TOURNAMENT NOTES as of March 31, 2016 SPELL RESTAURANT GROUP MEN’S $25,000 FUTURES PRESENTED BY KE TENNIS ACADEMY MEMPHIS, TN • APRIL 2-10 TOURNAMENT USTA PRO CIRCUIT MEN’S TENNIS RETURNS TO MEMPHIS INFORMATION FOR FIRST TIME SINCE 1980 Site: KE Tennis at Germantown Country Club The Spell Restaurant Group Men’s $25,000 Memphis, Tenn. Futures presented by KE Tennis Academy brings USTA Pro Circuit men’s tennis to Website: www.procircuit.usta.com Memphis for the first time since 1980, Jacob Stuckey Qualifying Draw Begins: Saturday, April 2 when the city hosted an event for the second consecutive year. It is one of two USTA Main Draw Begins: Tuesday, April 5 Pro Circuit events held in Tennessee this year, joined by the $50,000 Challenger in Main Draw: 32 Singles / 16 Doubles Knoxville in November. It is also the third of four $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit hard-court Surface: Hard / Outdoor men’s tournaments held this spring. Prize Money: $25,000 To follow the tournament, download the USTA Tournament Director: Pro Circuit’s new phone app for smartphones and tablets by searching “procircuit” in the Keith Evans, (901) 907-9363 Apple and Google Play stores. [email protected] Tournament Press Contact: Notable players competing in Memphis Keith Evans, (901) 907-9363 include: Tennys Sandgren turned pro following his [email protected] Tennys Sandgren, who is a former Top 200 sophomore season at the University of Tennessee, having reached the semifinals of USTA Communications Contact: player and a 2011 NCAA semifinalist. He the 2011 NCAA tournament. He has won nine Amanda Korba, (914) 697-2219 peaked at No. 183 in the world in 2013, USTA Pro Circuit/ITF Circuit singles titles and [email protected] when he won the USTA Pro Circuit season- 14 doubles titles. ending Challenger in Champaign, Ill. Also PRIZE MONEY / POINTS in 2013, Sandgren served as a Davis Cup SINGLES: Prize Money Ranking Points practice partner for the U.S. team as it hip surgery sidelined him from February Winner $3,600 27 prepared to face Serbia in Boise, Idaho, until after that year’s US Open. In 2015, Runner-up $2,120 15 and he nearly qualified for the main draw Sandgren, whose first name is pronounced Semifinalist $1,255 8 at the 2014 Australian Open, falling to like the sport, played on the USTA Pro Quarterfinalist $730 3 former NCAA champion Steve Johnson in Circuit and in ITF Circuit events in China, Round of 16 $430 1 five sets in the final of the USTA Australian Australia and Canada as he continued to Round of 32 $260 - Open Wild Card Playoffs. His rise was work his way back into form, winning two disrupted by injury, however, in 2014, when singles titles. Sandgren turned pro following DOUBLES: Prize Money (per team) his sophomore season at the University of Winner $1,550 Tennessee after reaching the semifinals of Runner-up $900 the 2011 NCAA tournament. He has won Semifinalist $540 nine USTA Pro Circuit/ITF Circuit singles Quarterfinalist $320 Charlie Baglan titles and 14 doubles titles. His brother, Round of 16 $180 Davey, was a two-time All-American for Tennessee, lettering from 2007 to 2010. Eric Quigley, who was the 2012 NCAA singles runner-up for the University of Eric Quigley was the 2012 NCAA singles runner-up for the University of Kentucky and earned five All-America honors between singles and doubles at UK. *Player field subject to change TOURNAMENT NOTES Kentucky. Quigley is one of the most decorated tennis players in Clay Thompson, who graduated from UCLA in 2014, where he was Wildcats history, earning five All-America honors between singles the top-ranked college player from January through June 2014. He and doubles. In 2008, he became the first player from the state also earned All-America honors in singles and was named the 2014 of Kentucky in 34 years to win four consecutive high school Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Senior Player of the state singles titles. In 2015, Quigley qualified for the ATP event Year. In 2015, Thompson won his first ITF Circuit singles title, in in Delray Beach, Fla., and won three USTA Pro Circuit doubles Mexico, and reached the quarterfinals or better at three consecutive titles, as well as one doubles title in Nigeria. He holds one USTA USTA Pro Circuit events in July. He closed out the year by qualifying Pro Circuit singles title, which he won in 2013 at the $15,000 for and reaching the semifinals of the $50,000 Challenger in Futures in Decatur, Ill. This year, he captured the doubles titles at Champaign, Ill. This year, he qualified for the $100,000 Challenger the $100,000 Challenger in Dallas and the $25,000 Futures in in Dallas and competed overseas in Egypt and Israel, reaching the Calabasas, Calif., both with Nicolas Meister. singles final of an event in