TOURNAMENT NOTES as of July 21, 2016 KENTUCKY BANK TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS LEXINGTON, KY • JULY 23-31 USTA PRO CIRCUIT RETURNS TO LEXINGTON, CONTINUES MEN’S TOURNAMENT INFORMATION US OPEN WILD CARD CHALLENGE Site: University of Kentucky, Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex The Kentucky Bank Tennis Championships Lexington, Ky. return to Lexington as a men’s event for the 19th consecutive year. Lexington is also Websites: www.lexingtonchallenger.com holding a $50,000 women’s Challenger in www.procircuit.usta.com conjunction with this event in Lexington. Pete Staples/USTA Facebook: Kentucky Bank Tennis Championships It is the only men’s USTA Pro Circuit event taking place in Kentucky. It is also the sixth Twitter: @LexChallenger $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit men’s event of Instagram: kybanktennis the 2016 season. Qualifying Draw Begins: Saturday, July 23 Lexington is the first of three consecutive Main Draw Begins: Monday, July 25 men’s hard-court tournaments (joining a $50,000 Challenger in Binghamton, N.Y., Main Draw: 32 Singles / 16 Doubles and a $100,000 Challenger in Aptos, Calif.) Surface: Hard / Outdoor that are part of the US Open Wild Card Challenge, which will award a men’s and Prize Money: $50,000 women’s wild card into the 2016 Tournament Director: US Open based on USTA Pro Circuit results. Brooks Lundy, (859) 509-9707, [email protected] Along with these three men’s tournaments, the women’s events that are part of the Tournament Press Contact: challenge are the University of the Pacific Bjorn Fratangelo has competed in all three Chris Shoals, (513) 312-2489 $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit Challenger in Grand Slam main draws this year, winning a [email protected] Stockton, Calif., held the week of July 11; round at the French Open. the $50,000 FSP Gold River Women’s USTA Communications Contact: Challenger in Sacramento, Calif., held the Amanda Korba, (914) 697-2219, [email protected] wild cards to compete in the singles main week of July 18; and the $50,000 Kentucky draws of the US Open, which will be held PRIZE MONEY / POINTS Bank Tennis Championships here in Monday, Aug. 29, to Sunday, Sept. 11. Only Lexington, held the week of July 25. SINGLES: Prize Money Ranking Points players who do not receive direct entry into Winner $7,200 80 the US Open are eligible for the wild cards. The American man and American woman Runner-up $4,240 48 who earn the most ATP and WTA ranking Semifinalist $2,510 29 This tournament will be streamed live on points at two of the three selected USTA Pro Quarterfinalist $1,460 15 www.procircuit.usta.com. To follow the Circuit hard-court events will receive USTA Round of 16 $860 7 action, download the USTA Pro Circuit’s Round of 32 $520 0 phone app for smartphones and tablets by searching “procircuit” in the Apple and DOUBLES: Prize Money (per team) Google Play stores. Winner $3,100 Runner-up $1,800 Jacob Stuckey Notable players competing in Lexington Semifinalist $1,080 include: Quarterfinalist $640 Round of 16 $360 Bjorn Fratangelo, who made his French Open COMMUNITY EVENTS main-draw debut this year after earning a Sunday, July 24 – Pro-Am, 5:30 p.m. main-draw wild card into the French Open by Monday, July 25 – Pro-Am Finals, 6:30 p.m. winning the 2016 USTA Pro Circuit Roland Tuesday, July 26 – Kids’ Day, 10 a.m.-12 p.m.; Women’s Luncheon, 12:30 p.m.; Ladies Round Robin, 5:30 p.m. Frances Tiafoe won last year’s USTA Pro Circuit Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge to earn a spot Wednesday, July 27 – BTA Fun Tennis Blast, 5 p.m.; in the 2015 French Open. This fall, the fast- Big Blue Night Exhibition, 7 p.m. rising teenager won his first ATP Masters 1000 Thursday, July 28 – BTA Fun Tennis Blast, 5 p.m. match in Indian Wells. Friday, July 29 – Men’s Round Robin, 5:30 p.m. Saturday, July 30 – Progressive Beginner Tennis, 12 p.m. *Player field subject to change Sunday, July 31 – UK Hall of Fame Induction, 12:30 p.m. TOURNAMENT NOTES Garros Wild Card Challenge, where he won his first-round match over USTA Pro Circuit Challenger doubles title in Maui, Hawaii. He also Sam Querrey in Paris for his first career Grand Slam win. Fratangelo won his first ITF singles title in Belarus and served as a practice finished this year’s Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge with a title partner for the U.S. Davis Cup team in Glasgow, Scotland. Kozlov at the $50,000 Challenger in Savannah, Ga., and by reaching the trains both with his father, Andrei, at his dad’s tennis academy in semifinals of the $100,000 