US Open Wild Cards; Shelton Beats Ruud at Cincinnati Masters; Top Ten ITF Junior Shnaider Signs with North Carolina State
The USTA announced the wild cards for the US Open men's and women's main draw and qualifying tournament today. The two releases are below:
FLUSHING, N.Y., Aug. 17, 2022 – The USTA today announced that 2020 US Open men’s singles champion Dominic Thiem, Americans Sam Querrey, Emilio Nava, JJ Wolf, Ben Shelton and Learner Tien will receive singles main draw wild cards into the 2022 US Open, as will France’s Ugo Humbert and Australian Rinky Hijikata, as part of reciprocal agreements.
The 2022 US Open will be played August 29-September 11 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.
Thiem, 28, of Austria, won the US Open men’s singles title in 2020 after coming back from down two sets to love to Alexander Zverev, the first such comeback in a US Open title match since 1949. A former world No. 3 currently ranked No. 228, Thiem has returned to competition following a long layoff due to a wrist injury.
Querrey, 34, was ranked as high as No. 11 in 2018 and is currently ranked No. 278. Querrey has played in all but one US Open main draw since 2006, reaching the quarterfinals in 2017 and the Round of 16 in 2008 and 2010. He owns 10 ATP titles and was a 2017 Wimbledon semifinalist.
Nava, 20, is ranked a career-high No. 200. He won his first ATP Challenger singles title earlier this year and reached the boys’ singles final at both the US Open and Australian Open in 2019.
Wolf, 23, is ranked a career-high No. 83, and earned his wild card by winning the US Open Wild Card Challenge. An All-American at Ohio State in 2019, Wolf reached the quarterfinals at the Citi Open ATP 500 in Washington, D.C., this summer.
Shelton, 19, is ranked a career-high No. 229. He earned the wild card customarily awarded to an American NCAA singles champion by winning the title as a sophomore at the University of Florida in May. He’s reached two Challenger singles finals this summer and won his first ATP main draw match at the Atlanta Open.
Tien, a 16-year-old Californian, earned his wild card by winning the USTA Boys’ 18s national championship on Monday, becoming the youngest such champion since Donald Young in 2005. He’s ranked No. 40 in the world among juniors and was a Wimbledon boys’ singles quarterfinalist earlier this summer.
Humbert, 24, is ranked No. 155 and was ranked as high as No. 25 in 2021. He earned his wild card based on a reciprocal agreement between the USTA and FFT where wild cards between the US Open and Roland Garros are exchanged.
Hijikata, 21, is ranked No. 199 and played college tennis at UNC. He earned his wild card based on a reciprocal agreement between the USTA and Tennis Australia where wild cards between the US Open and Australian Open are exchanged.
The USTA also announced the American men receiving wild cards into the US Open Qualifying tournament, held August 23-26 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center:
Murphy Cassone, 20, who was named the ITA’s national Rookie of the Year as a freshman at Arizona State in 2022; Oliver Crawford, 23, a two-time singles All-American at the University of Florida; Martin Damm, 18, who in 2019 was part of the youngest-ever men’s doubles team to win a match at the US Open; Brandon Holt, 24, a three-time singles All-American at USC and the son of former US Open champion Tracy Austin; Aleks Kovacevic, 23, a two-time singles All-American at the University of Illinois and runner-up in the US Open Wild Card Challenge; Bruno Kuzuhara, 18, who won the 2022 Australian Open boys’ singles and doubles titles and was the No. 1 junior in the world earlier this summer; Alex Rybakov, 25, a two-time singles All-American at TCU and former Top-15 junior; Ethan Quinn, 18, the USTA Boys’ 18s national singles runner-up and freshman at the University of Georgia; and Zach Svajda, 19, a two-time USTA Boys’ 18s national champion.
FLUSHING, N.Y., Aug. 17, 2022 – The USTA today announced that seven-time Grand Slam singles champion Venus Williams, 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin, and Americans CoCo Vandeweghe, Elizabeth Mandlik, Peyton Stearns and Eleana Yu will receive main draw wild cards into the 2022 US Open, as will France’s Harmony Tan and Australian Jaimee Fourlis, as part of reciprocal agreements.
The 2022 US Open will be played August 29-September 11 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.
Williams, 42, has won seven Grand Slam singles titles including back-to-back titles at the US Open in 2000 and 2001. She returned to competition after missing nearly a year due to injury earlier this summer, competing in WTA events in Washington, D.C., and Toronto. She last competed in the US Open in 2020.
Kenin, 23, is the most recent American to win a Grand Slam singles title, capturing the Australian Open crown in 2020. She also reached the singles final at the French Open in 2020 and has been ranked as high as world No. 4. She recently returned from an extended injury hiatus and last competed in the US Open in 2020, reaching the fourth round. She is currently ranked No. 412 in singles.
