USTA Clay Court Invitational Begins Thursday In Orlando with Quiroz and Burgmans Top Seeds

The USTA Clay Court Invitational at Disney begins Thursday at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando, with Florida State serving as the hosts for the second annual tournament.

Last year, the clay court event, which also features eight USTA-sponsored juniors, was men only; this year, women have also been invited, including eight junior girls selected by the USTA. My post on the juniors selected is here (Mary Haffey has since been added). This year the format is also new, with no flights, just a 64-draw with byes for the seeds, all of whom are college players.

The seeds:

MEN:
1. Roberto Quiroz, Southern Cal
2. Stephane Piro, Florida
3. Daniel Leitner, South Alabama
4. Florent Diep, Florida
5. Dominic Cotrone, Florida State
6. Eric Johnson, Southern Cal
7. Michael Grant, Southern  Cal
8. Quentin Monaghan, Notre Dame
9-16:
Michael Alford, Florida
Jarryd Chaplin, Tennessee
Max De Vroome, Southern Cal
Brandon Fickey, Tennessee
Benjamin Lock, Florida State
Norbert Nemcsek, North Florida
Brian Page, Illinois
David Sofaer, Pepperdine

WOMEN:
1. Pleun Burgmans, Auburn
2. Daneika Borthwick, Florida State
3. Cristina Stancu, Texas A&M
4. Georgina Sellyn, Vanderbilt
5. Paula de Man, Auburn
6. Ines Deheza, Texas A&M
7. Nikki Sanders, Texas Tech
8. Michaela Bezdickova, New Mexico
9-16:
Frances Altick, Vanderbilt
Kerrie Cartwright, Florida State
Stefania Hristov, Texas A&M
Kourtney Keegan, Florida
Lynn Kiro, Texas Tech
Megan McCray, Oklahoma State
Yelena Nemchen, Tulsa
Belinda Woolcock, Florida

Stancu and Hristov are the top seeds in women's doubles, with Cotrone and Blake Davis No. 1 in the men's doubles draw.

The women's schedule is here, but I don't have the complete men's schedule at the moment. The USTA release on the tournament and the ten hours of ESPN3 coverage being provided on Sunday says the men's semifinals are Sunday and will be included in the live streaming, along with all finals in both singles and doubles.

The complete draws are available at the Florida State website.