Shelbayh Makes History with Charleston Challenger Victory; Townsend, Draxl and Biolay Claim USTA Pro Circuit Titles; Pre-Qualifying Complete at ITA All-American Championships

Abdullah Shelbayh won his first ATP Challenger title today in Charleston South Carolina, beating another former University of Florida Gator, wild card Oliver Crawford, 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-3. Shelbayh, who will turn 20 next month, is the first player from Jordan to win a Challenger title, and is also the youngest player from an Arab country accomplish that. He is now 215 in the ATP live rankings and will head to Northern California tomorrow to compete in the Challenger 75 in Tiburon.

Taylor Townsend opted out the WTA Asian fall swing and will instead play USTA Pro Circuit events here in the United States. She started her fall on a high note, winning the title today as the top seed at the $60,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Templeton California. Townsend, 89 in this week's WTA rankings, defeated No. 8 seed Renata Zarazua of Mexico 6-3, 6-1 in this afternoon's final, and is now 3-0 against Zarazua as a pro. The 27-year-old will move to 77 in WTA rankings, and will be the top seed at Rome Georgia 60K next week.

Mccartney Kessler(Florida) and Alana Smith(NC State) won their first doubles title as a team, defeating Jessie Aney(UNC) and Jaeda Daniel(NC State) 7-5, 6-4 in the Templeton doubles final. It's the second pro doubles title for Kessler, who won her first earlier this year with Daniel at a $25K. Smith now has five pro doubles titles, with three of them coming this year. 

Former Kentucky All-American Liam Draxl of Canada won his second $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit in the past three weeks today in Albuquerque New Mexico, and it was very similar to his victory in Champaign Illinois two weeks ago, although he had a much easier path this week. In the final, Draxl again defeated Will Grant(Florida), this time by a 6-0, 6-2 score, after beating Grant 6-1, 6-3 in the Champaign final. Draxl is 22-4 since leaving school in June, but it's a slow climb even when you're winning titles, competing in $15,000 tournaments.

At the women's $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Hilton Head South Carolina, University of Central Florida junior Sophia Biolay of France, a qualifier, won her first pro singles title, defeating 15-year-old Wakana Sonobe of Japan 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in today's final. Biolay, who was scheduled to play in the All-American pre-qualifying this weekend, won seven matches, including three three-setters to earn the title. Sonobe finished runner-up in both singles and doubles this week.

Pre-qualifying is complete at the ITA All-American Championships, with qualifying set to begin Monday in Cary NC for the women and Tulsa OK for the men.

The women's pre-qualifiers include three freshman: UNC's Thea Rabman, Florida's Qavia Lopez and LSU's Kinaa Graham.

Mai Nirundorn, Georgia
Theadora Rabman[13], North Carolina
Emily De Oliveira, Florida
Anna Campana, Pepperdine
Ava Catanzarite, Oklahoma
Kallista Liu, Maryland
Qavia Lopez[13], Florida
Malaika Rapolu[8], Texas
Kinaa Graham, LSU
Sophie Abrams[13], NC State
DJ Bennett[11], Auburn
Marianna Argyrokastriti, Arizona State

The men's pre-qualifiers:

Oliver Okonkwo, Illinois

Erik Schiessl, Oklahoma State

Nicholas Kotzen[17-32], Columbia

Ellis Short, Princeton

Leo Raquin[17-32}, Middle Tennessee

Enrique Luque Rico[6], California-Irvine

Rudy Ceccon, LSU

Tomas Pinho, Texas-San Antonio

Marko Miladinovic[9], Baylor

Linus Carlsson Halldin, Pepperdine

Sam Landau, Indiana

Will Peters, North Carolina

Gerard Planelles Ripoli, Arkansas

Luc Koenig, Baylor

JC Roddick[17-32], Texas A&M

Togan Tokac, Texas A&M

Seeding isn't an exact science, but it obvious that these results don't support whatever method was used, with just two women and two men advancing as predicted by their seeds. (Top 16 seeds in the men's; top 12 seeds in the women's).

The qualifying draws are out, with US Open girls champion Katherine Hui of Stanford playing No. 9 seed Amelia Honer of UC-Santa Barbara in the women's qualifying first round.

Harvard freshman Cooper Williams and Stanford freshman Kyle Kang are both in the men's qualifying draw. with Williams facing top seed Filip Planinsek of Alabama and Kang playing Fynn Kuenkler of Tulane. For some reason, neither has a WTN next to their name, although both have World Tennis Numbers, with Williams at 4.5 and Kang at 4.2, both fitting in with the majority of the qualifying participants. Other notable freshman in qualifying are Jack Loutit of Kentucky, Edward Winter of Pepperdine, Bryce Nakashima of Ohio State and pre-qualifier Rudy Ceccon of LSU.