ATP Winston-Salem Open Qualies - Saturday Part I

It has been a while since my last post, slacking I know.  Yesterday, I made my annual trip to the ATP 250 event in Winston-Salem.  If you recall, it is at the same facility as the Winston-Salem futures held earlier this summer.  But unlike the lower tournament, this event is much better organized, has bigger crowd and higher profile players. World No.11 and WC recipient, Gilles Simon of France is the top seed and 18 year old Croatian Borna Coric rounds out the Top 8 with an ATP ranking of 38.  The other three wildcards went to former World No.2 Tommy Haas of Germany, 2nd seed Kevin Anderson (RSA), and 18 year old American Jared Donaldson.  For full draw.

Map of the tournament

Qualifying Saturday is the best day of the tournament in my opinion.  Both Qualifying Round 1 and 2 are played on the same day so spectators get their money's worth.  However, because there are so many matches going on at the same time, five to be exact, it is tough to watch everything.  So I made a list of what I wanted to see beforehand.

2015 AO Qualifying in Pictures

Fourteen American men and four American women participated in the 2015 Australian Open qualifications, but only three successfully made it to the main draw.  Thirty-six year old Michael Russell, who declared 2015 as his last professional season,  27 year old Tim Smyczek, and the former Georgian representative, Anna Tatishvili, won three matches for a chance to compete with the best.  Nine men and three women claimed 1st round victories, six advanced to the final qualifying round including Jarmere Jenkins, Alex Kuznetsov, Chase Buchanan, and Alexa Glatch.  In the main draw, Smyczek draws wildcard and 2012 Junior AO winner, Luke Saville of Australia.  Russell gets No. 20 David Goffin (BEL) and Tatishvili opens her campaign against 44 year old Japanese, Kimiko Date-Krumm.  USA has a total of 24 players (7 men and 17 women) in the singles main events, spearhead by John Isner and World No. 1 Serena Williams.