TournamenT noTes as of september 20, 2010 AMELIA ISLAND WOMEN’S $10K AMELIA ISLAND, FL • SEPTEMBER 26–OCTOBER 3 PROFESSIONAL WOMEN’S TENNIS RETURNS TO AMELIA ISLAND TournamenT InFormaTIon The Amelia Island Women’s $10K debuts in 2010, one year after the city adopted a USTA Pro Circuit men’s futures event. Amelia Cynthia Lum Site: Amelia Island Plantation – Amelia Island, Fla. Island played host to a Sony Ericsson WTA Website: procircuit.usta.com Tour event from 1980 through 2008, with Maria Sharapova winning the very last Bausch Qualifying draw begins: Sunday, September 26 & Lomb Championships. The Amelia Island Main draw begins: Tuesday, September 28 Women’s $10K is the seventh and final USTA Pro Circuit women’s event in Florida this year. Main Draw: 32 Singles / 16 Doubles Surface: Clay / Outdoor This year’s main draw is expected to feature 15-year-old Madison Keys, who burst onto Prize Money: $10,000 the scene less than two months after turning Tournament Director: 14 when she took a wild card into the Sony Kelly Gunterman, (802) 345-9842 Ericsson WTA Tour event in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., and, in her tour-level debut, Fifteen-year-old Madison Keys won her first [email protected] tour-level match in 2009 and her first defeated world No. 81 Alla Kudryavtseva. In professional title earlier this season, capturing a Tournament Press Contact: 2010, Keys has won her first professional $10,000 USTA Pro Circuit championship Amy Tompkins, (914) 260-8407 singles title at a $10,000 USTA Pro Circuit in Cleveland. [email protected] event in Cleveland and also reached the semifinals of two $10,000 tournaments. Keys USTA Public Relations Contacts: reached the 2009 Dunlop Orange Bowl Girls’ Pro Circuit event in Atlanta in July; and UF Joshua Rey, (786) 554-5667, [email protected] 18s quarterfinals and won the 2007 Junior freshman Alexandra Cercone. Orange Bowl Girls’ 12s title. The entry list includes a trio of talented PrIze money / PoInTs Keys will be joined by one former and two 16-year-old Americans: Miami’s Chanelle SINGLES: Prize Money Ranking Points current Florida Gators: Alexis King, a mother Van Nguyen, who reached the semifinals Winner $1,568 12 of two and a three-time All-American who of the $10,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Runner-Up $980 8 played at the University of Florida from Evansville, Ind., and defeated Keys to win the Semifinalist $490 6 2001 to 2006, and reached back-to-back 2008 Dunlop Orange Bowl Girls’ 16s singles Quarterfinalist $245 4 $10,000 USTA Pro Circuit finals this summer title; Anna Mamalat, an ambidextrous junior Round 16 $196 1 in Sumter, S.C., and Hilton Head Island, who won the 2010 USTA International Grass Round 32 $98 - S.C., where she won the title; current UF Court Championships; and Catherine Harrison, who has used her two-handed forehand and DOUBLES: Prize Money (per team) sophomore Allie Will, who went 26-1 in backhand to qualify at USTA Pro Circuit Winner $637 singles and earned All-American honors $10,000 events this season in Landisville, Pa., Runner-Up $343 during her first season of collegiate tennis, Sumter, S.C., and Hilton Head Island, S.C. Semifinalist $196 and reached the final of the $10,000 USTA Quarterfinalist $98 Round 16 $49 The Amelia Island field also features former world No. 32 Olga Puchkova of Russia, who USTA reached Sony Ericsson WTA Tour finals in Kolkata and Québec City as a teenager in 2006, the same year she defeated eventual world No. 1s Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic; and former collegiate players Elizabeth Lumpkin (UCLA), Lena Litvak (Harvard), Joanne Schickerling (Indiana State), and Story Tweedie-Yates (Stanford & TCU). Jan Abaza won the USTA Florida Sectional Qualifying Tournament of the inaugural US Open National Playoffs. TournamenT noTes Receiving wild cards into the main draw are 6-foot-2 Courtney Spafford is scheduled to make her professional debut in the Amelia Island of Inverness, Fla., a pre-med major who recently completed her second qualifying tournament. The younger Sharapova reached her first singles season on the Hillsborough Community College tennis team; and Kate final at a hard-court event in Mexico last month. Another 15-year-old Vialle, a left-handed, five-star recruit ranked in the Top 50 of the USTA in Amelia Island this week who will try to qualify for her first pro main Girls’ 16s national rankings, who trains with Mike Wolf, coach of 2010 draw is Mia King, a singles semifinalist and doubles champion at the US Open boys’ singles champion Jack Sock. USTA Girls’ 16s International Spring Championships. Qualifying matches are expected to showcase two more members of the Others entered in qualifying are University of Georgia recruit Lauren University of Florida women’s tennis team: freshman Olivia Janowicz, Herring, who teamed with Grace Min to win the 2010 USTA