Twenty-Five Americans Receive Direct Entry into US Open; This Week's USTA Pro Circuit Events in Berkeley and Iowa City; New Oracle Challenger Set for Chicago

The US Open announced its entry lists today, with 11 American men and 14 American women accepted into the main draw of the year's last major, which begins Monday August 27.

The American men receiving direct acceptances, with a cutoff of 101:
John Isner
Jack Sock
Sam Querrey
Frances Tiafoe
Steve Johnson
Ryan Harrison
Tennys Sandgren
Jared Donaldson
Taylor Fritz
Mackenzie McDonald
Denis Kudla

The American women receiving direct acceptances, with a cutoff of 101:
Sloane Stephens
Serena Williams
Venus Williams
Madison Keys
Coco Vandeweghe
Danielle Collins
Taylor Townsend
Sonya Kenin
Alison Riske
Jennifer Brady
Sachia Vickery
Bernarda Pera
Cici Bellis
Christina McHale

Caroline Dolehide is the first alternate, so she is likely to move into the main draw as well.

One of the eight main draw wild cards will go to the winner of the USTA's US Open Wild Card Challenge, which is in week two of the five weeks designated for results that count in the race.  Jessica Pegula and Collin Altamirano are the current leaders, with the US women competing in a $60,000 event this week in Berkeley and the US men in the $75,000 ATP Challenger in Gatineau Canada.

Sonya Kenin, who does not need the USO wild card, is the top seed in Berkeley, Nicole Gibbs(Stanford), who does, is the No. 2 seeds. Both have advanced to the second round, as has former Cal star Maegan Manasse, a wild card, No. 4 seed Kristie Ahn(Stanford), No. 5 seed Jamie Loeb(UNC), Emina Bektas(Michigan), Ashley Kratzer, Maria Sanchez(USC) and Danielle Lao(USC).

American men remaining in Gatineau are Bradley Klahn and Ernesto Escobedo, who advanced to the quarterfinals with wins today.

The women also have an event in Gatineau, a $25,000 ITF Women's Pro Circuit tournament, with Arina Rodionova of Australia the top seed. Robin Anderson(UCLA) has advanced to the second round, and wild card Alicia Barnett, a former Northwestern Wildcat from Great Britain, picked up her best career win as a pro, beating No. 2 seed and WTA No. 153 Olivia Rogowska of Australia 6-0, 6-1 in second round action today.

The USTA Pro Circuit event this week for men is a $25,000 Futures in Iowa City, Iowa, where Evgeny Karlovskiy of Russia is the top seed. Karlovskiy, who plays qualifier Felix Corwin in the second round Thursday, won the Wichita Futures and the Winnetka Challenger in the past two weeks. Other Americans into the second round are Altamirano(UVA), Strong Kirchheimer[8](Northwestern), DJ Thomas, Nick Chappell(TCU), Aron Hiltzik(Illinois) and qualifiers Alfredo Perez(Florida) and Alex Brown(Illinois).

Chicago
photo credit: Aaron Bean via unsplash

Oracle announced today it would be sponsoring a new tournament in Chicago the second week of the US Open, September 2-9, 2018. Oracle's first foray into these Challenger events was this spring, where two tournaments were held prior to the BNP Paribas Open, with the player with the most points from the two events getting a main draw wild card.  Like those tournaments, this one will feature equal prize money for men and women, $150,000.  Qualifying draws are for 16 players, with the main draws 32 players.  For more on Oracle's new event, see the press release.