Rubin Ousts No. 17 Seed Paire at Australian Open, Six Americans Join Him in Second Round; Blanch Reaches Traralgon G1 Quarterfinals; US Players Advance at Teen Tennis

Nineteen-year-old Noah Rubin pulled off a big upset in the first round of the Australian Open Monday in Melbourne. The 2015 NCAA finalist, now ranked 328, beat No. 17 seed Benoit Paire of France 7-6(4), 7-6(6), 7-6(5) for his first slam win.  According to Josh Meiseles of the ATP, it's the first time a player outside the Top 300 has defeated a seed in a slam (in a completed match) since Wimbledon in 2011. And it's the first such instance at the Australian Open since 1985.

The match is available on replay at WatchESPN, and there's not much doubt that Paire, notorious for his erratic play, had a bad day; he was credited with 72 unforced errors in 39 games. After the match, Paire said Rubin was "a not-good player," but aside from the sour grapes aspect of that comment, it demonstrated no appreciation of Rubin's defensive skills and speed, which may have, in reality, forced some of Paire's "unforced" errors.  Rubin, who played college tennis at Wake Forest for a year after winning the Wimbledon boys title and Kalamazoo in 2014, moves into the second round, against qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France. For Rubin's thoughts on the win, see this Associated Press article.

Another junior slam winner from 2014, US Open boys champion Omar Jasika of Australia, who, like Rubin is a wild card, won his first round match, beating Illya Marchenko of Ukraine 6-4, 3-6, 6-0 6-4. Quentin Halys of France, a third teenaged wild card, who lost to Jasika in that US Open boys final, also advanced, beating Ivan Dodig of Croatia 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-5.

As for other American winners on Day One, Austin Krajicek picked up his second slam victory, beating qualifier Di Wu of China 6-4, 6-1, 6-3, while two other players with college backgrounds, Irina Falconi and qualifier Nicole Gibbs, also reached the second round. Gibbs defeated Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic  6-2, 2-6, 6-1 and Falconi got past Anna Tatishvili 6-4, 3-6, 8-6.

Lauren Davis defeated No. 26 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, Denis Kudla advanced when Filip Krajinovic of Serbia retired trailing 6-2, 6-1 and top seed Serena Williams got through a tough first rounder with Camila Giorgi of Italy 6-4, 7-5.   Jonathan Kelley has a good recap of all the American action Monday at On The Rise Tennis.  Nineteen US players are on Tuesday's schedule, including Jack Sock vs Taylor Fritz, and Madison Brengle vs CoCo Vandeweghe.

The draw at the Grade 1 in Traralgon Australia gets stranger with every round. Despite having a similar field to next week's Australian Open Junior Championships, many of those expected to contend in Melbourne have had early exits.  Top seed Bianca Andreescu of Canada gave a walkover to the quarterfinals to her opponent and both a qualifier and a wild card have reached the boys quarterfinals.  No. 9 seed Ulises Blanch is in both the singles quarterfinals, where he'll play unseeded Louis Tessa of France, and the doubles quarterfinals.

At the Grade 1 Copa Barranquilla in Colombia, 11 US juniors have reached the main draw:  qualifiers Brian Cernoch and Jada Robinson, special exempt Gui Gomes, seeds Alexandre Rotsaert(14), Meible Chi(16) and Morgan Coppoc(6), and Sangeet Sridhar, Victoria Emma, Taylor Johnson, Malkia Menguene and Amanda Meyer.  Olesya Pervushina of Russia and Felipe Meligeni Rodrigues Alves of Brazil are the top seeds.

At the Nike International Teen Tennis 14-and-under tournament in Bolton, England, five Americans have reached the third round.  Unseeded Vanessa Ong, who advanced to the second round without dropping a game, beat No. 2 seed  Ella Haavisto of Finland 6-2, 6-1. With the seeds getting first round byes, Gabby Price(13) and Alexa Noel(5) won their first matches today, as did boys No. 6 seed Stefan Leustian.  Faris Khan is into the round of 16 with a 6-2, 6-1 win over No. 11 seed Leo Raquin of France.  Zane Khan and Nicholas Garcia(14) lost their matches today, while Victoria Hu was beaten in the first round Sunday.

