Tuesday was a great day for a couple of former collegians as Jacqueline Cako (Arizona St ’13) and Danielle Lao (USC ’13) earned a main draw doubles wild card into this year’s US Open after winning the US Open National Playoff Women’s Doubles draw. Cako and Lao, who were the second seed, broke the top seed Ashley Weinhold and Caitlin Whoriskey (Tennessee ’10) six times in route to a 6-2, 7-5 win in 1 hour and 23 minutes. Lao will make her Grand Slam debut while it’ll be Cako’s second appearance after playing in the 2014 US Open mixed doubles draw.
Oklahoma alums Andrei Daescu (’10) and Costin Paval (’13) knocked off a seeded team in straight sets for the second day in a row after they stopped the top seeds. Daescu and Paval will meet Nick Meister and Eric Quigley after the former Bruin and Wildcat beat the second seeds in two close sets.
Men’s Doubles Semifinals
Andrei Daescu (Okla ’10)/Costin Paval (Okla ’13) def. [1] James Cerretani (Brown ’04)/Max Schnur (Columbia ’15) 6-2, 7-6(7)
[3] Nick Meister (UCLA ’12)/Eric Quigley (Kentucky ’12) def. [2] Philip Bester/Peter Polansky 7-6(4), 6-4
The USONP Mixed Doubles draw begins on Wednesday.
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The US Open qualifying draw began today with the guys going 4-5 while the girls went 1-2. The other seven guys and two girls play their opener on Wednesday with the times below estimated except for the 11 a.m. starts.
Men’s First Round
Jurgen Melzer def. Tennys Sandgren (Tennessee ’11) 7-5, 6-1
Jan Satral def. [WC] Christopher Eubanks (Georgia Tech Jr) 6-1, 6-3
Aleksandr Nedovyesov (Oklahoma St ’10) def. Matija Pecotic (Princeton ’13) 6-2, 4-6, 6-1
#216 Alex Sarkissian (Pepperdine ’14) def. Gregoire Barrere 6-4, 6-2
Henri Laaksonen def. [WC] Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Virginia Sr) 2-6, 6-1, 6-4
[13] Dennis Novikov (UCLA ’13) def. Federico Gaio 7-6(8), 5-7, 6-2
[26] Saketh Myneni (Alabama ’10) def. Albano Olivetti 6-3, 7-5
[27] Marco Chiudinelli def. Blaz Rola (Ohio St ’13) 6-7(1), 6-2, 6-3
JP Smith (Tennessee ’11) vs. [22] Tobias Kamke – 2:00 pm (Third Match)
[23] Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M ’11) vs. Blaz Kavcic – 12:30 pm (Second Match)
Noah Rubin (Wake Forest ’15) vs. Yan Bai – 11:00 am (First Match)
Daniel Nguyen (USC ’12) vs. Amir Weintraub – 3:30 pm (Fourth match)
[WC] Ryan Shane (Virginia ’16) vs. Kimmer Coppejans – 11:00 am (First Match)
Marcelo Arevalo (Tulsa ’11) vs. [18] Santiago Giraldo – 3:30 pm (Fourth Match)
[WC] Sekou Bangoura (Florida ’11) vs. Gonzalo Lama – 5:00 pm (Fifth Match)
Men’s Second Round
#218 Aleksandr Nedovyesov (Oklahoma St ’10) vs. #167 Darian King
#216 Alex Sarkissian (Pepperdine ’14) vs. #140 Quentin Halys
#120 [13] Dennis Novikov (UCLA ’13) vs. #200 Pedja Krstin
#143 [26] Saketh Myneni (Alabama ’10) vs. #221 Mitchell Krueger
Women’s First Round
Ekaterina Alexandrova def. Robin Anderson (UCLA ’15) 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-3
Kristie Ahn (Stanford ’14) def. [WC] Francesca Di Lorenzo (Ohio State Soph) 1-6, 6-3, 6-4
Jamie Loeb (North Carolina ’15) vs. Tereza Smitkova – 11:00 am (First Match)
Jennifer Brady (UCLA ’16) vs. Anastasia Pivovarova – 2:00 pm (Third Match)
Women’s Second Round
#226 Kristie Ahn (Stanford ’14) vs. #108 [5] Kai-Lin Zhang
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The ITA announced its Women’s Tennis Hall of Fame class of 2016 with Alycia Moulton, Gretchen Rush, Jane Goodman, and Virginia Brown getting the call.
Cindy Shmerler wrote a nice article in the New York Times about 19-year old Katerina Stewart. Just one year ago Stewart had a career high WTA singles ranking of 158 but she decided to forego the pro tour and instead enlisted in the Army is now a student at the United States Military Academy.
Anthony Ross of Mentally Tough Tennis wrote an article that I enjoyed reading titled What Makes USC’s Peter Smith Such a Great Coach. Ross played for Smith at Pepperdine back in the day and had some nice stories about Smith as a person and a coach.
Lisa Stone of the Parenting Aces wrote about the past weekend’s Sol Schwartz #SaveCollegeTennis All-In Tournament. It sounds like the event honoring the late Sol Schwartz was a rousing success with plenty of sponsors stepping up so hopefully it’ll return for years to come.
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