Young, Stephens into Australian Open Third Round; Fenty Reaches Teen Tennis Final; Zverev, Flink Win Titles in Traralgon

Donald Young and Sloane Stephens both survived the Melbourne heat and tough opponents to reach the third round of the Australian Open. Stephens overcame Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia 3-6, 6-2, 7-5, winning the final four games of the match after a rain delay had stopped play with Stephens leading the third set 3-0.  Stephens, who reached the semifinals last year, is not new to this stage of the tournament in Melbourne, but Young, the 2005 boys champion, has never been past the second round at the Australian Open.  Young defeated No. 24 seed Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-4, 2-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, with the last set played after a three-hour delay due to the 108 degree heat. Young failed to serve out the match at his first opportunity, but stayed positive and finished it when Seppi gave him another chance.

For more on Young's match, see this article from the Australian Open website. For more on Stephens' match, see this article from the website.

Their was also much excitement when 2013 boys champion Nick Kyrgios of Australia took the first two sets in a late night match with No. 27 seed Benoit Paire of France on Margaret Court Arena, but the 18-year-old Kyrgios couldn't overcome some untimely cramping, falling in five sets, 6-7(5), 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.  Although all Australian men are now out of the tournament, the performances of Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis, who lost to Rafael Nadal 6-2, 6-4, 6-2, give the country a reason for optimism.  For more on Paire's win, see this article from the website.

Day Five--Friday in Australia and Thursday evening here in the United States--will see four Americans in singles third round action.  Top seed Serena Williams plays No. 31 seed Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, Sam Querrey takes on No. 15 seed Fabio Fognini of Italy, Alison Riske meets No. 9 seed Angelique Kerber of Germany and Lauren Davis faces No. 30 seed Eugenie Bouchard.  I will definitely be going to Watch ESPN for that last match, which is second on Show Court 3.

Friday's schedule is here.

The qualifying for the Australian Open Junior Championships is complete, with Ulises Blanch, the only American in either draw, losing in the final round to No. 3 seed Matteo Berrettini, one of four Italian boys to reach the main draw.  The main draw should be out later Friday in Australia, with play beginning there on Saturday (Friday night here in the US), when the temperatures are expected to moderate. I will tweet out a link to the draw as soon as I can, and I will have a junior preview for the Tennis Recruiting Network Friday.

Two of the favorites for the Australian Open championships have added strength to their cases, with Varvara Flink of Russia and Alexander Zverev of Germany winning the Grade 1 in Traralgon Thursday.  Top seed Flink defeated No. 10 seed Fiona Ferro of France 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 and top seed Zverev beat unseeded Omar Jasika of Australia 7-5, 6-2. Austria's  Lucas Miedler and Australia's Bradley Mousley took the boys doubles title, with the No. 4 seeds beating unseeded Daniel Guccione and Marc Polmans 7-6(1), 6-3.  The girls doubles title went to top seeds Anastasiya Komardina of Russis and Nina Stojanovic of Serbia, who defeated No. 2 seeds Shilin Xu and Xiaodi You of China 7-5, 6-3 in the final.

At the Nike International Teen Tennis 14-and-under tournament in England, No. 8 seed Andrew Fenty of the United States reached the boys final, defeating No. 4 seed Felix Auger Aliassime of Canada 6-3, 6-2.  He will play No. 2 seed Nicola Kuhn of Germany in the final, after Kuhn beat No. 12 seed Axel Nefve of the United States 6-1, 6-2.

Keenan Mayo and Roscoe Bellamy, Teen Tennis Doubles Champions (courtesy photo)

Roscoe Bellamy and Keenan Mayo, the other two US boys on the trip which includes Les Petits As next week, won the doubles championship today.  The No. 4 seeds defeated No. 3 seeds Kuhn and Carlos Sanchez Jover of Spain 6-4, 6-3 in the final.

The girls final will be between top seed Anda Karanusic of Croatia and unseeded Maria Tanasescu of Canada.  Tanasescu and Bianca Andreescu, the No. 6 seeds, won the girls doubles title over unseeded Ali Collins and Alexandra Hunter of Great Britain 6-4, 7-6(5).

