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Rough Day At Wimbledon Plus Benjamin Becker Retires

by | Jun 28, 2017 | Blog

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Monday was a good day at Wimbledon for players with college ties but Wednesday was not as the group went a combined 2-9 with one of the wins coming in a college versus college match. Former Tennessee Volunteer JP Smith, who was the NCAA singles runner-up in 2008, defeated former UCLA Bruin Mackenzie McDonald, who won the 2016 NCAA singles championship, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3. Smith held serve all 16 times while breaking McDonald twice. The other winner with college ties was Dennis Novikov as the former UCLA Bruin defeating fellow American Stefan Kozlov 7-5, 6-2. Novikov was a perfect 10 for 10 on his service games while also breaking Kozlov three times. Both Smith and Novikov will face 21-year old opponents from Chile in the final round of qualies with Smith taking on Christian Garin while Novikov meets Nicolas Jarry. 

Women’s players with college ties went 3-2 in the first round with Jamie Loeb, Kristie Ahn, and Irina Falconi picking up the wins. 

Wimbledon Qualies – Men’s 2nd Round
#211 JP Smith (Tennessee ’11) def. #226 Mackenzie McDonald (UCLA ’16*) 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3
#175 Dennis Novikov (UCLA ’13*) def. #126 Stefan Kozlov 7-5, 6-2
#190 Stefanos Tsitsipas def. #173 Yannick Hanfmann (USC ’15) 7-6(5), 7-6(5)
#171 Vincent Millot def. #104 Tennys Sandgren (Tennessee ’11*) 6-2, 7-6(5)
#92 Andrey Rublev def. #210 James McGee (NC State ’08) 6-3, 4-6, 6-2
#119 Darian King def. #490 Bradley Klahn (Stanford ’12) 3-6, 6-1, 6-4
#213 Lukas Rosol def. #220 Rajeev Ram (Illinois ’03*) 6-2, 1-6, 6-2
#117 Illya Marchenko def. #228 Benjamin Becker (Baylor ’05) 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-4
#122 Sergiy Stakhovsky def. #238 Roberto Quiroz (USC ’15) 6-3, 7-5
#154 Marco Trungelliti def. #216 Aleksandr Nedovyesov (Oklahoma State ’10) 7-5, 6-3
 
Final Round
#211 JP Smith (Tennessee ’11) vs. #218 Christian Garin
#175 Dennis Novikov (UCLA ’13*) vs. #182 Nicolas Jarry
 
Women’s Round 1
#150 Rebecca Sramkova def. #164 Danielle Collins (Virginia ’16) 7-5, 6-3
#116 Kristie Ahn (Stanford ’14) def. #186 Veronika Kudermetova 6-2, 6-1
#145 Jamie Loeb (North Carolina ’15*) def. #168 Louisa Chirico 6-7(11), 6-1, 6-2
#246 Irina Falconi (Georgia Tech ’10*) def. #216 Tara Moore 7-5, 6-2
#125 Tamara Korpatsch def. #219 Jacqueline Cako (Arizona State ’13) 6-4, 3-6, 6-2
 
Round 2
#116 Kristie Ahn (Stanford ’14) vs. #159 Kateryna Kozlova 
#145 Jamie Loeb (North Carolina ’15*) vs. #135 Aryna Sabalenka
#246 Irina Falconi (Georgia Tech ’10*) vs. #151 Elitsa Kostova
 

 
 
2004 NCAA singles champion Benjamin Becker announced his retirement from professional tennis on Wednesday after a tough 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-4 to Illya Marchenko. Becker had three match points in the second set when he was up 0/40 on Marchenko’s 4-5 service game. Becker reached a career-high ATP singles ranking of 35 in October 2014 and a career-high doubles ranking of 58 in 2010. Becker won one ATP singles title in ‘s-Hertogenbosch back in 2009, nine Challenger titles (most recent 2013), and four Futures titles. Over the past 11 years Becker finished with a year-ending top 100 ranking eight times with 2011 the only time he finished outside of the top 150.