7 Americans into US Open qualifying final round

Jessica Pegula signing pics. (c) @itvtennis, via Twitter

Qualifying draws at majors are always crap shoots. Each qualifying tournament is a mixture of up & coming youngsters, former high-level players trying to return from a layoff, players who will never be fixtures in the Top 100 but who will fight like anything for their shot at a big paycheck, and players who can challenge anyone on a given day. Seldom are the players ranked above #100 and rarely any lower than #240 or so.

Through two rounds at the 2015 US Open, one American man and six women are still standing among the 32 players in each draw. It's a strong performance for the women, and disappointing for the men -- although based on rankings alone, anything more than 0 American men into the final round of qualies would have been an upset.

In 2014, of the 15 American women in the US Open qualifying draw, only 2 (Melanie Oudin and Maria Sanchez) won their first 2 matches to reach the final round of qualifying.  Neither won her third match. The year before, 16 American women were in qualifying. 7 reached the final round, and 3 qualified. For the men, 4 of 14 made the final round of qualies in 2013, with only Donald Young qualifying; while in 2014 only 2 of 14 men reached the final round of qualies with neither Rajeev Ram nor Ernesto Escobedo winning his third match.

Was American tennis so much better in 2013 than 2014? Certainly not!  So the fact that a mere 1 American man - 18-year-old Tommy Paul - made the final round of qualies this year should not be considered an indictment of the state of American men's tennis. And if by chance he doesn't win his tricky final round match against veteran Marco Chiudinelli it's no sign of continued American decline in the sport.

Today started with six American men in the draw - five faced seeds, and all five lost. Dennis Novikov, Mitchell Krueger, and Daniel Nguyen all lost in third sets, while Noah Rubin seemed headed for a third set but lost a tight second set tiebreaker 8-6 (having led 4-1* and 6-5*) to #3 seed Guido Pella (ARG). Meanwhile, Reilly Opelka fell 4&2 to 2012 French Open champion Kimmer Coppejans (7/BEL), who was the next alternate to reach the main draw.

Paul, for his part, took care of former North Carolina State University of North Carolina player Jose Hernandez-Fernandez (DOM) in straight sets. Paul broke in the second game of the first set and the penultimate game of the second set and that was it. He was not broken in the match and saved the only three break points he faced in a 16-point game to hold for 5-2* in the first. It seems to have been a workman-like performance from a young man with a growing history of such performances.

US women, meanwhile, had a far more solid day on the hard courts, going 6-3.

Leading off in most impressive fashion was Jessica Pegula, who saved all 5 break points she faced in a 6-3 6-3 upset - a massive upset, really - over rising star Margarita Gasparyan (RUS), whom you would have forgiven for saying was as close to a sure thing as any player in the women's qualifying draw. Gasparyan, ranked #71, was 38-7 coming into Thursday's match, and hadn't lost to a player outside the Top 100 since April. Pegula, ranked #257, hadn't beaten a Top 80 player since April 2013, when she won back-to-back matches against Garbine Muguruza (76) and Mona Barthel (29) in the first two rounds of Charleston.

Although the score seemed straight forward, the last three games of the match each went double digit points. Pegula won the last two, saving 3 break points at 4*-3 and 4 game points at 5-3*, winning on her first match point.

Pegula will next face Oudin, guaranteeing at least 1 American qualifier (an improvement on last year's 0). Oudin played possibly the most dramatic match of the day, defeating #24 seed Wang Yafan 6-7(2) 6-3 7-6(5). The match featured 17 breaks of serve, so when Oudin went up 2*-1 in the third set, nobody had any notion that the match was a done deal.  Indeed, Wang broke back the very next game. Twice more in the set, Oudin would go up a break, including for 6*-5, only to lose serve immediately.  In the tiebreak, things didn't look great when Wang went up 2 minibreaks, serving at 5*-2. However, Oudin showed the grit she trademarked at this venue in 2009 and won the last 5 points, and thus the match.

What a battle today. So happy to get the win 7-6 in the third. Final round of qualies tomorrow @usopen! #believe pic.twitter.com/Me8vh3SM9F

— Melanie Oudin (@melanie_oudin) August 27, 2015

Oudin and Pegula have met twice before, in 2012 and 2013, with Oudin winning both matches in straight sets. But Pegula has to be brimming with confidence, so anything can happen on Friday.