Egypt. Evan King, a 2013 graduate of the University of Michigan, who was Alex Kuznetsov, the USTA Pro Circuit veteran who has competed in a three-time All-American (2011-13) and the Big Ten Athlete of the all four Grand Slam events, advancing to the second round of the Year in 2012 and 2013. King owns the program record for most Australian Open in 2007. Kuznetsov peaked at No. 120 in the world combined career singles and doubles wins (196), and he ranks third in 2013 after winning the 2013 Har-Tru USTA Pro Circuit Wild Card all-time on Michigan’s singles wins list with 117 victories. In the Challenge to earn a spot in the French Open main draw, qualifying pro ranks, King has captured 14 USTA Pro Circuit and ITF Circuit for that year’s Wimbledon and winning the $50,000 USTA Pro doubles titles, including the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit Futures in Circuit Challenger in Binghamton, N.Y. In 2014, he qualified for and Los Angeles earlier this year. In 2015, he won his first career USTA reached the quarterfinals of the ATP event in Memphis and qualified Pro Circuit singles title at the $15,000 Futures in Edwardsville, Ill. for the main draw at Wimbledon, and last year he reached the He added titles at the $10,000 Futures in Birmingham, Ala., and at quarterfinals of the $100,000 USTA Pro Circuit Challenger in Dallas an ITF Circuit singles title in Zimbabwe. In 2014, King served as a and competed in Australian Open qualifying. He won his sixth USTA practice partner for the U.S. Davis Cup team during its World Group Pro Circuit/ITF Pro Circuit singles title earlier this year in Canada, Playoff against Slovakia in Chicago. to go along with 11 USTA Pro Circuit/ITF Pro Circuit doubles titles. As a junior player, he reached the 2004 French Open boys’ singles Nicolas Meister, who has captured three USTA Pro Circuit doubles final (falling to Gael Monfils). Kuznetsov is a native of Kiev, Ukraine, titles this year, giving him 13 USTA Pro Circuit/ITF Circuit doubles where his grandfather was a handball champion. titles for his career. In addition to his doubles success, Meister holds two ITF singles titles, both won in Mexico in 2013. He Dennis Nevolo, who graduated from the University of Illinois in peaked at No. 288 in singles in October 2015 after qualifying for 2012, where he received two All-America honors. He was also the the $100,000 USTA Pro Circuit Challenger in Tiburon, Calif., and second player in Illini program history to earn All-Big Ten honors all also qualifying for and reaching the quarterfinals of the $100,000 four seasons. Nevolo holds two USTA Pro Circuit singles titles, both Challenger in Sacramento, Calif., a week later. His best doubles won in 2014, as well as four USTA Pro Circuit/ITF doubles titles. ranking was No. 292, achieved in 2014. Meister graduated from UCLA in 2012 with All-America honors in singles that year. He also Evan Song, who won his first ITF Circuit singles title and ITF Circuit earned All-America doubles honors during the 2009-10 season. doubles title in 2014 in Israel. Last year, Song competed all over the world—in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Israel, Nigeria and Spain—as Christian Harrison, the younger brother of former Top 50 player Ryan well as in a few USTA Pro Circuit events in the U.S. He has reached Harrison. Christian is playing in just his seventh tournament since the quarterfinals or better at more than 10 tournaments last year. July 2013 after suffering from a series of injuries. He has won one Memphis is Song’s third tournament of 2016. ITF Circuit singles title, in Great Britain in 2013, and advanced to the doubles quarterfinals at the 2012 US Open with Ryan. *Player field subject to change MEMPHIS PAST WINNERS Singles Doubles Year Winner Runner-Up Year Winner 1980 Mel Purcell (USA) John Hayes (USA) 1980 Terry Moor (USA) – Ray Pascale (USA) 1979 Arjun Fernando (SRI) Keith West (USA) 1979 Arjun Fernando (SRI) – Keith West (USA) TOURNAMENT NOTES USTA PRO CIRCUIT YOUTH TENNIS With approximately 90 tournaments hosted annually throughout the country and prize money ranging The USTA is making it easier and more fun for kids to get into from $10,000 to $100,000, the USTA Pro Circuit is the pathway to the US Open and tour-level competition for aspiring tennis players and a frequent battleground for established professionals. The USTA launched the game—and stay in the game. Kids are learning to play its Pro Circuit in 1979 to provide players with the opportunity to gain professional ranking points, and faster than ever before through the USTA’s youth initiative, it has since grown to become the largest developmental tennis circuit in the world, offering nearly which is geared toward getting more kids to participate in $3 million in prize money.