Drummy Prepares to Join Vanderbilt in January; Volynets Advances at Florence $25K; Four Americans Teens Reach Second Round at Harlingen Futures

The Tennis Recruiting Network has begun its Countdown to Signing Day, and my contribution this week is the commitment to Vanderbilt of Ireland's Georgia Drummy.  The 18-year-old left-hander, who has been at the Evert Tennis Academy for more than two years, is finishing high school this semester and joining the Commodores for the dual match season, which begins in January.  Currently at a career-high of 35 in the ITF Junior Circuit rankings, Drummy has had the good fortune to receive input from Chris Evert while at the Academy, and Drummy told me what piece of advice resonated with her the most now that she had reached the top level of junior competition.

The USTA Pro Circuit has only two $25,000 tournaments on this week's schedule, with the women in Florence South Carolina and the men in Harlingen Texas. 

Sixteen-year-old Katie Volynets qualified for the Florence event on Tuesday, beating Mississippi's 2018 NCAA singles champion Arianne Hartono of the Netherlands 2-6, 7-6(3), 6-1 in the final round of qualifying. In today's first round, Volynets defeated former Florida star Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan 6-2, 6-3 and will face wild card Emina Bektas(Michigan) Thursday.  Bektas advanced when top seed Kristie Ahn retired trailing 7-5, 2-3. 

Other American women advancing to the second round include No. 5 seed Kayla Day, Robin Anderson(UCLA), qualifiers Hanna Chang and Louisa Chirico, No. 8 seed Maria Mateas(Duke) and Anastasia Nefedova.  Chirico defeated 16-year-old qualifier Hailey Baptiste 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(4), after Baptiste served for the match at 5-4 in the third.

In Harlingen, qualifying was completed on Monday, with Jonathan Chang(Rice) and Georgia recruit Trent Bryde the only two Americans reaching the main draw via that route. Bryde won his first round match on Tuesday, beating fellow qualifier Jacob Eskeland of Norway 7-6(3), 6-3. Other Americans teens winning first round matches are Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M), who beat No. 8 seed Joao Pedro Sorgi of Brazil 6-3, 6-1, and two wild cards, Axel Nefve, the Notre Dame freshman, and Oliver Crawford, the Florida sophomore. Crawford will face No. 2 seed Ronnie Schneider(UNC) on Thursday. The sixth American advancing to the second round is Jordi Arconada, who beat No. 4 seed Sebastian Korda 6-3, 6-1. Arconada(Texas A&M) also defeated Korda last week in the Houston Futures' second round by a 6-1, 6-3 score.

The $75,000+H ATP Challenger in Calgary Canada had five Americans in the main draw, but only one remains: Collin Altamirano. Altamirano(Virginia) defeated No. 7 seed Jay Clarke of Great Britain 7-5, 6-0 in the first round and will play Filip Peliwo of Canada later tonight for a place in the quarterfinals. Wake Forest junior and NCAA singles finalist Borna Gojo of Croatia defeated No. 3 seed Jason Jung(Michigan) of Taiwan 7-6(2), 6-2 to advance to the quarterfinals, where he'll meet the Altamirano-Peliwo winner.