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Wimbledon Draws Released, Oracle/ITA National Fall Championships Selection Criteria, Pro Circuit Update

by | Jun 30, 2017 | Blog

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The Wimbledon main draws were released on Friday with 34 players with college ties set to compete at the All England Lawn Tennis Club. There were 23 former college players in the singles qualifying draws but Irina Falconi was the only one to come through with the former Yellow Jacket qualifying with a straight set win over Mariana Duque-Marino. Falconi’s reward for qualifying will be a match against the top seed and last year’s runner-up Angelique Kerber.

There will be four former college players in the men’s singles draw and two in the women’s singles draw. The men’s doubles draw has 25 former college players while the women’s doubles draw has four. The top seed in the men’s doubles draw belongs to former MTSU Blue Raider and Baylor Bear John Peers and his partner Henri Kontinen. 

Cameron Norrie, who recently turned pro, will face ATP #10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first round while both John Isner and Steve Johnson are seeded and will face Taylor Fritz and Nicolas Kicker respectively. Former Illini Kevin Anderson will have a tough opener against Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.  

Wimbledon Championships
 
Women’s Singles Qualies – Final Round
#246 Irina Falconi (Georgia Tech ’10*) def. #119 Mariana Duque-Marino 6-1, 6-4
#135 Aryna Sabalenka def. #116 Kristie Ahn (Stanford ’14) 6-1, 6-1 
 
Women’s Doubles Qualies – Final Round
Dzalamidze/Kudermetov def. Caitlin Whoriskey (Tennessee ’10)/Ashley Weinhold 6-4, 6-4
 
 
Men’s Singles – First Round
#236 Cameron Norrie (TCU ’17*) vs. #10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
#45 Kevin Anderson (Illinois ’07*) vs. #35 Fernando Verdasco 
#31 Steve Johnson (USC ’12) vs. #91 Nicolas Kicker 
#21 John Isner (Georgia ’07) vs. #128 Taylor Fritz
 
Women’s Singles – First Round
#246 Irina Falconi (Georgia Tech ’10*) vs. #1 Angelique Kerber
#97 Jennifer Brady (UCLA ’15*) vs. #123 Danka Kovinic
 
Men’s Doubles – First Round
[1] John Peers (Baylor ’11)/Henri Kontinen vs. Fognini/Seppi
[10] Michael Venus (LSU ’09)/Ryan Harrison vs. Andre Begemann (Pepperdine ’08)/Jan-Lennard Struff
Johan Brunstrom (SMU ’03)/Andreas Siljestrom (Middle Tenn St ’07) vs. Troicki/Zimonjic
Treat Huey (Virginia ’08)/Jonathan Erlich vs. [6] Dodig/Granollers
Dominic Inglot (Virginia ’09)/Robin Haase vs. Petzschner/Peya
Adil Shamasdin (Brown ’05)/Leander Paes vs. Knowle/Oswald
[9] Jean-Julien Rojer (UCLA ’02)/Horia Tecau vs. Kokkinakis/Thompson
Ken Skupski (LSU ’07)/Neal Skupski (LSU ’12) vs. Joe Salisbury (Memphis ’14)/Brydan Klein
[7] Rajeev Ram (Illinois ’03*)/Raven Klaasen vs. Copil/Vasdasco
Purav Raja (Loyola Marymount ’04)/Divij Sharan vs. Edmund/Sousa
Scott Lipsky (Stanford ’03)/Frances Tiafoe vs. Podlipnik-Castillo/Vasilevski
[12] Robert Farah (USC ’10)/Juan Sebastian Cabal vs. Berlocq/Ramos-Vinolas
James Cerretani (Brown ’04)/Mikhail Elgin vs. [15] Peralta/Zeballos
Robert Lindstedt (Pepperdine ’98)/Sam Groth vs. Duran/Molteni
[5] Bob & Mike Bryan (Stanford ’98*) vs. Polmans/Whittington
Max Schnur (Columbia ’15)/Cheng-Peng Hsieh vs. Marcin Matkowski (UCLA ’03)/Max Mirnyi
Nicholas Monroe (North Carolina ’04)/Artem Sitak vs. Sa/Sela
JP Smith (Tennessee ’11)/Matt Reid vs. [11] F Lopez/M Lopez
Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (Washington ’11)/Jared Donaldson vs. Clarke/Willis
 
Women’s Doubles – First Round
Jennifer Brady (UCLA ’15*)/Alison Riske vs. [1] Mattek-Sands/Safarova
[6] Abigail Spears (UCLA ’00)/Katarinia Srebotnik vs. Haddad Maia/Konjuh
[11] Raquel Atawo (Cal ’04)/Jelena Ostapenko vs. Rae/Robson
Maria Sanchez (USC ’11)/Magda Linette vs. Kichenok/Savchuk
 

 
The ITA announced the selection criteria for the inaugural Oracle ITA National Fall Championships. The new event, which will take place in November in Indian Wells, replaces the National Indoor Intercollegiates which had been held in New York City. The singles draw of the new event will be double the size of the NIICs which means more spots for at-large bids and instead of just the all-division Oracle Cup champion getting in they’ll be a spot for the D2, D3, NAIA, and JUCO champs. In the past the at-large bids have been awarded pretty much straight off the preseason ITA rankings but this year they’ll be a combination of those, UTRs, and the ITA mid-season unpublished rankings. To see the rest of the details check out the ITA’s release here. 
 