48 minutes was all it took #16 seed Anna Tatishvili to take out Laura Pous-Tio (ESP) in 2 bagel sets. Her final round will be against unseeded Belgian Ysaline Bonaventure, who will turn 21 on Saturday.

Shelby Rogers had a comprehensive 2&3 win over Mandy Minella (LUX) to set up a meeting with Alla Kudryatseva. Alla K. has been particularly tough on talented Americans this week - first she took out Alexa Glatch and then today, she beat Victoria Duval 7-6(5) 4-6 6-0 to the disappointment of literally everyone in attendance.

And thank you all who came to watch us play on 17 and support this amazing girl. Although you were against me I totally get it! @usopen ❤️🍎🎾

— Alla Kudryavtseva (@AllaK11) August 27, 2015

In addition to Duval, Taylor Townsend fell in two sets today, while Raveena Kingsley nearly shocked the world (well, me and several others) by putting a scare into Tereza Mrdeza. Mrdeza lost just one point on serve in the first set, racing to a 6-1 lead. Kingsley took the second set 6-3 but then went down 2-5* in the third. The end seemed nigh, but the 17-year-old from Maryland broke at love in the next game, then saved 2 match points to hold for 4-5*. Mrdeza then served for the match again, but was broken at 30. Finally, the Croatian broke Kingsley and successfully served out the third set, 7-5.

The two other American winners were both teen phenoms: CiCi Bellis and Claire Liu. Bellis - last year's Cinderella story - upset #22 seed Romina Oprandi (ROM) 7-5 7-5 and will face Jelena Ostapenko in the final round. The 18-year-old Latvian, and 2014 junior Wimbledon winner, is seeded 11th here. As for Liu, she pulled off her second consecutive impressive upset of the week, beating #9 seed Jana Cepelova (SVK) 7-6(4) 6-4, winning the last 4 games of the match. Liu, currently ranked #827, will move into the Top 600 regardless of how she fares against #26 seed Alexandra Panova (RUS) in the final round of qualies.

Somewhere between 1 and 6 Americans will qualify for the US Open tomorrow, and the exultation of those who do will be among the biggest displays of joy they'll have all year. Sadly, none of those moments will be streamed, so only those who are there in person will be able to vicariously experience such thrill.

Duval leads comeback pack on Day 1 of US Open qualies

From 1000 miles away, I could only imagine the drama unfolding on Court 5 of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. It was the third match of the day, following two losses by Americans (one a wrenchingly close one, one a bit of a blowout), and Victoria Duval came to the plate. Like all the players on the day, Duval was playing in the first round of the 2015 US Open qualies, but unlike all the other players, she had survived a diagnosis of Hodgkin's lymphoma a mere 13 months prior.

Unfortunately, even though last year we were able to watch plenty of qualifying matches via streaming (I vividly recall seeing Katerina Stewart overpower Yuliya Beygelzimer and Francis (now Frances) Tiafoe lose a squeaker to Tatsumo Ito), this year due to different broadcasting contracts, those of us not on site had to rely solely on live scores and Twitter updates to find out how the matches were going. And Duval had herself a doozy, it seemed, against Luksika Kumkhum of Thailand. The match started topsy-turvy with Duval going up an early break, then Kumkhum roaring back to serve for the first set, then finally breaking Duval to take a 7-5 lead. But Duval, as one might expect given what she's gone through recently, refused to back down. She took the second set 6-3 and then ran away with the third, winning 6-1 in front of what seems to have been a boisterous crowd.

GSM @vicky_duval95 - she's pretty happy! pic.twitter.com/jruhv7wAwD

— Victoria Chiesa (@vrcsports) August 25, 2015

Duval is now undefeated (3-0) in her comeback.

Duval had her breakout moment on these same grounds two years ago when she upset former champion Samantha Stosur in a dramatic first round match. Another player who also had her breakout moment in Flushing Meadowns, and who also has suffered frightening health issues recently, is Melanie Oudin, a 6-3 7-5 victor over Bulgarian Elitsa Kostova. Oudin gets 24 seed Wang Yafan next in a rematch of the 2nd round of Wimbledon qualies, won by Wang 6-4 6-3.

