Montgomery and Scott Top USTA Nationals Girls 18s Seeds; ITF No. 1s, Wimbledon Junior Champions Head US Open Acceptances; ITF College Park J1 Entry List Points to Strong Field; Michigan's Top Boys Prepare for Kalamazoo Nationals

Katrina Scott and Robin Montgomery
Junior Billie Jean King Cup champions 2019

The USTA Girls 18s National Championships in San Diego don't begin until Sunday, but a link to the list of seeds was posted today at the USTA's PlayTennis site. Robin Montgomery and Katrina Scott are the top two seeds based on their WTA rankings of 357 and 384. Below are the top 32 seeds, the 32 additional seeds can be found here.

G18s seeds:
1. Robin Montgomery
2. Katrina Scott
3. Madison Sieg
4. Alexandra Yepifanova
5. Elvina Kalieva
6. Ashlyn Krueger
7. Reese Brantmeier
8. Amelia Honer
9. Akari Matsuno
10. Sarah Hamner
11. Liv Hovde
12. Elisabeth Jones
13. Ann Guerry
14. Bridget Stammel
15. Emma Charney
16. Natalie Block
17. Meera Jesudason
17. Maddy Zampardo
17. Vivian Miller
17. Eleana Yu
17. Mary Stoiana
17. Katie Codd
17. Isabella Chhiv
17. Kimmi Hance
17. Charlotte Owensby
17. Alexis Blokhina
17. Vivian Ovrootsky
17. Savannah Broadus
17. Clervie Ngounoue
17. Anne Lutkemeyer
17. Kylie Collins
17. Ellie Coleman

The first round of the Girls 16s was played today in San Diego, with the results posted at the PlayTennis site. The top 32 seeds in the 16s play their first matches Thursday. 

The acceptances for the US Open Junior Championships were posted today, with three of the four 2021 junior slam champions entered: Luca Van Assche of France, Samir Banerjee and Ane Mintegi Del Olmo of Spain. French girls champion Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic, who did not enter Wimbledon Juniors either, is the exception. Also entered are the ITF junior No. 1s, Juncheng Shang of China and Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva of Andorra. Eight of the Top 10 boys and eight of the Top 10 girls have entered.

Because the draw size has been reduced from 64 to 48, the cutoffs are much higher than usual, with the girls cutoff 38 and the boys cutoff 36 as of now. Philip Sekulic of Australia, who is ranked 77, gets into to the main draw due to no other representative of his region qualifying otherwise. A player must be in the Top 80 to earn that exemption.

The US girls on the initial acceptance list:

Robin Montgomery

Madison Sieg

Alexandra Yepifanova

Elvina Kalieva

Ashlyn Krueger

Reese Brantmeier

The US boys on the initial acceptance list:

Samir Banerjee

Bruno Kuzuhara

Victor Lilov

Dali Blanch

Alexander Bernard

Ozan Colak

Jack Anthrop

As I mentioned earlier, there are only six main draw and four qualifying wild cards this year, and one of those six main draw wild cards has already been awarded to Clay Court champions Ryan Colby and Amelia Honer.

The acceptances for the College Park Maryland ITF J1 were also released today, although that tournament is two weeks prior to the US Open. Jimenez Kasintseva did not enter, but Shang did, and the cutoffs (the draws are 64) for both boys and girls are inside the Top 100 for the first time in many years. The J1 tournament in Canada that serves as another warmup from the US Open has dropped down to a Grade 3 this year and is just a 32-draw, so I assume that's why so many have opted for College Park this year.

Americans entered in College Park:

Boys:

Banerjee

Kuzuhara

Lilov

Blanch

Bernard

Colak

Anthrop

Quinn

Aidan Mayo

Aidan Kim

Benjamin Kittay

Girls:

Sieg

Yepifanova

Kalieva

Brantmeier

Clervie Ngounoue

Alexis Blokhina

The Kalamazoo Gazette published a superb feature today on the Michigan boys who are playing in the USTA National Championships. If any other local newspaper does this for its players, please let me know. This type of article takes a lot of time and research, but it certainly helps introduce the sport to casual sports fans in the area by giving them a local name and face to follow.