Paul Wins Plantation Futures, Hanfmann takes Long Beach Title; ITF Grade 1 Update; Orange Bowl Videos

Tommy Paul won his third career Futures title today in the $10,000 event in Plantation, defeating Adrien Puget of France 7-6(4), 6-0. The second-seeded Puget, a former UCLA Bruin, served for the first set at 5-4, saved a set point at 5-6, but did not win a point on serve in the tiebreaker until he was down 6-3. The 18-year-old Paul, a wild card, but the tournament's top seed, needed only 23 minutes to close out the match and the title. All three of Paul's Futures titles, the two in Europe last spring and today's, came on clay courts.

Former college stars went 1-1 against 18-year-old Americans today, with Germany's Yannick Hanfmann, the recent USC No. 1, beating Michael Mmoh 6-4, 6-0 at the $25,000 Futures in Long Beach, California. Hanfmann was broken to open the match and serving for the first set at 5-3, but he broke to win the opening set and converted six of eight break points in the match to claim his third Futures title, the first in the US and the first above the $10,000 level.

At the women's $25,000 tournament in Daytona Beach, No. 3 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia defeated 17-year-old Olga Fridman of Ukraine 0-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the final.

At the ITF Grade 1 in Venezuela, University of Illinois recruit Gui Gomes won the doubles title, partnering Tiago Cacao of Portugal. The unseeded team defeated No. 4 seeds Dan Added and Matteo Martineau of France 6-3, 6-1 in the final. In the singles finals, top seed Olesya Pervushina of Russia defeated No. 6 seed Dominique Schaefer of Peru 6-0, 6-2 for her second Grade 1 title. No. 3 seed Gabriel Decamps of Brazil took the boys title, beating No. 11 seed Zizou Bergs of Belgium 6-2, 6-4 in the final.

At the Traralgon Grade 1 in Australia, No. 9 seed Ulises Blanch is the only American still competing, with Abi Altick and Zeke Clark losing in their second round matches.  Top seed Mate Valkusz of Hungary, who retired in his first round singles match (it now looks as if he might have lost the opening set to Jack Mingjie Lin of Canada) is still playing doubles, so it may have been a precautionary retirement in singles. Girls No. 2 seed Charlotte Robillard-Millette of Canada lost her second round match to Kaja Juvan of Slovenia 6-4, 6-3.

I've finished processing the Metropolia Orange Bowl videos, with those of champions Miomir Kecmanovic and Bianca Andreescu below. The 16s champions and the four finalists are available by clicking on the links below.  Some of the 16s videos are from the semifinals, with the rain on the final day creating some difficulties in getting videos from all four finals.

Kayla Day
Stefanos Tsitsipas
Maria Carle, 16s champion
Gabriela Tatarus
Sebastian Baez, 16s champion
Karl Friberg

Gibbs, Smyczek, Harrison and Fritz Qualify for Australian Open; Valkusz Retires at Traralgon Grade 1; Paul, Mmoh Reach Futures Finals; Bolton Draws

This is a quiet day in Melbourne, with qualifying completed yesterday and the main draw (top half) getting underway tomorrow.  Four of the eight Americans in the final round of qualifying advanced to the main draw, with only Nicole Gibbs getting there via a straight-set win.

Gibbs, the No. 2 seed in qualifying, trailed former ITF world junior No. 1 Ivana Jorovic of Serbia 3-0 in the second set, but won the last six games of the match to post a 6-3, 6-3 victory. She will play Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic on opening day. (Reference to what day it is are tough with Australia being on the other side of the International Date Line, but play begins here in the US Sunday night, or Monday in Australia.)

Julia Boserup and Sachia Vickery both lost in three sets, with Boserup falling to No. 5 seed Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 and No. 15 seed Vickery losing to No. 7 seed Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic 2-6, 6-2, 7-5.

Tim Smyczek, the No. 3 seed in qualifying, was down a break to No. 29 Kenny De Schepper of France, but came through with a 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 win. He will play Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain on Tuesday.

