My Conversation with Four-Time NCAA Champion Eudice Chong; Eight US Men Advance at Wimbledon Qualifying, Nine US Women Start Play Tuesday; Rybakov Earns Second Straight Futures Title

Last week I had an opportunity to talk with Eudice Chong, who this year made NCAA tennis history by becoming the first player to win four NCAA singles titles.  Chong, who graduated from Wesleyan last month, reached the semifinals of the $25,000 ITF Women's Circuit tournament in Hong Kong, where Chong grew up and now lives and trains. We spoke about her training and coaching situation, her summer schedule, why she chose Division III despite a desire to try pro tennis after graduation, among many other topics, for this Tennis Recruiting Network article. Chong will be receiving the Honda Division III Athlete of the Year award tonight in Los Angeles. The CBS Sports Network will be televising the event at 9 p.m. EDT.

The first round of Wimbledon men's qualifying was completed today at Roehampton, with US men going 8-5.  Probably the most impressive result was Stefan Kozlov's 6-3, 6-1 win over Dustin Brown of Germany, which took only 52 minutes. Brown's net-rushing game is well-suited to grass and he defeated Rafael Nadal at in the second round at Wimbledon in 2015.  Michael Mmoh and Reilly Opelka were the winners of the two all-US matches today.  2017 boys champion Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain won his opening match, beating British junior Aidan McHugh, a wild card, 6-2, 6-4.

Monday's Wimbledon first round men's singles qualifying results featuring Americans:

Christian Harrison def. Goncalo Oliveira(POR) 6-3, 6-1
Dennis Novikov def. Calvin Hemery[18](FRA) 5-1, ret.
Ruben Bemelmans[2](BEL) def. Christopher Eubanks 6-4, 6-4
Donald Young[21] def. Max Purcell(AUS) 6-3, 6-2
Luca Vanni(ITA) def. Kevin King 6-2, 6-2
Adam Pavlasek[26](CZE) def. Evan King 6-3, 6-4
Stefan Kozlov def. Dustin Brown(GER) 6-3, 6-1
Michael Mmoh[19] def. Noah Rubin 7-6(6), 6-2
Reilly Opelka  def. Mitchell Krueger 5-7, 6-3, 6-4
Bjorn Fratangelo[14] def. Hiroki Moriya(JPN) 7-6(5), 6-1
Bradley Klahn def. Ricardo Ojeda Lara(ESP) 6-3, 6-2

The first round of women's singles qualifying matches are first up on Tuesday, with none of the nine Americans playing another American.

Francesca Di Lorenzo v Jing-Jing Lu(CHN)

Kristie Ahn v Daniela Seguel(CHI)

Lauren Davis v Marta Kostyuk[23](UKR)

Grace Min v Bianca Andreescu(CAN)

Irina Falconi[24] v Tereza Martincova(CZE)

Nicole Gibbs[5] v Francesca Jones[WC](GBR)

Claire Liu[WC] v Amandine Hesse(FRA)

Caroline Dolehide[6] v Miyu Kato(JPN)

Jamie Loeb v Elitsa Kostova(BUL)

Tuesday's men's second round qualifying matches featuring Americans:

Stefan Kozlov v Yannick Maden[20](GER)

Bradley Klahn v Antoine Hoang(FRA)

Christian Harrison v Dennis Novikov

Donald Young[21] v Dennis Novak(AUT)

Bjorn Fratangelo[14] v James Ward[WC](GBR)

Reilly Opelka v Hubert Hurkacz[11](POL)

Michael Mmoh[19] v Mohamed Safwat(EGY)

Tuesday's schedule is available here.

I posted last night before I knew if the final of the $15,000 Futures in Rochester New York was going to be finished after a rain interruption, but it was, and Alex Rybakov finished off his second straight Futures title with a 6-1, 7-6(6) win over unseeded Markos Kalovelonis of Russia. Serving at 5-6 in the second set, Rybakov was down 0-40, but he saved all three sets points to get into the tiebreaker, which he won after falling behind 5-2. After winning the $25,000 Futures in Buffalo last week, the TCU rising senior should now break into the ATP Top 500 for the first time when the points are added next week.