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Saturday, August 22, 2015

Semifinals Set in US Open National Playoffs, Doubles Draws Posted; Tiafoe Posts Top 100 Win to Advance to Final Round of Qualifying at Winston-Salem

Although several men were forced to play two matches today in the US Open National Playoffs in Connecticut due to rain Friday, the weather cooperated today and the semifinals are set for Sunday.

Three of the four seeds advanced to the semifinals in both the men's and women's draws.

The only seed missing from the women's final four is top seed Ayaka Okuno of Japan, who lost in the first round Friday to Julia Elbaba, the Virginia senior.  Elbaba advanced today with a 6-3, 6-0 win over 17-year-old Alexis Nelson and will play No. 3 seed Ashley Weinhold Sunday. Weinhold was way down in the third set to Megan McCray, but fought back to win the three-hour contest 7-5, 6-7(5), 7-6(4).  No. 4 seed Jennifer Elie beat Sophie Chang 6-4, 6-2 and will play No. 2 seed Jacqueline Cako, the former Arizona State star Sunday.  Cako defeated Gail Brodsky 6-4, 6-4 in today's quarterfinals.

The only seed missing on the men's side is No. 3 Nikita Kryvonos, who lost in the opening round to Hleb Maslau (North Florida) 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. Like Elbaba, Maslau moved into the semifinals after the big first round win, beating Josh Hagar 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 in today's quarterfinals.  Maslau will play top seed Matija Pecotic(Princeton), who beat Terrell Whitehurst(Florida State) and Hunter Reese(Tennessee) to reach the semifinals. Reese was an alternate who took the place of Michael Kay.

No. 4 seed Felix Corwin(Minnesota) advanced to the semifinals when Mikelis Libietis retired at 4-6, 7-5, having served for the match at 5-3. Corwin will play No. 2 seed Jesse Witten, who lost only six games in his two wins today.

The champions in the men's and women's singles receive a qualifying wild card into the US Open.

The doubles competitions, which provide main draw US Open wild cards to the winning teams, gets underway Tuesday, with the draws now up.

As with the singles, two extra teams were added to fill the fields to 16, and in the men's and women's doubles, several sectional champions are not playing.

In women's doubles, Lorraine Guillermo and Danielle Lao, the Southern Cal champions, are not in draw, nor are Florida winners Lauren Proctor and Miranda Talbert. Southwest winners Savannah Slaysman and Allie Sanford also are not playing.  The top seeds are Cako and Keri Wong, who won the Intermountain section.

In the men's doubles, Northern section champions Jackson Allen and Toby Boyer and Southern Cal section champions Haythem Abid and Joel Kielbowicz are not in the draw. Missouri Valley champions Julio Peralta and Matt Seeberger are the No. 1 seeds.

All the sectional champions are in the mixed doubles draw, with Southern California's Lao and Jonny Wang the only seeded team.

The first and second rounds of qualifying were completed today at the ATP Winston-Salem Open, with several impressive performances by Americans.

Frances Tiafoe claimed the second ATP Top 100 win of his career in the second round of qualifying, beating No. 86 Radu Albot of Moldova 6-4, 6-4.  The Kalamazoo champion will play another US Open wild card, Ryan Harrison, on Sunday for a spot in the main draw.  Harrison defeated Clay Thompson 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 6-0 in the first round and
Sanam Singh 6-3, 7-6(2) in the second round.

Wil Spencer(Georgia) beat Frank Dancevic and Ryan Haviland, both in three sets, and will play No. 5 seed Marco Cecchinato of Italy in Sunday's final round of qualifying. No. 7 seed Bjorn Fratangelo will play top seed Martin Klizan of Slovakia and Sekou Bangoura faces Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France.  Bangoura defeated ATP No. 64 and No. 2 seed Lucas Pouille of France 6-4, 6-1 in the second round of qualifying today.

4 comments:

Incompetence said...

Could someone tell me who is the incompetent fool who is responsible for failing to seed Maya Jansen and Erin Routliffe in the US Open National Playoff's draw?!!

They are the two time defending NCAA I National Champions!! How do they seed Cako and Wong but not THIS team!!

And, by the way, don't Jansen and Routliffe automatically get a wild card into the US Open for being NCAA Champions?

Colette Lewis said...

Routliffe is Canadian, so no wild card to us open would be considered

Incompetence said...

Thanks Colette. That explains why they didn't get a wild card, but can someone explain why they didn't get seeded AT ALL?

AR Hacked Off said...

it appears for the Playoff Tournament they use WTA/ATP Rankings for seeding purposes, so if Routliffe/Jansen did not play Pro Tournaments or get a ranking they would not have been included in the seeding.