Winter Nats Champion Nguyen Posts First W35 Win in Bradenton; Sixteen Americans Reach Australian Open Qualifying Second Round; Two US Juniors in ITF J300 Traralgon Qualifying

The first women's USTA Pro Circuit tournament of the year is a W35 at the Inspiration Academy in Bradenton Florida, with qualifying concluding today and four first round matches played.

USTA Winter Nationals 18s champion Kenzie Nguyen didn't miss a beat after her title in Lake Nona earlier this month, receiving a wild card into this event and beating Victoria Hu(Princeton) 6-3, 7-6(5). Although Hu is not seeded this week, she is 372 in the WTA rankings, while Nguyen, a Columbia recruit, is 1477, based on her three wins in the nine W15s she played last summer and fall. This is her first win above the W15 level.

In qualifying today, five Americans advanced to the main draw: Malkia Ngounoue(Kansas), Rachel Gailis[3](Florida), Maya Iyengar[11], Kylie Collins[6](Texas, LSU, Oklahoma State) and 15-year-old Janae Preston[16].

Ngounoue will face top seed Bianca Andreescu of Canada, the 2019 US Open women's singles champion, in the first round Wednesday. Preston will play wild card Usue Arconada, with the other wild cards going to Juliana Singeorzan, a 17-year-old Inspiration Academy student and Oklahoma State junior Olivia Lincer. 

Lincer defeated Sara Daavettila(UNC) in the first round 6-4, 6-3, while Singeorzan lost to 26-year-old University of Florida newcomer Emily Seibold of Germany 6-4, 6-0.

Hina Inoue is the No. 2 seed, with Julieta Pareja seeded No. 7.

The second round of Australian Open qualifying Wednesday (tonight in the United States) will feature 16 Americans: nine men and seven women. Once again all will be facing non-Americans.  In Day Two of the first round, American men suffered their only two losses, with Michael Mmoh withdrawing due to an injury. The US men went 9-2 in the first round, US women 7-5.

Tuesday's results and Wednesday's matchups:

Michael Zheng d. Cruz Hewitt[WC](AUS) 6-3, 6-3
Mackenzie McDonald[6] d. Dmitry Popko(KAZ) 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-5
Vilius Gaubas[17](LTU) d. Nicolas Moreno de Alboran 7-5, 6-3
Zachary Svajda[29] d. Hady Habib(LBN) 6-1 6-3
Yibing Wu(CHN) d. Mitchell Krueger 7-5, 6-4

Elvina Kalieva d. Sijia Wei(CHN) 4-6, 6-2, 3-2 ret.

Ye-Xin Ma(CHN) d. Varvara Lepchenko[32] 6-1, 6-3

Yue Yuan[25](CHN) d. Louisa Chirico 3-6, 6-1, 6-2

Claire Liu d. Tara Wuerth(CRO) 6-3, 6-4

Carol Lee d. Hanne Vandewinkel[15](BEL) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4

Whitney Osuigwe d. Anastasija Sevastova(LAT) 6-2, 6-0

Murphy Cassone v Dusan Lajovic[13](SRB)

Brandon Holt[5] v Giulio Zeppieri(ITA)

Nishesh Basavareddy v Sebastian Ofner[19](AUT)

Michael Zheng v Tomas Barrios Vera[4](CHI)

Martin Damm v Titouan Droguet(FRA)

Mackenzie McDonald[6] v Hugo Grenier(FRA)

Colton Smith[32] v Rei Sakamoto(JPN)

Tristan Boyer v Francesco Passaro[27](ITA)

Zachary Svajda[29] v Jurij Rodionov(AUT)

Sloane Stephens v Olivia Gadecki

Mary Stoiana v Lucia Bronzetti[2](ITA)

Carol Lee v Elena Micic[WC](AUS)

Claire Liu v Maddison Inglis(AUS)

Taylor Townsend[11] v Jazmin Ortenzi(ARG)

Whitney Osuigwe v Lucrezia Stefanini[26](ITA)

Elvina Kalieva v Ye-Xin Ma(CHN)

All qualifying matches are streamed on the ESPN+ app.

The warmup to the Australian Open Junior Championships begins with the first round of qualifying Wednesday at the ITF J300 in Traralgon. The 32-player draws did not fill, with the top eight seeds receiving byes in the boys qualifying and the top three seeds in the girls qualifying getting byes. 

Two Americans are in the draws, meaning they will no doubt be trying to qualify for the Australian Open Juniors as well. Ford McCollum is the No. 9 seed in the boys qualifying at Traralgon; Ciara Harding is unseeded in the girls qualifying.