TOURNAMENT NOTES as of January 21, 2016 THE SPORTMASTER TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS OF MAUI MAUI, HI • JANUARY 24-31 USTA PRO CIRCUIT WOMEN’S TENNIS COMES TO MAUI TOURNAMENT INFORMATION The SportMaster Tennis Championships of Maui comes to Maui for the first time as part Site: The Royal Lahaina Resort of a dual event; Maui is also hosting a men’s Maui, Hawaii $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit Challenger this Getty Images week. This is the first $50,000 USTA Pro Websites: www.tennischampionshipsofmaui.com Circuit women’s event of the 2016 season. procircuit.usta.com Facebook: USTA Hawaii Pacific Section This tournament will be streamed live on www.procircuit.usta.com. To follow Twitter: @TCofM the tournament, download the USTA Pro Qualifying Draw Begins: Sunday, Jan. 24 Circuit’s new phone app for smartphones and tablets by searching “procircuit” in the Main Draw Begins: Tuesday, Jan. 26 Apple and Google Play stores. Main Draw: 32 Singles / 16 Doubles Notable players competing in Maui include: Surface: Hard / Outdoor Prize Money: $50,000 Samantha Crawford, who competed in this year’s Australian Open for the first time after Tournament Director: winning the USTA Pro Circuit Australian Ron Romano, (808) 277-0089 Open Wild Card Challenge in the fall of [email protected] 2015. She is currently ranked a career-high Tournament Press Contact: No. 107 in the world after a strong start to Ryan Trujillo, (808) 203-9799 2016 in Australia, which included reaching her first WTA semifinal, as a qualifier in [email protected] Samantha Crawford competed in this year’s Brisbane. At the end of 2015, Crawford won Australian Open for the first time after winning USTA Communications Contact: her first career USTA Pro Circuit singles title the USTA Pro Circuit Australian Open Wild Amanda Korba, (914) 697-2219 at the $50,000 event in Scottsdale, Ariz. Card Challenge in the fall. She is ranked a career-high No. 107 in the world. [email protected] Crawford also won the USTA Pro Circuit’s US Open Wild Card Challenge in 2015, PRIZE MONEY / POINTS securing a spot in the US Open main draw for the second time in her career. In 2012, SINGLES: Prize Money Ranking Points Crawford won the US Open girls’ singles title Winner $7,600 80 and qualified for the women’s singles main Runner-Up $4,053 48 USTA draw as a qualifying wild card. She has also Semifinalist $2,216 29 competed in the US Open women’s doubles Quarterfinalist $1,267 15 draw three times (2011-12, 2014). At Round 16 $760 8 6-foot-2, Crawford’s big serve and aggressive Round 32 $444 1 baseline game helped her rise to No. 5 in DOUBLES: Prize Money (per team) the ITF World Junior Rankings in 2012. Winner $2,786 Runner-Up $1,393 Sachia Vickery, who peaked at a career-high Semifinalist $696 No. 108 in the world in July 2015 after Quarterfinalist $380 qualifying for Wimbledon. She also received Round 16 $254 a wild card into the 2015 US Open. Also in 2015, Vickery advanced to the quarterfinals of the WTA’s Wimbledon tune-up event in Nottingham, Great Britain, and won Sachia Vickery peaked at a career-high No. 108 in the world in July 2015 after qualifying for Wimbledon. She also received a wild card into the 2015 US Open. *Player field subject to change TOURNAMENT NOTES the first two career USTA Pro Circuit singles titles of her career singles final at Wimbledon. at the $25,000 Florida events in Plantation and Sunrise. Vickery has competed in the US Open, Wimbledon, and the Australian Nicole Vaidisova, the former world No. 7 who retired from pro Open main draws in her young career. She earned a main-draw tennis in 2010 before launching her comeback on the USTA Pro wild card into the 2014 Australian Open by winning the USTA’s Circuit in fall 2014. In just her second tournament back, Vaidisova Australian Open Wild Card Playoff. That same year, she reached reached the quarterfinals of the $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in the quarterfinals at the Emirates Airline US Open Series event in Las Vegas. She followed that up by reaching the semifinals at the Stanford, Calif.