JTCC's Pedraza Saves Two Match Points to Qualify for ITF J300 College Park; Forty Americans to Compete in US Open Qualifying; Tien Qualifies for ATP Winston-Salem

©Colette Lewis 2024--
College Park MD--

Sunday's final rounds of qualifying began at 9 a.m. and ended at 8 p.m., with six boys and six girls winning two matches to make the main draw of the ITF J300 in College Park. They'll have little time to savor those wins or recover from them, with their first round matches scheduled for Monday.

The only unseeded boys qualifier was one of JTCC's own, 15-year-old Nicolas Pedraza, who saved two match points in his 6-7(5), 6-3, 15-13 win over No. 6 seed Lachlan Gaskell.

Pedraza led 5-1, 7-2 and 8-4 in the match tiebreaker, but lost four consecutive points before earning his first match point at 9-8, on Gaskell's serve. Pedraza missed a return, earned a second match pont at 10-9, but missed a forehand, and Gaskell earned his first match point, when Pedraza didn't make a play on a forehand pass from Gaskell that dropped well in. Gaskell made a unforced error on the backhand to squander that match point, but made a exquisite backhand volley winner to earn his second. 

Pedraza saved that with a good drop shot, with Gaskell getting to it, but sending his reply long. Pedraza hit a good first serve to earn his third match point, but Pedraza's slice floated long and it was even again, at 13. Pedraza earned his fourth match point with a sizzling forehand winner and converted when his deep first serve put Gaskell on the defensive and Pedraza hit another good forehand, forcing an error from Gaskell.

"I was definitely really nervous when it came to those match points that he had and I had," said Pedraza, who had beaten Carter Jauffret 6-1, 6-1 in his second round qualifying match in the morning. "I just stayed composed, he came up with some errors and I'm very grateful that I came out on top."

Pedraza recognized that his level dropped once he took the big leads in the tiebreaker.

"I was cruising, hitting really good shots, coming to the net, perfect tennis you could say," Pedraza said. "As soon as it started getting close I started going for too much. I kind of slowed it down at 9-8, and I think from there, it was just who wanted it more, who could stay focused."

Although Pedraza's drop shot attempts in the tiebreaker often didn't pan out, save that last crucial one, he was determined to employ them when he saw an opportunity.

"For me, that's a shot I use all the time, so it wasn't really that at that moment I was feeling the pressure," Pedraza said. "He didn't really like coming to the net and I sensed that, so I thought if he didn't want to be at the net I could pass him, lob him."

As a large contingent of fellow JTCC players were gathered around court 18 to encourage him, Pedraza was surrounded by familiar faces.

"Because I train here, everybody's so great, everybody came out to support," said Pedraza, who started at JTCC as a toddler and is competing in the tournament for the first time this year. "Everybody was there supporting me and I just felt at home. It's always been a dream of mine to play here and it's a great, great experience to play in front of my home."

Pedraza admitted that he didn't expect to qualify.

"I'm super surprised, I wasn't expecting that much," Pedraza said. "Kalamazoo didn't go too well and I just wanted to hope for the best and compete. But I'm always ready, physically and mentally, I live close, I have everything I need from my coaches and my parents. I've been here my entire life, I know the place inside and out, every person here and I had a great, great time on court today."

Top seed Cesar Cruz of El Salvador spent over six and a half hours on court, but managed to get through. He will find out if that effort depleted him physically on Monday, when he plays Ludvig Hede of Sweden, not before 10 a.m.

The other boys qualifiers are Zachary Cohen, Calvin Baierl, Yubel Ubri and Mikael Arsenenault of Canada.

The girls qualifying are Raphaelle Leroux of Canada, Adla Lopez, Kristina Liutova of Russia, Eva Oxford, Brooke Wallman and Jinshu Xia of China.

US Open qualifying begins Monday with 18 of the 40 Americans in the men's and women's draw scheduled to play their first round matches.