Kalamazoo Draws; Scott Posts Another WTA Top 100 Win in Concord; Decatur $25K Qualifying Complete; Universal Tennis Announces New National Junior Events This Fall

The draws for the USTA Boys 18 and 16s National Championships in Kalamazoo have been posted, with play beginning on Friday for the 18s, with the top 32 seeds having byes. I provided the list of the Top 32 seeds in last night's post; there were two withdrawals: No. 7 seed Victor Lilov in the 18s and No. 10 seed Roy Horovitz in the 16s. In the 18s, Gavin Young moved to the No. 16 seed, Quinn Vandecasteele to the No. 32 seed and Luke Casper to a 33 seed from unseeded.  In the 16s, Stefan Regalia moved up to 16, Vincent Yang to 32 and Carter Pate from unseeded to a 33.

Links to printable PDF versions of the draws can be found at the ustaboys.com website.

In addition to the ATP 500 Citi Open in Washington DC and the WTA 500 Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose California, there are two other professional events in the US on this week's calendar: another WTA 125, this week in Concord Massachusetts, and another US Pro Circuit men's $25,000 tournament, this week in Decatur Illinois.

Katrina Scott, who is likely to be one of the top seeds at the upcoming USTA Girls 18s Nationals(draws are not out yet), earned her second WTA Top 100 win in as many weeks today in Concord. The 17-year-old wild card defeated No. 5 seed and ATP No. 94 Lauren Davis 7-6(1), 7-5 in the first round. She will play Caroline Dolehide, who beat qualifier Robin Anderson(UCLA) 6-3, 6-4. Yesterday, wild card Lulu Sun, the rising University of Texas sophomore from Switzerland, won her first round match over Kurumi Nara of Japan 6-1, 6-3. Sun will play No. 3 seed Madison Brengle in the second round. Charleston 125 champion Varvara Lepchenko won her first round match over Tatjana Maria of Germany 6-0, 6-3, but Charleston finalist Jamie Loeb lost to Usue Arconada 7-6(11), 2-6, 6-4.

Qualifying for the main draw in Decatur, which begins Wednesday, concluded today, with Americans Eliot Spizzirri(Texas), Nathan Ponwith(Arizona State) and Preston Brown advancing to the main draw. Wild cards went to Blu Baker of Great Britain, Cannon Kingsley(Ohio State), Govind Nanda(UCLA) and Alfredo Perez(Florida). The top seeds are Australia's Jason Kubler, who won the Lexington Challenger last week, and Sasikumar Mukund of India.

Wild card Claire Liu has advanced in San Jose, beating Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

In Washington DC, wild card Brandon Nakashima(Virginia) celebrated his 20th birthday with another win, beating Alexei Popyrin of Australia 6-3, 6-3. Wild card Jenson Brooksby(Baylor) avenged his Hall of Fame Open final loss to Kevin Anderson(Illinois) 7-6(4), 6-3 yesterday. Other Americans advancing to the second round include Denis Kudla, Mackenzie McDonald(UCLA), who beat Nick Kyrgios of Australia 6-4, 6-4, Tennys Sandgren(Tennessee), Steve Johnson(USC), Jack Sock and Marcos Giron(UCLA). Giron lost today in the second round, to No. 7 seed Cameron Norrie(TCU) of Great Britain 6-4, 6-3.  Sebastian Korda, the No. 12 seed, won his second round match, beating Vasek Pospisil of Canada 7-5, 6-4.

Universal Tennis has announced a new national junior competition called the Junior National Pathway, which will begin with regional competitions this fall in 13U, 15U and 17U age divisions. The winners of the 15U and 17U regionals will qualify for the Junior National Championships and College Showcase to be held in Las Vegas at Darling Tennis Center on December 3-8 during ITA Coaches Convention. The regional sites are shown in the screenshot below.  For more information, see this article from Universal Tennis.

July Aces; Svajda, Razeghi Top Kalamazoo 18s and 16s Seeding Lists; USTA Girls 16s Draw Posted for Wednesday Start; ITF World Junior Tennis 14U Team Event Begins in Czech Republic; Grip MD Debuts

My monthly Tennis Recruiting Network article, featuring Wimbledon champions, the first ATP and WTA titles for former collegians and many other milestones for those who are in the college and junior tennis realms is available today. Check out the 17 players who had memorable wins in July here.

The draws for the Kalamazoo 16s and 18s should be available later tonight, but here is a list of the top 32 seeds. A seeding committee from the tournament makes suggestions, but it is the USTA that has the final say on who is seeded, and where, in its sanctioned events.

