Twenty-six of 43 Americans Competing in US Open Play Monday; Crawley, Ngounoue Features; US Open Doubles Wild Cards; Jack Sock Announces Retirement; McNeil and Johnston Win J100 Tournament in Mexico

The US Open kicks off Monday with 26 Americans scheduled to play their first round matches on opening day. The bottom half of the men's draw, in which nearly every fourth player is from the United States, features two all-US battles, with 2022 and 2023 Kalamazoo 18s champion Learner Tien facing No. 10 seed Frances Tiafoe, who won the Kalamazoo 18s in 2015. That match is second on Arthur Ashe Stadium, with the first match on that court beginning at noon. Taylor Fritz, the No 9 seed, plays USTA Wild Card Challenge winner Steve Johnson in the other all-USA match, third on Armstrong, with the first match there at 11:00 a.m.

National 18s champion Clervie Ngounoue is first on Court 11 at 11:00, with the Wimbledon girls champion playing Daria Saville of Australia.

Ngounoue is the subject of this Washington Post feature by Ava Wallace, and from this sentence: "She wants to be free of expectations at the U.S. Open — where she can still compete in the junior tournament, which takes place during the event’s second week, if she loses early in the main draw — because she had none at Wimbledon and that worked out all right,"  there appears to be a chance that she will play the US Open Junior Championships. There is one junior main draw wild card still to be awarded, and it may be available to her if she wants it. She has also been given a women's doubles wild card(see full list below), with Robin Montgomery, so how she does in that event may also affect her decision.

North Carolina senior Fiona Crawley, who qualified yesterday, doesn't play until Tuesday, when she takes on Anastasia Pavlyuchenko of Russia. Michael Lewis wrote this Tar Heel Tribune article on Crawley's final round qualifying match. Highlights of Crawley's 6-3, 6-3 win over Kimberly Birrell of Australia can be seen at the US Open's YouTube channel.

US Open first round matches Monday featuring Americans:

Emilio Nava[Q] v Casper Ruud[5](NOR)
JJ Wolf v Zhizhen Zhang(CHN)
Sebastian Korda[31] v Marton Fucsovics(HUN)
Learner Tien[WC] v Frances Tiafoe[10]
Tommy Paul[14] v Stefano Travaglia[Q](ITA)
Marcos Giron v Alejandro Davidovich Fokina[21](ESP)
Ben Shelton v Pedro Cachin(ARG)
Christopher Eubanks[28] v Soonwoo Kwon(KOR)
Steve Johnson[WC] v Taylor Fritz[9]
Mackenzie McDonald v Felix Auger-Aliassime[15](CAN)
Zachary Svajda[Q] v Francisco Cerundolo[20](ARG)
Brandon Nakashima v Laslo Djere[32](SRB)
Ethan Quinn[WC] v Bernabe Zapata Miralles(ESP)

Clervie Ngounoue[WC] v Daria Saville(AUS)
Lauren Davis v Danka Kovinic(MNE)
Bernarda Pera v Veronika Kudermetova[16](RUS)
Jennifer Brady v Kimberly Birrell[LL](AUS)
Danielle Collins v Linda Fruhvirtova(CZE)
Coco Gauff[6] v Laura Siegemund(GER)
Kayla Day[WC] v Sorana Cirstea[30](ROU)
Emma Navarro v Magdalena Frech(POL)
Taylor Townsend v Varvara Gracheva(FRA)
Sloane Stephens v Beatriz Haddad Maia[19](BRA)
Katie Volynets[Q] v Xinyu Wang(CHN)

The doubles wild cards for the US Open were announced yesterday, and the draws were released today. Alex Frusina and Adhithya Ganesan, the 2023 Kalamazoo champions, will play Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands and Thanasi Kokkinakis of Australia in the first round. That's a good draw, especially compared to what faces the 2023 San Diego champions Olivia Center and Kate Fakih, who will play No. 6 seeds Taylor Townsend and Leylah Fernandez of Canada. Townsend reached the women's doubles final at last year's US Open with Caty McNally.

2022 Kalamazoo 18s doubles champions Nicholas Godsick and Ethan Quinn received a wild card and have drawn 2019 US Open doubles champions Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal of Colombia, who are competing in their last slam.

2023 NCAA doubles champions Crawley and Carson Tanguilig will play Saville and Irina Khromacheva of Russia in their first round match.

US Open Doubles Wild Cards:

CoCo Vandeweghe and Sofia Kenin

Clervie Ngounoue and Robin Montgomery

Kate Fakih and Olivia Center

Fiona Crawley and Carson Tanguilig

Ashlyn Krueger and Angela Kulikov

Jamie Loeb and Makenna Jones

Quinn Gleason and Elizabeth Mandlik

John Isner and Jack Sock

Will Blumberg and Steve Johnson

Adhithya Ganesan and Alexander Frusina

Eliot Spizzirri and Tyler Zink

Denis Kudla and Vasil Kirkov

Ethan Quinn and Nicholas Godsick

Aleks Kovacevic and Nicolas Moreno de Alboran

The women's doubles draw is here; the men's doubles draw is here.

John Isner announced his retirement last week; Jack Sock revealed today that he is retiring after the US Open. Sock, the 2010 and 2011 Kalamazoo 18s champion, reached an ATP career high of 8 in singles and 2 in doubles. Sock is expected to compete in professional pickleball after playing his last event in doubles, with Isner, at the US Open.

Because I've been so busy with Kalamazoo and College Park this month, and now the US Open, I haven't been able to post on the lower level ITF Junior Circuit titles for Americans this month. I did want to note this week's winners of the J100 in Mexico however, with Christasha McNeil, the USTA 18s Clay Court champion, taking the girls singles title and Noah Johnston, who reached the 16s semifinals in Kalamazoo, claiming the boys singles title.

McNeil avenged her loss to Natalia Fantini in the J100 final in Tampico two weeks ago, taking out the No. 8 seed from Mexico 6-4, 6-4 in last night's championship match. McNeil, who received a US Open junior wild card for her Clay Courts title, also won the doubles title two weeks ago in Tampico, with Brooklyn Olson. The 16-year-old now has two singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Junior Circuit.

Johnston, the No. 6 seed, won an all-US final, beating No. 13 seed Shrikeshav Murugesan 6-3, 6-0. It's the 15-year-old left-hander's third ITF Junior Circuit singles title of his career, all this year, and his biggest.