Women playing Monday are wild cards Clervie Ngounoue, Mary Stoiana(Texas A&M), Kristina Penickova, Valerie Glozman(Stanford), Akasha Urhobo and Maria Mateas, Louisa Chirico, Emina Bektas(Michigan), Hannah Chang, Alycia Parks, Varvara Lepchenko, Usue Arconada and Sachia Vickery.

Men playing Monday are wild cards Ethan Quinn and Eliot Spizzirri and Martin Damm, Tristan Boyer and Denis Kudla.

Monday's schedule is here. All matches are available on ESPN+.

Eighteen-year-old Learner Tien(USC) qualified for his first ATP main draw today in Winston-Salem, defeating wild card DK Suresh(Wake Forest) of India 6-3, 6-4. He will play fellow qualifier Tristan Schoolkate of Australia in the first round Monday. 

Zink and Miller Claim First Professional Singles Titles at Huntsville $15Ks; ITF J300 College Park Wild Cards; Tiafoe and Pegula Advance to Cincinnati Masters Semifinals

Tyler Zink earned his first professional singles title and Kari Miller collected her first professional title today at the USTA Pro Circuit $15,000 tournaments in Huntsville Alabama. 

Zink, a recent Oklahoma State graduate, was the No. 8 seed this week, continuing the form he had shown in reaching the final at last week's $25K in Mississippi. The 23-year-old from Florida defeated No. 7 seed Leo Vithoontien(Carleton) of Japan, the 2021 NCAA Division III champion, 6-4, 6-1 in the men's final. 

Vithoontien also fell in the doubles final this afternoon, with partner Collin Altamirano(Virginia). The unseeded pair fell to No. 3 seeds Jamie Vance and Finn Reynolds(Mississippi) 6-4, 6-4.

While Zink has 13 pro titles in doubles, Miller, a recent Michigan graduate, won her first pro title in singles as a qualifier in Huntsville. 

The 22-year-old from Ann Arbor defeated Great Britain's Kristina Paskauskas, a sophomore at NC State, 6-2, 6-2 in the women's final. Miller defeated three seeds to get to the final against the unseeded Paskauskas.

Miller lost in the doubles final with incoming Michigan freshman Emily Sartz-Lunde of Norway. The unseeded pair were beaten by unseeded Carly Briggs(Tennessee, Florida) and Tenika McGiffin(Tennessee) of Australia 6-3 ,7-6(3) in this afternoon's final.

The first round of qualifying for the ITF J300 in College Park was completed today, but rain in the early evening kept the second round qualifying matches from finishing. So two rounds will be played Sunday; the qualifiers are then required to play again on Monday. The weather forecast is not good for Sunday, with an 80 percent chance of rain, but there are indoor courts on site at the Junior Tennis Champions Center, so that may turn out to be a huge help.

The main draw wild cards, which number just six in a 48-player draw, are:

Boys:

Jack Satterfield
Keaton Hance

Nathan Blokhin

Xingyu Chen

Eric Schinnerer

Arin Pallegar

Girls:

Ishika Ashar

Welles Newman

Maggie Sohns

Reiley Rhodes

Carolina Castro

Shristi Selvan

At the Masters 1000 Cincinnati Open, Frances Tiafoe and Jessica Pegula have advanced to Sunday's semifinals, with the tournament  having a Monday finishing date this year due to the Olympics.

Pegula, seeded No. 6, defeated Leylah Fernandez of Canada 7-5, 6-7(1), 7-6(3) to advance against Paula Badosa of Spain.  Iga Swiatek of Poland and Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus will contest the other semifinal.

The unseeded Tiafoe advanced to his second ATP Masters 1000 semifinal when No. 5 seed Hurbert Hurkacz of Poland retired after losing the first set 6-3. Tiafoe will play the winner of tonight's quarterfinal match between No. 15 seed Holger Rune of Denmark and Jack Draper of Great Britain. No. 3 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany, who beat No. 12 seed Ben Shelton 3-6, 7-6(3), 7-5, faces No. 1 Jannik Sinner of Italy in the other semifinal.