 
The Bryan Brothers, Mike and Bob, won their 113th career doubles title with a three-set win in the finals of the ATP 250 Aegon International Eastbourne. The Bryans actually had to play twice on Friday due to rain earlier in the week jamming up the schedule. In their semifinal match they defeated the team of Begemann and Molteni 7-6, 6-4 and in the finals they defeated Bopanna and Sa 6-7, 6-4, 10-3. 
 

 

Recent North Carolina graduate Ronnie Schneider won his first career pro title on Friday when he and Filip Peliwo won the doubles title at the $25K Canada F3 Futures in Kelowna. Schneider and Peliwo didn’t drop a set all week and in the finals they defeated the team of Mark Whitehouse and Herbert Jody Maginley 7-5, 6-4.

Ohio State’s Mikael Torpegaard (Rising Sr) and Hugo Di Feo (’17) won a doubles title for the second straight week with the dynamic duo defeating Farris Gosea (Illinois ’15) and Nathan Pasha (Georgia ’15) 6-3, 6-4 in the finals of the $15K USA F22 Futures in Pittsburgh. The doubles title was the third of Di Feo’s career and sixth for Torpegaard.

A pair of former Texas A&M Aggies claimed the doubles title at the $25K USA F21 Futures in Tulsa. Austin Krajicek (’11) and Jackson Withrow (’16) defeated Nathan Ponwith (Georgia Rising Soph) and Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-2 to cap off a pretty dominating week. Krajicek and Withrow didn’t drop a set all week and in fact they didn’t give up more than 4 games in any set and didn’t give up more than 6 games in any match. The doubles title is the fourth of the year for the team while it’s Krajicek’s 27th overall and Withrow’s fifth overall. 

Ben Lock (Florida State ’16) and Nate Lammons (SMU ’16) won their second doubles title in the last three weeks with 7-6, 6-2 win over Baptise Crepatte and Thomas Setodji in the finals of the $15K Zimbabwe F3 Futures in Harare. Both Lock and Lammons have now won three doubles titles this year while Lock has six in his career and Lammons has five. 

Peter Nagy (Texas A&M Corpus Christi ’15) and Cristian Rodriguez won the doubles title at the $15K Romania F5 Futures in Curtea De Arges. Nagy and Rodriguez defeated Adrian Barbu and Riccardo Maiga 6-4, 7-6(6) in the final which gave Nagy his first doubles title of the year and fourth of his career. 

Aron Hiltzik (Illinois Rising Sr) and Wilfredo Gonzalez (Miami FL ’15) were both seeking their first pro title on Friday but they came up short in the doubles final at the $15K Israel F12 Futures in Tel Aviv. Hiltzik and Gonzalez hadn’t dropped a set coming into the final but they were broke four times and fell 6-3, 6-4 to Uzhylovskyi and Vasheshnikov. 
 
There are a few more doubles finals to be played on Saturday plus several players with college ties are still alive in singles as well. Below are some to keep an eye on:
 
$25K Arlon, Belgium F2 Futures
Doubles Final – Florian Lakat (Cal ’17)/Arthur Rinderknech (Texas A&M Rising Sr) vs. Constant de La Bassetiere (Penn State Rising Jr)/Geoffrey Blancaneaux
 
$25K Kelowna, Canada F3 Futures
Singles Semifinal – Alex Sarkissian (Pepperdine ’14) vs. Ray Sarmiento (USC ’14)
 
$25K Tulsa, USA F21 Futures
Singles Semifinals – Emil Reinberg (Georgia Rising Jr) vs. Christian Harrison; Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M ’11) vs. Tommy Paul 
 
$15K Pittsburgh, USA F22 Futures
Singles Semifinals – Mikael Torpegaard (Ohio State Rising Sr) vs. Kaichi Uchida; Nathan Pasha (Georgia ’15) vs. Dennis Nevolo (Illinois ’12)
 
$15K Harare, Zimbabwe F3 Futures
Singles Final – Nicolaas Scholtz (Ole Miss ’15) vs. Baptiste Crepatte
 
$15K Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt F18 Futures
Doubles Final – Junior Ore (Texas A&M ’14)/Youssef Hossam vs. Deviatiarov/Taweel
 
$15K Setubal, Portugal F9 Futures
Doubles Final – Nuno Borges (Mississippi State Rising Jr)/Francisco Cabral vs. Bourchier/Nolan
Singles Semifinal – Nuno Borges vs. Daniel Nolan
 
$15K Curtea De Arges, Romania F5 Futures
Singles Semifinals – Peter Nagy (Texas A&M Corpus Christi ’15) vs. Vasile Antonescu
 
ITF $25K Auburn, Alabama
Doubles Final – Emina Bektas (Michigan ’15)/Alexa Guarchi Mathison (Alabama ’13) vs. Luisa Stefani (Pepperdine Rising Jr)/Ellen Perez (Georgia ’17);
Singles Semifinals – Nicole Gibbs (Stanford ’13*) vs. Ellen Perez; Carol Zhao (Stanford ’16*) vs. Miharu Imanishi
 
ITF $15K Istanbul, Turkey
Doubles Final – Sanaz Marand (North Carolina ’10)/Melis Sezer vs. Kajevic/Oz;
Singles Semifinals – Sanaz Marand vs. Melis Sezer
 
ITF $15K Anning, China
Singles Semfinals – Eudice Wong Chong (Wesleyan Rising Sr) vs. Jai-Qi Kang