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Thursday, April 19, 2018

Pro Circuit Update; Nine US Men, 17 US Women Accepted into French Open Main Draw; UCLA Women Beat Pepperdine

Three professional events are taking place this week in the US: a $15,000 Men's Futures in Orange Park Florida, an $80,000 Women's Pro Circuit event in Dothan Alabama and a $100,000 Men's ATP Challenger in Sarasota Florida.

Only one American remains after two rounds in Orange Park: Noah Rubin, who took a wild card into the event and is the No. 1 seed. Rubin, the former Wake Forest star, hasn't had a great deal of success this year in the ATP qualifying and at the Challenger level, so he decided to get some matches on the Florida Har-Tru.  Rubin defeated former Pepperdine Wave Mousheg Hovhannisyan 6-1, 6-3 in today's second round to reach the quarterfinals.

In Dothan, the second of four events in the USTA Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge, three Americans have advanced to the quarterfinals: No. 2 seed Sonya Kenin, No. 4 seed Taylor Townsend and qualifier Francesca Di Lorenzo. Louisa Chirico is playing No. 5 seed Mariana Duque-Marino of Colombia tonight with a chance to join them.  Kenin advanced when Julia Grabher of Austria retired trailing 6-1, 4-6, 2-0; Townsend defeated USTA girls 18s champion Ashley Kratzer, a wild card, 6-4, 7-6(0) and Di Lorenzo downed No. 7 seed Jamie Loeb 7-6(6), 6-4.  Top seed Jennifer Brady(UCLA) lost to Sesil Karatantcheva of Bulgaria 7-5, 6-0 in first round action last night.

At the Sarasota Challenger, two Americans have advanced to the quarterfinals: Stefan Kozlov and Reilly Opelka.  Kozlov defeated No. 3 seed Donald Young yesterday 6-4, 6-4 and Opelka beat 2013 NCAA champion and No. 8 seed Blaz Rola of Slovenia 7-6(6), 6-3 today.  The only seeded player remaining in Sarasota is No. 5 seed Henri Laaksonen of Switzerland.

The entries for the French Open were posted on Wednesday, with nine US men and 17 US women receiving entry.

The US men:
John Isner
Sam Querrey
Jack Sock
Tennys Sandgren
Steve Johnson
Jared Donaldson
Ryan Harrison
Frances Tiafoe
Taylor Fritz

The US women:
Serena Williams*
Venus Williams
Sloane Stephens
Madison Keys
CoCo Vandeweghe
Cici Bellis
Danielle Collins
Varvara Lepchenko
Sachia Vickery
Madison Brengle
Jennifer Brady
Sonya Kenin
Christina McHale
Bethanie Mattek-Sands
Bernarda Pera
Alison Riske
Vania King*

*used protected ranking for entry

The complete men's list is here.  The complete women's list is here.


In college tennis action last night, the UCLA women got a big win, coming from 3-1 down to take out Pepperdine 4-3 in Malibu.  The Bruins won the doubles point, but lost in straight sets at lines 3, 4 and 5 to go down 3-1.  But they got three-set wins from Alaina Miller at line 6 and Jada Hart at line 2 to tie it, with Ena Shibahara clinching for UCLA with a 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-3 win over Luisa Stefani at line 1.  It's just the second loss of the year for the Waves, who lost to North Carolina in the National Team Indoor final back in February.

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