Qualifying Complete, Main Draw Matches Underway at Orlando Men's and Women's $25Ks; Bellis Wins Again, Di Lorenzo Retires at Houston's WTA 125; UCLA's Smith Advances to Third Round at Champaign Challenger

This week's $25,000 tournaments are being play on the Har-Tru courts of the USTA's National Campus in Lake Nona Florida, as a part of the the Oracle Pro Series. The women's tournament was always on the schedule for Orlando, but the men were originally scheduled for their $25,000 event this week in Tuscaloosa Alabama. That has been cancelled and the men's event added to the women's event this week.

Qualifying was completed today, with just one American man and three American women earning places in the main draw. Recent Florida graduate Alfredo Perez lost only one game in his two qualifying wins, beating top qualifying seed Mwendwa Mbithi 6-0, 6-0 today to advance to the main draw. The US women moving into the main draw with wins today are Chanelle Van Nguyen(UCLA), Dasha Ivanova and Tori Kinard.

Wild cards into the women's draw were awarded to teenagers Carly Briggs, Alexandra Yepifanova and Elvina Kalieva, as well as former Duke star Maria Mateas. All three of the junior wild cards lost their first round matches today. Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands is the top seed. The 28-year-old from the Netherlands has won nine titles at the $25,000 level this year and is now back in the WTA Top 100 after reaching a career-high of 61 back in 2012. Claire Liu and Alycia Parks are the only other Americans, aside from the qualifiers and wild cards in the main draw.

Wild cards into the men's draw all went to teenagers: Toby Kodat, Martin Damm, Emilio Nava and North Carolina recruit Logan Zapp. Nava and Zapp met today in the first round, with Nava coming away with a 1-6, 6-4, 7-5 win. Kodat and Damm both play qualifiers in the first round Wednesday. 

The top seed was twice a point away from going out in the first round today, with 20-year-old Javier Barranco Cosano of Spain saving two match points serving at 3-5 in the third set and going on to defeat former LSU Tiger Justin Butsch 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(1).

Francesa Di Lorenzo's opportunity to earn the USTA's Australian Open wild card was hijacked this evening in Houston, when the former Ohio State star was forced to retired with a shoulder injury in her second round WTA 125 match with Canadian Eugenie Bouchard. No. 8 seed Di Lorenzo, who was in second place in the race after winning a title earlier this month in Toronto, trails Katerina Stewart in this final week of competition for the wild card. There are a number of other Americans in the Houston draw who can still pass Stewart, who is not playing this week, including Cici Bellis, who is into the third round with a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(5) win over No. 16 seed Varvara Lepchenko, her third win in three days.

At the ATP Challenger 80 in Champaign Illinois, UCLA junior Keegan Smith, a wild card, earned his best ranking win, defeating former Baylor standout Roy Smith, the No. 16 seed, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) to advance to the third round of a Challenger for the first time.  He will face No. 4 seed Mikael Torpegaard(Ohio State) of Denmark next.

Denis Kudla is the top seed and he will take on Stefan Kozlov in the second round Wednesday.

Last night, Brandon Nakashima kept his hopes alive for the USTA's Australian Open wild card, although he will have to win the tournament in Champaign to pass Michael Mmoh. Nakashima defeated Strong Kirchheimer(Northwestern) 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-1 and will play No. 6 seed Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech) tomorrow. Free live streaming, with Mike Cation doing commentary, is available at the ATP Challenger website.