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Monday, March 21, 2011

Stephens, Davis Advance in Sony Ericsson Qualifying; Sock Narrows College Choices; Rogers Prepares for Family Circle Cup

Qualifying for the Sony Ericsson Open began today, with wild cards Sloane Stephens, Michelle Larcher de Brito and Lauren Davis earning three-set wins. Stephens, who is featured in this Sun-Sentinel article, defeated No. 4 seed Evgenyia Rodina of Russia 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, while the 17-year-old Davis beat 36-year-old Jill Craybas of the US, seeded 12th in qualifying, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1. (Davis is featured in separate articles in April's Tennis magazine and USTA magazine). Larcher de Brito came back to eliminate No. 3 seed Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 2-6, 7-5, 6-0. The three teenagers need one more victory to advance to the main draw. Stephens plays unseeded Sophie Ferguson of Australia, Davis gets unseeded Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus and Larcher de Brito meets No. 21 seed Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands.

Christina McHale, seeded 23rd, advanced to the final round of qualifying with a 6-2, 6-2 win over wild card Carina Witthoeft of Germany, while Jamie Hampton of the US upset No. 2 seed Rebecca Marino of Canada 6-1, 7-5, and Irina Falconi beat No. 15 seed Sandra Zahlavova of the Czech Republic 4-6, 6-1, 6-3. McHale, who reached a career-high ranking of 98 this week, must beat No. 1 qualifying seed Jelena Dokic of Australia to advance to the main draw.

Wild card Alex Domijan lost his first qualifying match to No. Julian Reister of Germany 6-2, 6-3, and Jordan Cox, also a wild card, lost to Marinko Matosevic of Australia 6-0, 6-2, but a host of other American men advanced to the final qualifying round, including Robert Kendrick, Tim Smyczek, Donald Young, Mike Russell, Alex Bogomolov and Ryan Sweeting.

The main draws were revealed today, and wild card Madison Keys will play Patty Schnyder of Switzerland in the first round on Tuesday. Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia, another teen receiving a wild card, drew a qualifier, as did wild card Ryan Harrison, who is up to a career-high ATP ranking of 130. Bernard Tomic of Australia, also a wild card, will open against Pablo Andujar of Spain. The Australian is reporting that Tomic is in the US without his father, John, who is his primary coach.

If you missed my tweeted link earlier, this article from the Lincoln Journal Star provides an update on Jack Sock's possible college plans. Sock, who received a wild card into the Sony Ericsson main draw, will play Carlos Berlocq of Argentina, who has a current ATP ranking of 72.

Complete draws and the order of play can be found at the tournament website.

This article in the Charleston Post and Courier reveals that 2010 USTA Girls National champion Shelby Rogers has been working in Las Vegas with the Adidas team in preparation for the Family Circle Cup next month. Rogers received a main draw wild card into her hometown tournament.

1 comments:

J.D said...

The Charleston article states that Mallory Cecil is a student coach there, but nothing is posted on the Duke site. Is her career as a player over or is she doing school, then the tour? Nobody knows about her and her tennis.