Kozlov Defeats Harrison for First Challenger Win; Qualifying Underway at ITA All-American Championships

Sixteen-year-old Stefan Kozlov received a wild card into the main draw of the $100,000 Sacramento Challenger, and he made the most of it, defeating Ryan Harrison 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 in a first round match today.  Kozlov had won a qualifying match this year at the US Open, beating Mitchell Frank of Virginia in the first round, and he had won a qualifying match at the Lexington Challenger this summer, but he had not posted a main draw win above the Futures level in his career until today. 

Harrison, who lost to 17-year-old Jared Donaldson last week, is in a terrible slump, having won only two matches since April-one in the Nottingham Challenger and one in the Winston-Salem 250.  His ATP ranking, at 106 this time last year, has fallen to 183. 

Kozlov's second round opponent is the winner of Tuesday's match between JP Smith(Tennessee) and Bradley Klahn(Stanford).  In the final round of qualifying today, Mitchell Frank and Alexander Ritschard of Virginia lost, with Liam Broady, Eric Quigley(Kentucky), Dimitar Kutrovsky(Texas) and Marcos Giron(UCLA) reaching the main draw.  Other first round winners were Denis Kudla, James Magee(NC State) and Rhyne Williams(Tennessee).  Sam Querrey and Tim Smyczek, last week's finalists in Napa, are the top two seeds again this week in Sacramento.

The only women's Pro Circuit action in the United States this week is the $10,000 tournament in Hilton Head.  Qualifying is still underway there, but the draw is out, with 20-year-old Jessica Pegula making her first appearance of the year after being out due to knee surgery. She is the No. 4 seed. 

Prequalifying finished yesterday for the ITA Riviera All-American in California and the St. Francis All-American in Oklahoma, and the men began their qualifying today, with a 128-draw that will produce 16 qualifiers by Wednesday.  The pre qualifying draw was 256, with some of the competitors required to win four matches in two days just to get into the qualifying.  Eleven of those 16 went on to win their first qualifying match today, and they will be right back on the courts Tuesday for another round.  Three of the top four qualifying seeds lost in today's first round: No. 1 Jeremy Efferding(Texas A&M), No. 2 Max DeVroome(USC) and No. 4 Ben Wagland(Georgia).  Wayne Montgomery, who was not seeded but had been undefeated in his brief career at Georgia this fall, lost to Ben Lott of Drake.

Complete draws can be found at the ITA hub page.

The women's draw is smaller, with a 64-draw for the pre qualifying, but no byes for seeds.  Of the eight pre qualifiers on the women's side, only one, top seed Lynn Kiro of Texas Tech, managed to win three matches over the weekend to earn a spot in the qualifying. The women had today off, with their three rounds of qualifying starting on Tuesday. Two matches will be played Tuesday and the final round will be Wednesday, with eight qualifiers reaching the main draw.  The women's main draw is a 32-draw; the men's is 64. Ronit Yurovsky of Michigan and Taylor Davidson of Stanford are the top two seeds in qualifying.

Complete draws can be found on the ITA hub page.