Girls’ 18s who qualified at $10,000 USTA Pro Circuit events in Atlanta and National Championships doubles title; 2009 Dunlop Orange Bowl Girls’ Landisville, Pa; and junior Claire Bartlett, who won her last 11 singles 16s singles runner-up Kelsey Laurente; and Jan Abaza, who won the matches of the 2009-10 collegiate season. USTA Florida Sectional Qualifying Tournament of the inaugural US Open National Playoffs this year. Daria Sharapova of Belarus, the 15-year-old cousin of Maria Sharapova, USTA PRO CIRCUIT 30 MILLION PLAYERS With more than 90 tournaments throughout the country and prize money ranging from $10,000 to The USTA Pro Circuit serves as an integral part of the USTA’s $100,000, the USTA Pro Circuit is the pathway to the US Open and tour-level competition for aspiring mission to grow and develop tennis in the United States. In tennis players and a frequent battleground for established professionals. The USTA launched its Pro Circuit November 2009, the USTA and Tennis Industry Association 31 years ago to provide players with the opportunity to gain professional ranking points and has since announced that tennis participation in the United States topped grown to become the largest developmental tennis circuit in the world, offering more than $3 million in 30 million players for the first time in more than two decades prize money. Last year, more than 1,000 men and women from more than 70 countries competed in cities with participation growing in all age groups under the age nationwide. Maria Sharapova, Andy Roddick, James Blake, Andy Murray, Jelena Jankovic, Sam Querrey of 50 and within all ethnicities. Another survey conducted by and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga are among today’s top stars who began their careers on the USTA Pro Circuit. the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association last year also showed that tennis is the only traditional sport to enjoy growth In 2009, the USTA Pro Circuit helped launch in grass-roots participation. Melanie Oudin the careers of two young Americans— Melanie Oudin and John Isner. Oudin began 2009 ranked No. 177, but climbed NJTL the rankings by winning back-to-back $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit events. With a Cities across the country participate in the USTA/National Junior boost in confidence, she reached the fourth Tennis and Learning (NJTL) network, a nationwide network of round of Wimbledon and the quarterfinals community tennis organizations seeking to develop the character of the 2009 US Open. She is now the No. 3 of young people through both tennis and education. Founded American woman behind Venus and Serena by Arthur Ashe in 1969, more than 550 registered chapters/ Williams. Isner joined the USTA Pro Circuit programs exist throughout the nation with more than 220,000 after turning pro in 2007 and jump-started participants ages 6-18, making NJTL one of the USTA’s largest the best season of his career by winning community-based initiatives. the Tallahassee Challenger last year. Subsequently, he reached the semifinals at two Olympus US Open Series events and US OPEN NATIONAL PlayoffS upset Andy Roddick en route to the fourth round at the 2009 US Open. This year, Isner The USTA hosted the inaugural captured his first tour title and reached US Open National Playoffs this year, the fourth round of the Australian Open to making the US Open “open” to become the No. 2 American in men’s tennis. anyone age 14 and older and all skill levels. A total of 859 men and 373 women competed in 16 Sectional PLAYER DEVELOPMENT Qualifying Tournaments nationwide, with the winners squaring off in The USTA Player Development program identifies and develops the next generation of American champions Atlanta (men) and Stanford, Calif. (women) for wild cards into by surrounding the top junior players and young pros with the resources, facilities and coaching they need the 2010 US Open Qualifying Tournament. Blake Strode, 23, of to reach their maximum potential. The Player Development program is based at the USTA Training Center St. Louis, and Alexandra Mueller, 22, of Abington, Pa., won the Headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla., and also utilizes Training Centers in Carson, Calif., and Flushing, N.Y., as US Open National Playoffs and competed in this year’s US Open well as a series of Certified Regional Training Centers located throughout the continental United States. Qualifying Tournament. USTA PRO CIRCUIT PLAYER INFORMATION PLAYERS TO WATCH Kristie Ahn pg. 2 Michaella Krajicek (NED) pg. 6 Lauren Albanese Lindsay Lee-Waters Julia Boserup Varvara Lepchenko Madison Brengle Mirjana Lucic (CRO) Beatrice Capra Bethanie Mattek-Sands Mallory Cecil pg. 3 Christina McHale pg. 7 Julia Cohen Alexandra Mueller Kimberly Couts Asia Muhammad Jill Craybas Lilia Osterloh Julie Ditty Shenay Perry Stephanie Dubois (CAN) pg.