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Monday, July 3, 2017

My Midwest Closed Report; After 7-1 Record for US on Day One, Seventeen Americans on Wimbledon Schedule Tuesday; Seven US Juniors Reach Third Round at Roehampton; Wichita Hosts Sole USTA Pro Circuit Event This Week

I enjoyed my first trip to the Midwest Closed 16s and 18s Championships in Indianapolis last week, especially because I had seen almost no live tennis since My trip to Ojai in late April. Although the winds on finals day was not ideal, the level of play was high considering the conditions, and it was interesting to hear that the tournament was seeding according to Universal Tennis Ratings for the top 16 seeds. For more on all four finals, see my recap for the Tennis Recruiting Network.

The first day at Wimbledon was a successful one for Americans, with seven of the eight on the schedule advancing to Wednesday's second round.  Donald Young, Sam Querrey[24] and Steve Johnson[26] gave the US men a perfect record on the day. Of the five US women competing today, four won: Jennifer Brady, Madison Brengle, Venus Williams[10] and Madison Keys[17]. For 22-year-old former UCLA All-American Brady and 27-year-old Brengle, the victories were their first in the main draw at Wimbledon.  The only US player to lose on Monday was CiCi Bellis, who took on former WTA No. 1 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus on Court 1 Monday evening and lost 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 Bellis played well in the first set, but Azarenka stepped up her game, and Bellis, perhaps pressing in the final two sets, made too many errors to stay with her.

For more on the Americans matches on day 1, see this article from usta.com.

Tuesday will be a much bigger day in terms of American matches, with 17 US players on the schedule and four all-US matches.

Shelby Rogers plays Julia Boserup, Lauren Davis[28] faces Varvara Lepchenko, Alison Riske meets Sloane Stephens and John Isner[23] plays qualifier Taylor Fritz in the all-US contests.  The other American women playing Tuesday: Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Christina McHale, CoCo Vandeweghe[24] and Irina Falconi, who opens on Centre Court against top seed Angelique Kerber of Germany.

The other US men on Tuesday's schedule are Jack Sock[17], Frances Tiafoe, Jared Donaldson, Ryan Harrison and Ernesto Escobedo.

Seven US juniors--four girls and three boys--have advanced to the third round of the ITF Grade 1 in Roehampton.  Only four of the 16 remaining boys are seeded, and both US boys seeds, No. 6 Trent Bryde and No. 8 Oliver Crawford, lost in today's second round.  Still remaining in the boys draw are Danny Thomas, Sam Riffice and Vasil Kirkov.

The US claimed three of the top five girls seeds and Whitney Osuigwe[1], Claire Liu[2] and Taylor Johnson[5] are still in contention, as is unseeded Caty McNally. Johnson and McNally will meet in Tuesday's third round.

Live scoring is available at Tennis Ticker.

With the cancellation of the women's USTA Pro Circuit event originally scheduled for this week, the sole tournament is a $25,000 men's Futures in Wichita Kansas, where qualifying was completed today. After falling in the first round of qualifying at Wimbledon, Michael Mmoh took a wild card and is the top seed, with last week's champion Christian Harrison the No. 2 seed.  The other wild cards went to rising Minnesota senior Felix Corwin and two Wichita State players: Murkel Dellien of Bolivia and Marius Frosa of Romania.

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