Zachary Svajda returns to Kalamazoo
to defend his 2019 title as the top seed

Boys 18s:

1. Zachary Svajda
2. Martin Damm

3. Ben Shelton

4. Ethan Quinn

5. Samir Banerjee

6. Bruno Kuzuhara

7. Victor Lilov (withdrew)

8. Dali Blanch

9. Alexander Bernard

10. Ozan Colak

11. Aidan Mayo

12. Aidan Kim

13. Benjamin Kittay

14. Braden Shick

15. Azuma Visaya

16. Michael Zheng

17. Gavin Young

18. Kyle Kang

19. Alejandro Moreno

20. Sebastian Gorzny

21. Bjorn Swenson

22. Masato Perera

23. Nicholas Heng

24. Ryan Colby

25. Alex Michelsen

26. Kian Vakili

27. Alexander Visser

28. Aadarsh Ripathi

29. Colton Smith

30. Eric Li

31. Alex Finkelstein

32. Rohan Sachdev

Boys 16s:

1. Alexander Razeghi

2. Emon van Loben Sels

3. Learner Tien

4. Lucas Brown

5. Cooper Woestendick

6. Ari Cotoulas

7. Quang Duong

8. Mitchell Lee

9. Andrew Delgado

10. Roy Horovitz (withdrew)

11. Zane Ford

12. Chase Fralick

13. Alexander Frusina

14. Nicholas Godsick

15. Jonathan Irwanto

16. Rudy Quan

17. Stefan Regalia

18. Cyrus Mahjoob

19. Marko Mesarovic

20. Owen Megargee

21. Nikita Filin

22. Alexander Aney

23. Jason Shuler

24. Greyson Casey

25. Dylan Tsoi

26. William Hsieh

27. Declan Galligan

28. Aaron Sandler

29. Adhithya Ganesan

30. Eli Stephenson

31. Meecah Bigun

32. Kaylan Bigun

I will not be writing a preview of Kalamazoo this year for Tennis Recruiting, but I did talk with Alex Gruskin of Cracked Racquets last week about both the Girls and Boys 18s Nationals' top contenders in this podcast.

The USTA Girls 16s Nationals starts earlier than usual this year in San Diego, with the tournament needing to make that change due to fewer courts available to them than usual. That means the singles draw has already been posted, with times for Wednesday's first round and Thursday's second round, when the top 32 will begin play. They do not seed to 32, but rather have 16 No. 17 seeds, so I'm just listing the top 16 below:

G16s:

1. Theadora Rabman

2. Tatum Evans

3. Piper Charney

4. Ariana Pursoo

5. Reese Miller

6. Amber Yin

7. Kinaa Graham

8. Alexia Harmon

9. Stephanie Yakoff

10. Ahmani Guichard

11. Arina Oreshchenkova

12. Valeria Ray

13. Tola Glowacka

14. Kaitlyn Carnicella

15. Brooklyn Olson

16. Sophie Llewellyn

The ITF's World Junior Tennis 14U Team Championships are being held this year, after being canceled last year, in its usual venue and place on the calendar. The United States is not participating, either in this event or in the Junior Davis Cup and Junior Billie Jean King Cup this fall, so I will not be reporting regularly on the event, although I will post on the finals, scheduled for Saturday. 

The boys seeds are:

1. Italy

2. Czech Republic

3. Switzerland

4. Canada

5. Russia

6. Japan

7. Colombia 

8. Korea

The girls seeds are:

1. Russia

2. Bulgaria

3. Slovakia

4. Czech Republic

5. Colombia

6. Thailand

7. Canada

8. Japan

Round robin play in four groups began today in Prostejov Czech Republic. The ITF preview is here; the tournament website, with live streaming and live scoring, is here.

I had heard that former USTA National Coach Mark Merklein was working on a new tennis-related product a few months ago, and last month I received a press release on that product: Grip MD, an aid to teaching the continental grip. Merklein, who won the NCAA singles title at Florida in 1994, is a co-founder of the company that produces Grip MD, with former Notre Dame standout Matt Daly. Check out the Grip MD's YouTube channel for demonstrations, and see this article for more about Merklein and Daly.

Shelton Goes Undefeated at USTA Pro Circuit $25K in Champaign; Isner Beats Nakashima for Sixth ATP Atlanta Title; Lepchenko Wins WTA 125 in Charleston

Wild card Ben Shelton won his second USTA Pro Circuit title a day after claiming his first, adding the singles title to his doubles championship with a 7-6(4), 6-3 decision over No. 5 seed Gijs Brouwer of the Netherlands at the $25,000 tournament on the campus of the University of Illinois. 

