Shelton Wins First ATP Match, Martin Upsets Kokkinakis in Atlanta; Qualifying Complete at Women's $25K in Dallas; Nanda Wins 2019 Kalamazoo Final Rematch; Herendeen Named Head Coach at Texas Tech

2022 NCAA singles champion Ben Shelton received a wild card into the ATP 250 Atlanta Open this week and in his first ATP main draw match, the rising junior at the University of Florida earned a victory, defeating qualifier Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-2, 7-5. Shelton showed few signs of nerves in his ATP debut, getting early breaks in both sets, which allowed him to hit out aggressively and take chances in his return games. Although he saved seven of the eight break points he faced, Shelton lost his second set lead of 4-3, but broke at 5-all and held for the win.

Shelton will play No. 2 seed and defending champion John Isner(Georgia) on Thursday. For more on Shelton's win today, and his comments on returning to Florida for his junior year, can be found in this Tennis Panorama article.

In what is designated as College Night in Atlanta, Georgia Tech rising junior Andres Martin, who received this year's collegiate wild card given to a local Georgia player, stunned ATP No. 69 Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia 6-3, 6-2. As with Shelton, it's the first ATP level match for Martin, and unlike Shelton, Martin played his first two professional circuit matches at any level this summer. He will now face the winner of tonight's late match between qualifier Peter Gojowzcyk of Germany and No. 7 seed Nick Kyrgios of Australia.

Other Americans winning their first round matches yesterday and today are 2021 finalist Brandon Nakashima(Virginia), No. 5 seed Tommy Paul, No. 6 seed Jenson Brooksby(Baylor) and Mackenzie McDonald(UCLA). 

There are just two USTA Pro Circuit tournaments this week, a $25,000 event for women in Dallas and a $25,000 event for men in Edwardsville Illinois.

Rain has delayed the completion of qualifying in Edwardsville, but the main draw has begun, and there will be six players competing in the Kalamazoo Nationals warming up for that tournament this week: Michael Zheng, Ethan Quinn(Georgia), wild card Cooper Williams, No. 2 seed Martin Damm, wild card Kyle Kang and Jack Anthroph, who beat Nishesh Basavareddy tonight in a final round qualifying match.  The other two wild cards went to Hunter Heck(Illinois) and Stefan Dostanic(USC). Pedja Krstin of Serbia is again the top seed, as he was last week in Champaign.

I believe the women are playing indoors at the SMU courts in Dallas due to heat, although as with Evansville last week, it's officially an outdoor tournament. All eight final round qualifying matches were played today, as well as four first round matches in the main draw. 

Advancing to the main draw are Americans Maegan Manasse(Cal), Kylie Collins(Texas/LSU), Taylor Ng(Dartmouth), Eleana Yu and Elysia Bolton(UCLA), along with collegians Snow Han(USC) of China, Ena Shibahara(UCLA) of Japan and Jessica Hinojosa Gomez(Baylor) of Mexico.

Wild cards were given to Dallas resident and USTA 18s Clay Court champion Bridget Stammel, who drew top seed Robin Anderson(UCLA); SMU senior Hadley Doyle, Kylie McKenzie and 16-year-old Clervie Ngounoue. Ngounoue, who has not played since March, is also entered in the USTA Girls 18s Nationals in San Diego next month.

Hanna Chang, the No. 2 seed, won her first round match today, but Jessie Aney(North Carolina) beat No. 3 seed Emiliana Arango of Colombia 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.

There is no ATP Challenger this week in the United States, but quite a group of Americans went to Winnipeg Canada for an 80 there. Govind Nanda(UCLA) and Zachary Svajda both qualified for the main draw and met today in the first round in a rematch of the 2019 Kalamazoo 18s boys final, which Svajda won 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 for his first of two Kalamazoo 18s titles. Today it was Nanda who came back, with the 21-year-old California earning a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory.

Other Americans advancing to the second round in Winnipeg are qualifier Alafia Ayeni(Cornell), who beat No. 4 seed Michael Mmoh 6-4, 6-4, qualifier Evan Zhu(UCLA) and Alex Rybakov(TCU).

What I believe was the last open head coaching position in a major tennis conference is now closed, with Texas Tech hiring former Furman coach Adam Herendeen to take over its women's program. Herendeen coached the women at Furman for seven years, winning six conference titles and making the NCAA tournament five times. Herendeen replaces Todd Petty, who resigned late last month.