Taylor Fritz's match with Mischa Zverev of Germany, streamed and shown on Tennis Channel, looked to be over when the 18-year-old fell behind 4-0 in the third set, but Fritz won the final six games of the match for a 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4 victory and a place in the main draw of a slam for the first time in his career.  Zverev had beaten Fritz in three sets in the first round of the Aptos Challenger last August. Fritz spoke to the ATP about the roller coaster final set for this article.  His first round opponent, on Tuesday, is Jack Sock, the 25th seed, who retired to Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut in the final of the ATP event in Auckland with an illness.

As dramatic as Fritz's late surge was, Ryan Harrison may have topped it, saving four match points in beating former Oklahoma State star Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan 6-7(8), 7-6(6), 6-3.  Harrison will play Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia Tuesday.

Bjorn Fratangelo(17) lost to Dan Evans 7-5, 4-6, 6-0 but got into the main draw as a lucky loser, the only lucky loser in either the men's or women's draws so far. Fratangelo will face qualifier Stephane Robert of France Tuesday.

Dennis Novikov(32), lost to No. 12 seed Yuichi Sugita of Japan 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

Monday's complete order of play, which includes wild card Noah Rubin among the 12 Americans in action, is available at the tournament website.

Ulises Blanch(9), Zeke Clark and Abi Altick won their opening round matches at the Traralgon Grade 1 in Australia Saturday, but the big news was the retirement of top seed and World No. 1 Mate Valkusz of Hungary.  Valkusz won the first set from Jack Mingjie Lin of Canada 7-5 and was up 1-0 in the second set when he retired, which sounds as if his Australian Open junior campaign may be affected.  No. 15 seed Maria Mateas, the fourth American in the tournament, lost to Greece's Eleni Christofi 6-4, 6-3.

Two American 18-year-olds will play two former Pac-12 stars in Futures finals on Sunday.

Michael Mmoh will go for his fourth career Futures title at the Long Beach $25,000 tournament against Yannick Hanfmann of Germany, who will be seeking his third Futures title. The unseeded Hanfmann, who played No. 1 the past two years at USC, defeated No. 3 seed Eric Quigley 6-2, 6-2, while Mmoh came back from a slow start to beat No. 8 seed Dan Smethurst of Great Britain 7-5, 6-4.

Top seeds David O'Hare of Ireland and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain won the doubles title. The former Memphis pair defeated No. 3 seeds Evan King and Raymond Sarmiento, champions last week in Los Angeles, 6-3, 7-6(4) for their eighth Futures title as a team.

At the $10,000 Futures in Plantation, both Tommy Paul, the top seed, and Adrien Puget of France, the No. 2 seed, won two matches today to reach the final.  Paul defeated Jaume Pla Malfieto of Spain 6-3, 6-3 in the rain-delayed quarterfinal and No. 7 seed Young Seok Kim of Korea 6-1, 6-3 in the semifinals. Puget, the former UCLA Bruin, ended the run of Florida freshman Alfredo Perez, a qualifier, 7-5, 6-3 in the quarterfinals, and breezed past No. 6 seed Kaichi Uchida of Japan 6-0, 6-1 in the semifinals.

In the doubles final, Denis Bejtuhlahi and Nikola Cacic of Serbia defeated Nick Chappell(TCU) and Raleigh Smith(Northwestern) 3-6, 6-3, 10-7 in a battle of unseeded teams.

Both Americans lost in the semifinals of the $25,000 women's Pro Circuit event in Daytona Beach. No. 2 seed Grace Min led No. 3 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia 5-2 in the final set, but Jabeur won the last five games for a 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory.  Unseeded 17-year-old Olga Fridman of Ukraine beat No. 6 seed Asia Muhammad 6-3, 6-2 to reach the final. In the doubles final, No. 4 seeds Natela Dzalamidze and Veronika Kudermetova of Russia defeated No. 3 seeds Sharon Fichman and Carol Zhao of Canada 6-4, 6-3 for the title.