Results can be found on the TennisEurope tournament site.

Querrey, Riske, Davis into Third Round at Australian Open; AO Junior Wild Cards, Final Round of Qualifying; Fenty, Nefve Reach Teen Tennis Semifinals

Sam Querrey defeated No. 23 seed Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 in second round play at the Australian Open, assuring at least one US man will reach the third round in Melbourne.  Jack Sock and Donald Young will attempt to join him Thursday, with Young playing No. 24 seed Andreas Seppi of Italy and Sock taking on No. 25 seed Gael Monfils of France. Both Young(2005) and Monfils(2004) are former Australian boys champions.

Last year's participants in the boys championships, winner Nick Kyrgios and finalist Thanasi Kokkinakis, are the sole Australian men remaining in the draw.  Kokkinakis plays top seed Rafael Nadal of Spain, while Kyrgios will take on No. 27 seed Benoit Paire of France.

Alison Riske and Lauren Davis joined Serena Williams as American women reaching the third round. Riske breezed past Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 6-1, 6-1 while Davis had a considerably tougher time, but got past Julia Goerges of Germany 7-5, 2-6, 6-4. It is the 20-year-old Davis's first appearance in the third round of any slam.  She plays 19-year-old Eugenie Bouchard of Canada, the No. 30 seed, next. Somewhat surprisingly, the two have played only once, with Bouchard ending Davis's 20-match ITF junior winning streak in the third round of the 2011 Australian Open juniors 6-0, 6-3. Riske will play No. 9 seed Angelique Kerber of Germany next.

Christina McHale meets No. 10 seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark later tonight, with Varvara Lepchenko and No. 13 seed Sloane Stephens also in action in second round play. Lepchenko plays No. 11 seed Simona Halep of Romania, while Stephens meets Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia.

For the full schedule and draws, see the tournament website.

In a few hours, the qualifying for the Australian Open junior championships will be complete and you can follow the results at the tournament's Tennis Australia website. No. 12 seed Ulises Blanch, the only American in the qualifying, has advanced to the final round, where he will play No. 3 seed Matteo Berrettini of Italy.

The wild cards for the main draw, all but one to Australians:

Boys:
Fajing Sun (China)
Daniel Nolan
Oliver Anderson
Max Purcell
Jake Delaney
Brian Tran
Blake Mott
Mitchell Harper

Girls:
Chloe Hule
Seone Mendez
Anja Dokic
Linda Huang
Zoe Hives
Petra Hule
Kaylah McPhee
Sasha Bollweg

Destanee Aiava reached the semifinals of the Traralgon Grade 1, so I believe she got a special exemption, and will be in the main draw as well. Daniel Guccione, in the Traralgon doubles final, also received special exemption entry.

In Traralgon, the girls final is top seed Varvara Flink of Russia against No. 10 seed Fiona Ferro of France and the boys final is unseeded Omar Jasika of Australian against top seed Alexander Zverev of Germany.

At the Grade 1 Copa Gatorade in Venezuela, three US girls have advanced to the second round: No. 8 seed Abi Altick had a bye, while Sofia Sewing and Jessica Ho advanced easily in their first round matches.  Keshav Vellodi, who won his first round match, is the only US boy in the draw. The top boys seed is Joao Menezes of Brazil and the top girls seed is Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic.

At the Nike International Teen Tennis tournament in Bolton, Andrew Fenty of the US upset top seed Yshai Oliel of Israel 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the semifinals.  He is joined by teammate Axel Nefve, who advanced with a walkover.  Fenty will play No. 4 seed Felix Auger Aliassime of Canada, who beat Keenan Mayo in three sets, while Nefve will play Nicola Kuhn of Germany, the No. 2 seed, who beat Roscoe Bellamy in three sets.  Mayo and Bellamy did reach the doubles final, which is scheduled to be played Thursday.

There was another surprise in the girls draw, with Junior Orange Bowl 14s champion Claire Liu, the No. 2 seed, falling to No. 11 seed Ali Collins of Great Britain 6-4, 6-4 in today's quarterfinals. (For more on Scotland's Collins, see this feature).  With the doubles loss of Liu and Grace Joyce in the semifinals, the US girls are out of the tournament.