—her first WTA quarterfinal. In 2013, Vickery won $100,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Midland, Mich., in 2015, and the USTA National Girls’ 18s singles and doubles titles, earning last summer she reached the quarters at two ITF Pro Circuit events wild cards into the main draws of the singles and doubles events at in Europe. For her career, Vaidisova has won six WTA singles titles the 2013 US Open. At the Open, she won her first-round match in and reached the semifinals of the 2007 Australian Open and the her Grand Slam debut, defeating Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in straight 2006 French Open, upsetting No. 1 seed Amelie Mauresmo in the sets. As a junior, Vickery ascended to No. 6 in the ITF World Junior fourth round and Venus Williams in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros. Rankings. She is coached by USTA National Coaches Kathy Rinaldi Vaidisova has also represented the Czech Republic in Fed Cup. and Anibal Aranda. Jessica Pegula, who played in just one tournament in 2014 after Tournament wild card Christina McHale, whose breakout season having knee surgery, but is on the comeback trail after qualifying came in 2012, when she became the youngest member of the U.S. for the 2015 US Open and winning her first-round match in her Olympic tennis team (four days younger than fellow 20-year-old Ryan first-ever Grand Slam main draw. Also in 2015, Pegula qualified for Harrison) and reached the third round of three Grand Slam events the WTA event in Charleston, S.C., and reached the quarterfinals that year. In turn, she peaked at No. 24 in the world. In 2011, at two $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit events, in Dothan, Ala., and McHale established herself as the second-highest ranked American Kirkland, Wash. Ala. She also reached the final round of qualifying behind Serena Williams and became the youngest player in the at Wimbledon and the French Open in 2015. Pegula achieved a WTA Top 50 after defeating world No. 9 Marion Bartoli en route to career breakthrough in 2013 by qualifying for and reaching the third the third round of the US Open. She also won the bronze medal round of the WTA event in Charleston. She also qualified for the WTA in singles and the silver in doubles (w/ Irina Falconi) at the 2011 events in Shenzhen, China, and Washington, D.C., climbing to a Pan Am Games. In 2015, McHale advanced to the semifinals in career-best No. 123 in the world that year. Pegula has enjoyed even Tokyo and the second round of the Australian Open and Wimbledon. greater success in doubles, competing in the US Open doubles main In 2014, she advanced to her first career WTA singles final in draw in 2011, 2012 and 2015 and peaking at No. 92 in the world Acapulco, Mexico, and the semifinals in Seoul and Strasbourg. in the doubles rankings in February 2013. Pegula’s father, Terry, is McHale made her debut for the U.S. Fed Cup team in the 2010 the owner of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres and the NFL’s Buffalo Bills. quarterfinals and holds a 4-5 record in Fed Cup play (all singles), last playing in the 2015 World Group Playoff in Italy. As a junior, Julia Boserup, who qualified for and reached the quarterfinals of the McHale swept the singles and doubles titles at the 2009 USTA Girls’ WTA event in Monterrey, Mexico, in April 2014 for her career-best WTA 18s National Championships to earn wild cards into the US Open. result. In addition, following the 2014 US Open, she reached the That year, she also earned a wild card into the main draw of the quarterfinals or better at three $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit events. In Australian Open by winning a USTA wild card playoff. McHale lived her career, Boserup has competed in qualifying at the US Open and in Hong Kong from ages 3 to 8 after her father’s job was transferred, Australian Open, and she has won three USTA Pro Circuit singles and began playing tennis on the courts in the family’s Hong Kong titles, including the $25,000 event in Raleigh, N.C., in 2015— apartment complex. her first USTA Pro Circuit title since 2012, when she achieved a career-best singles ranking of No. 174. In fall 2015, Boserup won Taylor Townsend, the former world junior No. 1. Townsend was a top the doubles title at the $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Las storyline at the 2014 French Open, where she made her Grand Slam Vegas and reached the singles semifinals at the $75,000 event in main-draw debut and advanced to the third round. She competed in Albuquerque, N.M., and in Macon, Ga. Boserup was a standout the French Open as a wild card after winning the 2014 Har-Tru USTA junior, winning the prestigious Orange Bowl in 2008, defeating U.S. Pro Circuit Wild Card Challenge, taking the challenge with victories Olympian Christina McHale in the final. at two $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit clay-court events: Charlottesville, Va., and Indian Harbour Beach, Fla. Those were the first two USTA Maria Sanchez, who peaked at No. 107 in the world in July 2013 Pro Circuit titles of her career.