Montgomery, Dolehide and Arconada Receive Western & Southern Open Qualifying Wild Cards for Thursday's Start; US Open Doubles Fields, Wild Cards Released; UCLA Coaching Legend Glenn Bassett Dies

Qualifying for the Western & Southern Open begins on Thursday at the USTA Billie Jean King Tennis Center in New York, and several young American women, who were not originally announced as participants, have received wild cards. Francesca Di Lorenzo, Shelby Rogers and Russia's Anna Kalinskaya moved into the qualifying draw on their own rankings, with Robin Montgomery, Caroline Dolehide and Usue Arconada receiving the wild cards that had initially been awarded to Di Lorenzo, Rogers and Kalinskaya.  The women's qualifying draw is here.

Matches begin at 11 a.m. Thursday, with five US Open courts--17, 10, 7, 9, 15--hosting the 24 women's first round matches. Of the American teens in action, Montgomery will face No. 10 seed Sorana Cirstea of Romania; Katie Volynets, the 2018 USTA 18s champion, will play No. 19 seed Monica Puig of Puerto Rico. The only other teenager in the qualifying, 17-year-old Leylah Fernandez of Canada, plays No. 2 seed Anna Blinkova of Russia.  WTA Lexington finalist Jil Teichmann of Switzerland is the top seed in qualifying. 

The men's qualifying is also beginning Thursday, on Grandstand and Courts 11, 12, 14, 8. Denis Kudla is one of four alternates to receive entry into qualifying. Wild card Brandon Nakashima plays No. 21 seed Marton Fucsovics of Hungary and former Ohio State star JJ Wolf, also a wild card, takes on Egor Gerasimov of Belarus. Wild cards Sebastian Korda and Michael Mmoh face No. 15 seed Attila Balazs of Hungary and No. 7 seed Jordan Thompson of Australia respectively. The men's qualifying draw is here. The men's top seed in qualifying is Gilles Simon of France.

The Western & Southern announced tonight that two players were withdrawn from the tournament due to the positive Covid-19 test of a non-player announced by the USTA on Wednesday. Here is the explanation, and although no names were given in the release, it has been reported on Twitter that they are Guido Pella of Argentina and Hugo Dellien of Bolivia, and the non-player is a physio they both use.

Yesterday, the Western & Southern Open and US Open Medical Team learned that an individual (non-player) tested positive for COVID-19 within the Western & Southern Open and US Open controlled environment. That individual is currently isolating for 10 days. After initiating the internal contact tracing process, it was determined that two players have been in close and prolonged contact with this individual. The players are not experiencing any symptoms. However, with input from the Western & Southern Open and US Open Medical Team, and in consultation with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, those two players have been removed from the 2020 Western & Southern Open and are currently under quarantine.

The US Open doubles fields and wild cards were announced today, with the big news that the Bryan brothers are not among the entrants this year. They have not provided a statement, but everyone hopes that they will not retire, as was previously planned, after the US Open. All tennis fans would love to see them one last time in New York in 2021. The men's doubles field is listed here and the women's doubles field is listed here.

The wild cards for the doubles include several men who are not in the singles draw, but who now have an opportunity to serve as alternates: Ernesto Escobedo, Noah Rubin(Wake Forest) and Chris Eubanks(Georgia Tech).

Here are the wild cards:

Kim Clijsters(BEL) and Hailey Baptiste

Ann Li and Bernarda Pera

Christina McHale and Usue Arconada

Jessica Pegula and Shelby Rogers

Chris Eubanks(Georgia Tech) and Mackenzie McDonald(UCLA)

Ernesto Escobedo and Noah Rubin(Wake Forest)

Ryan Harrison and Christian Harrison

Nicholas Monroe(North Carolina) and Nathaniel Lammons(SMU)

Glenn Bassett, a Pac-12 coaching legend at UCLA, passed away yesterday at the age of 93. Bassett, who coached the men's team from 1967-93, won seven NCAA titles for the Bruins, with Jimmy Connors among the NCAA singles champions he coached. Billy Martin, who was Bassett's assistant for ten years before taking over as head coach, also won an NCAA singles title when playing for Bassett. UCLA has had only two men's tennis coaches in the past 53 years, remarkable, but several years short of Georgia, which has had only two men's tennis coaches in the past 65 years: Dan Magill 1954-88 and Manny Diaz 1989-present.

For more on Bassett's stellar coaching career, see this article from the UCLA website.