Teens Abound in USTA Pro Circuit W35 Las Vegas and W50 Lexington SC; Full ELC Ready for Rollout in Division I Tennis? Former Collegians Win Both ATP 500 Doubles Titles in Asia

It's a relatively quiet week on the USTA Pro Circuit, with no men's tournaments at all and two women's events: the W35 in Las Vegas and the W50 in Lexington South Carolina.

Qualifying has concluded at both events, with two Americans advancing to the main draw, top seed qualifying seed Janae Preston, who beat No. 10 seed Jenna DeFalco 6-3, 6-1 and Texas A&M junior Lexington Reed, the No. 13 seed in qualifying. Reed, defeated No. 8 seed Amelie Van Impe of Belgium, a sophomore at SMU who just qualified for the NCAA championships by reaching the quarterfinals at the ITA All-American Championships last month. Reed will play top seed Katrina Scott(Tennessee) in the first round.

The other qualifiers are Maryland junior Emma Ghirardato of Italy, Pepperdine junior Duru Soke of Turkey, who beat Wimbledon girls champion Anna Pushkareva of Russia 6-3, 6-1 today, Yekaterina Dmitrichenko(Texas Tech) of Kazakhstan, Auburn senior Emma Kamper of Denmark, Francesca Mattioli of Argentina, a junior at Tennessee, and Maria Sholokhova(Wisconsin) of Russia.

I'm surprised that Janae Preston didn't receive a wild card into the main draw, as she is a resident of nearby Henderson and reached the final of W50 two weeks ago in Berkeley California as a qualifier. 

Fellow 16-year-old Henderson resident Jordyn Hazelitt did receive a wild card, but lost to 17-year-old Annika Penickova 6-0, 6-2 in one of six first round matches played today. Penickova's twin sister Kristina also advanced to the second round today, beating Alina Shcherbinina(Baylor, Oklahoma) of Russia 6-3, 7-6(4).

Others receiving wild cards are San Diego USTA 18s champion Thea Frodin, 17-year-old Natalie Kha, a USC recruit, and UCLA junior Kate Fakih. 

In Lexington, Mia Slama, a junior at NC State, and Alexis Nguyen, a freshman at North Carolina and McKeena Schaefbauer( South Carolina, Illinios) were the four Americans to qualify, with No. 7 seed Slama defeating Mississippi recruit Jensen Diianni 6-0, 6-3, Schaefbauer defeating Isabella Morton of Canada 6-4, 6-2, Nguyen defeating Auburn sophomore Eva Maria Ionescu of Romania 6-3, 6-1 and South Carolina sophomore Jane Dunyon defeating Francoise Abanda of Canada 3-6, 7-5, 6-2.

Schaefbauer will play top seed and Berkeley W50 champion Madison Brengle, who reached the final of the W100 in Templeton last week.

Astra Sharma(Vanderbilt) of Australia won the W15 in Nashville on Sunday and on Monday was in Lexington for her qualifying match. Despite that quick turn around, she did advance to the main draw, beating Lavinia Tanasie(NC State) of Romania 6-1, 6-1 in the first round and Misa Malkin(South Carolina) 6-3, 6-0 today.

The winner of that match will face one of two 19-year-old Duke teammates: wild card Aspen Schuman, a sophomore, and freshman Mimi Xu of Great Britain, the finalist at last month's ITA All-American Championships.

In addition to Schuman, wild card entrants are Melije Clarke, the recent US Open girls semifinalist and South Carolina senior Kaitlyn Carnicella.

Daniel Susann of the Division I Tennis website has news on the Electronic Line Calling trial that was conducted last month at the men's ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa Oklahoma. After two years of using the PlayReplay system at the men's and women's National Indoor Championships and at this year's NCAAs in Athens (and elsewhere) as a way to challenge an opponent's call, the move to automated line calling of every ball appears to be on its way. 

Susann gets quotes from Tulsa's men's head coach Vince Westbrook and Anthony Montero, the ITA's director of officiating about the pilot. One of the big sticking points I heard two years ago was calibrating the audio so not to disrupt nearby courts, which can be very close together at collegiate facilities, but apparently that has been resolved. From the article, it appears that the cost is now the major impediment for full adoption; it would be a shame if that can't be overcome.

While it has always been difficult for me to follow the ATP and WTA Asian swing, with the time zone issue and the odd schedules, I did see that three former collegians, including two past NCAA doubles champions, won ATP 500 doubles titles in Tokyo Japan and Beijing China.

In Tokyo, Texas A&M's 2011 NCAA doubles champion Austin Krajicek won the title with partner Nikola Mektic of Croatia. The No. 4 seeds defeated No. 2 seeds Theo Arribage and Albano Olivetti of France 7-6(5), 5-7, 10-6 to win their second title of the year and their first since taking the Delray Beach 250 title in February.

Great Britain's Lloyd Glasspool, who won the NCAA doubles title in 2015 at Texas, partnered with compatriot Julian Cash, who competed at Mississippi State and Oklahoma State, to take the title in Beijing. The No. 2 seeds defeated Sander Arends and David Pel of the Netherlands 6-3, 3-6, 10-6 to win their third title of the year, with their first two also at the 500 level in Barcelona and Washington DC. 

Both teams are still in the running for the ATP Finals in Turin Italy in November. Read more about these titles in this article from the ATP website.

Late last month in Asia, JJ Tracy(Ohio State) won an ATP 250 title with partner Francisco Cabal of Portugal as did Jan Zielinski(Georgia) of Poland and Luke Johnson(Clemson) of Great Britain. See this ATP article for details on those titles.