US Open Main Draw and Qualifying Wild Cards Announced; Recaps of USTA 14s National Championships

The USTA announced the wild cards for both the US Open main draw, which begins Monday August 30, and qualifying, which begins August 24.

The reciprocal wild card with the Australian Open is back, which took me by surprise, after there was no such arrangement this year with the French Tennis Federation. Max Purcell and Storm Sanders are the Australians received wild card into the main draw of the US Open this year.

The men's main draw wild cards:

Jenson Brooksby

Brandon Nakashima
Emilio Nava

Ernesto Escobedo
Jack Sock

Max Purcell(AUS)

Sam Riffice (NCAA champion)

Zachary Svajda (Kalamazoo 18s champion)

The women's main draw wild cards:

Venus Williams

Coco Vandeweghe

Caty McNally

Hailey Baptiste

Katie Volynets

Storm Sanders(AUS)

Emma Navarro (NCAA champion)

Ashlyn Krueger (San Diego 18s champion)

The men's qualifying wild cards:

Ulises Blanch

Christian Harrison

Zane Khan

Alex Kovacevic

Stefan Kozlov

Nicolas Moreno de Alboran

Govind Nanda

Ben Shelton (Kalamazoo 18s finalist)

Eliot Spizzirri

The women's qualifying wild cards:

Reese Brantmeier (San Diego 18s finalist)

Hanna Chang

Vicky Duval

Elvina Kalieva

Elli Mandlik

Robin Montgomery

Clervie Ngounoue

Katrina Scott

Peyton Stearns

Parsing these choices can be fun, but a smart tennis coach told me a long time ago that playing the game of who "deserves" a wild card is pointless. Wild cards are a gift, period. No one is entitled to one (unless they have been guaranteed one for winning an event, like Kalamazoo or San Diego), so they should be accepted graciously by those who receive them. Those who don't receive these gifts may be understandably disappointed, but should realize the wild card process can and will be subjective, while the rankings, the other pathway to entry, are not.

The USTA release on the men's wild cards is here; the women's wild card release is here.

The US Open Junior wild cards used to be announced later in the same week as the men's and women's but that may not be the case this year. I've compiled a list of those that have been awarded based on what I've been told by the USTA is the criteria for this year, which are below:

US Junior Wild Cards to date:

Girls

Main Draw (6 total):

Tatum Evans (16s champion)

Amelia Honer (Clay Courts 18s champion)

Qualifying: (4 total)

Sarah Hamner (fifth place G18s Nats)

Ariana Pursoo (Clay Courts 18s finalist)

Boys

Main draw: (6 total)

Alexander Rezaghi (16s champion)

Ryan Colby (Clay Courts champion)

Colton Smith (18s third place)

Qualifying: (4 total)

Kyle Kang (fifth place B18s Nats)

Nicholas Heng (Clay Courts 18s finalist)

G18s champion Ashlyn Krueger does not need a wild card, nor does finalist Reese Brantmeier or Elvina Kalieva(3rd place), as they have been accepted into the US Open junior championships via their ITF junior ranking.

B18s champion Svajda and finalist Shelton are not age eligible for an event played by ITF rules. 

Tennis Recruiting Network today has the recaps of the USTA 14s Nationals, with Sydney Jara claiming the girls singles title in Rome Georgia and Jacob Olar sweeping the titles in Mobile Alabama.