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Thursday, June 13, 2019

Subhash Reaches Quarterfinals at Sumter $25K; Top Seed Redlicki Ousted in Wichita $25K; USTA National Campus Will Search for New Director of Tennis; Blue Chip McKennon Chooses Arizona State

University of Virginia rising freshman Natasha Subhash lost in the second round of this spring's Easter Bowl ITF and Carson Grade 1, and her junior ranking, once as high as 26 and consistently in the Top 50 last year, dropped outside the Top 100. But the 17-year-old from Virginia found her form in the past two months on the Pro Circuit, where she won her first ITF World Tennis Tour event at the $15,000 tournament in Williamsburg Virginia last month, and reached the final of the $25,000 tournament in Bethany Beach last week. Subhash is continuing to post impressive results this week at the $25,000 tournament in Sumter South Carolina. Today she had to play both her first and second round matches and she won both, beating No. 4 seed Tereza Mihalikova of Slovakia, the 2015 Australian Open girls champion, 6-3, 6-2 and then posting a 6-2, 7-6(5) win over Gergana Topalova of Bulgaria. Subhash will face No. 6 seed Dea Herdzelas of Bosnia in Friday's quarterfinals.

Top seed Usue Arconada, who beat Subhash in the Bethany Beach final Sunday, advanced with a 6-4, 6-4 win over qualifier Petia Arshinkova of Bulgaria and will play No. 8 seed Vicky Duval, who dropped only two games to qualifier Carson Branstine of Canada in her second round win. Duval is playing her first tournament since last October due to injury. Wild card Kate Fahey, the recent Michigan graduate, will play No. 5 seed Sophie Chang in another all-US quarterfinal. Seventeen-year-old Hailey Baptiste, the No. 2 seed, defeated Hayley Carter, North Carolina's 2016 NCAA singles finalist, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. She will play unseeded Marcela Zacarias of Mexico, who beat No. 7 seed Katie Volynets 6-3, 6-1.

At the $25,000 men's Pro Circuit event in Wichita, Jacob Dunbar(Richmond) surprised top seed Martin Redlicki(UCLA) 6-4, 7-6(4) in today's second round action. Dunbar will play the winner of tonight's match between Michigan rising sophomore Andrew Fenty and No. 7 seed Evan Zhu(UCLA).

An American is already guaranteed to be the Wichita champion, with the last of the international players in the draw eliminated today.  No. 3 seed Brandon Holt(USC) will face No. 6 seed Oliver Crawford(Florida) in a current collegian battle, while Texas A&M graduate and No. 5 seed Jordi Arconada will play Florida rising sophomore Sam Riffice, the No. 4 seed. Rice rising junior Sumit Sarkar defeated No. 8 seed Mark Whitehouse of Great Britain 7-6(6), 2-6, 6-2 to advance to a quarterfinal meeting with No. 2 seed Alexander Ritschard(Virginia).

The USTA announced today that Kathy Woods will be stepping down from her position as Director of Tennis at the USTA's National Campus in Lake Nona at the end of the year. The press release says a national search for her replacement will begin in the next several weeks.

Max McKennon, a blue chip in the 2020 recruiting class, announced last month that he had committed to Arizona State. In 2017, the Arizona State men's program was reinstated after an eight-year absence, and they have made the NCAA tournament both years, winning their first NCAA tournament match since 2004 this year. McKennon explains why he decided on the Sun Devils over the highly ranked Pac-12 and Big 12 schools that recruited him in this Tennis Recruiting Network article.

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