Roland Garros Qualifying Features Two Dozen Americans; Quarterfinals Set for NCAA Division III Team Championships; Lopez, Hovde, Quinn and Zheng Begin Milan Grade A with Victories

photo credit: Armand Khoury/unsplash

After the first day of qualifying at Roland Garros Americans have managed only four wins, all of those on the women's side. A total of 13 players from the United States were in action today, with 11 more taking the courts for the first time in Paris on Tuesday.

Picking up victories Monday were Louisa Chirico, Caroline Dolehide, Grace Min and Hailey Baptiste, the No. 17 seed.  Chirico defeated Jana Fett of Croatia 7-5, 6-3; Dolehide took out No. 32 seed Elina Avanesyan of Russia 7-6(2), 4-6, 7-5; Min beat wild card Salma Djoubri of France 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 and Baptiste came back to defeat Olivia Gadecki of Australia 5-7, 6-3, 7-5.  Losing in today's first round were Jamie Loeb(North Carolina), Emina Bektas(Michigan), Robin Anderson(UCLA), Francesca Di Lorenzo(Ohio State), Alycia Parks and Sachia Vickery.

The five American women who will play their first round qualifying matches Tuesday are Asia Muhammad, Caty McNally, Hanna Chang, Christina McHale and No. 22 seed Coco Vandeweghe.

All three US men playing today lost, with No. 3 seed Sam Querrey falling to Zsombor Piros of Hungary, the 2017 Australian Open boys champion, 6-2, 6-2. Former Stanford All-American Bradley Klahn, who won the NCAA singles title in 2010, entered qualifying with a protected ranking, as he hasn't played since 2020. He lost to Felipe Meligeni Rodrigues Alves of Brazil 6-3, 6-3. No. 32 seed Mitchell Krueger was beaten by Timofey Skatov of Kazakhstan 6-1, 6-0.

The six American men who will play their first round qualifying matches Tuesday are Tennys Sandgren(Tennessee), Ernesto Escobedo[21], Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech), Stefan Kozlov[13], Bjorn Fratangelo and Jack Sock[14].

Four teenagers who would still be eligible for the Roland Garros Junior Championships are in the draw, with the two that played today advancing to the second round. Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic defeated No. 25 seed Katarzyna Kawa of Poland 6-0, 6-4 and 2021 Roland Garros girls champion Linda Noskova, also of the Czech Republic, defeated No. 11 seed Anna Blinkova of Russia 6-3, 7-5.  The other two 18-and-under players in qualifying, who play their first matches Tuesday, are Andorra's Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva and French wild card Oceane Babel.

Qualifying draws can be found here.

After regional action concluded over the weekend, the NCAA Division III Team Championships quarterfinalists have been determined. For complete results from the weekend, see the men's and women's brackets at NCAA.com.  For links to live scoring, see the USTA National Campus host site.

Monday, May 23rd, Lake Nona FL

MEN:

Chicago v Emory, noon
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps v Tufts, noon

Case Western Reserve v Williams, 9 am
Middlebury v Washington-St Louis, 9 am


WOMEN:

Wesleyan v Emory, 3 pm
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps v MIT, 3 pm

Chicago v Amherst, 6 pm
Pomona-Pitzer v Middlebury, 6 pm

Four Americans picked up victories today at the Grade A Trofeo Bonfiglio in Milan Italy: Ethan Quinn, Michael Zheng, No. 11 seed Qavia Lopez and No. 5 seed Liv Hovde. 

Quinn defeated No. 11 Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez of Mexico 2-6,  7-6(0), 6-2 and Zheng beat wild card Lorenzo Ferri of Italy 6-2, 6-3. Lopez downed Amelie Van Impe of Belgium 6-1, 6-1 and Hovde defeated Aruzhan Sagandikova of Kazakhstan 6-1, 6-0. 

Eight Americans dropped their opening matches today, with the four boys who lost--Cooper Williams, Leanid Boika, Nicholas Godsick and Aidan Kim--all going out to seeds. US girls losing today were Ava Krug, Kaitlin Quevedo, Mia Slama and wild card Tyra Grant. Qualifiers Alexander Razeghi, Maya Joint and Iva Jovic had the day off today and will play their first round matches Tuesday, as will Jonah Braswell, Learner Tien and Nishesh Basavareddy[10].

I suggested to Tommy Hemp, who lives in Milan and has gone to the tournament for many years, that he try to see Hovde, who has so dominated the major ITF events in the United States. He saw her match today, and had plenty of praise for the 16-year-old, saying he was "maximally impressed."  For his full article, go to Tennis Underworld.

The ITF's preview of the tournament can be found here.