My Kalamazoo 18s Recap and Video Highlights; Jovic's Sweep in San Diego; USTA Creates Player Development Advisory Council; College Park ITF J300 Qualifying Begins Saturday

My annual article on the USTA Boys 18s National Championships for the Tennis Recruiting Network was posted this morning, with comments from champion Matt Forbes, Michigan State head coach Harry Jadun and finalist Jack Kennedy. With TRN's article this afternoon on Iva Jovic's sweep of the girls 18s titles, that wraps up Championship Week on the site (there is an error in the results, with Julieta Pareja defeating Kristina Penickova in the feed-in consolation final, which was initially reported as a victory for Penickova, but a correction was made on the USTA draws after the tournament's daily recap went out).  See this page for links to all eight articles on the USTA National Championships last week.

My video of the 18s final is below; as with the B16s video I posted yesterday, it's lengthy, with the match spanning more than three hours and featuring quite a few entertaining points, particularly in its last half.

I have been hearing that USTA CEO Lew Sherr is beginning to implement a more a hands-on approach regarding player development since the Jose Higueras email and the subsequent response to it from many of those who have regular interactions with Player Development. In the US Open virtual press conference on Wednesday, Sherr mentioned the number of US juniors in the ITF top 50, which is the most of any country, and that's not a reference I can recall a USTA CEO ever making.

One result of Sherr's interest is an announcement today by the USTA that it is forming a Player Development Advisory Council to assemble "experts from across the U.S. tennis ecosystem to provide in-depth input on how the USTA can best enhance and optimize its support for high-performance American players at all levels of the game". 

The initial members of the Advisory Council:

• Chris Boyer:  Chief Marketing Officer of Good Solutions Group, Inc.; USTA Southern California Board Vice President; Committee Chair of the SoCal Pro Series (part of the USTA Pro Circuit); pro player parent
• Bob Bryan: Former world No. 1 professional doubles player; U.S. Davis Cup Team Captain
• Jim Courier: Former world No. 1 professional singles player; former U.S. Davis Cup Team Captain; International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee
• Lindsay Davenport: Former world No. 1 professional singles and doubles player; U.S. Billie Jean King Cup Team Captain; International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee; junior player parent
• Chris Eubanks: Current professional player and former D-1 collegiate player at Georgia Tech
• Mary Joe Fernandez: Former world No. 4 professional singles and doubles player; former U.S. Billie Jean King Cup Team Captain; 2012 Olympic Team USA Women’s Tennis Coach; collegiate player parent
• Madison Keys: Current professional player
• Dana Mathewson: Current professional wheelchair player
• Ben Navarro: Entrepreneur and philanthropist; pro player parent; founder of Beemok Capital, which owns the combined ATP and WTA Cincinnati Open and the WTA’s Credit One Charleston Open
• Kurt Palmer: Chief Investment Officer of Beemok Capital; former collegiate tennis player
• Jessica Pegula: Current professional player
• Walter Porter: Principal, Deloitte Consulting; former college tennis player at Hampton University
• Michael Russell: Professional coach (Taylor Fritz); former professional player
• Bryan Shelton: Former head coach of Georgia Tech women’s tennis team and University of Florida men’s tennis team; former professional singles and doubles player; pro player parent and coach

I know several of those listed above discussed their concerns over the PD budget cuts with the USTA board, and it's heartening to see their concerns addressed by creating a more formal way for them to give input.

Lindsay Davenport, Bryan Shelton, Ben Navarro and Mary Joe Fernandez have all had or have children who interacted with Player Development on a regular basis in the past four years, and I'm sure all will provide valuable feedback to Sherr and the USTA board.  

Chris Boyer, who is the father of ATP No. 210 Tristan Boyer, has developed the very successful SoCal Pro Series, which should be serving as a template for all the USTA sections as a way to keep costs and travel to a minimum, while providing myriad opportunities to earn valuable ATP and WTA points.

I would love to see a Division I collegiate coach and a top junior development coach added to the council, but this a promising start that I hope results in more communication between the USTA board and Player Development and its constituencies.

The USTA's press release can be viewed here.

