USTA PRO CIRCUIT WOMEN’S TENNIS RETURNS TO LAS VEGAS

Written by: Staff on 25th September 2011

USTA PRO CIRCUIT WOMEN’S TENNIS RETURNS TO LAS VEGAS |

10sBalls.com is proud to be named the official website of the upcoming Lexus of Las Vegas Open, a USTA $50,000 Pro Circuit event being played at the Red Rock Country Club for the third straight year.

Qualifying began on Sunday and will conclude Tuesday, the same day as main-draw action begins play, announced tournament co-directors Tyler Weekes and Jordan Butler.

This year’s draw is being headlined by American Melanie Oudin, making her Las Vegas debut after teaming with Jack Sock to win the 2011 US Open mixed doubles title. Oudin enjoyed consecutive runs to the second week of a Grand Slam in 2009, defeating former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon, and then beating three-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova en route to the US Open quarterfinals.

Oudin leads a strong American contingent into Las Vegas, including defending champion Varvara Lepchenko, who upset No. 18 seed Flavia Pennetta at the 2011 French Open and ended the 2010 season by winning three straight tournaments and 15 consecutive matches on the USTA Pro Circuit; 21-year-old Alison Riske, who this spring reached the quarterfinals of the WTA grass-court event at Birmingham and the final of the $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Indian Harbour Beach, Fla.; Jamie Hampton, also 21, who qualified at the 2011 Australian Open and reached the singles and doubles finals of the $100,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Vancouver over the summer; and 22-year-old Alexa Glatch, whose 2011 highlights include reaching the quarterfinals of the WTA event at Memphis and qualifying at Wimbledon, where she fell to eventual champion Petra Kvitova in the main draw.

Among the talented teenagers due to play in Las Vegas are Camila Giorgi of Italy, who qualified at Wimbledon in June and has thrived on the USTA Pro Circuit this season, reaching three semifinals and two finals, including a title-run at the $50,000 event in Carson, Calif.; Kurumi Nara, a member of the Japanese Fed Cup team who qualified at the French Open and Wimbledon in 2010, and reached the final of a $75,000 ITF Women’s Circuit event in Beijing last month; Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia, who has won a pair of $25,000 ITF tournaments this season; and Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal, who reached the final of the $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Charlottesville, Va., and won her first career championship at the $25,000 circuit stop in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.

Other Las Vegas title contenders are former world No. 21 Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada, who is rebuilding her ranking the hard way this season, qualifying at the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open and winning the $100,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Vancouver; Mirjana Lucic of Croatia, who has reached quarterfinals of WTA Tour events on clay at Strasbourg and on grass at Birmingham in 2011; Edina Gallovits-Hall of Romania, a 12-time singles champion on the USTA Pro Circuit; and Romina Oprandi of Italy, who beat three-time US Open champion Kim Clijsters in June en route to the semifinals of the WTA grass-court event at ’s-Hertogenbosch, and defeated Gallovits-Hall, Nara and Oudin to reach the second round of the 2011 US Open as a qualifier.

Las Vegas 20-year-old Asia Muhammed, the tournament’s 2008 singles runner-up who learned to play tennis at the nearby Andre Agassi Boys and Girls Club, has been given a main-draw wild card by the USTA, as has former USC All-American Maria Sanchez.

Others qualifiers include Duke freshman Beatrice Capra, who reached the third round of the 2010 US Open as a wild card; Alexandra Stevenson, a 1998 Wimbledon semifinalist and former world No. 18; Ahsha Rolle, who has won three USTA Pro Circuit doubles titles this season; 2008 Dunlop Orange Bowl champion Julia Boserup, who two weeks ago won the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit singles title in Redding, Calif.; 16-year-old Krista Hardebeck, who is coming off a quarterfinal appearance in girls’ singles at the 2011 US Open; and three former college players: Amanda Fink (USC), Yasmin Schnack (UCLA) and Macall Harkins (TCU).

Also included on the Las Vegas qualifying entry list are Petra Rampre of Slovenia, champion of $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournaments this season in Boston and Raleigh, N.C.; 2009 Dunlop Orange Bowl champion Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada; and 2010 US Open junior runner-up Yulia Putintseva, 16, who has risen from No. 725 to No. 238 in the WTA tour rankings this season thanks to ITF titles at a $50,000 event in Kazan, Russia, and $25,000 events in Moscow and Samsun, Turkey.

Qualifying in Las Vegas will also feature a pair of Russians working their way back up the rankings: ex-world No. 32 Olga Puchkova, a WTA finalist in 2006 at Kolkata and Québec City who two weeks ago reached the singles final of the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Redding, Calif.; and former world No. 14 Elena Bovina, who has won three WTA singles and five WTA doubles titles, in addition to capturing the 2004 Australian Open mixed doubles championship with Nenad Zimonjic. Before foot and shoulder injuries slowed her in 2005, Bovina earned wins over nine Grand Slam singles champions, including current stars Venus Williams, Kim Clijsters, Li Na, Francesca Schiavone and Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Two current WTA stars found success in Las Vegas when the USTA Pro Circuit returned to the city in 2007. The singles champion that year was a baby-faced 16-year-old from Denmark named Caroline Wozniacki, who since winning in Las Vegas has emerged as the No. 1 player in the world. Not far behind her in the rankings is 22-year-old Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, who was one-half of the 2007 Las Vegas doubles champions and reached her first-career Grand Slam singles semifinal at Wimbledon this season.

Las Vegas Past Champions

Singles

Year Winner Runner-up

2010 Varvara Lepchenko (USA) Sorana Cirstea (ROU)

2009 Regina Kulikova (RUS) Aniko Kapros (HUN)

2008 Camille Pin (FRA) Asia Muhammad (USA)

2007 Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) Akiko Morigami (JPN)

1999 Erika de Lone (USA) Hila Rosen (ISR)

Doubles

Year Winner

2010 Lindsay Lee-Waters (USA) – Megan Moulton-Levy (USA)

2009 Aniko Kapros (HUN) – Agustina Lepore (ARG)