Jovic, Montgomery and Townsend Reach Final Round of Wimbledon Qualifying; Teen Qualifiers Advance at SoCal Pro Series W15 in Lakewod, Six Bruins Reach Second Round at M15; Top Seed Karue Sell Explains His Brief Return to $15K Level

The final round of Wimbledon qualifying is set for Thursday, and for the second year in a row, no US man will be added to the field. Last year Maxime Cressy(UCLA) lost in the final round of qualifying; this year, none of the seven Americans made it past the second round, with Eliot Spizzirri(Texas), Zachary Svajda, Colton Smith(Arizona) and Emilio Nava all losing their matches today. All four lost a tiebreaker in the first set, and only Spizzirri was able to force a third set.

Last year five US women made it to the final round of qualifying; this year three did: Iva Jovic, Taylor Townsend and Robin Montgomery, who was one of the three who made the main draw last year via qualifying. 

While both 2024 Wimbledon junior champions Nicolai Budkov Kjaer of Norway and Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia lost in the second round of qualifying today, 2024 girls finalist Emerson Jones is now just one win from the main draw after the 16-year-old Australian defeated Lola Radivojevic of Serbia 6-4, 6-4 today. She will play No. 17 seed Diane Parry of France Thursday.

Carson Branstine, who played in the NCAA team final 13 months ago for Texas A&M, defeated 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andresscu 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-1 in a battle of Canadian contemporaries. The 24-year-old Branstine won her first major qualifying match last month at Roland Garros; she will face unseeded Raluka Serban of Cyprus in the final round of qualifying Thursday.

The other former women's collegian to reach the final round of qualifying is Ena Shibahara(UCLA) of Japan, who will play Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic Thursday.

Wild card Oliver Tarvet, a rising senior at the University of San Diego, who finished the 2024-25 season No. 5 in the ITA rankings, is through to the final round of qualifying. He beat Alexis Galarneau(NC State) of Canada 6-3, 6-2 today, after beating No. 14 seed Terence Atmane of France 6-1, 7-6(2) in the first round Monday. The 21-year-old from St. Albans will play 2023 Australian Open boys champion Alexander Blockx of Belgium, the No. 29 seed, in Thursday's final round of qualifying, which is best-of-five for the men.

Wild card Hamish Stewart(Tulane, Georgia) saved two match points in the third set of his 7-6(3), 4-6, 7-6(9) win over Luca Van Assche of France; the 25-year-old from Glasgow was down 8-4 in that final tiebreaker. He will play Leandro Riedi of Switzerland in the final round of qualifying.

Also advancing to the final round are Chris Rodesch(Virginia) of Luxembourg, who faces top seed Marton Fucsovics of Hungary, the 2010 Wimbledon boys champion, Thursday, and 2022 NCAA finalist August Holmgren of Denmark, who plays Yosuke Wantanuki of Japan.

Wednesday's Wimbledon qualifying results of Americans:

Taylor Townsend[7] d. Hina Inoue 6-3, 6-1
Robin Montgomery[16] d. Patricia Maria Tig(ROU) 6-4, 6-2
Shuai Zhang[23(CHN) d. Whitney Osuigwe 6-2, 6-4
Iva Jovic[3] d. Julia Riera(ARG) 6-1, 4-6, 6-1

Marton Fucsovics[1](HUN) d. Zachary Svajda 7-6(5), 6-3
Alex Bolt(AUS) d. Eliot Spizzirri[10] 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-2
Yosuke Wantanuki(JPN) d. Colton Smith 7-6(3), 6-3
Dominic Stricker(SUI) d. Emilio Nava[13] 7-6(2), 6-4

Thursday's Wimbledon final round qualifying matches featuring Americans:

Iva Jovic[3]v Katarzyna Kawa[32](POL)
Robin Montgomery[16] v Kaja Juvan(SLO)
Taylor Townsend[7] v Celine Naef(SUI)

At the SoCal Pro Series stop in Lakewood this week, four qualifiers advanced to the women's second round, with three of them juniors: Kayla Chung, an incoming UCLA freshman; 16-year-old Maria Aytoyan and 17-year-old Georgia recruit Bella Payne. They join Tianmei Wang(Stanford), Alyssa Ahn[8](Stanford), Alanis Hamilton(North Carolina), Alexis Nguyen and Maya Iyengar as teenagers in the last 16.

Top seeds Haley Giavara(Cal) and last week's Rancho Santa Fe champion Eryn Cayetano(USC) both posted straight-sets wins today.

The men's second round features three current and three former UCLA players, with the former rising juniors Spencer Johnson, a qualifier, Emon van Loben Sels, a wild card and rising sophomore Rudy Quan.  No. 3 seed Govind Nanda eliminated last week's finalist Jack Anthrop(Ohio State) 6-4, 6-3, and Gage Brymer, returning after being out all of 2024, advanced to a meeting with No. 2 seed Garrett Johns(Duke).

Karue Sell, 2024 SoCal Pro Series
photo credit: Jon Mulvey/USTA SoCal

The sixth Bruin is top seed Karue Sell of Brazil, who beat Isaiah Strode 6-0, 6-2 yesterday. Sell, 31, will play Quan, 19, in a battle of UCLA generations Thursday.

Sell, who is at 284 in the ATP rankings, has been playing primarily on the Challenger level in the past ten months and recently reached the semifinals of the Challenger 75 in Tyler Texas. This is the only SoCal Pro Series tournament the Torrance resident is playing, but he explains in this article why getting some matches close to home is important to him.

After being away from competition for many years, Sell decided to give himself another chance, and with his popular YouTube channel providing some financial support, he has continued to climb in the rankings. He recently played his first ATP main draw match after qualifying in Geneva Switzerland, but he still needs to improve his ranking if he wants to make slam qualifying.

In this article for USTA SoCal, Damian Secore talked with Sell about his decision to give tennis another try, what he's learned in the past several years on tour, how he and his wife navigate the challenging life style of a pro tennis player, and how long he expects to continue competing. 

Sell's path has certainly been an unconventional one, but his willingness to document it has led to a greater understanding of the sport for many players and fans.