TOURNAMENT NOTES as of April 23, 2015 USTA TALLAHASSEE TENNIS CHALLENGER TALLAHASSEE, FL • APRIL 25 – MAY 2 USTA PRO CIRCUIT RETURNS TO TALLAHASSEE FOR THE FINALE OF THE MEN’S HAR-TRU WILD CARD CHALLENGE The USTA Tallahassee Tennis Challenger is taking place for the 23rd consecutive year— USTA one of the longest-running USTA Pro Circuit TOURNAMENT INFO events. Tallahassee is one of 14 USTA Pro Circuit men’s events held in Florida. Site: Forest Meadows Tennis Center – Tallahassee, Fla. Websites: www.tallahasseechallenger.com Tallahassee is also the last of three procircuit.usta.com consecutive men’s clay-court tournaments Facebook: USTA Tallahassee Tennis Challenger (joining a $100,000 Challenger in Sarasota, Fla., and a $50,000 Challenger in Savannah, Twitter: @TallyChallenger Ga.) that are part of the Har-Tru Wild Card Wild Card Challenge Twitter: #HarTruWildCard Challenge, which will award one men’s Qualifying Draw Begins: Saturday, April 25 and one women’s wild card into the 2015 French Open. Along with these three men’s Main Draw Begins: Monday, April 27 tournaments, the women’s tournaments that Main Draw: 32 Singles / 16 Doubles are part of the challenge are the Hardee’s Surface: Clay / Outdoors Pro Classic in Dothan, Ala., held the week of April 20; the Boyd Tinsley Clay Court Classic Prize Money: $50,000 in Charlottesville, Va., the week of April 27; Tournament Director: and the Revolution Technologies Pro Tennis Karen Vogter, (850) 545-8740 Classic in Indian Harbour Beach, Fla., the [email protected] week of May 4. Tournament Press Contact: Jared Donaldson made his Grand Slam Taylor Crosby, (904) 874-3133 The American man and American woman who tournament debut as a wild card at the 2014 [email protected] earn the most ATP and WTA ranking points at US Open. Earlier this year, he won his first USTA Communications Contact: two of the three USTA Pro Circuit clay-court USTA Pro Circuit Challenger titles at the Amanda Korba, (914) 697-2219, [email protected] events will receive USTA wild cards to $50,000 event in Maui, Hawaii, sweeping compete in their respective main draws at singles and doubles. PRIZE MONEY / POINTS the French Open, held Sunday, May 24, to SINGLES: Prize Money Ranking Points Sunday, June 7. Only players who do not This tournament will be streamed live on Winner $7,200 80 receive direct entry into the French Open www.procircuit.usta.com. Runner-up $4,240 48 are eligible for the wild cards. The USTA Semifinalist $2,510 29 and the French Tennis Federation have a Quarterfinalist $1,460 15 To follow the tournament, download the USTA Round of 16 $860 7 reciprocal agreement in which wild cards into Pro Circuit’s new phone app by searching Round of 32 $520 -- the 2015 French Open and 2015 US Open “procircuit” in the app store. are exchanged. DOUBLES: Prize Money (per team) Winner $3,100 Notable players competing in the main draw Runner-up $1,800 include: Semifinalist $1,080 Quarterfinalist $640 Eighteen-year-old , who Round of 16 $360 USTA Jared Donaldson won his first USTA Pro Circuit Challenger COMMUNITY EVENTS title earlier this year at the $50,000 event Monday, April 27 in Maui, Hawaii, where he also won the Boys & Girls Club/ Boys Town Tennis Jamboree Tuesday, April 28 & Wednesday, April 29 School 10 and Under Tennis Clinics, 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Tournament wild card Frances Tiafoe, 17, won Wednesday, April 29 his first USTA Pro Circuit singles title earlier Community Center Tennis Spectacular, 4 p.m.-5:30 p.m. this year at the $15,000 Futures in Bakersfield, Calif., and has reached two additional finals. As Thursday, April 30 – USPTA Clinics, 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. a junior, he peaked at No. 2 in the ITF World Friday, May 1 Junior Rankings last year and reached the boys’ Special Olympics Tennis Carnival, 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m. singles semifinals at the 2014 US Open. Saturday, May 2 USPTA Appreciation Doubles Clinic, 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m. *Player field subject to change TOURNAMENT NOTES doubles title with Stefan Kozlov, to break into the Top 200. Last process becoming the oldest USTA Pro Circuit singles champion at summer, Donaldson won back-to-back USTA Pro Circuit singles the age of 35 years, 6 months and 2 days. Russell has competed in titles at $15,000 Futures events in Tulsa, Okla., and Oklahoma City the main draw of 34 Grand Slam tournaments in his career, most for the first USTA Pro Circuit singles titles of his career. During the recently as a qualifier at the 2015 Australian Open. He achieved first half of 2014, he competed overseas in ITF Circuit events in his best Grand Slam tournament result by reaching the fourth