The first women’s USTA Pro Circuit tournament of the year is a W35 at the Inspiration Academy in Bradenton, Floridawith qualifying concluding today and four first round matches having been played.
USTA Winter Nationals 18s champion Kenzie Nguyen didn’t miss a beat after her title in Lake Nona earlier this month, receiving a wildcard into this event and beating Victoria Hu (Princeton) 6-3, 7-6 (5). Although Hu is unseeded this week, she is 372 in the WTA rankings, while Nguyen, a Columbia recruit, is 1477, based on her three wins in the nine W15s she played last summer and fall. This is her first win above the W15 level.
In today’s qualifying, five Americans advanced to the main draw: Malkia Ngounoue (Kansas), Rachel Gailis[3](Florida), Maya Iyengar[11]Kylie Collins[6](Texas, LSU, Oklahoma State) and 15-year-old Janae Preston[16].
Ngounoue will face top seed Bianca Andreescu of Canada, the 2019 US Open women’s singles champion, in the first round on Wednesday. Preston will play wild card Usue Arconada, while the other wild cards go to Juliana Singeorzan, a 17-year-old Inspiration Academy student, and Oklahoma State junior Olivia Lincer.
Lincer defeated Sara Daavettila (UNC) in the first round 6-4, 6-3, while Singeorzan lost to 26-year-old University of Florida newcomer Emily Seibold of Germany 6-4, 6-0.
Hina Inoue is the No. 2 seed, while Julieta Pareja is the No. 7 seed.
The second round of Australian Open qualifying Wednesday (tonight in the United States) will feature 16 Americans: nine men and seven women. Once again, all will have to deal with non-Americans. On day two of the first round, American men suffered their only two losses, with Michael Mmoh withdrawing due to injury. The American men went 9-2 in the first round, the American women 7-5.
Tuesday’s results and Wednesday’s matchups:
Michael Zheng D. Cruz Hewitt[WC](AUS) 6-3, 6-3
Mackenzie McDonald[6] D. Dmitry Popko (KAZ) 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-5
Vilius Gaubas[17](LTU) d. Nicolas Moreno de Alboran 7-5, 6-3
Zachary Svajda[29] D. Hady Habib (LBN) 6-1 6-3
Yibing Wu (CHN) d. Mitchell Krueger 7-5, 6-4
Ye-Xin Ma(CHN) d. Varvara Lepchenko[32] 6-1, 6-3
Yu Yuan[25](CHN) d. Louisa Chirico 3-6, 6-1, 6-2
Claire Liu D. Tara Würth (CRO) 6-3, 6-4
Carol Lee d. Hanne Vandewinkel[15](BEL) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
Whitney Osuigwe D. Anastasia Sevastova (LAT) 6-2, 6-0
Murphy Cassone in Dusan Lajovic[13](SRB)
Brandon Holt[5] against Giulio Zeppieri (ITA)
Nishesh Basavareddy in Sebastian Ofner[19](AUT)
Michael Zheng against Tomas Barrios Vera[4](CHI)
Martin Dam against Titouan Droguet (FRA)
Mackenzie McDonald[6] in Hugo Grenier (FRA)
Colton Smith[32] vs. Rei Sakamoto (JPN)
Tristan Boyer against Francesco Passaro[27](ITA)
Zachary Svajda[29] against Yuri Rodionov (AUT)
Sloane Stephens against Olivia Gadecki
Maria Stoiana against Lucia Bronzetti[2](ITA)
Carol Lee against Elena Mičić[WC](OUT)
Claire Liu against Maddison Inglis (AUS)
Taylor Townsend[11] in Jazmin Ortenzi (ARG)
Whitney Osuigwe with Lucrezia Stefanini[26](ITA)
Elvina Kalieva v Ye-Xin Ma(CHN)
All qualifying matches will be streamed on the ESPN+ app.
Two Americans are in the draw, which means they will undoubtedly also try to qualify for the Australian Open Juniors. Ford McCollum is the number 9 in the Traralgon boys qualifier; Ciara Harding has not been placed in the girls’ qualifying.
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