The draws can be found at the Tennis Europe tournament website.

Querrey, Sock, Young Last Three US Men in Melbourne; Australian Open Juniors Qualifying Draws; Top Seeds Flink, Zverev in Traralgon Semis; Four US Boys into Teen Tennis Quarterfinals

The Australian Open men's and women's singles draws are down to 64 players, and the hope that this would be the slam that gives hope for a resurgence of the US men has mostly been dashed.  John Isner, at No. 13, the only American man in the Top 50, retired after losing the second set tiebreaker to lucky loser Martin Klizan of Slovakia Tuesday, citing an ankle injury, and with the additional Tuesday exits of Bradley Klahn, Ryan Harrison, Tim Smyczek and Wayne Odesnik, that meant only Sam Querrey, who won Monday, Donald Young and Jack Sock would play a second match.

Young advanced when Robin Haase of the Netherlands retired early in the fourth set, while Sock defeated Tobias Kamke of Germany in four sets.  ESPN had this article on Sock's recent commitment to improving his fitness.  As I mentioned earlier on twitter, all three are former Kalamazoo champions. Querrey won the 16s in 2004, Young won back-to-back 18s titles in 2005 and 2006, and Sock won back-to-back 18s titles in 2010 and 2011.

As has been the case in the past several years, the US women have shown better results, with eight through to the second round.  In addition to Serena Williams, Madison Keys, Lauren Davis, Irina Falconi and Alison Riske, all of whom won on Monday, three more American women posted victories in the extreme heat Tuesday: Varvara Lepchenko, Christina McHale and Sloane Stephens.  Those who played Monday are on the schedule for today.

ITF World Junior champion Belinda Bencic is also playing today, scheduled first on Rod Lave Arena against No. 4 seed Na Li of China.

2013 NCAA Champion Blaz Rola of Ohio State

The losses by Lleyton Hewitt and Bernard Tomic don't bode well for the Australian men this tournament, but the host country got some real reason for optimism when last year's Junior boys finalists Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis both won their opening round matches against Benjamin Becker and Igor Sijsling.  With Becker and Somdev Devvarman's losses, the NCAA champion contingent is now down to one--reigning champion Blaz Rola of Ohio State.  Slovenia's Rola, who qualified, beat Federico Delbonis of Argentina 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 and will meet Klizan in the second round Thursday.

For draws and Wednesday's schedule, see the tournament website.

The qualifying draws for the Australian Open Junior Championships have been released, and as usual they are not full.  They are also not 48-draws, as the ITF website says. They could be, with only 41 boys and 39 girls in the draws, but that wouldn't allow all 16 seeds to get byes, although I don't believe that's required by the ITF.  The other three junior slams have 32-player draws, and given the lack of participation in Australia, you'd anticipate they would have smaller qualifying draws, not larger ones.  The only American in either draw is 15-year-old Ulises Blanch, who qualified for the ITF Grade 1 in Traralgon, but lost in the first round.

Top seeds Varvara Flink of Russia and Alexander Zverev of Germany both have advanced to the semifinals in Traralgon, but they are the only seeds expected to get to the final four that did.  Zverev will play No. 12 seed Lucas Miedler of Austria in the semifinals, with two unseeded players in the bottom half semifinal: Australia's Omar Jasika and Spain's Jaume Munar Clar.  Flink will play 13-year-old wild card Destanee Aiava of Australia, whom I saw play at the Junior Orange Bowl and was impressed with, while the other semifinal will feature No. 7 seed Anastasiya Komardina of Russia and No. 10 seed Fiona Ferro of France.  Michael Mmoh had the best results of the US players, losing to Miedler in the quarterfinals.

At the Nike International Teen Tennis 14-and-under tournament in Bolton, England, all four American boys have reached the quarterfinals, Roscoe Bellamy(5), Andrew Fenty(8), Axel Nefve(12) and unseeded Keenan Mayo.  Fenty plays top seed Yshai Oliel of Israel and Bellamy plays No. 2 seed Nicola Kuhn of Germany Wednesday. Nefve avenged his first round Junior Orange Bowl loss to Canada's Nicaise Muamba, the No. 6 seed, today, while Mayo has lost only eight games in his three victories.