The draws for the Nike International Teen Tennis 14U tournament in Bolton, England have been released, with two US boys and two US girls seeded.  Stefan Leustian is No. 6, Nicholas Garcia is No. 14, Alexa Noel is No. 5 and Gabby Price is No. 13.  Borna Devald of Croatia, the 2014 Junior Orange Bowl 12s champion, is the boys top seed, with Himari Sato of Japan, the 2014 Eddie Herr 12s champion, the top girls seed. Draws can be found at the Tennis Europe tournament page.

My Annual Intriguing Questions Column; Eight Americans in Final Round of Australian Open Qualifying; Mmoh Reaches Long Beach Semis; Traralgon Grade 1 Underway

Because there's really no offseason in junior tennis, I don't do much looking back at the previous year (On The Rise Tennis has done recent posts on the second half of last year in American tennis), but for 11 years now I've written an Intriguing Questions post for the Tennis Recruiting Network. As always, the ITF, USTA and NCAA are featured, with their decisions affecting so much of the tennis competition in this country.

I mentioned in last night's post that five American men are in the final round of qualifying at the Australian Open, with three American women joining them. Nicole Gibbs, Julia Boserup and Sachia Vickery can earn places in the draw with wins tonight.  Gibbs plays Ivana Jorovic of Serbia, Boserup faces SEVASTOVA, Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia and Vickery takes on Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic. In the men's final round of qualifying, Bjorn Fratangelo plays Great Britain's Dan Evans, Tim Smyczek faces France's Kenny De Schepper, Taylor Fritz plays Mischa Zverev of Germany, Dennis Novikov meets Yuichi Sugita of Japan and Ryan Harrison plays Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan.

Live scoring can be found at the Australian Open website.

Rain in Florida prevented any matches from being played at the Plantation $10,000 Futures, and there is still a second round match that hasn't been completed, but the semifinals are set for the $25,000 Daytona Beach women's event and the $25,000 men's Long Beach Futures.

Grace Min, the No. 2 seed, defeated 16-year-old CiCi Bellis 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. Bellis, seeded fifth, trailed 5-1 in the second set, came all the way back to 4-5 on serve, but was broken for the set.  Min was broken to start the third set, but she didn't drop her serve the rest of the way, while Bellis held only once.  Min will play No. 3 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, who beat No. 7 seed Natalia Vikhlyantseva of Russia 6-1, 6-2. Seventeen-year-old Olga Fridman, who is unseeded, will play No. 6 seed Asia Muhammad in the other semifinal.  Fridman beat Elitsa Kostova of Bulgari 6-1, 6-2, while Muhammad came back for a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over unseeded Elizaveta Ianchuk of Ukraine.

In California, Michael Mmoh and Deiton Baughman had a lengthy quarterfinal encounter, with Mmoh defeating the No. 5 seed 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.  Mmoh, 18, got the last break of the third set in the third game for a 2-1 lead but Baughman, 19, had plenty of chances, six to be exact, to get the break back, but was unable to do it.  Mmoh fell behind 15-40 serving at 4-3 and at 5-4 in the final, but survived, despite 10 double faults in the match and only 52% first serves. He is now 4-0 against Baughman.

Mmoh will play No. 8 seed Dan Smethurst of Great Britain, who defeated Sebastian Fanselow of Germany 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.  The other semifinal will feature No. 3 seed Eric Quigley, a 6-4, 6-3 winner over No. 7 seed Evan King, and recent USC No. 1 Yannick Hanfmann of Germany, who defeated No. 6 seed Ernesto Escobedo 6-4, 6-4.

The main draw of the Grade 1 warmup in Australia, at Traralgon, is underway, with four Americans, Ulises Blanch, Zeke Clark, Maria Mateas and Helen Altick, competing.  Orange Bowl champion Bianca Andreescu of Canada is the top girls seed and ITF World No. 1 Mate Valkusz of Hungary is the top boys seed.  The Tennis Australia tournament website has in years past posted results during the day.