Vandeweghe, 30, has been ranked as high as world No. 9 and won her first singles title in more than six years last week at the WTA 125 event in Concord, Mass. She missed the better part of two full years due to various injuries and health issues, returning to the tour full-time in 2021 and is currently ranked No. 125. She won the US Open women’s doubles title in 2018.
Mandlik, 21, is ranked a career-best No. 143 and earned her wild card by winning the US Open Wild Card Challenge. She is the daughter of former US Open champion Hana Mandlikova, is 35-16 in singles this year and qualified and reached the second round at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic WTA 500 in San Jose.
Stearns, 20, earned the wild card traditionally awarded to an American NCAA singles champion by winning the title as a sophomore at the University of Texas in May. She also helped lead the Longhorns to back-to-back NCAA team national championships. She won her first professional singles title at a USTA Pro Circuit W25 event in Sumter, S.C., last year and holds a current singles ranking of No. 356.
Yu, a 17-year-old from Mason, Ohio, earned her wild card by winning the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 18s National Championships on Sunday. She has spent the majority of the past year competing in USTA Pro Circuit and ITF World Tennis Tour events, has twice appeared in qualifying at a WTA Tour event and earned her best professional result when she reached the quarterfinals at a USTA Pro Circuit W25 event in Daytona Beach, Fla., earlier this year.
Tan, 24, is ranked No. 110 and notably reached the fourth round at Wimbledon earlier this summer. She earned this wild card based on a reciprocal agreement between the USTA and FFT where wild cards between the US Open and Roland Garros are exchanged.
Fourlis, 22, is ranked No. 150 and qualified for the Wimbledon main draw earlier this summer. She earned this wild card based on a reciprocal agreement between the USTA and Tennis Australia where wild cards between the US Open and Australian Open are exchanged.
The USTA also announced the American women receiving wild cards into the US Open Qualifying tournament, held August 23-26 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center:
Kayla Day, 22, the former world No. 1 junior and 2016 US Open girls’ singles champion; Valerie Glozman, 15, the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 18s national singles runner-up; Catherine Harrison, 28, former UCLA Bruin who qualified for the main draw at Wimbledon earlier this summer, reaching the second round; Liv Hovde, 16, the reigning Wimbledon girls’ singles champion and No. 4 junior in the world; Elvina Kalieva, 19, a 2021 US Open girls’ doubles finalist; Ashlyn Krueger, 18, the 2021 USTA Girls’ 18s national champion who won her first professional title earlier this year at the USTA Pro Circuit W60 event in Evansville, Ind.; Christina McHale, 30, the former world No. 24 and 2012 London Olympian who owns one WTA singles title; Whitney Osuigwe, 20, former world No. 1 junior and 2017 French Open girls’ singles champion; Katrina Scott, 18, who reached the second round of the US Open in 2020 as a 16-year-old and who has won three USTA Pro Circuit singles titles this year.
Diana Shnaider (UTR 11.76) of Russia has signed with @PackWTennis and will join the Wolfpack for the fall of 2022. The 18-yo has an ITF juniors career-high ranking of #2 and WTA rankings of #249 in singles/#325 in doubles. Won girls' doubles titles at '21 #Wimbledon/'22 #AusOpen. pic.twitter.com/bLRYhKUp76
— Parsa Bombs 💣 (@ParsaBombs) August 17, 2022
3 comments:
Colette, When does Shelton (or anyone) have to make a decision about accepting prize money for college eligibility? Ben will earn well over $100,000 just for playing Cincy and the Open. Does he have to decide at each event? Or can he take the money and decide later? Lastly, is $10,000 still the threshold. Thanks
These are all very good questions. My understanding of this issue is primarily gained from information I received when Mallory Burdette reached the 3rd round of the 2012 US Open as an amateur(she still had eligibility remaining at Stanford). If I recall correctly, she signed in as an amateur but did turn pro after that run and was able to collect her prize money.
I assume each tournament is different, but it's hard to see any of them refusing to disperse prize money earned if the player requests it. I would love to see it, in these rare situations, put in a trust for the player to access later when they have exhausted their eligibility and are ready to turn pro.
The $10,000 rule is not applicable to current student-athletes, only prospective ones. But any prize money can be used for expenses, which I believe can offset first class airfare, four-star hotels, etc. Quinn, for example, could live it up in New York in order to spend the $20,000 he will get for playing in the qualifying before he returns to Georgia.
Who knows, with the current state of NIL, how the NCAA would view these issues, but I assume each school's compliance department will do their best to adhere to the NCAA guidelines.
Thanks Colette. With the NIL here, hard to see why there should be any limit on $ for a college athlete, especially one from a smaller sport (i.e., not Football/Basketball)
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