Claire Liu, who was surprisingly seeded No. 2 despite her Junior Orange Bowl title, is the only US girl to advance to the quarterfinals.

For complete results, see the Tennis Europe tournament site.

Mixed Results for Americans as Australian Open Begins; Chadwick to Retire From Ole Miss; Staying Home to Train

The first day of the Australian Open was good for US women, who went 5-2, and disappointing for US men, who went 1-3.

Sam Querrey was the sole US man to advance to the second round from the bottom half of the draw, defeating Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(3). Qualifier Denis Kudla and Michael Russell both lost in straight sets, to Florian Mayer of Germany and Dmitry Tursunov(30) of Russia respectively.  Steve Johnson was up 6-3, 3-1 on Adrian Mannarino of France before he lost 11 straight games to find himself down two sets to one. He recovered to win the fourth set, but Mannarino took the fifth to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-0, 5-7, 6-4. It was the fifth time Johnson had lost a first-round slam match in five sets, with no five-set victories, and he has not won a slam main draw match since the 2012 US Open.  Kudla will leave Melbourne still looking for his first main draw win at the Australian Open, having lost in the first round in 2012 and this year after getting through qualifying.

The US women's winners were Serena Williams, Madison Keys, lucky loser Irina Falconi, Alison Riske and Lauren Davis.  Davis defeated USTA wild card winner Sachia Vickery 6-3, 6-3, while Venus Williams lost to No. 22 seed Ekaterina Makarova of Russia, accounting for the two US losses.

As for the recent junior slam champions, ITF world junior champion Belinda Bencic of Switzerland defeated Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, but No. 2 junior Ana Konjuh was thoroughly dominated by No. 4 seed Na Li of China 6-2, 6-0. Bencic will now play Li in the second round.

Tuesday's action will feature the top half of the men's draw and the bottom half of the women's draw, in what is expected to be stifling heat.  American men in action are Jack Sock, Ryan Harrison, Rhyne Williams, Donald Young, Bradley Klahn, Wayne Odesnik, Tim Smyczek and John Isner. US women playing are Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Sloane Stephens, Christina McHale, Vania King and Varvara Lepchenko.

For draws and Tuesday's schedule, see the tournament website.

The University of Mississippi today announced that men's head coach Billy Chadwick will be retiring at the end of the 2014 season, with current associate head coach Toby Hansson replacing him.  Chadwick coached the Ole Miss women for several years before taking over the men's program in 1983 and he has been a consistent winner in Oxford for those 30 years. From the release:

Chadwick’s teams have made 20 consecutive NCAA appearances, including the NCAA Team Championship Final, the NCAA Semifinals four times, the NCAA Quarterfinals nine times and the NCAA Sweet Sixteen 16 times. A mainstay in the national rankings, his teams have finished ranked in the nation’s top five seven times, and have earned a top 10 ranking 15 times.

The Rebels have won 18 Southeastern Conference team titles, including five overall SEC Championships, 10 Western Division titles and three SEC Tournament Championships. With his fifth overall SEC Championship in 2009, Chadwick trails only legendary Ole Miss football coach John Vaught in SEC titles won at the University of Mississippi. Vaught won six conference titles in 1947, 1954, 1955, 1960, 1962 and 1963.

Hansson is in his eighth year at Ole Miss.

For the complete release, see the Ole Miss athletic site.

Daniel Coyle, author of the Talent Code, posted this piece on 18-year-old US Olympic skier Mikaela Shiffrin. Coyle discusses the lure of being "picked" for elite training, then offers the counterpoint that staying at home can offer its own attractions as a developmental pathway. I don't quite see how this is a "new" approach, as Coyle labels it, but it may offer some food for thought for tennis parents, who often face a similar decision when it comes to training.

Bellis Wins Costa Rica Grade 1 Title; Pro Circuit Update; Is Pro Tennis the Cruelest Sport?

Last night at the Copa del Cafe in Costa Rica, 14-year-old CiCi Bellis won her first ITF Grade 1 title, defeating top seed Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-3.  I tried to watch the live stream of the match, but while it was better than nothing, it was just barely, with constant buffering making it impossible to follow with any accuracy.