Qualifying for the ITF J300 in College Park begins on Saturday, and I'll be onsite covering the tournament for the tenth year Sunday.

Raphaelle Leroux of Canada, ranked 177, and Gabriella Mikaul, ranked 179, are the top two girls seeds in qualifying, with six byes.

Cesar Cruz of El Salvador, ranked 123, is the top boys qualifying seed, with Ronit Karki, ranked 125 seeded No. 2.  There were no byes in boys qualifying, with all 48 slots filled. There are two rounds of qualifying scheduled for Saturday; six qualifiers advance to the main draw

Links to the qualifying draws and order of play can be found at the Junior Tennis Champions Center ITF tournament page. I'm not sure if it will be available for qualifying, but there is a live scoring app: https://score-widget.matchscorerlive.com/public/completed/7twSDXi0QUqrGiSW1o4T0Q

My Kalamazoo 16s Recap and Expanded Finals Video; Zink and Kim, Miller and Briggs Reach Huntsville $15K Semifinals

The Tennis Recruiting Network's Championship Week is winding down, with articles on 12s, 14s, and 16s USTA Nationals now available. (For a link to all six articles, see this TRN page). My article on Gus Grumet's rare three-set victory in a Kalamazoo 16s final(just three since 2010 and the first to be decided in a third-set tiebreaker since 2006) was published today.

Below is what I think is the longest highlight video I've ever put up on YouTube and in trying to determine why, I've come up with a couple of reasons. 1) it was a very long match, with many long rallies, particularly in the final set. 2) it was the only final I had to record.  It's rare when I am able to focus on just one championship match, without others competing for my attention. The Indian Wells ITF J300 finals have also allowed me that luxury, but even at Wimbledon, with the junior finals returning to back-to-back matches on Court One this year, there were doubles finals (both featuring Americans) going on at the same time.

My TRN coverage of the 18s and the 18s highlights on my YouTube channel will be posted Friday. 

At the joint $15,000 tournaments in Huntsville Alabama, two Americans have reached the final in both the women's and men's draws.

No. 8 seed Tyler Zink(Georgia, Oklahoma State), who reached the final last week at the $25K in Mississippi will play qualifier Aidan Kim(Florida, Ohio State) for a spot in the final. Zink defeated No. 4 seed Collin Altamirano 6-2, 6-3 in today's quarterfinals, while Kim won his fifth match this week with a 6-0, 6-3 decision over fellow qualifier Ryan Colby(USC, Georgia). 

The top half semifinal will feature Carleton College's 2021 NCAA Division III singles champion Leo Vithoontien of Japan, the No 7 seed, who beat top seed Colin Sinclair(Cornell) of the Northern Mariana Islands 7-6(3), 4-6, 7-5 in three hours and 22 minutes. Virthoontien will play unseeded Aleksa Ciric(Georgia Gwinett), who needed even longer to beat Tomas Luis(Belmont) of Portugal. Ciric prevailed 7-6(6), 0-6, 6-4 in three hours and 24 minutes. 

In the women's semifinals, recent Michigan graduate Kari Miller, who beat a WTA Top 200 player two weeks ago at the W75 in Lexington, had to qualify for Huntsville, but she is now through to the semifinal after beating No. 5 seed Gabriella Broadfoot(NC State) of South Africa 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 in three hours and 11 minutes. Miller will play No. 8 seed Mercedes Aristegui(TCU) of Spain in the semifinals, with Aristegui beating Christasha McNeil 6-1, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. 

Wild card Carly Briggs, a recent Florida graduate, defeated qualifier McKenna Schaefbauer(South Carolina) 6-4, 6-0 today and will play rising NC State sophomore Kristina Paskauskas in the semifinals. Paskauska defeated Michigan freshman Emily Sartz-Lunde of Norway 7-6(2), 6-4.

USTA Announces US Open Wild Cards; Increases in USO Prize Money Include $25,000 for Competing in Qualifying; USO Compensation Issue for Collegians Still Unresolved

The US Open wild cards, both main draw and qualifying, for men and women, were announced this afternoon by the USTA.