round Turkey, where he won his first professional singles title and reached of the 2001 French Open, where he held match point against one additional final and two additional semifinals. Donaldson made defending and eventual champion Gustavo Kuerten before bowing in his Grand Slam tournament debut as a wild card at the 2014 US five sets. In other notable career results, Russell upset then-No. 9 Open, where he faced eventual quarterfinalist Gael Monfils in the first Mardy Fish en route to the semifinals of the ATP World Tour event in round. As a junior player, Donaldson competed in the US Open Junior Houston in April 2012 and, in the summer of 2013, he reached the Championships and represented the United States in Junior Davis Cup semifinals of the ATP grass-court event in Newport, R.I. Russell also (16 and under). He is coached by former Top 30 player Taylor Dent reached the semifinals of the ATP event in Memphis in 2014 as a and has trained with Roger Federer in Dubai. qualifier, losing to eventual champion Kei Nishikori. Tournament wild card Frances Tiafoe, 17, who, won his first USTA Former world No. 64 Ryan Sweeting, who has played in just four Pro Circuit singles title earlier this year at the $15,000 Futures tournaments since March 2013 due to injury. Sweeting, who is in Bakersfield, Calif. Tiafoe, who recently turned pro, also reached married to “Big Bang Theory” actress Kaley Cuoco, won the ATP’s two additional USTA Pro Circuit singles finals and served as a U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship in Houston in 2011, when he practice partner for the U.S. Davis Cup team against Great Britain peaked at a career-high No. 64 in the world. The 2005 US Open in Scotland this March. As a junior, he peaked at No. 2 in the boys’ singles champion also holds three singles titles and three ITF World Junior Rankings last year and reached the boys’ singles doubles titles on the USTA Pro Circuit. semifinals at the 2014 US Open. He also won the prestigious Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships in December 2013 Alex Kuznetsov, who won the 2013 Har-Tru USTA Pro Circuit Wild in Plantation, Fla., becoming the youngest boys’ champion in the Card Challenge to earn a spot in the French Open main draw. 67 years of the event, took the title at the 2014 Easter Bowl junior Following Roland Garros, Kuznetsov qualified for Wimbledon and tournament and reached the final of the 2014 USTA International won the $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit Challenger in Binghamton, N.Y. Spring Championships. In 2012, Tiafoe won two significant 14-and- Those results drove Kuznetsov’s ranking up to a career-high No. 120 under tournaments (Les Petits As in Tarbes, France, and Teen Tennis in the world. In 2014, he qualified for and reached the quarterfinals in Bolton, England) and helped lead the United States to a gold of the ATP event in Memphis, Tenn., qualified for the main draw at medal in World Junior Tennis—the premier 14-and-under team Wimbledon and reached the quarterfinals or better at three USTA competition. Tiafoe is a product of the Junior Tennis Champions Pro Circuit Challengers. This year, Kuznetsov has reached the Center in College Park, Md., a USTA Certified Regional Training quarterfinals of the $100,000 USTA Pro Circuit Challenger in Dallas Center, where his father, an immigrant from Sierra Leone, worked as and competed in Australian Open qualifying. As a junior, he was a custodian. the 2004 junior French Open runner-up (to Gael Monfils). Kuzetsov is a native of Kiev, Ukraine, where his grandfather was a handball 2013 doubles champion Austin Krajicek, who was a five-time champion. In 2005, he was involved in a car accident that broke All-American at Texas A&M and the 2011 NCAA men’s doubles his right femur and required the insertion of a titanium rod and champion with Jeff Dadamo. Krajicek has enjoyed a breakout year screw. Kuznetsov came back to play in his first US Open main draw in 2015, reaching the singles quarterfinals of the ATP event in in 2006. He has played in all four Grand Slam events in his career, Memphis, Tenn.—his first ATP quarterfinal—and qualifying for and reaching the second round of the Australian Open in 2007. reaching the second round of the Miami Open to break into the Top 150 for the first time. In 2014, Krajicek reached the Bjorn Fratangelo, who in 2011 became the first American since quarterfinals or better at 10 USTA Pro Circuit and ITF Circuit events John McEnroe in 1977 to win the French Open boys’ singles title. (winning a title in Colombia), and he also won three doubles titles, Fratangelo has won nine USTA Pro Circuit and ITF Circuit singles including the $100,000 USTA Pro Circuit Challenger in Vancouver.