Ngounoue Defeats WTA No. 37 in DC Open Qualifying; Vandecasteele Advances to Edwardsville $25K Final; Starodubtseva Reaches Dallas $60K Final; Weather Delays Semifinal at Pittsburgh $15K; Lexington Challenger Qualifying Begins Sunday

In her first match since winning the Wimbledon girls title 13 days ago, 17-year-old wild card Clervie Ngounoue was drawn against the top seed Anna Blinkova in the qualifying for next week's WTA 500 Mubadala Citi DC Open. Although at No. 37, Blinkova was by far the highest ranked opponent Ngounoue had ever faced, it was Ngounoue who was in control throughout in her 6-3, 6-2 victory. 

On Sunday, Ngounoue will face Magdalena Frech of Poland, No. 79 in the WTA rankings, for a place in the main draw. Frech advanced when Kayla Day retired after losing the opening set 6-2. For more on Ngounoue's win today, see this article from the tournament website.

Storms moved through the Washington DC area before the first round of qualifying was completed and all spectators were asked to leave the premises due to storm damage, but the qualifying matches were resumed. American men through to the final round of qualifying of the ATP 500 are two-time Kalamazoo 18s champion Zachary Svajda, Bradley Klahn(Stanford), Brandon Holt(USC), Kyle Seelig(Ohio State), Bruno Kuzuhara and Thai Kwiatskowski (Virginia).  Mitchell Krueger and Bjorn Fratangelo are playing this evening. US women advancing to the final round of qualifying, in addition to Ngounoue, are Lauren Davis, Ashlyn Krueger and Hailey Baptiste. Peyton Stearns plays her first round match later this evening.

Twenty-year-old qualifier Quinn Vandecasteele(Oregon) will try to put an end to the winning streak of top seed Aidan Mchugh Sunday at the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Edwardsville Illinois. Vandecasteele, who reached back-to-back $15K finals a month ago as a qualifier on the SoCal Pro Circuit, defeated Ozan Baris(Michigan State) 6-1, 6-3 to advance to his first final at the $25,000 level. 

The 23-year-old Mchugh, who won the Champaign $25K title last week, defeated unseeded Shunsuke Mitsui(Tennessee) of Japan 6-2, 6-4 for his ninth consecutive victory.

The doubles final, which was scheduled to be played Saturday evening, was postponed until Sunday morning. Top seeds George Goldhoff(Texas) and Mac Kiger(UNC) will play the unseeded team of Kareem All Allaf(Iowa) and Colin Markes(Texas) for the title.

Texas A&M rising junior Mary Stoiana saw her run at the $60,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Dallas come to an end today, with the 20-year-old dropping a three-hour semifinal encounter with No. 2 seed Yafan Wang of China 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-4. Wang will play unseeded Yuliia Starodubtseva(Old Dominion) of Ukraine, who defeated unseeded YeXin Ma of China 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 to reach her fourth $60K final of the summer on the USTA Pro Circuit. 

In the doubles final today, No. 2 seeds Sophie Chang and Ashley Lahey(Pepperdine) defeated top seeds Jamie Loeb(UNC) and Makenna Jones(UNC) 6-2, 6-2 for their first title as a team.

Rain at the $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Pittsburgh led to just one of the two singles semifinals finishing, with last week's Rochester $15K champion and No. 6 seed Darian King of Barbados defeating unseeded 19-year-old Samir Banerjee (Stanford) 6-4, 7-6(3).  The semifinal between wild card Felix Corwin(Minnesota) and Juan Carlos Aguilar(Texas A&M/TCU) of Canada will be played Sunday morning, followed by singles final, with the doubles final after that, with King and partner Jody Maginley of Antigua and Barbuda, the No. 4 seeds, facing No. 3 seeds Patrick Maloney(Michigan) and Tyler Zink(Georgia/Oklahoma State).

The qualifying draw for next week's ATP Challenger 75 in Lexington Kentucky is out, with two players who are in the Kalamazoo 18s field next week on Sunday's schedule. Wild card Eli Stephenson, who is a rising freshman at Kentucky, will face No. 9 seed Michael Zheng(Columbia), while Cooper Williams plays No. 2 seed Aidan Mayo. Andre Ilagan(Hawaii), Stefan Dostanic(USC) and Noah Schachter(Texas A&M) are the other three wild cards.

Colin Markes, who is in the 8 a.m. CDT doubles final in Edwardsville, is scheduled to play singles qualifying in Lexington, five hours away by car, not before 4 p.m. EDT.