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Coaching Updates, US Open Qualies Wrap Up/Main Draw Released, USONP Mixed Doubles, Pro Circuit

by | Aug 27, 2016 | Blog

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Bucknell Athletics Director John Hardt announced the hiring of Bruce Myers as the new men’s head coach of the Bison. Myers comes to Lewisburg after spending last season as the women’s head coach at Longwood before departing to become the men’s head coach at Delaware. Myers went 16-21 (.432) in one and half seasons at Longwood and 3-5 (.375) in his brief stay at Delaware. Myers also coached at North Carolina A&T in 2014 and prior to that was at Randolph-Macon for two seasons. He replaces Craig Schwartz who stepped down after four seasons to relocate to Boone, North Carolina, to be with his wife (Appalachian State head field hockey coach) and son.

Northern Colorado Athletic Director Darren Dunn named Ben Gendron as the Bears new interim men’s head coach. Gendron graduated from Northern Colorado in 2015 and spent this past season as the volunteer assistant coach. The head coaching position came open when Rob Gurden stepped down after one season to become the men’s associate head coach at Loyola Marymount.

Yale women’s head coach Danielle McNamara announced the hiring of Brooke Bolender as the Bulldogs new assistant coach. Bolender played at Michigan from 2010 to 2014 and spent the 2015 season as a student assistant at Michigan. This past season Bolender was the women’s assistant coach at Western Michigan.

TCU women’s head coach Lee Taylor Walker announced that recent UCLA graduate Catherine Harrison is the Horned Frogs new volunteer assistant.

Texas Tech and Michigan State both released their men’s schedules today.
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2010 Alabama graduate Saketh Myneni was the only male player with college ties to navigate the US Open qualifying draw. Myneni rolled over Pedja Krstin 6-3, 6-0 to qualify for his first ever Grand Slam main draw. Here was Alabama’s release along with a story from Randy Walker at World Tennis Magazine. Walker’s piece also includes an interview with Myneni after today’s big win.

2017 Stanford commit Catherine CiCi Bellis was the only female with college ties to qualify though with a ranking already close to 150 it may be a longshot that she actually ends up on campus (for the time being I’ll still claim her as a potential college player).

The doubles draws haven’t been released yet but there should be plenty of former collegians in the mix.

Men’s Qualifying Final Round 
#143 [26] Saketh Myneni (Alabama ’10) def. #200 Pedja Krstin 6-3, 6-0
#203 Guilherme Clezar def. #216 Alex Sarkissian (Pepperdine ’14) 6-4, 7-6(5)
#227 Jan Satral def. #218 Aleksandr Nedovyesov (Oklahoma St ’10) 6-3, 7-5
#96 [3] Karen Khachanov def. #193 Noah Rubin (Wake Forest ’15) 6-3, 4-6, 6-4
#126 Mischa Zverev def. #246 [WC] Sekou Bangoura (Florida ’11) 6-4, 6-2

Women’s Qualifying Final Round 
#158 Catherine Bellis (’17 Stanford commit) def. #112 Alison Van Uytvanck 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-2
#138 [27] Elise Mertens def. #226 Kristie Ahn (Stanford ’14) 6-1, 6-4
#146 Taylor Townsend def. #125 Jennifer Brady (UCLA ’16) 7-5, 6-4

Men’s First Round
#22 [20] John Isner (Georgia ’07) vs. #124 [WC] Frances Tiafoe
#25 [23] Kevin Anderson (Illinois ’07) vs. #86 Yoshihito Nishioka
#412 [WC] Mackenzie McDonald (UCLA ’16) vs. #227 [Q] Jan Satral
#21 [19] Steve Johnson (USC ’12) vs. #79 Evgeny Donskoy
#105 [WC] Rajeev Ram (Illinois ’03) vs. #67 Daniel Evans
#97 Benjamin Becker (Baylor ’05) vs. #7 [6] Kei Nishikori
#143 [Q] Saketh Myneni (Alabama ’10) vs. #48 Jiri Vesely

Women’s First Round
#723 [WC] Ellen Perez (Georgia Jr) vs. #49 Shuai Zhang
#72 Nicole Gibbs (Stanford ’13) vs. #153 [Q] Aleksandra Krunic
[WC] Danielle Collins (Virginia ’16) vs. #102 Evgeniya Rodina
#74 Irinia Falconi (Georgia Tech ’10) vs. #67 Cagla Buyukakcay
#158 [Q] Catherine Bellis (’17 Stanford commit) vs. #65 Viktorija Golubic

There was a nice article by Matt Trollope on Tennis Australia about Georgia junior Ellen Perez earning the Australian reciprocal wild card into the US Open. Perez said she still plans on returning to Georgia but her options are wide open.
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US Open National Playoff – Mixed Doubles Semifinals

Sanaz Marand (North Carolina ’11)/Malcolm Harrison (NW Missouri St ’12) def. Alexandra Anghelescu (Ga Tech ’13)/Danie van den Heever (Ga Southern ’05) 7-5, 6-3
 
Evan King (Michigan ’13)/Emina Bektas (Michigan ’15) def. Jacqueline Cako (Arizona St ’13)/Joel Kielbowicz (UNLV ’05) 6-1, 6-2
 
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Pro Circuit Update
 
35-year old John-Paul Fruttero (Cal ’03) and Ti Chen won the $10K Thailand F1 Futures in Hua Hin with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Yunseong Chung and Xin Gao. It was Fruttero’s second doubles title this year and 16th overall. Fruttero won his first pro doubles title all the back in 2002 when he parterned with new Auburn head coach Bobby Reynolds. 
 
Peter Nagy (Texas A&M Corpus Christi ’15) and Nik Razborsek fell 6-3, 6-0 to Hugo Dellien and Federico Zeballos in the doubles finals of the $10K Austria F7 Futures in Poertschach. The day wasn’t a total loss for Nagy as he advanced to the semifinals in the singles draw with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Nino Serdarusic. Nagy will now face Petr Michnev (Hawaii-Pacific ’14) who won his quarterfinals match 6-3, 6-0 over the top seed Matteo Viola.
 
Sander Gille (East Tennessee State ’12) and Joran Vliegen (East Carolina ’14) were trying to win their 11th doubles title of the year but they fell 6-3, 6-2 to Jarryd Bant and Tom Farquharson in the finals of the $10K Belgium F11 Futures in Huy. Vliegen was able to advance to the finals in the singles draw after he knocked off Yannick Vandenbulcke 7-5, 6-1 – next up Romain Barbosa who defeated Jakob Sude (Oklahoma State ’15) 6-1, 7-6(4). 
 
Mitch McDaniels (New Mexico ’15) moved into his first career pro semifinal with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Nicolae Frunza at the $10K Romania F14 Futures in Galati. McDaniels didn’t start playing tennis until he was 14 and he had to walk-on at New Mexico for his first two years before getting a scholarship for the final two. The Arizona Daily Star did a nice feature on him last year that’s worth the read.