The first set was a slog for the two left-handers, with Shelton going up 3-1, but losing four straight games and needing to save five set points just to get to a tiebreaker. Shelton, who turns 19 in October, kept calm in the late stages of that tiebreaker, with Brouwer committing two unforced errors on his two service points at 4-5. 

Shelton, who clinched Florida's NCAA team title in May, got a break to start the second set and again went up 3-1, but Brouwer brought it back to even, only to be broken again, when he served at 3-3. At 30-30 Shelton won the next two points, and a discouraged Brouwer lost the next eight points to give Shelton his second title in as many days.

I assume Shelton's next stop will be Kalamazoo for the USTA 18s Nationals, which for seeded 18s doubles players begins Friday August 6, but there is a $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Decatur Illinois starting Monday.

The other American teenager in a final today, Brandon Nakashima, came up just short, with John Isner getting his sixth Atlanta title with a 7-6(8), 7-5 decision over the 2017 Kalamazoo 16s champion. Nakashima had defeated Isner last week en route to the Los Cabos ATP 250 final, but Isner has been in 9 of the 11 Atlanta finals and couldn't feel more at home in that setting.

From the USTA:

John Isner Wins Sixth Truist Atlanta Open Singles Title   Defeats 19-Year-Old American Brandon Nakashima to Join Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as only Active Men's Players to Win Six-Plus Titles at a Tour-Level Event   August 1, 2021 -- American John Isner won the Truist Atlanta Open singles title for the sixth time on Sunday, joining Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as the only active men's players to win six or more singles titles at a tour-level event. Isner's six Atlanta titles are second only to Federer's seven Cincinnati victories in terms of US Open Series events.    The 36-year-old University of Georgia alumnus outlasted 19-year-old American Brandon Nakashima, 7-6 (8), 7-5, in just under two hours. The San Diegan Nakashima -- bidding to become the youngest American singles champion at an ATP event since Andy Roddick in 2002 in Houston -- reached his second ATP singles final in as many weeks, after reaching the final in Los Cabos last week. He turns 20 on Tuesday.    Coached by Dusan Vemic, Nakashima, who played one season at the University of Virginia before turning pro, spent two weeks training with former USTA Player Development director of coaching Jose Higueras prior to this hard-court swing and is projected to rise to a career-high No. 89 in the world on Monday. Nakashima is the second rising American to reach an ATP singles final in as many US Open Series events thus far in 2021, after 20-year-old Jenson Brooksby reached the final in Newport two weeks ago.

Jamie Loeb and Varvara Lepchenko battled for over three hours in the WTA 125 tournament in Charleston South Carolina today, with the fourth-seeded Lepchenko earning a 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-4 victory over the unseeded former NCAA champion at North Carolina. It's the biggest title of a long career for the 35-year-old Lepchenko, who reached No. 19 in the WTA rankings back in 2012.

At the ATP Challenger in Lexington, unseeded Jason Kubler of Australia took the title, defeating No. 6 seed Alejandro Tabilo of Chile 7-5, 6-7(2), 7-5 in today's final. Kubler had beaten Ernesto Escobedo, the last American in the draw, 6-2, 6-3 in Saturday's semifinals. 

Canadian Liam Draxl, the rising University of Kentucky junior, and Stefan Kozlov won the doubles title Saturday night, with the pair taking a 6-2, 6-7(5), 10-7 decision over former TCU stars Reese Stalder and Alex Rybakov. Both teams received entry into the draw as wild cards.

Qualifying is complete at the ATP 500 Citi Open in Washington DC, with Mitchell Krueger earning one of the six main draw spots on offer. JJ Wolf(Ohio State) lost today to Elias Ymer of Sweden 7-6(5), 7-6(4) and Maxime Cressy(UCLA) lost to Illya Marchenko of Ukraine 7-5, 6-7(4), 6-3 tonight.

Former University of Michigan star Emina Bektas qualified for her first WTA main draw above the 125 level today at the Mubadala Classic in San Jose California, a 500 event. Bektas beat Katie Volynets in the first round of qualifying yesterday 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 and today took out former Georgia star Ellen Perez of Australia 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. Ashlyn Krueger lost to Na-Lae Han of Korea 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 in the final round of qualifying and Robin Montgomery was beaten by Ana Konjuh of Croatia by a 6-3, 7-6(2) score.

