Kenin Sole American Qualifier at Wimbledon; Roehampton ITF J300 Qualifying Begins Friday with Seven Americans; USTA Announces US Open Wild Card Challenge Start Dates; Eubanks and Navarro Make First Tour Semifinals

In the seedings for Wimbledon qualifying, five Americans were projected to make the main draw, but only one did, with Sofia Kenin, seeded 23, defeating No. 9 seed Taylor Townsend 6-3, 6-3 to earn a spot in the main draw. (No. 4 seed Elli Mandlik and No. 16 seed Kayla Day lost in the second round of qualifying). Unseeded Coco Vandeweghe lost her final round qualifying match to Carol Zhao of Canada 7-6(4), 6-4. The 28-year-old Zhao, a 2015 NCAA singles finalist while at Stanford, will be making her slam debut next week.

No. 13 seed Michael Mmoh and No. 14 seed Aleks Kovacevic fell at the last hurdle, with Mmoh losing to Laurent Lokoli 2-6, 7-6(2), 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 and Kovacevic going out to another unseeded French player, Enzo Couacaud, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6(5), 7-6(5). Denis Kudla lost to Sho Shimabukuro of Japan 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

Shimabukuro is one of two Japanese men to advance to the main draw, with 2019 Wimbledon boys champion Shintaro Mochizuki making his men's slam debut after a 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 win over No. 16 seed Zsombor Piros of Hungary, the 2017 Australian Open boys champion. 

Two teens who are still eligible to compete in the juniors have advanced to the main draw, with No. 7 seed 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva defeating No. 19 seed Tamara Korpatsch of Germany 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 and unseeded 18-year-old Celine Naef of Switzerland advancing with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 win over Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine. Naef will be making her slam debut, Andreeva qualified at Roland Garros and reached the third round, so this is No. 2 for her.

There are several lucky loser spots available, but it may not be known until Friday's draw who has received them.

The pros are now 

finished at Roehampton, but the juniors begin their time there Friday, beginning with the qualifying for the ITF J300. Toward the end of the Roehampton J300, Wimbledon Junior qualifying will be held there, meaning those courts will be the center of the junior tennis circuit the next ten days.

Seven Americans are competing in the Roehampton qualifying, five boys and two girls. The boys are Alexander Frusina[4], Maxwell Exsted[7], Cooper Woestendick[8], Meecah Bigun and Adhithya Ganesan. The girls are Alanis Hamilton[2] and Anya Murthy[3]. Michigan's Maya Joint, who now represents Australia, is the No. 1 seed in qualifying; Peter Brunclik of the Czech Republic is the No. 1 in the boys qualifying.

Live scoring should be available at Tennis Ticker.

Today the USTA announced the dates for its annual US Open Wild Card Challenge, with the men's Challenge beginning next week and extending for six weeks, while the women's Challenge begins July 17 and extends for four weeks. The best three results will be used to determine the wild card recipients; any tournaments at or above the $25,000 level will count as long as it is played on hard courts. JJ Wolf(Ohio State) and Elli Mandlik won USO wild cards via this method last year.

Two notable results by former collegiate stars today in the grass warmups prior to Wimbledon, with Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech) and Emma Navarro(Virginia) reaching their first ATP and WTA semifinals. 

Eubanks defeated lucky loser Arthur Rinderknech(Texas A&M) of France 7-6(5), 7-6(4) to reach the final four at the ATP 250 in Mallorca Spain. The 27-year-old from Atlanta will face qualifier Lloyd Harris of South Africa Friday. Former USC All-American Yannick Hanfmann of Germany, who defeated top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece in the second round, will play No. 4 seed Adrian Mannarino of France in the other semifinal.

Navarro, the 2021 NCAA singles champion, dropped the first set to Rebeka Masarova of Spain 7-6(2) in their quarterfinal match at the WTA 250 in Bad Homburg Germany. It was 1-1 in the second set when Masarova suffered an injury and retired, sending Navarro through. The 22-year-old from South Carolina will face the winner of the quarterfinal match between Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and No. 2 seed Liudmila Samsonova of Russia, which was suspended due to darkness after Samsonova won the second set.

In other grass warmups, Tommy Paul and Mackenzie McDonald(UCLA) are through to the semifinals at the ATP 250 in Eastbourne. McDonald, who beat top seed Taylor Fritz in the second round, faces No. 4 seed Francisco Cerundolo(South Carolina) of Argentina, while No. 2 seed Paul plays Gregoire Barrere of France.

At the WTA 500 in Eastbourne, Madison Keys and No. 5 seed Coco Gauff will play for a spot in the final.