And another player whose health issues were more prosaic (knee surgery) but who still was out all of 2014 (save one $10K tournament in the fall) was Jessica Pegula. The 21-year-old Buffalo native, who is coached by Michael Joyce, has slowly crept back up the rankings to her current #257. Along the way, she reached the final round of qualies at both Roland Garros and Wimbledon this year, but has yet to see a main draw at any grand slam. It won't be easy here - she'll play top seed Margarita Gasparyan in the second round, and could get Oudin in the final round.

Those were just 3 of 7 total victories for US women on the day, to go with 5 losses. Notably, all 5 of the losses were to higher ranked players, as were 6 of the 7 victories. In fact, the only American to play a lower-ranked player was Shelby Rogers, who faced countrywoman Grace Min and won in straight sets.

Shelby Rogers at 2014 Quebec City. (c) Jonathan Kelley

The 7 wins equaled the number from last year's women's qualifying first round. 9 women will play their first-round matches on Wednesday in the hopes of increasing last year's total. This time, 3 of them will be ranked higher than their opponents, although as we have seen that counts for very little in qualies.

Teens provided the other three American wins on the women's side today. Most high profile was 16-year-old CiCi Bellis, who beat a woman not far from three times her age in Kimiko Date-Krumm, 4-6 6-1 6-4. Most surprising was 17-year-old Raveena Kingsley, ranked #940, who upset #30 seed Andrea Hlavackova 6-3 6-4. And most historic was 15-year-old Claire Liu (this year's Easter Bowl champ), who saved 2 match points in coming back to beat Paraguayan #1 Veronica Cepede Royg 4-6 7-5 6-2 in 2 hours and 14 minutes.

Cepede Royg losing to Claire Liu , means that Liu becomes 1st player born in 2000 to win a match at a grand slam

— Eggy (@TheBoiledEgg) August 25, 2015

On the other side of the ledger were Edina Gallovits-Hall and Alexa Glatch (in the throes of a comeback of her own), both of whom lost in three sets, and Tornado Alicia Black, who fell in straights.

The men's side had far fewer matches and far fewer highlights, with only 3 Americans out of 7 getting wins. All of the American men had rankings disadvantages compared to their opponents, although Alexander Sarkissian is ranked just 2 spots below 33-year-old Jan Mertl (CZE). The closeness of their rankings was reflected in the closeness of their match, with the American going out to a set lead, then having breaks early in each of the last two sets before succumbing 4&3. Also falling short on Day 1 were Jarmere Jenkins and world #1 and #2 juniors Taylor Fritz and Michael Mmoh, all of whom failed to win a set on the day.

On a brighter note, Dennis Novikov looked to be down for the count against Gastao Elias, a player who had beaten him earlier this year in a Challenger. But from 1-3* down in the third, Novikov rallied for 6-7(3) 6-3 6-4 win and a chance to face Matthew Ebden, aka Mmoh's conqueror on the day.

The other two American matches featured recent junior Grand Slam champions.

Noah Rubin (2014 Wimbledon) saw his Taiwanese opponent, Huang Liang-Chi, serve for the second set but the Long Island native put the kibosh on that notion, and won the last four games of the match for a 6-2 7-5 scoreline. This article features quotes from Rubin, his coach, and his dad.

And in the final match, 18-year-old Tommy Paul, he of the 2015 French Open Junior title, survived getting broken at 4-5 in the second set to beat Ohio State alum Blaz Rola 6-3 4-6 6-4 in the 3rd. The key game was at 3-3 in the third, when Paul went up 0*-40 on Rola's serve, only to see the Slovenian get it back to deuce. But 2 points later, Paul grabbed the break, and (I imagine) calmly served out the match with two love holds.

Tommy Paul, 2015 Kalamazoo. (c) Jonathan Kelley

Last year, 7 American men won their first round qualifying matches (against 7 losses). On Wednesday, 6 more men (all of whom again are ranked lower than their opponents) will have a chance to add to the 3 Tuesday wins.

34 Americans in the 2015 US Open qualies

Perhaps because it's August and there is no snow in New York, sledding may prove to be quite difficult for the 21 American women and 13 American men in the qualifying draw of the US Open, which starts tomorrow (Tuesday, August 25) at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens. Each player will vie to win 3 best-of-three matches that are usually quite intense (most of these players are fighting to make a living in tennis). Effectively there are 16 mini-tournaments happening in each of the two draws. 8 players are in each section, two of whom are seeds, and the winner moves on to be placed randomly in the main draw.

