Mitchell Frank will face Thanasi Kokkinakis on Saturday in a matchup of top young players in the first round of qualifying for the inaugural $50,000 Napa Valley Challenger at the Napa Valley Country Club.
The match will follow the 10 a.m. encounter between wild cards Robert Stineman of Stanford and Matt Seeberger, a former UC Santa Cruz star, on the Stadium Court.
Frank gave the University of Virginia its first NCAA team title in tennis last May. Now a junior, the Annandale, Va., resident saved a championship point in a 0-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory over Adrien Puget of UCLA at No. 3 singles.
Kokkinakis, 17, of Australia this year reached the boys singles final in the Australian Open and U.S. Open and won the boys doubles title at Wimbledon with countryman Nick Kyrgios.
Frank's teammate, sophomore Mac Styslinger, will play in the next match on the Stadium Court. Styslinger, who won the NCAA doubles title with Jarmere Jenkins, will play wild card Philip Holbrook of Napa.
At 10 a.m. on Court 7, Stanford teammates Jamin Ball and Anthony Tsodikov will meet. Both are wild cards.
Seeberger won a record eight NCAA Division III titles (two team, three singles and three doubles) at UC Santa Cruz.
Here are links to the qualifying draw and Saturday's schedule:
http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/qualifying_draw285.PDF
http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/schedule288.PDF
Veteran journalist Paul Bauman, based in Sacramento, covers Northern California professional, collegiate and junior tennis. Contact him at norcaltennisczar@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @norcaltenczar.
No comments:
Post a Comment