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13 guys with college ties entered the US Open qualies but only 1 came through and that was 2011 Tennessee grad John-Patrick (JP) Smith who won all 3 of his matches in straight sets. Smith will join 7 former collegians in the 1st round of the Open which gets underway on Monday; 2015 NCAA Singles Champion Ryan Shane is the lone current college player to make the main draw. See below for qualie results and round 1 match-ups.

2015 NCAA Women’s Doubles Champions Maya Jansen and Erin Routliffe of Alabama qualified for the doubles main draw after winning the US Open National Playoffs in New Haven. Typically the NCAA champions get a main draw wild card but since Routliffe is from Canada they had to get in the hard way. Personally I think the NCAA Champions should get a main draw wild card regardless of nationality but that’s just me.

Kevin Anderson (Illinois ’07) won his 3rd ATP singles title with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Pierre-Hugues Herbert at the Winston-Salem Open. Anderson wins $83000 and picks up 250 ATP points.

US OPEN

Qualie R128
#631 Noah Rubin (Wake Forest ’15) def. #257 Liang-Chi Huang 6-2, 7-5
#122 Norbert Gombos def. #148 Somdev Devvarman (Virginia ’08) 5-7, 7-5, 6-1
#205 Jan Mertl def. #207 Alex Sarkissian (Pepperdine ’14) 4-6, 6-4, 6-3
#232 Daniel Nguyen (USC ’12) def. #230 Philip Bester 7-6(7), 2-6, 6-4
#204 Dennis Novikov (UCLA ’13) def. #184 Gastao Elias 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-4
#200 Uladzimir Ignatik def. #222 Jason Jung (Michigan ’11) 6-1, 7-5
#183 Jose Hernandez-Fernandez (UNC ’12) def. #224 Jonathan Eysseric 7-6(4), 6-1
#430 Tommy Paul def. #125 Blaz Rola (Ohio State ’13) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4
#121 JP Smith (Tennessee ’11) def. #868 Jesse Witten (Kentucky ’05) 7-6(5), 6-1
#111 Jan-Lennard Struff def. #194 Saketh Myneni (Alabama ’10) 4-6, 6-4, 6-1
#162 Maximo Gonzalez def. #221 Jarmere Jenkins (Virginia ’13) 6-2, 6-4
#117 Alejandro Gonzalez def. #395 Marcos Giron (UCLA ’14) 7-6, 6-2

Qualie R64
#91 Guido Pella def. #631 Noah Rubin (Wake Forest ’15) 6-4, 7-6(6)
#127 Yoshihito Nishioka def. #232 Daniel Nguyen (USC ’12) 6-2, 2-6, 6-2
#130 Matthew Ebden def. #204 Dennis Novikov (UCLA ’13) 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-2
#121 JP Smith (Tennessee ’11) def. #174 Vincent Millot 7-5, 6-2
#430 Tommy Paul def. #183 Jose Hernandez-Fernandez (UNC ’12) 6-3, 7-5

Qualie Finals
#121 JP Smith (Tennessee ’11) def. #168 Guilherme Clezar 6-3, 6-2


1st Round

  • #49 Steve Johnson (USC ’12) vs. #32 Fabio Fognini (Fognini leads H2H 1-0; won 7-6(0), 6-3 in R64 at 2015 Rome Masters)
  • #1399 Ryan Shane (Virginia Sr) vs. #27 Jeremy Chardy (1st meeting)
  • #87 Rajeev Ram (Illinois ’03) vs. #133 Ryan Harrison (Harrison leads H2H 1-0; won 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(5) in quarters at 2011 Atlanta ATP 250)
  • #15 Kevin Anderson (Illinois ’07) vs. Andrey Rublev (1st meeting)
  • #115 Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M ’11) vs. #59 Santiago Giraldo (Giraldo leads H2H 1-0; won 7-6(8), 6-1 in R32 at 2015 Acapulco ATP 250)
  • #73 Benjamin Becker (Baylor ’05) vs. #69 Denis Istomin (Istomin leads H2H 4-1; Istomin won most recent meeting 6-7(3), 6-4, 7-5 in R32 at 2013 Delray Beach ATP 250)
  • #96 Aleksandr Nedovyesov (Oklahoma State ’10) vs. #347 Lleyton Hewitt (Hewitt leads H2H 1-0; won 7-6, 6-2, 6-3 in deciding rubber at Davis Cup tie back in July)  
  • #13 John Isner (Georgia ’07) vs. #88 Malek Jaziri (Isner leads H2H 1-0; won 7-6(1), 6-2 in R32 at 2012 London Olympics)
  • #121 JP Smith (Tennessee ’11) vs. #90 Mikhail Youzhny (Youzhny leads H2H 1-0; won 6-1, 7-6(6) in Montreal QR32 3 weeks ago. 
The fields for the inaugural Oracle ITA Masters in Malibu were announced earlier this week – see my post for those names. 
The following teams released schedules for the upcoming year: Mississippi State, UC Irvine, Middle Tennessee State, Michigan, Michigan State, and Princeton. This google doc all the schedules consolidated in one place by conference
Northern Colorado announced that it has hired Rob Gurden to replace Mike Phillips as men’s head coach. 
William & Mary announced that it has hired Jeff Kader to replace Peter Daub as men’s head coach. 
Wisconsin-Green Bay announced that Daniel Bickett to take over both the men’s and women’s programs. I’m not sure what happened to the previous coach Mark Thomas.
I still show 16 men’s D1 head coaching openings as of today which seems high with the fall season just around the corner. 
Taylor Fritz, the current #1 junior in the world, announced that he was officially turning pro which means no college tennis for him.  Here is the official release that Colette Lewis tweeted out earlier. 
Alex Rybakov, who is one of the few top American juniors in this years crop not to go pro, announced that he is headed to TCU in January.  Colette had an interview with him that was posted on TRN. Rybakov is currently in the semis of the Canada F7 Future after wins over former Florida State #1 Jean-Yves Aubone and former Vanderbilt #1 Gonzales Austin.  
The 8-court Los Angles Tennis Center, home to the UCLA Bruins, looks like it’ll be reduced to a 6-court facility after it was announced that the Mo Ostin basketball center will be built on top of 2 tennis courts. 
My list of D1 Men’s transfers has now grown to 39 after making a few additions this past week (biggest one would be former Duke #1 Michael Redlicki to Arkansas)