The men's release:

FLUSHING, N.Y., August 14, 2024 – The USTA today announced that three-time Grand Slam singles champion Stan Wawrinka, 2020 US Open champion Dominic Thiem and Americans Chris Eubanks, Zachary Svajda, Learner Tien and Matthew Forbes will receive singles main draw wild cards into the 2024 US Open, as well as France’s Alexandre Muller and Australian Tristan Schoolkate, as part of reciprocal agreements.

 

The 2024 US Open will be played August 26-September 8 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.

 

Wawrinka, 39, is a three-time Grand Slam singles champion including the 2016 US Open. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 and is currently ranked No. 141. He’ll be making his 72nd Grand Slam main draw appearance, which is fifth all-time.

 

Thiem, 30, won the 2020 US Open. Earlier this year he announced that he will retire following the 2024 season after struggling with a persistent wrist injury for the better part of the last three years. He has been ranked as high as No. 3 and is currently ranked No. 211.

 

Eubanks, 28, is currently ranked No. 123. Last summer he reached a career-high ranking of world No. 29 after advancing to the Wimbledon quarterfinals and winning his first ATP Tour title in Mallorca. He reached the semifinals at the ATP 250 event in Newport earlier this summer and recently represented the United States at the Paris Olympics.

 

Svajda, 21, is currently ranked No. 110, which is one spot off his career-best ranking of No. 109 achieved in July. In 2023 he qualified for the US Open main draw after receiving wild cards in 2020 and 2021 as the USTA Boys’ 18s national champion. He earned his best US Open result in 2021, reaching the second round where he lost to Jannik Sinner in five sets.

 

Tien, 18, is currently ranked a career-best No. 232 and earned his wild card by winning the US Open Wild Card Challenge. This summer Tien won 28 consecutive matches, winning five consecutive tournaments including his first ATP Challenger Tour title at the USTA Pro Circuit event in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. This will be Tien’s third consecutive US Open main draw appearance after receiving a wild card each of the past two years as the USTA Boys’ 18s national champion.

 

Forbes, 18, will make his Grand Slam debut after winning the singles title at the USTA Boys’ 18s National Championships. The Raleigh, N.C., native will play college tennis at Michigan State in the fall. He won the boys’ 18s doubles title at the 2023 Orange Bowl.

 

Muller, 27, is currently ranked No. 77 and reached a career high ranking of No. 71 in January. He earned his wild card based on a reciprocal agreement between the USTA and FFT where wild cards between the US Open and Roland Garros are exchanged.

 

Schoolkate, 23, is currently ranked No. 160 and won his first ATP Challenger Tour title earlier this year. He earned his wild card based on a reciprocal agreement between the USTA and Tennis Australia where wild cards between the US Open and Australian Open are exchanged.

 

The USTA also announced the American men receiving wild cards into the US Open Qualifying tournament, held August 19-22 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center:

 

Brandon Holt, 26, who has reached three singles finals this year, winning one title; Ethan Quinn, 20, the 2023 NCAA singles champion who reached his first ATP Challenger Tour final in Cleveland in January; Nishesh Basavareddy, 19, the Stanford All-American who reached the final at the ATP Challenger in Bloomfield Hills in July; Kaylan Bigun, 18, the 2024 French Open boys’ singles champion who was ranked as the No. 1 junior in the world as recently as June; Eliot Spizzirri, 22, the two-time ITA National Player of the Year at the University of Texas; Aidan Mayo, 21, who reached the singles final at the ATP Challenger in Charlottesville in October; Bruno Kuzuhara, 20, the former world No. 1 junior; Michael Zheng, 20, the Columbia University junior who was the 2024 NCAA men’s singles runner-up; and Jack Kennedy, 16, the USTA Boys’ 18s national singles runner-up.

The women's release:

FLUSHING, N.Y., August 14, 2024 – The USTA today announced that four-time Grand Slam singles champion Naomi Osaka, 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu and Americans McCartney Kessler, Amanda Anisimova, Alexa Noel and Iva Jovic will receive singles main draw wild cards into the 2024 US Open, as well as France’s Chloe Paquet and Australian Taylah Preston, as part of reciprocal agreements.