The prize money is the same for both men and women ($5,000 for playing, $10K for second-round losers, $15K for final round losers, $39,500 for qualifying) but the points available differs significantly.

Women get 2 points just for playing, a big 20 points for winning a round of qualies, 30 total for reaching the final round, and 40 for qualifying. Men get 0 just for playing, 8 for winning a round, 16 for winning 2 rounds, and 25 for qualifying. (The ATP continues to be less generous points-wise in each stage of the main draw, until the final, when both men and women earn 2,000 points.)

I've been to US Open qualies a few times now and it ranks as perhaps my favorite in-person tennis experience. Admission is free so I would STRONGLY encourage anyone in the area to take time to check out the matches, and if you can, cheer for some of these Americans:

Women's Draw

Melanie Oudin, via Twitter

In the top section of the women's draw is very familiar face, Melanie Oudin, whose recent struggles are featured in today's tennis.com article. She will face Elitsa Kostova (BUL) in what is, in theory, a winnable match (Kostova is 2-10 in her last 12 matches including qualies). But just being on court is, for Oudin, a victory right now. Wild card Jessica Pegula - another player who has been trying to come back this year from an extended layoff - is also in that section, and will face #200 Shuka Aoyama (JPN), who is 5-17 this year with only one win over a Top 300 player (then-#184 Zhaoxuan Yang). Leading that section is #1 seed Margarita Gasparyan, who has shot up to #71 in the rankings, but too recently to gain direct entry into the main draw. She will be an incredibly tough foe for any player in that section.

Only one player representing the USA, Anna Tatishvili (ranked #121), is seeded in either draw. (This is because the other players eligible for seeds all got main draw wild cards.)  As the #16 seed, Tatishvili plays former Top 40 Russian Ksenia Pervak. Pervak qualified for the US Open last year - and took Angelique Kerber to 7-5 in the 3rd in the first round - but has played sparingly since, with two summer tournaments her only 2015 events. The winner of that match will play Varatchaya Wongteanchai (THA) or Laura Pous-Tio (ESP). If Tatishvili survives her first-round match she'll be a strong candidate for the main draw.

The next-highest ranked American in qualies is Alexa Glatch, whose long comeback from injury is continuing apace. She will face #15 seed Alla Kudryavtseva (RUS) in what is one of the highlight matches of the first round. Next up for the winner will be either Thai #1 Luksika Kumkhum or by far the highlight story of the tournament, American Vicky Duval, whose recovery from Hodgkin's lymphoma has been much chronicled (and whose failure to receive a main draw wild card has been much scrutinized). Also in that section are first-round opponents Grace Min and Shelby Rogers, both of whom are trying to come out of extended slumps. They faced each other a couple of weeks ago at the Landisville $25K, with Rogers winning 6-1 6-3. Prior to that match, they had split their first 6 meetings. Rounding out that incredibly packed section of the draw are former Top 100 players Mandy Minella (LUX) and Stefanie Voegele (SUI).

The winner of the months-long U.S. Open National Playoffs this year was Jennifer Elie, a 28-year-old veteran who was once ranked in the Top 300 but is currently down to #654. Elie, making her Grand Slam debut, drew Zhang Shuai, a Chinese player who as recently as last summer was #30 in the world. Ouch. But the 20 points a win would bring would be massive - it would vault her back near #500.

Several American teens are in qualies, including wild cards Raveena Kingsley (faces #30 seed Andrea Hlavackova), Usue Maitane Arconada (drew #19 seed Maria-Teressa Torro-Flor), Bernarda Pera (got Renata Voracova), Claire Liu (tough Paraguayan Veronica Cepede Royg), Tornado Alicia Black (#22 seed Romina Oprandi), and direct entrants Katerina Stewart (faces big-hitting American resident Naomi Osaka), Taylor Townsend (Pauline Parmentier) and CiCi Bellis (44-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm).

UCLA stars Robin Anderson and Jennifer Brady got tough draws in #8 seed Kiki Bertens (NED) and #7 seed Elizaveta Kulichkova (RUS), respectively. Former USC star Maria Sanchez drew Turkey's Ipek Soylu. Recent American, veteran Edina Gallovits-Hall, drew almost-was UCLAer Mayo Hibi (JPN). And finally, Julia Boserup got a fellow Julia, Israel's Glushko.

