Two $15Ks, Women's $60K in California, Plus Charleston Challenger Make for Busy Week on USTA Pro Circuit

For the first time since mid-July, this week features four USTA Pro Circuit events in the same week. No women's $15,000 level tournaments have been on the schedule since the July 10th SoCal Pro Series event in Lakewood, which has meant many college and national level juniors have turned to UTR's Pro Tennis Tour events for opportunities this summer.

Today the qualifying concluded at the women's $15,000 tournament in Hilton Head South Carolina, with two American high school seniors, Mary Boyce Deatherage and Pepperdine recruit Alexia Harmon, advancing to the main draw. 

Wild cards went to Columbia freshman Gayathri Krishnan, Salma Ewing(USC/Texas A&M), Duke sophomore Katie Codd and Jada Robinson. Wakana Sonobe of Japan was one of three juniors to receive a main draw spot via the ITF Junior Reserved program and won her first round match today. The other two--Texas A&M freshman Lucciana Perez Alarcon of Peru and Pan American Closed finalist Tyra Grant--will play their first round matches Wednesday.

Lauren Proctor(Winthrop) is the top seed.

The men's $15,000 tournament is in Albuquerque New Mexico, with the qualifying not yet complete, but five Americans have advanced to the main draw: Axel Nefve(Notre Dame/Florida), Will Grant(Florida), Ryan Dickerson(Duke/Baylor), Felix Corwin(Minnesota) and Andrew Fenty(Michigan).

Junior reserved spots in the main draw went to Roy Horovitz, Pan American Closed finalist Alex Razeghi and Rei Sakamoto of Japan. Maxwell Exsted received a main draw wild card and was scheduled to play No. 2 seed Liam Draxl(Kentucky) of Canada today, with that match pushed back to this evening.

The other three wild cards were given to University of New Mexico juniors: Georgio Samaha, Arda Azkara of Turkey and Aram Noroozian of Canada.

Alfredo Perez(Florida) is the top seed.

Qualifying for the women's $60,000 tournament in Templeton California is complete with three Americans advancing to the main draw: Hanna Chang, Carmen Corley(Oklahoma) and Catherine Harrison(UCLA). It's good to see Harrison back competing after a foot injury sidelined her for the first eight months of 2023.

Also qualifying for the main draw is Oklahoma State sophomore Lucia Peyre. The 18-year-old from Argentina is still eligible for ITF junior events this year, but has played ITF World Tennis Tour women's events all summer after being named to the Big-12 All-Conference first team in her freshman year. She defeated No. 4 seed Maria Mateas(Duke) in the first round and Marine Partaud of France in the second, both in straight sets, to advance to the main draw, where she'll play Makenna Jones(UNC).

The wild cards were given to Robin Anderson(UCLA), Whitney Osuigwe and Sophie Chang, with 18-year-old Marina Stakusic of Canada, last week's champion at the $60K in Berkeley, receiving a special exemption into the main draw.

Taylor Townsend is the top seed; Katie Volynets the No. 2 seed.

Ken Thomas is providing coverage of the Templeton tournament at radiotennis.com.

Rain at the ATP Challenger 75 in Charleston South Carolina forced eight of the first round matches on Tuesday's schedule to be postponed to Wednesday, but five matches were completed, with four Americans advancing to the round of 16, including qualifiers Strong Kirchheimer(Northwestern), Aidan Mayo and Stefan Dostanic(USC). Kirchheimer advanced when wild card Toby Kodat retired trailing 6-7(4), 6-3, 4-1; Mayo defeated Michael Geerts(Arizona State) of Belgium 6-4, 7-6(6) and Dostanic beat No. 8 seed Alexander Ritschard(Virginia) of Switzerland 6-4, 6-4. Dostanic and Kirchheimer will meet in the round of 16 on Thursday.  

NCAA champion Ethan Quinn(Georgia) defeated No. 5 seed Alexis Galarneau(NC State) of Canada 6-2, 7-6(5) and will face Mayo in the next round.  The fifth player to advance today is No. 6 seed Adam Walton(Tennessee) of Australia, who beat lucky loser Skander Mansouri(Wake Forest) of Tunisia 7-6(5), 6-2.

Mike Cation is back providing commentary for the US Challengers this week; see the ATP Challenger TV page for the free live streams.