TOURNAMENT NOTES as of April 7, 2016 BAPTIST HEALTH BOLO BASH TENNIS LITTLE ROCK, AR • APRIL 9-17 USTA PRO CIRCUIT MEN’S TENNIS RETURNS TO LITTLE ROCK TOURNAMENT INFORMATION FOR A 36TH YEAR, THE LONGEST TENURE FOR A CIRCUIT SITE Site: Rebsamen Tennis Center – Little Rock, Ark. The Baptist Health Bolo Bash Tennis will be held in Little Rock for the 36th year. First Websites: www.bolobashtennis.com held in 1981, it is the longest-running event www.procircuit.usta.com on the USTA Pro Circuit. Little Rock is the Jacob Stuckey Facebook: Baptist Health Foundation last of four consecutive $25,000 hard-court USTA Pro Circuit Futures events held this Qualifying Draw Begins: Saturday, April 9 spring. It is the only event held in Arkansas Main Draw Begins: Tuesday, April 12 this year and the last hard-court event until this summer, as the clay-court season will Main Draw: 32 Singles / 16 Doubles begin to prepare players for the French Open. Surface: Hard / Outdoor To follow the tournament, download the USTA Prize Money: $25,000 Pro Circuit’s new phone app for smartphones Tournament Director: and tablets by searching “procircuit” in the Apple and Google Play stores. Erin Childress, (501) 960-2721 [email protected] Notable players competing in Little Rock Tournament Press Contact: include: Teenager Stefan Kozlov was a standout junior Marci Burns (Atkinson), (501) 202-1839 player, reaching the boys’ singles final at [email protected] Stefan Kozlov, 18, who won his first USTA both Wimbledon and the Australian Open Pro Circuit singles title this year at the in 2014. He won his first USTA Pro Circuit USTA Communications Contact: $25,000 Futures in Los Angeles and also singles title this year at the $25,000 Futures Amanda Korba, (914) 697-2219 won an ITF Circuit event in Canada. A junior in Los Angeles. [email protected] standout, Kozlov peaked at No. 2 in the PRIZE MONEY / POINTS world junior rankings in 2014. He reached the junior boys’ final at both Wimbledon the pro ranks, he reached the final of the SINGLES: Prize Money Ranking Points and the Australian Open in 2014, as well $100,000 USTA Pro Circuit Challenger in Winner $3,600 27 as the quarterfinals at the junior US Open Sacramento, Calif., losing to former Top 20 Runner-up $2,120 15 and French Open. At the All England Club, player Sam Querrey. In advancing to the Semifinalist $1,255 8 he fell to 2014 USTA Boys’ 18s champion Sacramento final at age 16, Kozlov became Quarterfinalist $730 3 Noah Rubin in the first all-American the youngest American to reach a Challenger Round of 16 $430 1 Wimbledon boys’ final since 1977. Also in final since Andre Agassi in 1986. Kozlov Round of 32 $260 - 2014, Kozlov won the prestigious Orange transitioned to primarily pro events in 2015, DOUBLES: Prize Money (per team) Bowl singles and doubles titles, and in competing in the main draw of the ATP’s Winner $1,550 Memphis Open and winning his first USTA Runner-up $900 Pro Circuit Challenger doubles title in Maui, Semifinalist $540 Hawaii. He also reached the singles final Quarterfinalist $320 at the $10,000 Futures in Orange Park, Round of 16 $180 Jacob Stuckey Fla., won his first ITF Circuit singles title in Belarus and served as a practice partner COMMUNITY EVENTS for the U.S. Davis Cup team in Glasgow, Friday, April 8 Scotland. Kozlov trains both with his father, Lindsay Davenport Clinic and Speaking Event Andrei, at his dad’s tennis academy in Pembroke Pines, Fla., and at the USTA Sunday, April 10 Training Center Headquarters in Boca Raton, Men’s and Junior Pro-Am Tennys Sandgren turned pro following his Wednesday, April 13 sophomore season at the University of Kids’ Day Tennessee, having reached the semifinals of the 2011 NCAA tournament. He has won nine USTA Pro Circuit/ITF Circuit singles titles and 14 doubles titles. *Player field subject to change TOURNAMENT NOTES Fla. He has also practiced, on occasion, with Novak Djokovic and also earned All-America honors in singles and was named the 2014 other top pros. Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Senior Player of the Year. In 2015, Thompson won his first ITF Circuit singles title, in Tennys Sandgren, who is a former Top 200 player and a 2011 NCAA Mexico, and reached the quarterfinals or better at three consecutive semifinalist. He peaked at No. 183 in the world in 2013, when he USTA Pro Circuit events in July. He closed out the year by qualifying won the USTA Pro Circuit season-ending Challenger in Champaign, for and reaching the semifinals of the $50,000 Challenger in Ill. Also in 2013, Sandgren served as a Davis Cup practice partner Champaign, Ill. This year, he qualified for the $100,000 Challenger for the U.S. team as it prepared to face Serbia in Boise, Idaho, and in Dallas and competed overseas in Egypt and Israel, reaching the he nearly qualified for the main draw at the 2014 Australian Open, singles final of an event in Egypt. falling to former NCAA champion Steve Johnson in five sets in the final of the USTA Australian Open Wild Card Playoffs. His rise was Eric James Johnson, who graduated from USC in 2015 and was a disrupted by injury, however, in 2014, when hip surgery sidelined part of three NCAA Championship-winning teams. He finished his him from February until after that year’s US Open. In 2015, collegiate career at No. 74 in the ITA singles rankings. In 2015, Sandgren, whose first name is pronounced like the sport, played on Johnson won the first ITF Circuit singles titles of his career in Israel the USTA Pro Circuit and in ITF Circuit events in China, Australia and Greece. and Canada as he continued to work his way back into form, winning two singles titles. Sandgren turned pro following his sophomore Evan Song, who won his first ITF Circuit singles title and ITF Circuit season at the University of Tennessee after reaching the semifinals of doubles title in 2014 in Israel. Last year, Song competed all over the the 2011 NCAA tournament. He has won nine USTA Pro Circuit/ITF world—in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Israel, Nigeria and Spain—as Circuit singles titles and 14 doubles titles. His brother, Davey, was a well as in a few USTA Pro Circuit events in the U.S. He reached the two-time All-American for Tennessee, lettering from 2007 to 2010. quarterfinals or better at more than 10 tournaments last year. Little Rock is Song’s fourth tournament of 2016. Eric Quigley, who was the 2012 NCAA singles runner-up for the University of Kentucky. Quigley is one of the most decorated tennis players in Wildcats history, earning five All-America honors between singles and doubles. In 2008, he became the first player from the Many USTA Pro Circuit and ATP World Tour standouts have found state of Kentucky in 34 years to win four consecutive high school success in Little Rock. state singles titles. In 2015, Quigley qualified for the ATP event in Delray Beach, Fla., and won three USTA Pro Circuit doubles 1999 Little Rock doubles champion James Blake peaked at No. 4 titles, as well as one doubles title in Nigeria. He holds one USTA in the world in 2006 after reaching the final of the Tennis Masters Pro Circuit singles title, which he won in 2013 at the $15,000 Cup, the season-ending championships of the ATP World Tour. In his Futures in Decatur, Ill. This year, he captured the doubles titles at 14-year career, Blake won 10 singles titles and seven doubles titles, the $100,000 Challenger in Dallas and the $25,000 Futures in and he was a longtime member of the U.S. Davis Cup team, helping Calabasas, Calif., both with Nicolas Meister. lead the U.S. to the Davis Cup title in 2007. Blake retired at the 2013 US Open. Evan King, a 2013 graduate of the University of Michigan, who was a three-time All-American (2011-13) and the Big Ten Athlete of the 1988 singles runner-up MaliVai Washington reached the final of Year in 2012 and 2013. King owns the program record for most Wimbledon in 1996 and the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in combined career singles and doubles wins (196), and he ranks third 1994. He won four career ATP World Tour singles titles, finished in all-time on Michigan’s singles wins list with 117 victories. In the the Top 50 each year from 1991-96 and peaked at No. 11 in the pro ranks, King has captured 14 USTA Pro Circuit and ITF Circuit world in 1992. doubles titles, including the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit Futures in Los Angeles earlier this year. In 2015, he won his first career USTA 2007 singles runner-up and doubles champion Kei Nishikori of Pro Circuit singles title at the $15,000 Futures in Edwardsville, Ill. Japan peaked at a career-high No. 4 in March 2015. He reached the He added titles at the $10,000 Futures in Birmingham, Ala., and at final of the 2014 US Open and has won 11 ATP World Tour singles an ITF Circuit singles title in Zimbabwe. In 2014, King served as a titles, most recently winning the Memphis Open this year. He also practice partner for the U.S. Davis Cup team during its World Group reached three Australian Open quarterfinals (2012, 2015, 2016) Playoff against Slovakia in Chicago.