Men's Draw

Like with the women, several up-and-coming teens are featured among the 13 Americans in the men's draw. Americans feature in 10 of the 16 sections, but none is a seed.

Four of the men received direct entry to the qualifying tournament. Alexander Sarkissian drew Jan Mertl (CZE), a 33-year-old who has yet to qualify in 28 attempts at Grand Slams. (Last year, Taylor Harry Fritz beat Mertl in the first round of US Open qualies.) The winner will face #4 seed Tatsuma Ito (JPN) or Aslan Karatsev (RUS). Daniel Nguyen will face Canadian Philip Bester in what should be a great one - they have split two three-set matches in Canadian Futures events in the past 12 months, and have 207 and 209 rankings points, respectively. Their winner faces either Yuki Bhambri (IND) or Yoshihito Nishioka (JPN), playing their own potential barn burner.

Dennis Novikov gets Portugal's Gastao Elias, a frequent competitor in US-based challengers. The two played in April in the first round of the green clay Sarasota Challenger - Elias won 7-6(5) 6-2. And Jarmere Jenkins will face Argentina's Maximo Gonzalez, who will be playing his first hard-court match since April. He's 1-4 on hard this year, with his one win coming over Bjorn Fratangelo. For his part, Jenkins has lost 7 of his 8 matches, and prior to playing qualies in Winston-Salem on Saturday, hadn't played a tour match since Wimbledon (he has played World Team Tennis, however).

The other 9 Americans are all wild cards. The winner of the men's US Open National Playoffs was Jesse Witten, former University of Kentucky player. He got a very difficult draw, with rising Australian (and SEC school rival via University of Tennessee) JP Smith (18). 2014 NCAA champion Marcos Giron (UCLA), who played in the main draw last year, drew Alejandro Gonzalez (15/COL), who has hard-court wins over Tim Smyczek and Ryan Shane (and no one else) this summer. Noah Rubin (Wake Forest), who also played in the main draw last year as Kalamazoo champion, drew #257 Liang-Chi Huang, who will be playing his first match outside Asia/Pacific since 2011 and his first non-Futures match since May.

Many, many eyes will be on teens Fritz, Stefan Kozlov, Reilly Opelka, Michael Mmoh, and Tommy Paul, all of whom were in the 2015 Kalamazoo quarterfinals, and four of whom are junior grand slam finalists or champions (and most of whom will be playing in the US Open Juniors). Kozlov gets Argentina's Guido Andreozzi, who qualified in his first attempt at a Grand Slam (2012 US Open) but hasn't done so since. Opelka got Swede (nee Brazilian) Christian Lindell, to whom he lost in January in the first round of a Futures tournament in Florida on green clay. Lindell is another clay-courter - a tournament last week in Brazil was his first of the year on hard.

Tommy Paul, via Twitter

Mmoh got a very tricky opponent in Australian Matthew Ebden (26) who has been killing it in Challengers the past several months. Paul drew former Ohio State standout Blaz Rola (SLO/24) who got a big win over Denis Kudla in Washington, D.C. And Fritz drew #19 seed Luca Vanni, who just won a hard court Challenger in Portoroz, Slovenia.

Finally, Mitchell Krueger got a winnable foe in Belgian Niels Desein, who has retired from 2 of his last 3 matches. The winner could face Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO), who recently entered the Top 100 and who has been on an incredible tear starting with the French Open qualies, where he beat Fratangelo and Jared Donaldson.

Odds are that at least a couple of Americans will qualify but with so many former Top 100 opponents, plus variously the inexperience, injuries, and poor form of many of the Americans, nothing should be taken for granted. Hopefully the home crowd will show up and help the home players advance over the coming week!

How many Americans will qualify for 2015 US Open?

New USA Career-High Rankings, August 10 & 17, 2015

Each week I will bring you a list of USAmerican players who have reached a new career-high ranking (CHR). This list covers all players in the Top 1000. Any player outside the Top 1000 generally will not be included unless they have earned at least one point since the prior ranking period. See all the CHR posts.

Note: For the next few iterations of New USA Career-High Rankings, I'll be going biweekly. This post is for the last two weeks; the next post will be August 31 (first day of the US Open) and then I'll have one immediately after the US Open.  After that, we will see.

