Rodriguez Qualifies for W100 in Macon; Ilagan defeats No. 2 Seed Cassone at Lincoln Challenger; Bakersfield W35 disrupted by rain; Mandlik leads after week one of the USTA Australian Open Women’s Wild Card Challenge

There will be three USTA Pro Circuit events this week, two of which will be 100-point events, with the women’s outdoors in Macon Georgia and the men’s indoors in Lincoln Nebraska.

The qualification for the ATP Challenger 100 in Lincoln concluded yesterday, with University of Florida junior Adhithya Ganesan, former University of Michigan All-American Andrew Fenty, former Ohio State All-American Cannon Kingsley and former UCLA All-American Keegan Smith the Americans advancing to the main event.

Only Smith won his first-round match today, beating wildcard Jeri Lassila of Finland, a freshman at the University of Nebraska, 6-3, 6-2. Kingsley was defeated by University of Virginia sophomore Rafael Jodar, 6-3, 7-5; Fenty lost to Andres Martin (Georgia Tech) 6-3, 6-3 and Ganesan fell in a tough match to Stanford senior Samir Banerjee 7-5, 3-6. 7-6(4). While Ganesan was serving at 4-5 in the tiebreak, Banerjee’s shot landed close/on the baseline, with Ganesan trying to half-volley it when the baseline judge called it out. The chair umpire immediately overrode the line judge and awarded the point to Banerjee, ruling that the call came after Ganesan had struck the ball (which did not go over the net) and therefore could not have disrupted it. Ganesan made a mistake early in the next point and Banerjee had survived.

Alfredo Perez, a former All-American in Florida, defeated No. 6 seed Dmitry Popko of Kazakhstan 6-4, 6-4 and Andre Ilagan, a former All-American in Hawaii, defeated No. 2 seed Murphy Cassone (Arizona State) 1-6, 6-2, 6-3. Cassone has struggled since June, going 6-9 in Challengers with just one quarterfinal appearance. In contrast, Ilagan is 10-5 in Challengers since early September and has reached two semifinals, raising his ATP live ranking to a career-high 354. He will play Andres Martin in the second round.

Former USC All-American Brandon Holt is the top seed and will play his first-round match against 19-year-old Aryan Shah of India later tonight.

At the W100 in Maconthree Americans qualified for the main event today, including Ava Rodriguez of the University of Georgia, who defeated two Georgia players to qualify. She defeated No. 6 seed Anasatasiia Gureva of Russia, a freshman, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 in the first round and No. 14 seed Sofia Rojas, a senior 6-1, 2-6, 6-4 in today’s final qualifying round.

Mary Lewis (Arizona, Michigan State) and Jessica Failla (USC, Pepperdine) are the other two qualifiers from the US.

Two of the wild cards met today in one of four first-round matches, with Redding champion Madison Brengle defeating fall NCAA singles finalist DJ Bennett, a senior at Auburn, 6-4, 6-7(0), 6-3. The other two wild cards are Ellie Schoppe (Furman, Florida State) and Rasheeda McAdoo (Georgia Tech).

The top seed in Macon is Renata Zarazua of Mexico, with 2024 NCAA fall singles champion Dasha Vidmanova (Georgia) as the No. 2 seed. Vidmanova won her first round match today against Olivia Lincer (UCF, Oklahoma State) from Poland 6-3, 6-0. No. 3 seed Louisa Chirico lost to former NC State All-American Anna Rogers 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, leaving Rogers to face Brengle.

Storms in California have today’s program on the W35 in Bakersfieldwith one qualifying match still to be completed and the four first round matches scheduled for tonight still in progress.

Americans qualifying for the main draw are UCLA senior Anne Christine Lukemeyer, UCLA sophomore Kate Fakih, UCLA junior Ahmani Guichard, Duke recruit Aspen Schuman and USC senior Emma Charney.

Vivian Wolff (Georgia, UCLA) is the top seed, with Zuzanna Pawlikowska of Poland the No. 2 seed. Fifteen-year-old Kristina Liutova, the ITF J300 College Park champion, will play No. 3 seed Lucciana Perez of Peru, a junior at Texas A&M, in the first round tonight.

Wild cards were awarded to Alexis Nguyen, a UNC recruit, Katherine Hui, who did not return to Stanford for her freshman year, Ohio State junior Luciana Perry and former Pepperdine All-American Savannah Broadus.

The first women’s race rankings for the USTA’s 2026 Australian Open wild card race were released today, with Elli Mandlik opening a big lead with her title at the W100 in Edmond Oklahoma last week.

The top 5 after week 1, with the three best results over the five weeks ending November 9 counting towards a player’s total:

1. Elizabeth Mandlik (211) – 100
2. LEA MA (349) – 23
3. Madison Brengle (477) — 21
4. Julia couple (339) – 17
5. He killed Urhobo (412) – 14

The player’s current ranking is in parentheses.

The men’s race starts this week, with the best four results in the five-week period counting towards the total.