Six Americans Advance to Thursday's Final Round of Wimbledon Qualifying; Crossley and Jovic Withdraw From Wimbledon Junior Championships; Rinaldi to Step Down as Billie Jean King Cup Captain

Three American men and three American women have advanced to Wimbledon's final round of qualifying Thursday, with the opportunity to go from the fields of Roehampton to the lush confines of the All England Lawn Tennis Club. It was mostly veterans who navigated their way through today's second round, with only 24-year-old Aleks Kovacevic having yet to played a main draw match at Wimbledon.

No. 14 seed Kovacevic, a former University of Illinois All-American, defeated  defeated Jesper De Jong of the Netherlands 7-6(5), 6-4 and will face unseeded Enzo Couacaud of France Thursday.

No. 13 seed Michael Mmoh, whose only main draw Wimbledon appearance came back in 2018 as a lucky loser, took a 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 decision today from Dragos Madaras of Sweden; he will play unseeded Laurent Lokoli of France Thursday.

Something of a grass specialist, 30-year-old Denis Kudla has been playing Wimbledon for over a decade, and has made the main draw via qualifying three times, most recently in 2021. He'll have a chance to make it four Thursday against Sho Shimabukuro of Japan after defeating Tung-Lin Wu of Taiwan 6-3, 6-4 today. 

Thirty-one-year-old Coco Vandeweghe has been playing Wimbledon since 2011 and reached the quarterfinals in 2015 and 2017; last year she lost in the third round of qualifying, but got into the main draw as a lucky loser, dropping her first match to eventual champion Elena Rybakina. Today, she defeated Barbora Palicova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 7-6(0) and will play 2015 NCAA singles finalist Carol Zhao(Stanford) of Canada for a spot in the main draw. 

No. 9 seed Taylor Townsend hasn't played Wimbledon often, and has never gotten through qualifying, but she will play in her fourth Wimbledon main draw if she defeats Sofia Kenin, the No. 23 seed, in the final round Thursday. In today's second round, Townsend beat Noma Noha Akugue of Germany 6-2, 6-4; Kenin defeated Moyuka Uchijima of Japan 6-0, 6-3. Kenin is 2-1 in their head-to-head, but they haven't played since 2017.

No. 5 seed Diana Shnaider(NC State) lost to British wild card Anna Brogan, 370 in the WTA rankings, 6-3, 7-6(7). The 25-year-old Brogan is one of two British players in the final round of qualifying; the other is 28-year-old Billy Harris.

Sixteen-year-olds Mirra Andreeva and Brenda Fruhvirtova have both advanced to the final round of qualifying with little difficulty. No. 7 seed Andreeva defeated Chloe Paquet of France 6-1, 6-2 and will face No. 19 seed Tamara Korpatsch of Germany; No. 28 Fruhvirtova defeated Kathine Sebov of Canada 6-0, 6-3 and will face No. 11 seed Yue Yuan of China.

Thursday's order of play is here.

The last men's doubles wild card was given to Frances Tiafoe and Tommy Paul.

With the Wimbledon Junior Championships deadline to withdraw yesterday, it's a good time to check in on the fields. There hasn't been much movement in the boys draw, although No. 14 Oliver Ojakaar of Estonia recently withdrew. Two Top 10 girls are out: Mayu Crossley of Japan, No. 5 in the entry rankings, and Iva Jovic, No. 10 in the entry rankings. Jovic withdrew from the major junior clay events this spring and was hoping to return from injury in time for Wimbledon, but obviously that didn't happen. No. 45 Elizara Yaneva of Bulgaria also withdrew, so Alexia Harmon, Thea Rabman and Ashton Bowers are just two, three and four spots out of the main draw now.

Although allowing Russian players to compete this year as neutrals, Wimbledon prohibited them from accepting funding from the Russian federation, so as a result only two are in the girls draw, including ITF World Junior No. 1 Alina Korneeva, who is going for an unprecedented third straight slam next month. There are also two in the boys draw, as well, Yaroslav Demin and Danil Panarin. June 14th must have been a date of significance for the Russians to produce documentation of some kind regarding their ties to the federation, because many withdrew (or were withdrawn) on that day, with the notation OTH.

The ITF Junior Circuit website has posted a Roehampton and Wimbledon preview here. 

The USTA announced earlier this week that Kathy Rinaldi would be stepping down as Billie Jean King Cup Captain after serving in that position since December 2016. Rinaldi, who led the United States to the title in 2017, will continue to serve as the Head of Women's Tennis for USTA Player Development.