The eighth-seeded Bellis failed to serve out the first set at 5-2, but was able to finally convert her third set point serving at 5-4 when Bouzkova netted a forehand.  Bellis played the cleaner match, with fewer errors, but neither girl was able to hold serve with any regularity.  The second set began with two holds, but there were then five straight breaks until Bellis had her best serving game of the match, holding at love to take a 5-3 lead.  Bellis then broke the 15-year-old Czech for the seventh time to win the title.

The boys title did go to the top seed, with Roman Safiullin of Russia defeating No. 6 seed Ryotaro Matsumura of Japan 7-6(2), 6-1 in the final. No. 3 seeds Nicolas Alvarez of Peru and Rafael Coutinho of Venezuela won the boys doubles title, beating unseeded Adrian Andrzejczuk of Poland and Nam Hoang Ly of Vietnam 6-4, 3-6, 10-7.

The girls doubles title also went to the No. 3 seeds, with Morgane Michiels and Greetje Minnen of Belgium beating No. 4 seeds Emily Arbuthnott of Great Britain and Luisa Stefani of Brazil 6-4, 7-5 in the final.

The first two Florida Pro Circuit events of the year are in the books, with Sekou Bangoura Jr winning the $10,000 Futures title in Plantation with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over 18-year-old Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan. Nishioka had won two consecutive Futures last month in Chile to end the year ranked 442, while Bangoura had also won his last tournament, November's Futures in Niceville.  Bangoura was forced to qualify in Plantation this week however, and rain required he play two matches, the second round and the quarterfinal, on the same day. Both went to three sets, but the 22-year-old former Florida Gator from Bradenton never ran out of steam, despite needing another three sets to take out former Texas Tech star Gonzalo Escobar of Ecuador in Saturday's semifinal.

Former Georgia Tech teammates Kevin King and Juan Spir won the doubles title, beating former Florida State teammates Jean Yves Aubone and Vahid Mirzadeh 7-6(5), 6-3 in today's final.

At the $25,000 women's Pro Circuit tournament in Vero Beach, the weather was even worse, and a match tiebreaker was played in lieu of a third set in the second round and quarterfinal matches.  Top seed Allie Kiick and Samantha Crawford were the only two Americans to advance to the quarterfinals, with Kiick making semifinals only to retire trailing No. 3 seed Laura Siegemund of Germany 4-0 in the first set.  Siegemund won the title today, beating Canada's Gabriela Dabrowski, the No. 4 seed, 6-3, 7-6(10).  Allie Will(University of Florida) and Irina Khromacheva of Russia, the ITF 2011 World Junior champion, won the doubles title. The No. 3 seeds defeated unseeded Jacqueline Cako(Arizona State) and Sanaz Marand(North Carolina) 7-5, 6-3 in the final.

This coming week in Florida, the men are in Sunrise for another $10,000 Futures, and the women are in Port Saint Lucie for another $25,000 challenger.

I've linked to many articles about the financial and emotional stress of players on the Futures and Challenger circuit, but never one as emotionally compelling as this one from The Independent on Jamie Baker of Great Britain. Baker has recently retired, and reporter Archie Bland makes clear all of the conflicting emotions and circumstances that led to Baker's decision. Would more money at the lower levels fix this problem, or would there still be hard choices to be made by those just under the break even point, whatever ranking number that might be?  I suspect there is no solution that inoculates someone from the pain of giving up their dream job, but I would certainly like the sport's leadership to do what it can to assure those in the Top 300 a decent living.  The current distribution model is unquestionably broken.

