Ngounoue, Smith Among Seven American Qualifiers at BNP Paribas Open; Grant, Tien Receive Miami Open Wild Cards; Georgia Women Retake Top Spot in ITA Division I Rankings
Five US women and two US men have joined the 35 other Americans already in the BNP Paribas Open draw after victories today.
Former USTA 18s National Champions Whitney Osuigwe and Clervie Ngounoue used qualifying wild cards to advance to the main draw, with Osuigwe, who won the San Diego title in 2018, defeating Kaja Juvan of Slovenia 6-0, 7-6(9) and Ngounoue, who won the San Diego title in 2023, beating No. 3 seed and WTA 81 Sonay Kartal of Great Britain 3-6, 7-5, 7-5. Today's win was the third career WTA Top 100 victory for Ngounoue, who also won the ITF J300 at Indian Wells in 2023.
Claire Liu, who also has good memories at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, having won the ITF Easter Bowl J300 there in both 2015 and 2017, qualified with a 6-4, 6-3 win over No. 7 seed Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain.
Thirty-eight-year-old Varvara Lepchenko beat No. 4 seed Taylor Townsend 6-2, 6-4 in today's final round of qualifying and Hailey Baptiste, the No. 12 seed, made the main draw with a 7-6(5), 6-4 win over Leola Jeanjean(Baylor, Arkansas, Lynn).
Australian Maya Joint, the 18-year-old who this week joined Mirra Andreeva as the only teenagers in the WTA Top 100, qualified with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 win over Mirjam Bjorklund of Sweden.
Colton Smith, a senior at Arizona, received a wild card into qualifying and will play in his first ATP main draw after defeating No. 13 seed Pavel Kotov of Russia 6-3, 7-6(8). Smith, who picked up his first ATP Top 100 win yesterday in a 6-3, 6-4 win over No. 7 seed Fabio Fognini of Italy, saved three set points in the tiebreaker.
Former Georgia star Ethan Quinn, who qualified last year, repeated that accomplishment this year, with the 2023 NCAA champion defeating former Kentucky All-American Gabriel Diallo of Canada 7-6(5), 6-2.
Sloane Stephens, who had received a wild card, withdrew with a foot injury, so a lucky loser will take her spot in the draw. The Miami Open announced its main draw wild cards today, with Stephens among them; whether she will be able to play that event, which begins in two weeks, is unclear right now.
Sixteen-year-old Tyra Grant, who received a qualifying wild card for the Madrid 1000 last spring, will be making her main draw debut at that level. Other wild cards were announced for Czech Petra Kvitova, 2022 US Open girls champion Alexandra Eala of the Philippines, Sayaka Ishii of Japan and Victoria Mboko of Canada, who is 20-1 this year and up to 179 in the WTA live rankings.
Learner Tien(USC) has been announced as a wild card recipient, but he is the next player in on his ranking, so as with Indian Wells, he may not need that wild card.
Federico Cina of Italy, still just 17, but no longer playing juniors since Wimbledon, received a main draw wild card, as did Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech), Eliot Spizzirri(Texas) and Wu Yibing of China, the oft-injured 2017 US Open boys champion.
There was no mention of qualifying wild cards in the release.
The latest ITA Division I team and individual rankings were released today, with the Georgia women returning to No. 1 after being displaced last week by Virginia. Texas moved back into the Top 10, with Auburn, who went 0-2 last weekend, falling to 11.
North Carolina State made the biggest move in the men's rankings, going from No. 10 to No. 6 after beating Stanford and Cal last weekend.
The NCAA fall singles champions retain their No. 1 rankings in singles, and now both NCAA fall doubles champions are No. 1 this week too.
Click on the heading link to see the 75 ranked teams, the 125 ranked singles players and the 90 ranked doubles teams. Previous rankings are in parentheses.
ITA D-I Top Ten Women's Team Rankings:1. Georgia(2)
2. Virgnia(1)
3. Texas A&M(5)
4. Michigan(3)
5. North Carolina(4)
6. Tennessee(7)
7. Ohio State(8)
8. LSU(10)
9. Texas(11)
1 comments:
Colette, the ITA team rankings list a (W) or (M) next to the school. In the individual rankings, will you ask the ITA to add the school next to the name? Even if it’s an abbreviation. The ITA shows they can add at least an additional 3 characters in the team rankings. Unless one follows college tennis closely, one doesn’t know the team affiliation of every ranking man or woman. Adding the team next to an individual saves multiple clicks. Thanks.
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