Zink Wins $25,000 Metzger Open Title; Seven Americans Advance to WTA Lexington's Final Round of Qualifying; Krueger Given Murray's USO Wild Card; Quarterfinals Set at ITA Summer Nationals

The opportunities to earn $6,000 playing tennis this summer have been severely limited by the pandemic, but University of Georgia rising sophomore Tyler Zink earned that amount today by winning the men's singles title at the UTR Metzger Clay Court Open in Harrisburg Pennsylvania. Zink, who was born in Lancaster Pennsylvania and grew up there before moving to the IMG Academy as a teenager, was the No. 4 seed at the event. He defeated No. 7 seed Chad Kissell, who is from Latrobe Pennsylvania and a 2019 Valparaiso graduate, 6-3, 6-4 in today's final.  Kissell, who earned $4000, is the younger brother of Michaela and Joelle Kissell, who were collegiate stars at Marshall and North Carolina State, respectively.

The doubles title went to former LSU stars Boris Arias and Justin Butsch, the top seeds, who defeated unseeded Colin Sinclair and Vladislav Melnic, former and current Cornell players, 6-7(4), 6-2, 10-5. 

The complete draws can be found at the tournament website.  The singles final is available on YouTube. 

The first round of qualifying has concluded at the WTA International Top Seed Open in Nicholasville Kentucky, with seven Americans advancing to Monday's final round. Top seed Kristie Ahn squeezed past former Texas Tech star Gabriela Talaba of Romania 7-6(4), 2-6, 7-5, but No. 2 seed Margarita Gasparyan of Russia lost to wild card Jamie Loeb 7-6(5), 6-4. Francesca Di Lorenzo[5] saved a match point in her three-hour, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(5) win over Claire Liu. The other four Americans in the final round of qualifying are Caroline Dolehide[7] (who plays Loeb for a place in the main draw), Usue Arconada, Robin Anderson and wild card Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

Main draw matches begin on Monday, although top seed Serena Williams and No. 4 seed Amanda Anisimova are not on the schedule. No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka will take on Madison Brengle and No. 3 seed Johanna Konta will play Marie Bouzkova in two of the six main draw matches on Monday's schedule.  Wild cards were given to Caty McNally, Vera Zvonareva and Shelby Rogers. Coco Gauff will play a qualifier in the first round and if she advances, will meet the Sabalenka-Brengle winner.

The singles main draw is here, the doubles draw is here, and the qualifying draw is here.

The first official change in the US Open men's draw was announced today, with Alexei Popyrin of Australia withdrawing. That puts Andy Murray into the main draw on his own ranking, freeing up a wild card that was given to Mitchell Krueger. To see who is next in line for the main draw, see this entry list. 

The quarterfinals are set for the ITA National Summer Championships after two rounds of singles play today in College Station.  The top two seeds in the men's draw, Hady Habib(Texas A&M) and Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M) are through to the quarterfinals, but No. 3 seed Alex Brown(Illinois) went out to No. 12 seed JC Roddick and No. 4 seed Vazha Shubladze(Georgia State) lost to No. 13 seed Andrew Rogers(Tennessee).

In the women's draw, the top three seeds: Jessica Failla(Pepperdine), Adriana Reami(NC State) and Rhiann Newborn(Baylor), have advanced to the quarterfinals, along with three unseeded players: Leyden Games, Maria Kononova, and Mika Ikemori.

For more on today's results, see this ITA recap.