TikTok Star Frey Advances to Final Round of Qualifying at WTA 125 Dow Tennis Classic; USTA Pro Circuit Titles for Trotter and Rogers; Shnaider Claims Fourth WTA Title of 2024; Chirico Wins W75 in Toronto

©Colette Lewis 2024--

Midland MI--

Anna Frey, who turns 17 Tuesday, is not a well-known tennis player. Although she is a blue chip ranked No. 6 in the Tennis Recruiting Class of 2026 and she has a win this summer over WTA No. 106 Tamara Korpatsch of Germany, the Farmington Utah resident, her tennis career is overshadowed by her social media presence. Yet Frey is determined to change that in the next few years, and she took another step forward in that quest with a 6-4, 6-2 win over No. 8 seed Gabriela Lee(Texas Tech) of Romania in the first round of qualifying at the WTA 125 Dow Tennis Classic Sunday.

Frey received a wild card into this event, as she did for the WTA 250 in Cleveland in August, where she picked up her qualifying win over Korpatsch. She knows that her 2.1 million followers on TikTok and her 750,000 followers on Instagram plays a role in getting opportunities like that.

"I'm pretty popular on social media, so I think a lot of people recognize me," said Frey. "My team works at Topnotch(who manages the Midland tournament), so they helped me get a wild card, but I also think I get people to come watch me play tennis because they follow me on Instagram and TikTok."

Like most people, Frey isn't exactly sure what elevated her social media presence far above that of a normal teenager.

"It's a bunch of different things," said Frey, whose imitation of a goat became one of her first viral moments, which was followed by a post remarking on her facial resemblance to San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy. "My friend at high school did some interviews and I was in them, so that kind of blew up, and then the Brock Purdy thing, but tennis plays a big part of it."

Developing into a top player while living and training in Utah is also sets her apart from her peers, and now that her brother Charles has left to play college tennis at Utah, she has lost her best training partner.

"It's tough," said Frey, who has worked with former Brigham Young player Georgy Batrakov for eight years. "My competition used to be with my older brother a lot, he would pound on me and that would help me get better, now, it's just my dad and my coach."

With Utah weather keeping her indoors seven months of the year, Frey looked very comfortable on the Greater Midland Tennis Center indoor courts, outlasting the 29-year-old Lee in the majority of the rallies, although she did need to make a few adjustments early. 

"I played well today," Frey said. "She was tricky with her slice, had a really good lefty slice serve also, so I had to be careful and be willing to grind. Indoor is probably an advantage for me, this feels pretty normal."

Frey, who plays few junior events and will continue to compete mostly on the USTA Pro Circuit, faces No. 4 seed Robin Anderson(UCLA) for a place in the main draw. Anderson, a two-time Dow Tennis Classic finalist, defeated Urszula Radwanska of Poland 6-3, 6-4.

Top qualifying seed Maria Mateas(Duke) was beaten by former NC State All-American Alana Smith 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-4. Smith will play Emily Appleton of Great Britain, after Appleton defeated No. 5 seed Victoria Hu 6-4, 6-2.

Jamie Loeb, who won the W75 doubles title in Toronto Saturday, had no time to celebrate that, with a five-hour drive to Midland last night, but she got through her first round qualifying match, which began at 2 p.m., beating No. 7 seed Katherine Sebov of Canada 6-2, 5-7, 4-1, ret. Loeb will face Whitney Osuigwe, who defeated No. 3 seed Katarzyna Kawa of Poland 6-3, 6-0.

No. 2 seed Leonie Kung of Switzerland defeated Duke senior Ellie Coleman, a wild card, 6-4, 6-3, with the Midland native competitive in every game and rally, but unable to win quite as many key points as Kung.  Kung wil face No. 6  seed Haruka Kaji of Japan, who defeated Tara Moore of Great Britain 6-0, 6-2.

At the ATP Challenger 75 in Charlottesville Virginia, James Trotter of Japan earned his second career Challenger title, defeating Stanford junior Nishesh Basavareddy 6-3, 6-4. Trotter, the 2023 NCAA doubles champion at Ohio State, had 16 aces and saved all three break point he faced in the final. The 25-year-old is now into the ATP Top 200, securing a spot in the Australian Open qualifying.

Anna Rogers, the former NC State All-American, has 15 Pro Circuit doubles title, but the 26-year-old from Connecticut had only one W15 title in singles until today. Rogers, the No. 3 seed, ended the run of 18-year-old qualifier and Old Dominion sophmore Kira Matushkina of Russia with a 6-4, 6-3 victory in the final of the W35 in Norman Oklahoma. Rogers did not drop a set in her five victories.

Rogers was not the only former NC State star to collect a title today. At the WTA 250 in Hong Kong, 2023 All-American Diana Schnaider of Russia won her fourth WTA title of the season, defeating Katie Boulter of Great Britain 6-1, 6-2 in the final.  For more on the performance of the 20-year-old left-hander, now at a career-high of 12 in the WTA rankings, see this article from the WTA website.

Louisa Chirico captured her second W75 title of the year in Toronto Canada, with the No. 5 seed beating unseeded Kayla Cross of Canada 7-6(5), 6-3.  This is just the second of Chirico's seven ITF Pro Circuit titles to come on hard courts, with the other five, including this year's W75 in Charlotteville, on clay. Chirico, now up to 186 in the WTA rankings, is competing in Midland this week.

Ann Li lost in the final of the rain-plagued WTA 250 in Merida Mexico tonight, after winning her semifinal match earlier in the day. Zeynep Sonmez of Turkey defeated Li 6-2, 6-1. Li and Sonmez are both in the Midland singles draw.