Dostanic and Glozman Win US Open Wild Cards in USTA's American Collegiate Playoffs; Wimbledon Wild Cards Include Juniors and Collegians

Stefan Dostanic prepared for the heat and humidity of this week's inaugural US Open American Collegiate Playoffs by training in his new home in Boca Raton Florida, but Valerie Glozman didn't have  that option, with the 18-year-old only just completing her freshman year at Stanford before heading to the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona. 

In this evening's finals it was Wake Forest's Dostanic who had the less taxing battle however, with the 23-year-old from Southern California defeating 2024 NCAA fall champion Michael Zheng of Columbia 6-3, 6-4 in just under 90 minutes, while Glozman had needed that much time and more to take the first set from Texas A&M's Mary Stoiana in her 7-6(8), 6-3 victory.

Dostanic was in control throughout the match, getting an early break in each set, although he had to save two break points serving for the first set and a break point serving for the match at 5-4. In each of those cases, Dostanic went to his bread and butter, his serve and forehand, while also staying committed to moving forward.

"That's definitely something I developed in the past year or so," said Dostanic, who has now won three straight matches from Zheng, after losing their first two meetings this year, in January and February. "I have a very aggressive game, but I think I was missing a lot of opportunities to finish points at net. I was kind of letting guys reset points. So just being able to come in, trust my volleys a little, know exactly what I want to do when I get a volley, that's something I worked on a lot, and I think that's a big part of my success."

In that tense last game, Dostanic went even beyond that, choosing to serve and volley on his first match point and executing it perfectly to earn a main draw wild card and his first trip to the US Open since he lost in the first round of the Junior Championships there to Lorenzo Musetti of Italy in 2018.

Glozman played the US Open Junior Championships the past three years, as well as the US Open women's qualifying each of those years, but now has earned a main draw wild card, despite her lack of time to prepare. 

"I wish I could have come here a little bit earlier, but school just got out for me," said Glozman, who was one win away from a main draw wild card twice when she made the USTA 18s Nationals finals in San Diego in 2022 and last year. "I was informed about this kind of late, so I only had a couple of weeks to really prep. I was excited to get selected, but we were out of season for about a month. So I started grabbing people from high schools near by, some of my teammates who were still willing to hit and some guys on the men's team were nice enough to train with me."

Glozman was up a break twice in the first set, but Stoiana broke back both times, the second time when Glozman was serving for the set at 6-5.

Stoiana had a 5-3 lead in the tiebreaker, but it was Glozman who got the first set point, at 6-5. Stoiana saved that set point, Glozman saved one at 6-7, Stoiana saved another at 7-8, with Glozman finally ending the 95-minute set (with a brief rain delay early in the match).

The second set was as close as the first, especially when Stoiana was serving. Glozman had break points in two 6-deuce games  but couldn't break, then was immediately broken in her third service game of the set. Glozman got the break back for 3-all and vowed to be more aggressive, which resulted in her winning the final four games of the match.

"I knew if I wanted to win the match, I had to try to put pressure on her somehow," said Glozman, who admitted to some cramping in the second set. "The next game was long but I came to the net a few more times, even hit some good approach shots, and I think that was important in those critical, tight moments."

Both Zheng and Stoiana will receive US Open qualifying wild cards for reaching the finals.

I'll have much more from both Glozman and Dostanic in my article on the event for Tennis Recruiting Network, which will come out Monday.

With the rain Tuesday, the doubles finals were pushed into Thursday, with the semifinals completed today.

Reese Brantmeier and Alanis Hamilton of North Carolina earned their spot in the final with a a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over UCLA's Olivia Center and Kate Fakih. They will play Auburn's DJ Bennett and Ava Hrastar, who won the only doubles match completed on Tuesday, beating South Carolina's Sarah Hamner and Kaitlyn Carnicella 6-4, 6-3.

The men's doubles final will feature Cooper Williams and Theo Winegar of Duke and Nicholas Godsick and Hudson Rivera of Stanford.  Williams and Winegar defeated Trevor Svajda and Louis Cloud of SMU 7-6(4), 7-5 in today's semifinal, while Godsick and Rivera advanced by taking the third set from Zheng and Nicolas Kotzen 6-4, after Zheng and Kotzen won the first set 6-4 Tuesday and Godsick and Rivera the second set 7-6(5) Tuesday before rain forced a suspension.

Cracked Racquets will have the doubles finals on their YouTube channel Thursday, beginning with women at 10 a.m.

While the first two US Open wild cards were decided today, the bulk of the Wimbledon wild cards were announced, with almost all of them British players.

There was no wild card for Roland Garros semifinalist Lois Boisson, either main or qualifying (update: Boisson entered Wimbledon qualifying with a protected ranking), and Iva Jovic, who won the Ilkley 125 last week, will have to go through qualifying.

A trio of British girls received main draw wild cards: 16-year-old Hannah Klugman, 16-year-old Mika Stojsavljevic and 17-year-old Mimi Xu. 

The tradition of qualifying wild cards for the previous year's junior champions continued, and Oliver Bonding received a qualifying wild card as the National 18s champion. (Stojsavljevic won the girls 18s title).

Current and former college players are well represented in both the men's main and qualifying draws and the women's qualifying.

Wimbledon Wild Cards

Main Draw:

Men (all GBR):

Jay Clarke

Oliver Crawford(Florida)

Daniel Evans

George Loffhagen

Johannus Monday(Tennessee)

Jack Pinnington Jones(TCU)

Henry Searle

TBA

Women: (GBR unless noted)

Jodie Burrage

Harriet Dart

Francesca Jones

Hannah Klugman

Petra Kvitova(CZE)

Mika Stojsavljevic

Heather Watson

Mimi Xu

Qualifying:

Men: (GBR unless noted)

Oliver Bonding

Nicolas Budkov Kjaer(NOR)

Arthur Fery(Stanford)

Paul Jubb(South Carolina)

Ryan Peniston(Memphis)

Oliver Tarvet(San Diego)

TBA

Wild Card Playoff place

Wild Card Playoff place

Women: (GBR unless noted)

Emily Appleton

Amarni Banks

Renata Jamrichova(SVK)

Ella McDonald

Yuriko Lily Miyazaki(Oklahoma)

Amelia Rajecki(NC State)

Ranah Stoiber

Wild Card Playoff place

Wild Card Playoff place

2024 fall NCAA doubles champion Lui Maxted(TCU) received a main draw doubles wild card with Connor Thomson(South Carolina). Klugman and Stojsavljevic received a women's main draw doubles wild card, as did Xu.

The complete list of wild cards is here.