Dennis Novikov v Marinko Matosevic[WC](AUS)

Bradley Klahn v Ramkumar Ramanathan[28](IND)

Ernesto Escobedo[11] v Pablo Andujar(ESP)

Alexander Sarkissian v Stefan Napolitano(ITA)

Michael Mmoh v Andrew Whittington(AUS)

Mackenzie McDonald v Noah Rubin

Denis Kudla v Roberto Carballes Baena[7](ESP)

Kevin King v Uladzimir Ignatik[31](BLR)

Players with college ties number 14 this year, with seven of those Americans listed above:

Marcelo Arevalo(ESA) Tulsa

JP Smith(AUS) Tennessee

Yannick Hanfmann[10](GER) USC

Evan King(USA) Michigan

Blaz Rola(SLO) Ohio State

Dennis Novikov(USA) UCLA

Bradley Klahn(USA) Stanford

Cameron Norrie[6](GBR) TCU

Alexander Sarkissian(USA) Pepperdine

Mackenzie McDonald(USA) UCLA

Noah Rubin(USA) Wake Forest

Brayden Schnur(CAN) North Carolina

Jason Jung(TPE) Michigan

Kevin King(USA) Georgia Tech

I don't see any indication that the qualifying is going to be streamed this year, but maybe I'm just missing it.  For the complete men's draw, see the tournament website.  Women's qualifying begins on Thursday (Wednesday night in the US). 

Rain in Southern California has made a mess of the qualifying for the $25,000 Long Beach Futures, with no matches played on Monday and rain continuing to postpone play today.  The top two seeds are both wild cards: No. 1 is Austin Krajicek and No. 2 is Marcos Giron. The other two wild cards went to USC's Jack Jaede of Australia and Tanner Smith.  Last week's champion Karue Sell of Brazil did not have to qualify this week and will play Yann Marti of Switzerland in the first round. Krajicek faces DJ Thomas in his opening match, while Giron gets 2013 Kalamazoo 18s champion Collin Altamirano.

Rain is also delaying the completion of the qualifying for the first women's Pro Circuit event of 2018, the $25,000 tournament in Daytona Beach Florida.  Chanelle Van Nguyen(UCLA) defeated Ingrid Neel(Florida) 6-1, 6-0 before the rain interrupted play, and Florida senior Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan also reached the main draw, beating No. 14 seed Marine Partaud of France 6-2, 6-0.  Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine is the top seed, with Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway is the No. 2 seeds.  Wild cards were given to Jada Robinson, Alycia Parks, Amanda Rodgers and Alexandra Perper of Moldova.

The $15,000 Futures in Naples Florida has not had rain disruptions, with qualifying completed on Monday and four first round matches played today. Trent Bryde, Michigan senior Alex Knight, Samuel Shropshire (Northwestern) and Elliott Orkin are the American qualifiers.  Wake Forest teammates Skander Mansouri of Tunisia and Petros Chrysochos of Cyprus have qualified and drawn each other in the first round.  The top seed in the main draw is Javier Marti of Spain.  Ryan Shane(Virginia), the No. 2 seed, was beaten today by Raleigh Smith 5-7, 6-3, 6-1. Wild cards went to Vasil Kirkov, Jesse Witten(Kentucky), Collin Johns and Santiago Hinojosa of Mexico.