Frances Tiafoe Leads List of Kalamazoo Wild Cards

Just a quick news flash after a long day of travel back home from Wimbledon.

Kalamazoo's Stowe Stadium

While I was in London, the acceptances for the Nationals came out and wild cards have been awarded, although I have seen only Boys 16s and 18s at this time. There is no qualifying as there was last year, with the draw going back to 192.

The boys 18s field here in Kalamazoo will feature ITF World No. 1 junior Taylor Fritz, French Open champion Tommy Paul, Wimbledon champion Reilly Opelka, ITF No. 3 Michael Mmoh, No. 10 William Blumberg, as well as Stefan Kozlov, Nathan Ponwith and Alex Rybakov. Frances Tiafoe was not initially included in the acceptances, but has accepted a wild card. The eighth wild card will go to the winner of next week's wild card tournament in Texas.  The Kalamazoo wild cards:

18s

John Jorgeson

Eduardo Nava

Dennis Uspensky

Vasil Kirkov

Mwendwa Mbithi

Logan Smith

Frances Tiafoe

16s

Sean Hill 

Alexandre Rotsaert 

Matthew Rodriguez

TBA

The girls 18s field is strong, although perhaps not reaching the boys level. Usue Arconada, Michaela Gordon, Caroline Dolehide and Sonya Kenin, all in the ITF Top 25, are entered, as are Tornado Alicia Black, Kelly Chen, Claire Liu, Francesca Di Lorenzo and Ingrid Neel.

Katerina Stewart and CiCi Bellis, both inside the WTA Top 200, did not enter.