New WTA Career-High Rankings, August 10, 2015

Player name	New CHR	Last wk *= previous   CHR	+  from last week	Pvs CHR If prior to last wk	Date achieved If prior to last wk
Ellie Halbauer	425	428*	+3
Alexa Graham	544	562*	+18
Lauren Herring	676	730*	+54
Sophie Chang	825	832*	+7
Kristina Smith	830	862	+32	857	7/13/2015
Maegan Manasse	846	853	+7	850	7/27/2015
Brynn Boren	848	870	+22	863	4/13/2015
Malika Rose	880	909	+29	906	7/27/2015
Francesca Di Lorenzo	891	n/a	n/a
Yuki Chiang	924	n/a	n/a	995	4/13/2015
Andie Daniell	927	928*	+1
Tina Tehrani	940	944*	+4
Karyn Guttormsen	960	1021*	+61
Ashley Kratzer	1158	n/a	n/a	1211	6/8/2015

New WTA Career-High Rankings, August 17, 2015

Player name	New CHR	Last wk *= previous   CHR	+  from last week	Pvs CHR If prior to last wk	Date achieved If prior to last wk
Danielle Lao	288	292	+4	291	7/20/2015
Nicole Frenkel	456	459	+3	458	8/3/2015
Alexa Graham	539	544*	+5
Lauren Herring	669	676*	+7
Brynn Boren	825	848*	+23
Karyn Guttormsen	934	960*	+26
Frances Altick	825	848*	+23

It's been the case all summer: all the women's career-high rankings have come via ITF events. In fact, I believe Irina Falconi's jump after qualifying for and winning a match at Eastbourne in June was the last case of a WTA event rocketing an American woman to a new CHR.

Women's college tennis is definitely the theme here. 12 of the 14 women who achieved new CHRs on August 3 are college-affiliated (including two who have committed to attend college) while 5 of the 7 August 10th CHRs are college-affiliated women. The only ones who aren't so affiliated are Ashley Kratzer (16), Alexa Graham (17), Nicole Frenkel (17), and Ellie Halbauer (18).

Week of July 27:

Gatineau $25K: Up Quebec way, Halbauer and qualifier Malika Rose (Oklahoma State) each earned a point for playing (and, unfortunately, losing) their first round matches.

Rome $25K: Tina Tehrani (Georgetown) was a Lucky Loser and got a point for playing her first round match.

Hong Kong $15K: Yuki Kristina Chang (Pepperdine) qualified and won two main draw matches.

Di Lorenzo signed to play
for OSU. (c) Ohio State Univ

Austin $10K: In the heat of Texas, a huge tournament for newly 18-year-old Francesca Di Lorenzo, who Tennis Recruiting, Di Lorenzo (of New Albany, Ohio) has been the top college recruit the past two years - she ended up choosing Ohio State. She'll have some a decoration for her dorm room!
got her first, second, third, fourth, and fifth pro match wins -- as a wild card -- to capture the title.

Di Lorenzo's opponent in the final was UGA's Lauren Herring, while she beat #2 seed Alexa Graham in the semifinals. Others who won a match in Austin were Kristina N. Smith (UC Irvine), Brynn Boren (USC), and Kratzer, who reached her first pro quarterfinal.

Tunis $10K: Karyn Guttormsen (Oklahoma State) won two matches to reach the quarterfinals.

Week of August 3:

Lexington $50K: Frenkel was the luckiest of losers in this third and final stop in the US Open Wild Card Challenge series of $50Ks. First, she was drawn to face the #1 seed in qualies, but she got a bye when that player was promoted to the main draw. Then, she won her opening qualifying match when her opponent retired after 7 games. THEN she lost her next match, in the final round of qualies. Then, by virtue of 3 withdrawals, she got into the main draw in the same section as the other two Lucky Losers, Jacqueline Cako and Sophie Chang, whom she subsequently beat to make the quarters.

Fort Worth $10K: Frances Altick (Vanderbilt) was the finalist here, as a qualifier, and earned 7 points for that effort. Graham, Herring, and Boren all won their first round matches.

Tunis $10K: Guttormsen got a point for winning her first round match.

Maegan Manasse (Cal) and Andie Daniell (August 3) moved up thanks to others moving down, as did Danielle Lao (USC) and Nicole Frenkel (August 10).