 

The 2024 US Open will be played August 26-September 8 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.

 

Osaka, 26, is a four-time Grand Slam champion, including the 2018 and 2020 US Opens. The former world No. 1 returned to the court in January following the birth of her daughter. She has advanced to the third round or better at four WTA 1000 events so far this season and recently broke into the WTA Top 100 for the first time since her return.

 

Andreescu, 24, is the 2019 US Open champion and is currently ranked No. 166. She returned to the court earlier this year after missing nine months due to a back injury. She reached the third round at Roland Garros in her first event back and reached her first WTA final in nearly two years in June.

 

Kessler, 25, is currently ranked a career-best No. 100. The former All-American at the University of Florida made her Grand Slam main draw debut at the 2024 Australian Open after winning the USTA’s Wild Card Challenge, where she reached the second round. She also qualified for the main draw at Wimbledon and won the singles title at the USTA Pro Circuit W75 event in Rome, Ga., less than an hour from her hometown of Calhoun, Ga.

 

Anisimova, 22, earned her wild card by winning the US Open Wild Card Challenge, buoyed by a run to the final at the WTA 1000 in Toronto. The former world No. 21 returned to the court in January after taking an eight-month break from the tour in 2023 for mental health reasons. She reached the fourth round of the Australian Open in only her second tournament back and after her performance in Toronto, finds herself back inside the WTA Top 50.

 

Noel, 21, earned the wild card customarily awarded to an American NCAA singles champion by winning the title as a redshirt junior at the University of Miami in May. She’ll be making her return to the US Open for the first time since 2019 when she competed in the doubles main draw as the USTA Girls’ 18s national doubles champion.

 

Jovic, 16, won the singles title at the USTA Girls’ 18s National Championships. She is currently ranked No. 5 in the ITF world junior rankings and has won the girls’ doubles titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year. She has helped lead the U.S. to back-to-back Junior Billie Jean King Cup titles.

 

Paquet, 30, is currently ranked No. 97, one spot off her career-best ranking of No. 96. She earned her wild card based on a reciprocal agreement between the USTA and FFT where wild cards between the US Open and Roland Garros are exchanged.

 

Preston, 18, is currently ranked No. 146 and made her Grand Slam debut at the 2024 Australian Open. She earned her wild card based on a reciprocal agreement between the USTA and Tennis Australia where wild cards between the US Open and Australian Open are exchanged.

 

The USTA also announced the American women receiving wild cards into the US Open Qualifying tournament, held August 19-22 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center:

 

Clervie Ngounoue, 18, the former world No. 1 junior who won her first two professional singles titles this year; Liv Hovde, 18, the 2022 Wimbledon girls’ singles champion; Tyra Grant, 16, who has won three Grand Slam girls’ doubles titles; Akasha Urhobo, 17, who has reached three ITF singles finals this year, winning one title; Sophie Chang, 27, who won her fourth professional singles title at the W75 event in Evansville in July; Mary Stoiana, 22, the 2024 ITA National Player of the Year at Texas A&M; Kristina Penickova, 14, who reached the girls’ singles semifinals at the French Open; Julieta Pareja, 15, who won her first professional singles title at the W15 in Rancho Santa Fe in July; and Valerie Glozman, 17, the USTA Girls’ 18s national singles runner-up.

There is always disagreement about these selections, but I'm delighted to see McCartney Kessler, the former Florida All-American receive a main draw wild card card after winning the W100 last week in Pennsylvania and reaching 100 in the WTA rankings. Kessler was not a player with many USTA connections as a junior and while in college, but her impressive rise over the past year has now been appropriately recognized and rewarded.

The women's qualifying wild cards are an extremely youthful group, with 27-year-old Sophie Chang and 21-year-old Texas A&M senior Mary Stoiana(the release has her age incorrectly at 22) the two oldest.  As John Parsons of No-Ad No-Problem pointed out, six of the nine qualifying wild cards competed in the USTA 18s Nationals in San Diego last week, and that doesn't include champion Iva Jovic, who is, of course, a main draw wild card recipient. Liv Hovde was eligible to play San Diego, but she hasn't played that event since 2021, when she was 15.  