Shelton, Loeb and Nakashima Move into Finals; Third Straight Title for Quevedo at Bogota J3, Slama Wins J3 in Paraguay; Olympic Bronze for Stefani and Peers; WTA Qualifying Victories for Krueger and Montgomery

Many of the top contenders for the Kalamazoo 18s title play the USTA Pro Circuit tournaments in the Midwest as warmups for the Nationals, with similar surface, similar weather and a guarantee of a high quality match or two the attraction for those who have a chance to play qualifying, or even receive a main draw wild card. 

I don't, however, remember anyone coming into Kalamazoo immediately after winning one of these pro tournaments, which is what 18-year-old Ben Shelton now has an opportunity to do with a win in the final of the $25,000 tournament in Champaign Illinois. Wild card Shelton, the rising sophomore at Florida, has yet to drop a set in Champaign, and today he defeated top seed and ATP No. 360 Yu Hsiou Hsu of Taiwan 6-4, 6-1 in the semifinals. Shelton, who finished fourth in the 16s division in Kalamazoo in 2019, will face No. 5 seed Gijs Brouwer of the Netherlands for the title. Brouwer defeated unseeded Naoki Nakagawa of Japan 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 in today's semifinals.

Regardless of the outcome in Sunday's singles final, Shelton has his first ITF men's World Tennis Tour title, after he and Eliot Spizzirri(Texas) won the doubles championship this afternoon. The wild cards defeated No. 2 seeds Yunseong Chung of Korea and Rio Noguchi of Japan 6-4, 6-0 in the final and they didn't come close to losing a set during the week.

Jamie Loeb July 2020
photo credit: Scott Gerber
OhioTennisZone.com

Jamie Loeb will be back in the Top 200 after reaching the biggest final of her career this week at the WTA 125 in Charleston South Carolina. The 26-year-old from New York, who won the NCAA singles title in 2015 as a sophomore at North Carolina, defeated Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine 6-4, 6-2 in today's semifinal. She will face No. 4 seed Varvara Lepchenko, who beat No. 2 seed Lauren Davis 7-5, 6-3. Loeb was coming off a rough stretch on European clay after Wimbledon qualifying, winning just one qualifying match in four tournaments, so the Har-Tru of Charleston must have been more to her liking. Her previous best result was an appearance in the final of the Midland $100K in 2018, where she beat both Sofia Kenin and Jennifer Brady, losing to Madison Brengle in the final.

En-Shuo Liang of Taiwan and Rebecca Marino of Canada won the doubles title, with the unseeded pair defeating top seeds Erin Routliffe(Alabama) of New Zealand and Aldila Sutjiadi(Kentucky) of Indonesia 5-7, 7-5, 10-7.

Brandon Nakashima has been on a roll the past two weeks, reaching his first final at last week's ATP 250 in Los Cabos and his second this week at the 250 in Atlanta. Today Nakashima defeated Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 to set up an all-US final against the winner of tonight's match between John Isner and Taylor Fritz. It was just two years ago that Nakashima was preparing to play the Kalamazoo 18s as the top seed; he lost in the semifinals to champion Zachary Svajda 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Kaitlin Quevedo has been on a tear since capturing the USTA Girls 16s Clay Court singles championship two weeks ago in Huntsville Alabama. Last week the 15-year-old Floridian won her first ITF Junior Circuit title at the J5 in Medellin Colombia to run her winning streak to 13; she added five more wins to that this week, with the title at the J3 in Bogota Colombia. Unseeded, she again didn't drop a set all week, defeating top seed Lucciana Perez Alarcon of Peru 6-4, 6-1 in the final. Quevedo is showing as withdrawn from the USTA Nationals in San Diego next month.

At this week's J3 in Paraguay, 15-year-old Mia Slama won an all-American final, with the No. 2 seed defeating No. 8 seed Tatum Evans 6-3, 6-4. It's Slama's fifth ITF junior singles title, with her previous four coming at the J4 and J5 levels.

Jonah Braswell, the 2020 16s Orange Bowl champion, is not playing Kalamazoo, but was in Germany for a J4 this week. Although he lost in the first round as the No. 2 seed, he did win the doubles title, partnering with Massimo Giunta of Italy. The No. 4 seeds defeated No. 3 seeds Cesar Bouchelaghem and Tiago Pires of France 3-6, 6-1, 11-9 in the final.