New ATP Career-High Rankings, August 10, 2015

Player name	New CHR	Last wk *= pvs CHR	+  from last wk	Pvs CHR If prior to last wk	Date achieved If prior to last wk
Frances Tiafoe	272	274*	+2		7/27/2015
Eric Quigley	302	305*	+3
Andre Dome	426	437*	+11
Clay Thompson	588	687*	+99
Mico Santiago	707	723	+16	719	6/22/2015
Alex Rybakov	849	854*	+5		7/27/2015
Felix Corwin	1407	n/a	n/a
George Goldhoff	1429	1565	+136	1458	7/29/2013
Zachary McCourt	1868	n/a	n/a

(Not included: Dominic Cotrone (1096, +3), Reilly Opelka (1103, +6), John McNally (1553, +2), Liam Caruana (1562, +3), Zeke Clark (1562, +3), Anderson Reed (1718, +4), and Denny Fafek, Grayson Goldin, Zeke Hindle, Sameer Kumar, Stephen Madonia, Wyatt McCoy, John Patrick Mullane, Gabe Tishman, and Caleb Troy -- all #1745, +2.

New ATP Career-High Rankings, August 17, 2015

Player name	New CHR	Last wk *= pvs CHR	+  from last wk	Pvs CHR If prior to last wk	Date achieved If prior to last wk
Denis Kudla	78	81	+2	79	8/3/2015
Bjorn Fratangelo	106	116*	+10	110	8/3/2015
Austin Krajicek	113	132	+19	114	5/4/2015
Mitchell Krueger	239	241*	+2		8/3/2015
Frances Tiafoe	271	272*	+1
Eric Quigley	297	302*	+5
Winston Lin	993	1067*	+74
Dominic Cotrone	1018	1096*	+78
A.J. Catanzariti	1586	1991	+405	1868	7/27/2015

Not included: Kyle Koch (1400, + 7), John McNally (1548, +5), Liam Caruana (1556, +6), and Zeke Clark (1556, +6).

On the other side of the spectrum, the men had a number of non-college guys make the lists the past two weeks, led by Denis Kudla, Bjorn Fratangelo, Mitchell Krueger, and Frances Tiafoe.

Week of July 27:

USA F23/Edwardsville: A great week for Clay Thompson (UCLA), who reached the final (falling to Evan King (Michigan)). Thompson is now 25-8 this year including qualies, piling up points despite playing a limited schedule. His first foray into challengers this year was a loss the week of August 10 in the Aptos qualies (to Noah Rubin (Wake Forest) no less). Curious to see if he stays with Futures this fall or whether he is ready to try to make it on the challenger circuit.

Also in Edwardsville, wildcard Felix Corwin (Minnesota) entered the rankings (congratulations!) after reaching the quarters, getting his first two career main-draw wins. Mico Santiago joined him in the quarters, while George Goldhoff (Texas) won his first round match.

CAN F6/Saskatoon: Andre Dome (Cal Poly) reached the semis while Zack McCourt (Princeton) got his first career win. Welcome to the rankings, sir!

Week of August 3:

Washington, DC: At this ATP 500, Eric Quigley got a qualies win, which meant 4 points.

USA F24/Decatur: Dominic Cotrone (Florida State) qualified, won a match, and then beat #2 seed Ramkumar Ramanathan in the 2nd round. A.J. Catanzariti (Texas A&M) qualified and then beat fellow qualifier Will Stein (TCU) for a point.

CHN F12/Fuzhou: The only player to pick up wins outside North America toward new CHRs was Winston Lin (Columbia), who qualified in China and then got to the quarters - his 3rd of the year.

Week of August 10:

Montreal: Denis Kudla beat Ryan Harrison and James Duckworth to qualify, but then fell to Donald Young in the first round.

Aptos Challenger: A big one for two guys who were vying for the USTA wild card to the US Open (turns out they both got one). Fratangelo and Austin Krajicek (Texas A&M) played in the semis (Krajicek won in 2) and now have career-high rankings. These guys (plus Jared Donaldson) are the ones most likely to make the next American Top 100 debut. The last player to do it, I believe, was Bradley Klahn back in November 2013. Prior to that were Tim Smyczek (September 2013), Jack Sock (July 2013) and Steve Johnson (June 2013). Please correct me if I'm wrong!

In the August 3 rankings, Alex Rybakov rose due to others falling; while Mitchell Krueger and Quigley did the same thing for the August 10 rankings. Both weeks, Tiafoe rose thanks to others falling.