Kudla, Williams and Odesnik Qualify for Australian Open, Three of Top Five ITF Junior Girls Also Reach Main Draw; Isner Wins Auckland Title

Australian Open qualifying is now complete, with three American men reaching the main draw, the most of any country.  Denis Kudla, seeded fourth, beat Alex Kuznetsov, the No. 20 seed and also from the US, 6-4, 6-2 after trailing 4-0 in the opening set.  The 21-year-old from Virginia has been draw to face Florian Mayer of Germany in the first round on Monday (Sunday night in the US).  Wayne Odesnik, the No. 19 seed, beat Adrian Menendez-Maceiras of Spain 6-3, 2-6, 8-6 and has gotten one of the best draws of any qualifier, going up against fellow qualifier Vincent Millot of France, No. 267 in the ATP rankings.  No. 13 seed Rhyne Williams saved a match point serving at 5-6 in the second set tiebreaker before coming back to beat No. 23 seed Thiemo De Bakker of the Netherlands 2-6, 7-6(6), 6-2, but his luck in the draw did not match Odesnik's.  The former Tennessee Volunteer will play No. 5 seed Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina, who won the ATP title in Sydney last night over Bernard Tomic of Australia.

In addition to the three Americans, Ohio State's 2013 NCAA champion Blaz Rola of Slovenia qualified, coming from a break down in the second set to defeat No. 27 seed Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France 6-1, 6-4.  Including Rola, there are now five former NCAA men's singles champions in the main draw: wild card Steve Johnson of USC (2011, 2012), Stanford's Bradley Klahn(2010), Virginia's Somdev Devvarman(2007, 2008) and Baylor's Benjamin Becker(2004).  Rola will face Federico Delbonis of Argentina on Tuesday.

The news was not as good for the US women, with all three Americans in the final round of qualifying going out. Great Britain's Heather Watson, the No. 7 seed, beat Irina Falconi, the No. 23 seed, 6-4, 7-6(1), but Falconi was drawn as the No. 1 lucky loser and she got in when Jamie Hampton had to withdraw due to a hip injury. Falconi will play Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain on Monday. 

Madison Brengle lost to No. 14 seed Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, and Vicky Duval lost to Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-3.  I was surprised by that last result, particularly the scoreline, not because I don't respect Siniakova's game, but rather due to the advantages Duval had coming in. Duval, while only 18, had had much more experience on the big stage than 17-year-old Siniakova, with Duval qualifying at the US Open last year and famously beating Sam Stosur in the first round after having played Kim Clijsters the year before as a wild card at the US Open, while this was Siniakova's first attempt at qualifying at a major.  Perhaps Siniakova, who is No. 5 in the ITF junior rankings, is just more comfortable in Australia, where she was the Australian Open girls finalist last year.

Ana Konjuh, the girl who beat Siniakova, both in the Australian Open girls final and the Orange Bowl final the previous month, also qualified into the main draw, using the wild card she received as the girls champion. The 16-year-old Croatian, who is planning to have elbow surgery after the Australian Open, beat Olga Savchuk of Ukraine 6-0, 6-3 yesterday. Konjuh is scheduled to play No. 4 seed Na Li of China in the first round Monday, while Siniakova got a much better draw, playing fellow qualifier Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan, a 20-year-old ranked 163, who is also playing in her first slam main draw.

Another high profile junior, 2013 ITF junior champion Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, will also be making her main draw slam debut, after the 16-year-old won all three of her qualifying matches in straight sets. After her 6-2, 6-4 win over Marta Sirotkina of Russia in the final round of qualifying, Bencic was placed in the draw against 43-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan. If both Konjuh and Bencic should win those matches, they would play each other in the second round. Konjuh beat Bencic 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the 2012 Orange Bowl.

The fourth teen qualifier, Carina Witthoeft of Germany, is only 18, but she hasn't played a junior tournament since 2010, and never got above 744 in the rankings, so I've never seen her play.

In addition to those I've mentioned, other Americans scheduled to play on Monday include wild card Sachia Vickery, who takes on Lauren Davis, both Williams sisters, Sam Querrey, Alison Riske, Madison Keys, Steve Johnson and Michael Russell.

For the complete draws and Monday's order of play, see the Australian Open website.

John Isner won his eighth ATP title Saturday in Auckland, beating Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan 7-6(4), 7-6(7) in the final. It is only Isner's second title outside the United States, with the first also being in Auckland, in 2010.  The New Zealand Herald has this article on just how dominating the former Georgia Bulldog's serve has been.

The New Zealand Herald also had this article earlier about former University of Illinois tennis player GD Jones bowing out as coach for teammate Kevin Anderson of South Africa after a short stint in that capacity.