Australian Open Draws; Five US Men into Final Round of Qualifying; Two Florida Gators Reach Plantation Futures Quarterfinals

The Australian Open draws are out with 16 US women and 10 US men already in, with others still competing in the qualifying.  The first round match-ups for the US women:

Serena Williams[1] vs Camila Giorgi(ITA)
Alison Riske vs Belinda Bencic[12](SUI)
Lauren Davis vs Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova[26](RUS)
Christina McHale vs Agnieszka Radwanska[4](POL)
Sloane Stephens[24] vs qualifier
Anna Tatishvili vs Irina Falconi
Madison Brengle vs CoCo Vandeweghe
Samantha Crawford vs Danka Kovinic(MNE)
Vicky Duval vs Elina Svitolina[18](UKR)
Vania King vs Mona Barthel(GER)
Venus Williams[8] vs Johanna Konta(GBR)
Bethanie Mattek-Sands vs Denisa Allertova(CZE)
Madison Keys[15] vs Zarina Diyas(KAZ)
Varvara Lepchenko vs Lesia Tsurenko[31](UKR)

The first round match-ups for the men:
Denis Kudla vs Filip Krajinovic(SRB)
Noah Rubin vs Benoit Paire[17](FRA)
Austin Krajicek vs qualifier
Sam Querrey vs Dusan Lajovic(SRB)
Rajeev Ram vs Kevin Anderson[11](RSA)
Jack Sock vs qualifier
Steve Johnson[31] vs Aljaz Bedene(GBR)
John Isner[10] vs Jerzy Janowicz(POL)
Brian Baker vs Simone Bolelli(ITA)
Donald Young vs Santiago Giraldo(COL)

The main draws are available here.

Five US men have advanced to Saturday's final round of qualifying. Bjorn Fratangelo, Tim Smyczek, Taylor Fritz and Dennis Novikov won their second round qualifying matches last night, while Ryan Harrison won his second round match tonight, but both Frances Tiafoe and Tennys Sandgren lost in the second round this evening.  On Saturday, Fratangelo plays Great Britain's Dan Evans, Smyczek faces France's Kenny De Schepper, Fritz plays Mischa Zverev of Germany, Novikov meets Yuichi Sugita of Japan and Harrison plays the winner of the Aleksandr Nedovyesov - Aldin Setkic match.

Nicole Gibbs is through to the final round of qualifying with a win tonight, with Jessica Pegula, Julia Boserup, Sachia Vickery and Maria Sanchez looking to join her. Gibbs will play 18-year-old Ivana Jorovic of Serbia, a former junior world No. 1, for a place in the main draw.

Qualifying draws are here.

The quarterfinals are nearly set in all three USTA Pro Circuit events, despite rain this morning in Plantation, site of the $10,000 men's tournament, with one second round match still not complete.

Two members of the University of Florida team, freshman Alfredo Perez and senior Diego Hidalgo, have advanced to the quarterfinals, with qualifier Perez beating No. 5 seed Wil Spencer 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 6-4 in three hours and 22 minutes.  Hidalgo, from Ecuador, defeated fellow qualifier Juan Benitez Chavarriaga of Colombia 7-6(1), 3-2, ret.  Top seed Tommy Paul and No. 2 seed Adrien Puget of France also are through to the quarterfinals.

The weather has been more cooperative farther north, where the women's $25,000 tournament is taking place in Daytona Beach.  Three Americans remain after today's second round, with No. 5 seed CiCi Bellis scheduled to take on No. 2 seed Grace Min in Friday's quarterfinals.  Bellis defeated wild card Francesca Di Lorenzo 6-3, 6-0 and Min beat Jesika Maleckova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 7-6(3).  Asia Muhammad, the No. 6 seed, defeated Carol Zhao of Canada 6-2, 6-2 and will play Elizaveta Ianchuk of Ukraine in the quarterfinals.  Top seed Shelby Rogers was beaten by 17-year-old Olga Fridman of Ukraine 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

At the $25,000 Futures in Long Beach, results today created two all-American quarterfinals.  No. 7 seed Evan King, who beat Eric Johnson 6-1, 3-6, 6-4, will play No. 3 seed Eric Quigley, who also defeated another American, Raymond Sarmiento, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.  The second all-American quarterfinal will feature two teens, 19-year-old Deiton Baughman and 18-year-old Michael Mmoh.  Baughman, the No. 5 seed, advanced when Ryan Lipman retired trailing 6-1, while Mmoh defeated Clay Thompson 7-5, 6-2.  Mmoh holds a 3-0 advantage over Baughman in their previous meetings.  A third teenager, No. 6 seed Ernesto Escobedo, will play former USC star Yannick Hanfmann of Germany in the bottom quarter, with the top quarter featuring former Pepperdine all-American Sebastian Fanselow of Germany against No. 8 seed Dan Smethurst of Great Britain.