The men's qualifying wild cards are a young cohort as well, although only two of them--18-year-old Kaylan Bigun and 16-year-old Jack Kennedy--played Kalamazoo this year. Learner Tien was of course eligible to compete in Kalamazoo, but won his main draw wild card through the USTA's Wild Card Challenge competition. Brandon Holt(USC) and Eliot Spizzirri(Texas) are the oldest at 26 and 22 respectively. 

Holt, Spizzirri and Aidan Mayo received qualifying wild cards last year, and although they are all more than 150 spots above Colton Smith in the ATP rankings, I would have liked to see the Arizona senior given a chance at the qualifying level after improving his ATP ranking from 1603 in June to 573 now.

Wild cards for the US Open Junior Championships are not generally announced for at least another week.

The USTA held a virtual press conference this morning which I attended, and there were a few notable announcements. There will be more video review this year, on eight courts; fans will be allowed to move in and out after each game, rather than only at changeovers. A night match will be moved if it is not started by 11:15 p.m.; coaching will again be allowed in all competitions, including juniors; in extreme heat, the roofs on Ashe and Armstrong will be partially closed to provide more shade.

The USTA announced its record prize money last week, with a participant in the first round receiving $100,000.  Reaching the final round of qualifying nets a player $52,000, with $25,000 going to anyone competing in the qualifying tournament.

Lisa Stone of Parenting Aces asked about what happens to that prize money when it can't be accepted by the Kalamazoo and San Diego champions, and Stacey Allaster, US Open tournament director, said this:

STACEY ALLASTER: Right now the money just goes

back into the big expense budget of the US Open. Dr.

Hainline can speak to NCAA rules. We have been

speaking to the NCAA, if that money could be set aside

against some of their expenses. I don't have resolution on

that today, but we have been speaking to the NCAA about

doing that.

I should also note that these athletes also get a lot of

support from our player development. That definitely goes

into the conversation, as well.

The players who wish to retain their eligibility, like Kalamazoo 18s champion Matt Forbes, are already able to offset their New York expenses with this prize money; part of Reese Brantmeier's lawsuit with the NCAA details just how difficult that was for her given the NCAA's petty questioning of her expenses when she played women's qualifying in 2021. Perhaps Allaster is referring to something else, but not referencing the Brantmeier litigation seems like an unforced error. With all the publicity UNC's Fiona Crawley received last year for her inability to take the money from her run from qualifying to the main draw, Allaster must be aware of the issue, which is certainly not going away with the increased popularity of the college development pathway.

An injunction hearing is scheduled for tomorrow; with Brantmeier's legal team filing this request early last month. If the injunction is granted, the NCAA would not be able to prohibit a student-athlete from taking his or her US Open prize money. I don't know when a decision based on this hearing will be announced, but obviously it's significant to many of the wild cards listed above.

Illinois's Miyoshi Repeats, Duke's Yu Sweeps at ITA National Summer Championships; USTA Pro Circuit Features Men's and Women's $15,000 Tournaments in Huntsville, W100 in Cary

The US Open wild cards, which I had hoped would be announced today, were not, and after checking my posts from the last two years, I see that Wednesday of the week following the USTA National Championships has been the preferred day for the announcement, so check back tomorrow for that information.

The ITA National Summer Championships are often held the same week as the USTA National Championships, meaning that I have no time to track them, as I try to cover Kalamazoo, the other National Championships and the World Junior Tennis 14U team competition, but this year the schedule shifted a bit making more coverage possible.

The tournament concluded today, with Eleana Yu of Duke and Kenta Miyoshi of Illinois winning the singles titles at the new Leftwich Tennis Center in Memphis.

