Roehampton ITF J300 Qualifying Underway; 29 Americans to Compete in Wimbledon Main Draw; Former LSU Tigers Skupski and Venus Win Back-to-Back ATP Doubles Titles; Maloney Ousts Top Seed Kwiatkowski at SoCal Pro Series $15K in LA

The brief junior grass court season began today with qualifying at the ITF J300 in Roehampton, the day after the men's and women's Wimbledon qualifying concluded.

Just two Americans are competing in qualifying, both girls: Christasha McNeil, the No. 2 seed, and 14-year-old Welles Newman. McNeil won her first round qualifying match over British wild card Sophya Devas 6-2, 6-2, and on Saturday will play No. 15 seed Erin Pearce for a spot in the main draw. Newman lost to No. 14 seed Marelie Raath of Great Britain 4-6, 6-4, 12-10. I have yet to receive any information from the All England Club on the US representatives for the U14 tournament the second week of Wimbledon, but the fact that Newman is already playing on grass there suggests she will be one of the two US girls competing in that event.

The top seeds in the qualifying are 14-year-old Victoria Barros of Brazil and 17-year-old Lorenzo Beraldo of Italy, both of whom advanced to Saturday's final round of qualifying.

The Wimbledon draws were released this morning, with 18 US women and 11 US men competing in the 2024 Championships. 

The US women:
Sofia Kenin
Bernarda Pera
Danielle Collins[11]
Lauren Davis
Katie Volynets[Q]
Alycia Parks[Q]
Robin Montgomery[Q]
Ashlyn Krueger
Jessica Pegula[5]
Taylor Townsend
McCartney Kessler[Q]
Emina Bektas
Peyton Stearns
Madison Keys[12]
Sloane Stephens
Emma Navarro[19]
Caroline Dolehide
Coco Gauff[2]

The US men:

Alex Michelsen

Ben Shelton[14]

Aleks Kovacevic

Frances Tiafoe[29]

Brandon Nakashima

Tommy Paul[12]

Sebastian Korda[20]

Mackenzie McDonald

Taylor Fritz[13]

Marcos Giron

Christopher Eubanks

I'll post the first round matchups when the order of play is released.

In addition to 29 Americans, there are 30 former collegiate players competing in the singles main draws this year, 11 of them from the United States. A list of all 30 can be found in this article from the ITA.

The doubles draws were also released today, with the two highest seeded Americans at No. 3: Rajeev Ram(Illinois), who is playing with Joe Salisbury(Memphis) of Great Britain, and Nicole Melichar-Martinez, who is playing with Ellen Perez(Georgia) of Australia.

Certainly a team to watch will be New Zealand's Michael Venus and Neal Skupski of Great Britain, who are the No. 9 seeds. The former LSU Tigers, who have only played together four times,  have won ATP titles the past two weeks, claiming the Queen's Club 500 title last week and today winning the 250 in Eastbourne. Skupski won his first men's slam title last year at Wimbledon, with Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands, who is now playing with Nikola Mektic of Croatia. They are the No. 7 seeds.

The women's semifinals have been decided at the SoCal Pro Series this week in Los Angeles, with current collegian Rachel Gailis set to take on No. 1 seed Sahaja Yamalapalli of India in the top half. The rising junior and All-American at the University of Florida earned her third consecutive straight-sets victory today, beating UC-Santa Barbara's All-American Amelia Honer 6-1, 6-2. Yamalapalli defeated UCLA rising freshman Kate Fakih 6-1, 6-1.

In the bottom half, No. 5 seed Victoria Flores(Georgia Tech, Pepperdine) earned her semifinal berth with a 6-1, 1-6, 7-6(3) win over No. 2 seed Jessica Failla(USC, Pepperdine). Flores will play No. 3 seed Amy Zhu(Michigan), who defeated Ana Grubor of Canada 6-4, 6-2. 

There is still one men's semifinal yet to play, with qualifier Colton Smith taking on wild card Spencer Johnson(UCLA) in a night match at the Kramer Club, with the winner facing qualifier Jay Friend of Japan. Smith, a rising senior, and Friend, a rising junior, played 1 and 2 for Arizona this past season. Friend defeated No. 4 seed  Keegan Smith(UCLA) 6-3, 6-1.

The top half semifinal will feature No. 3 seed Alex Knaff(Florida State) of Luxembourg and No. 8 seed Patrick Maloney(Michigan). Knaff defeated Ohio State rising junior Jack Anthrop 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(5), while Maloney took out top seed Thai Kwiatkowski(Virginia) 6-1, 7-5. It's easily the best win by ranking for ATP No. 799 Maloney in this, his first full season on the Pro Circuit; Kwiatkowski is currently 289 in the ATP rankings. Maloney will be playing in his fifth USTA Pro Circuit semifinal, looking for his first trip to a final.