Eight US Women Begin Australian Open Qualifying, Seven US Men Post First Round Victories; Day, Di Lorenzo Advance at Daytona Beach $25K; Mmoh Tops Kozlov in Long Beach

The Australian Open women's qualifying gets underway tonight(Thursday) in Melbourne, with eight US women on the schedule.
It's possible for Nicole Gibbs(2) Katerina Stewart, Jessica Pegula, Julia Boserup, Kristie Ahn, Sachia Vickery(15), Alexa Glatch and Maria Sanchez to advance to the main draw, as none are in the same 1/12s(only 12 women qualify, compared to 16 men).

Australian Open girls champion Tereza Mihalikova of Slovakia was the recipient of a qualifying wild card.

Seven of the 11 US men in qualifying reached the second round, with four of them playing their second round matches tonight.  Taylor Fritz was the first winner in men's qualifying Wednesday, defeating Hiroki Moriya of Japan 6-3, 6-1, and was the subject of this feature on the Australian Open website. Dennis Novikov(32) advanced with a 6-4, 7-6(4) win over Australian teenager Marc Polmans, Bjorn Fratangelo(17) ousted Canadian veteran Frank Dancevic 7-6(5), 6-1, and Tim Smyczek(3) downed Jose Pereira of Brazil 6-3, 6-3.  Those four will play their second round matches tonight, while the other three American winners--Tennys Sandgren, Ryan Harrison(19) and Frances Tiafoe--will have a day off, playing their second round matches on Friday. Sandgren defeated Yasutaka Uchiyama of Japan 6-1, 6-3, Harrison earned a 6-3, 7-6(3) victory over Salvatore Caruso of Italy and Tiafoe took out fellow US teen Jared Donaldson(21) 6-3, 6-3.

Draws and scores can be found at the Tennis Australia website.

At the Pro Circuit tournaments here in the United States, a couple of juniors pulled off big wins.  At the $25,000 Long Beach Futures, Michael Mmoh defeated No. 4 seed and last week's champion Stefan Kozlov 7-5, 6-4 in a first round battle of 17-year-olds(correction: Mmoh turned 18 on Sunday).  Last week's finalist Philip Bester of Canada, the No. 2 seed, also lost, to recent USC graduate Yannick Hanfmann of Germany, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.  Virginia sophomore Henrik Wiersholm, Raymond Sarmiento, Ryan Lipman, Liam Caruana, Deiton Baughman and Clay Thompson were other Americans advancing, with only Sarmiento beating an opponent not from the US.

At the women's $25,000 tournament in Daytona Beach, 16-year-old Kayla Day, who qualified yesterday, defeated No. 4 seed and WTA No. 223 Anastasia Komardina of Russia 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-4 in the first round. Wild card Francesca Di Lorenzo, a freshman at Ohio State, beat fellow National Indoor champion Robin Anderson 7-5, 6-3 and will play No. 5 seed CiCi Bellis in the second round Thursday.  Shelby Rogers(1), Grace Min(2), Asia Muhammad(6) and Bernarda Pera are the other Americans through to the second round.

No singles were played Tuesday at the $10,000 men's Futures in Plantation due to rain, so all 16 first round matches were on today's schedule. Top seed Tommy Paul needed nearly three hours to advance past Peter Nagy of Hungary 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4.  Three current collegians earned first round wins: Florida's Alfredo Perez and Diego Hidalgo of Ecuador and Miami's Christian Langmo. His 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 win over South Florida's Alexandru Gozun gave the 19-year-old Langmo his first ATP point.  Wil Spencer(5) and Michael Grant are the other two Americans advancing to the second round.