Challenger in Sarasota, Fla. Fratangelo Pembroke Pines, Fla., and at the USTA Training Center Headquarters won the French Open boys’ singles title in 2011, becoming the first in Boca Raton, Fla. He has also practiced, on occasion, with Novak American to win the Roland Garros boys’ title since John McEnroe in Djokovic and other top pros. 1977. This year, he qualified for the 2016 Australian Open – his first appearance in a Grand Slam main draw outside of the US Open – as Noah Rubin, who earned a spot in the main draw of the 2016 well as Wimbledon. He also qualified for the ATP events in Indian Australian Open for the first time after clinching the USTA Pro Wells, where he pushed world No. 1 Novak Djokovic to three sets Circuit’s Australian Open Wild Card Challenge; he advanced to the in the second round, and Miami. Fratangelo made his Grand Slam second round in Melbourne with a first-round upset of No. 17 Benoit main-draw debut at the 2015 US Open after winning the USTA Pro Paire. His only other Grand Slam main-draw appearance to date Circuit’s US Open Wild Card Challenge last summer. He has won came in 2014, when he earned a wild card into the US Open as the 10 USTA Pro Circuit and ITF Circuit singles titles over the last three USTA Boys’ 18s Nationals singles champion. Rubin completed a years and broke into the Top 100 this June. Fratangelo, who is named standout freshman campaign at Wake Forest in May 2015, advancing after 11-time Grand Slam champion Bjorn Borg, is coached by USTA to the NCAA singles final. He became the first player in ACC men’s National Coach Stanford Boster. tennis history to earn ACC Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year honors in one season, as well as the first ACC men’s tennis Frances Tiafoe, who won the 2015 Har-Tru USTA Pro Circuit Wild Card Player of the Year in Wake Forest men’s tennis history. He was Challenge to earn a spot in the French Open, which marked his Grand also the ITA Rookie of the Year and earned All-America honors. He Slam debut. He also competed as a wild card at the 2015 subsequently turned pro and won his first USTA Pro Circuit singles US Open by winning the USTA Boys’ 18s National Championships in title, claiming the $50,000 Challenger in Charlottesville, Va., last Kalamazoo, Mich. Also last year, Tiafoe won his first USTA Pro Circuit year and competing in qualifying for the 2015 US Open. This year, singles title, at the $15,000 Futures in Bakersfield, Calif. Tiafoe, he advanced to the semifinals of the $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit who turned pro in early 2015, also reached three additional USTA Challenger in Maui, Hawaii, and the quarterfinals at the $100,000 Pro Circuit singles finals last year and served as a practice partner for Challenger in Sarasota, Fla., while also qualifying for the main draw the U.S. Davis Cup team against Great Britain in Scotland in March at the ATP event in Indian Wells. Rubin was a standout junior player, 2015. This year, he reached the quarterfinals or better at five USTA winning the 2014 Wimbledon junior title to go with his Boys’ 18s Pro Circuit Challengers and played in the ATP events in Memphis, National Championships crown. He is a protégé of John McEnroe’s at Houston and Indian Wells, where he won his first-round match over his Randall’s Island, N.Y., academy. fellow rising young American Taylor Fritz. As a junior, Tiafoe peaked at No. 2 in the ITF World Junior Rankings in 2014 and reached the boys’ Tommy Paul, who won the 2015 French Open junior singles title, singles semifinals at the 2014 US Open. He also won the prestigious becoming the sixth American ever to win the boys’ championship in Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships in December 2013 Paris. Paul defeated fellow American Taylor Fritz in the first-ever all- in Plantation, Fla., becoming the youngest boys’ champion in the U.S. boys’ singles final at Roland Garros, dating back to 1947. Paul, 67-year history of the event. Tiafoe is a product of the Junior Tennis who peaked at a career-high No. 3 in the ITF World Junior Rankings Champions Center in College Park, Md., a USTA Certified Regional in fall 2015, also reached the final of the junior US Open in 2015, Training Center, where his father, an immigrant from Sierra Leone, losing to Fritz, and the quarterfinals of junior Wimbledon. As a pro, worked as a custodian. He now trains with the USTA. he captured the first USTA Pro Circuit singles titles of his career this year at the $10,000 Futures events in Plantation, Fla., and Stefan Kozlov, 18, who won the first two USTA Pro Circuit singles Sunrise, Fla.