Yu, the 2022 USTA Girls 18s National Champion, committed to Stanford late that year, but she played very little during her freshman season and became the rare Stanford player to leave the program this spring, entering the portal. After selecting Duke as her next stop, the 19-year-old from Mason Ohio, played two ITA Summer Series events last month to qualify for the National Summer Championships. The No. 3 seed, Yu defeated No. 4 seed Taylor Cataldi of Wisconsin 6-0, 7-5 in the final, after beating top seed Lily Jones of Michigan 7-6(3), 6-1 in the semifinals. No. 2 seed Emma Jackson of Duke lost in Saturday's first round to Addison Lanton, a rising freshman at LSU, who was the No. 13 seed in the San Diego 18s last week. 

Yu and Jackson won the doubles title, with the top seeds beating the unseeded Wisconsin team of Ellison Reynoldson and Ariel Johnson 6-3, 6-3 in the final.

Top seed Miyoshi and No. 2 seed James Connel of Florida State met for the second straight year in the ITA Summer National Championships final, and again Miyoshi took the title, beating Connel 6-3, 6-3. 

The men's doubles title also went to the top seeds, with Baylor's Oskar Poulsen and Mark Miladinovic defeating the unseeded Texas A&M team of Grant Lothringer and Ethan Silva 6-4, 6-2 in the final.

All four of the champions receive wild cards into next month's ITA All-American Championships, which will serve as a qualifier for the NCAA individual championships scheduled for November in Waco.

Complete draws from the event can be found here. The ITA's recap of today's finals can be found here.

The three USTA Pro Circuit tournaments this week are at different ends of the spectrum, with the W100 in Cary North Carolina and the joint $15,000 tournaments in Huntsville Alabama. All tournaments this week, including the ATP Challenger 100 in Cary, had a Sunday start and will conclude on Saturday, in deference to the upcoming US Open.

At the W100 event in Cary, which features eight women in the WTA Top 120, the only qualifier from the United States was Hina Inoue, although Victoria Hu(Princeton) did receive entry into the main draw as a lucky loser. 

The top seed is WTA No. 76 Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland, with Renata Zarazua of Mexico the No. 2 seed.

Wild cards were given to Alana Smith(NC State), 14-year-old Kristina Penickova and Maria Mateas(Duke). Smith and Penickova lost their first round matches today, but rain has interrupted play several times and the first round is not yet complete.

In Huntsville, the top seed in the men's $15K is Colin Sinclair(Cornell) of the North Mariana Islands, with the No. 2 seed Tristan McCormick(Notre Dame, Georgia), who lost in the first round today to Ryan Dickerson(Duke, Baylor) 7-5, 6-2.

All qualifiers are Americans: Kian Vakili(Penn), Carson Baker(Wake Forest), Boris Kozlov(LSU, Tennessee), Matthew Thomson(Wake Forest), Ron Hohmann(LSU, Michigan State),  Ryan Colby(USC, Georgia), Aidan Kim(Florida, Ohio State) and David Saye(Michigan State).

Five-star high school junior Woodson McMillin of Knoxville Tennessee received a wild card, as did Vincent Rettke(Alabama), reigning Easter Bowl 18s champion William Manning(NC State), and Georgia rising sophomore Cyrus Mahjoob, who was playing in the Kalamazoo feed-in consolation draw on Saturday. 

At the W15 in Huntsville, Maria Fernanda Navarro of Mexico is the top seed, with NC State recruit Victoria Osuigwe the No. 2 seed.

As with the men, all women qualifiers are American: Kari Miller(Michigan), Sydni Ratliff(Ohio State), 5-star high school senior Riley Crowder, Camille Kiss(UC-Santa Barbara), Julie Bedard(Auburn), Violeta Martinez(Illinois), McKenna Schaefbauer(South Carolina) and Brianna Baldi(Wake Forest).

Wild cards were awarded to 5-star high school senior Alston Myatt, 14-year-old blue chip Lyla Middleton, Carly Briggs(Tennessee, Florida) and five-star high school junior Olivia Traynor. All four won their first round matches today. Seventeen-year-old Christasha McNeil, No. 56 in the ITF junior rankings, defeated No. 3 seed Carolina Bohrer Martins of Brazil, who is 16, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 in the first round.