I wrote about Michael Venus getting a bronze medal yesterday in men's doubles at the Tokyo Olympics and two more former collegians also took third, with John Peers(Baylor), playing with Ashleigh Barty, taking the bronze in mixed for Australia and Luisa Stefani(Pepperdine) taking bronze for Brazil in the women's doubles with partner Laura Pigossi. It's Brazil's first tennis medal.

Qualifying for next week's WTA 500 in San Jose began today, and two of the junior contenders warming up there in the qualifying won their matches today. Wild card Ashlyn Krueger defeated WTA 183 and No. 7 seed Valeria Savinykh of Russia 6-1, 7-6(2) and wild card Robin Montgomery defeated No. 5 seed Arina Rodionova of Australia 6-4, 6-0. Krueger faces Na-Lae Han of Korea for a place in the main draw; Montgomery's opponent is the winner of tonight's match between Ana Konjuh of Croatia and Eri Hozumi of Japan.

My Kalamazoo and San Diego Preview on Cracked Racquets Podcast; Nakashima, Loeb and Shelton Reach Semifinals in Atlanta, Charleston and Champaign

Cracked Racquet's Alex Gruskin and I hadn't talked since the NCAAs back in May, but we got together this morning to preview the USTA 18s Nationals in San Diego and Kalamazoo. Although neither the seeds nor the draws are out yet, we highlighted those we thought could contend for the US Open main draw wild cards that are the carrots for most of the top players entering these events. With defending champion Zachary Svajda returning, there isn't much doubt who will be the top seed for the boys, but the girls top seed isn't as clear cut. We speculate on the chances of the two NCAA team champions who received wild cards, Kylie Collins of Texas and Ben Shelton of Florida, and make our predictions.

We also talked about the prospects for American tennis in the coming decade and what the USTA considers as success when it comes to the performance of Americans. The podcast can be found here, or search for Great Shot podcast wherever you get your podcasts. 

Shelton will be coming into Kalamazoo with some impressive results in this week's $25,000 tournament on the USTA Pro Circuit in Champaign. The 18-year-old wild card defeated 2019 NCAA champion Paul Jubb(South Carolina) of Great Britain 6-1, 6-2 in today's quarterfinals, while also reaching the doubles final with Texas rising sophomore Eliot Spizzirri. Shelton will face Yu Hsiou Hsu of Taiwan in the singles semifinals, while he and Spizzirri will take on No. 2 seeds Yunseong Chung of Korean and Rio Noguchi of Japan in the doubles final. 

Brandon Nakashima continues to post wins at the ATP 250 level, beating Jordan Thompson of Australia, whom he defeated last week in Los Cabos, again today in Atlanta. Nakashima did not need a third set tiebreaker this time, earning a 7-6(5), 7-5 win that should put him into the ATP Top 100 for the first time. Nakashima will play Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland in the semifinals, after Ruusuvuori beat No. 3 seed Cameron Norrie(TCU) of Great Britain 7-6(1), 6-3.  Taylor Fritz[5] defeated Reilly Opelka[4] 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 7-6(4) to advance to the semifinals, where he'll meet the winner of tonight's match between No. 6 seed John Isner(Georgia) and qualifier Christopher O'Connell of Australia.

At the WTA 125 in Charleston South Carolina, Jamie Loeb(UNC) is through to the semifinals after defeating En-Shou Liang of Taiwan 6-3, 6-3. She will play Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine, who prevented an all-US semifinal slate with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Emma Navarro(Virginia). No. 2 seed Lauren Davis beat Maria Mateas 6-3, 7-5 and will play No. 4 seed Varvara Lepchenko, a 6-1, 6-1 winner over Hanna Chang. 

There were no Olympic medals in tennis for the United States this year in Tokyo, but Michael Venus, the former LSU star, earned a bronze medal for New Zealand when he and Marcus Daniell defeated Austin Krajicek and Tennys Sandgren 7-6(3), 6-2. It's the first tennis medal for that country. John Peers(Baylor) of Australia and Luisa Stefani(Pepperdine) of Brazil are playing in the mixed and women's doubles bronze medal matches.

The main draw for next week's ATP Citi Open in Washington DC was released today, with Jenson Brooksby added as a wild card, after the tournament previous awarded wild cards to top seed Rafael Nadal, Feliciano Lopez, Jack Sock and Nakashima. Brooksby will play Kevin Anderson in a rematch of the ATP Hall of Fame Open earlier this month. Unlike Atlanta, which is a 32-draw with four byes, Washington, a 500 level event, is a 64-draw with 16 byes.