Qualifying Concludes, Main Draw Begins at USTA Women's Pro Circuit Las Vegas $60K and Florence $25K; Riffice Ousts No. 2 Seed Kozlov, Holmgren Defeats Tiburon Champion Zvajda, All Six Qualifiers Reach Second Round at Fairfield Challenger

There are no USTA Pro Circuit men's tournaments this week, with the exception of the ATP Challenger 80 in Fairfield California, but women have two events, with playing beginning today at the $60,000 tournament in Las Vegas and the $25,000 tournament in South Carolina.

Oddly enough, the qualifying draw was full for the $25K, but not for the $60K, which had nine byes in a 32-player draw. Three Americans advanced to the main draw in Las Vegas: Tori Kinard, who had to win just one match to qualify, University of San Diego senior Solymar Colling, and University of Oklahoma senior Carmen Corley. 

The wild cards in Las Vegas were given to three Americans: Raveena Kingsley, who lost to top seed Panna Udvardy of Hungary 6-4, 6-4 in the first round today, Rasheeda McAdoo(Georgia Tech) and Anna Rogers(NC State). Belgium's Yanina Wickmayer received the fourth wild card.

In other first round matches today, Pepperdine graduate Ashley Lahey defeated Dalayna Hewitt 6-4, 6-4 and four-time NCAA Division III Eudice Chong(Wesleyan) of Hong Kong took out No. 5 seed Asia Muhammad 7-5, 6-2. Chong has played very little above the $25K level (she lost last week in the first round of the Redding $25K to 15-year-old Aspen Schuman), but the 26-year-old has her ranking up to 249, and if she can continue to post results like this, is likely to receive entry into Australian Open qualifying. 

Muhammad has to be disappointed in the loss, as she lives in Las Vegas and has been part of that tennis community since she was a junior.

No. 6 seed Katrina Scott and Marcela Zacarias of Mexico, who met in the $80K final in Rancho Santa Fe last week, have drawn each other in the first round in Las Vegas. Zacarias beat Scott 6-1, 6-2 in the championship match.

North Carolina State freshman Diana Shnaider of Russia, who has yet to play for the Wolfpack this fall, has played the USTA Pro Circuit three of the last four weeks out west, and she is up to 209 in the WTA rankings. She faces former Penn star Connie Hsu of Taiwan, who qualified today.

In South Carolina, two of the qualifiers are Americans: Victoria Hu(Princeton) and Lauren Proctor(Winthrop). Seventeen-year-old Olivia Lincer, who recently switched from representing the United States and is now playing for Poland, also qualified. Fifteen-year-old Akasha Urhobo lost in the final round of qualifying today to 18-year-old Charlotte Kempenaers-Pocz received entry as a lucky loser.

Wild cards went to 15-year-old Mia Yamakita, local high school junior Allie Murrell, 16-year-old Clervie Ngounoue and University of Virginia junior Hibah Shaikh. Ngounoue played her first round match today, beating No. 8 seed Hina Inoue 6-1, 6-1; No. 4 seed Peyton Stearns(Texas), coming off her $25K title in Austin two weeks ago, defeated 2022 USTA National 18s champion Eleana Yu 6-0, 6-2 in the first round.

Hanna Chang is the top seed, with Justina Mikulskyte(Kentucky) of Lithuania the No. 2 seed.

At the Challenger in Fairfield, college players were the story of the day, with going former collegians 11-0 in completed first round matches today. 

Those picking up wins: qualifier Alafia Ayeni(Cornell/Kentucky), qualifier August Holmgren(San Diego), qualifier Tennys Sandgren(Tennessee), alternate Giovanni Oradini(Mississippi State), No. 4 seed Ben Shelton(Florida), Gabriel Diallo, Kentucky, qualifier Alfredo Perez(Florida), Valentin Vacherot(Texas A&M), qualifier Alexandr Cozbinov(UNLV), Alexis Galarneau(NC State) and qualifier Sam Riffice(Florida). All six of the qualifiers won their opening round matches. 

Riffice, the 2021 NCAA singles champion, defeated No. 2 seed Stefan Kozlov 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, earning the best win, ranking-wise, of his career, with Kozlov now at 131. 

Holmgren, the 2022 NCAA singles finalist, defeated Tiburon champion Zachary Svajda 3-6, 6-1, 6-0.