Navarro Turns Pro; Ten Seeds Ousted in First Round at Roehampton J1; Monday and Nanda Take Pro Circuit Titles; Ten Americans in Action Monday at Wimbledon

After two years at the University of Virginia, Emma Navarro will not return, with the 2021 NCAA champion's first tournament as a professional next week at the $100,000 ITF tournament in her home town of Charleston South Carolina. 

Navarro, currently 240 in the WTA rankings, was 51-3 in her two seasons at Virginia, losing to Estela Perez-Somarriba of Miami last year and Eden Richardson of Miami this year, with both those losses in regular season dual matches. Her final collegiate match was the third loss, when North Carolina State's Abigail Rencheli defeated Navarro 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in the third round of the NCAAs in Champaign. There was speculation that Navarro might return this year, even though she had been dominating the competition in college, because her younger sister Meggie is set to join the Cavaliers this fall. But I don't think anyone would question the 21-year-old's decision to devote herself to professional tennis full time now after proving herself on the collegiate level.

For comments from Navarro and Virginia head coach Sara O'Leary, see this article from VirginiaSports.com.

As an aside, Linda Fruhvirtova is still on the acceptance list for the $100K in South Carolina, while also still appearing on the acceptance list for the Junior championships at Wimbledon. I thought there was an automatic withdrawal feature to prevent this, but perhaps, even though it begins Saturday, the Wimbledon Junior tournament is considered as being held the following week. 

The first day of the J1 at Roehampton was not a good one for seeded players, with ten seeds, including both No. 3 seeds, eliminated.

Texas A&M rising freshman Mia Kupres of Canada defeated No. 3 seed Nikola Daubnerova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-4 and Joao Fonseca of Brazil beat No. 3 seed Gonzalo Bueno of Peru 6-3, 7-5.  

No. 4 seed Nishesh Basavareddy lost to Connor Henry Van Schalkwyk of Namibia 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, while Michael Zheng defeated No. 8 seed and Roland Garros boys semifinalist Dino Prizmic of Croatia 6-1, 1-6, 7-5. The other four American boys to advance to the second round are Ozan Colak[16], Learner Tien, Sebastian Gorzny and Alex Michelsen. Michelsen defeated another Roland Garros semifinalist, No. 14 seed Martyn Pawelski of Poland, 6-3, 6-1.

Top seed Liv Hovde survived in three sets, as did No. 6 seed Qavia Lopez. Alexa Blokhina defeated No. 11 seed Kayla Cross of Canada 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 and qualifier Kaitlin Quevedo also won her opening match, over British wild card Isabelle Lacy.  

The other top 8 seed to lose in the girls draw was No. 8 Luciana Moyano of Argentina who went out to Andrea Obradovic of Serbia 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. 

The two Nottingham champions had no day of rest between their finals Saturday and their first round matches today, but both Martin Landaluce of Spain[13] and Taylah Preston[13] of Australia did manage to post wins today.

Live scoring for the Roehampton Grade 1 is available on the TennisTicker app.

Tennessee rising junior Johannes Monday won his first title on the professional circuit today in South Bend, with the 20-year-old left-hander from Great Britain defeating No. 5 seed Sekou Bangoura(Florida) 6-3, 7-5. Monday, playing in his first main draw of a pro tournament, came through qualifying to earn the title at the $15,000 event. 

Govind Nanda(UCLA) won the $25,000 USTA Men's Pro Circuit tournament in Tulsa, defeating wild card Stefan Dostanic(USC) 6-3, 7-5. It's the first title since last June for the No. 3 seed, who left the Bruins for professional tennis after the 2020-21 season.

No. 4 seed Elli Mandlik won the $25,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Wichita, defeating top seed Kayla Day 6-3, 6-3. It's Mandlik's third title of 2022, all at the $25K level.

At the $15,000 USTA Women's Pro Circuit tournament in Colorado Springs, former Furman standout Katarina Kozarov defeated Veronika Miroshnichenko(Loyola Marymount) of Russia 6-3, 6-4. It's the first professional singles title for the 24-year-old from Serbia.

Wimbledon begins Monday in London, but it's a light day for Americans, with only 10 of the 34 players from the US on the schedule. Stefan Kozlov, who lost in the final round of qualifying, upped the original total of American competitors by one when he received entry as a lucky loser following the withdrawal of Croatia's Borna Coric.

All matches are available on ESPN, ESPN 2 or ESPN3 and ESPN+, with ABC also broadcasting matches for the first time. For more on the ESPN schedule for Wimbledon, see this article.

Wimbledon first round matches featuring Americans Monday:

Bernarda Pera v Anett Kontaveit[2](EST)
Danielle Collins[7] v Marie Bouzkova(CZE)
Ann Li v Lucia Bronzetti(ITA)
Alison Riske[28] v Ylena In-Albon(SUI)

Steve Johnson v Grigor Dimitrov[18](BUL)
John Isner[20] v Enzo Couacaud[Q](FRA)
Christian Harrison[Q] v Jay Clarke[WC](GBR)
Tommy Paul[30] v Fernando Verdasco(ESP)
Reilly Opelka[15] v Carlos Taberner(ESP)
Frances Tiafoe[23] v Andrea Vavassori[Q](ITA)