Charlottesville Challenger Preview

On the campus of the University of Virginia, so naturally this $75K Challenger is featuring a lot of Virginia Cavalier players (both current and former). So with 6 wildcard spots available in the qualifying singles draw, current Cavalier players took 4 of them. These players are JC Aragone, Jordan Daigle, Harrison Richmond and Ryan Shane. Shane was the only one to win the first round, as he took out Richmond. The other two wildcards went to USTA National Champion Collin Altamirano and former NC State player Ronald Powell. Both of them lost their first round match as well. 2012 USTA National Champion Dennis Novikov won his first round match, along with the runner-up from that year, Alexios Halebian, moving on too. USA's Kevin King was the only other American to advance past the first round of qualifying.



Looking ahead to the main draw, American Tim Smyczek is the top seed in the field of 32. Former Virginia Cavalier from India Somdev Devvarman is the 2 seed. He won the NCAA Singles title in 2006 and 2007. Here are the rest of the seeds:

1. Tim Smyczek, USA
2. Somdev Devvarman, IND
3. Michael Russell, USA
4. Donald Young, USA
5. Rajeev Ram, USA
6. Alex Kuznetsov, USA
7. Rhyne Williams, USA
8. Steve Johnson, USA

Former NCAA Doubles champion Chase Buchanan (Ohio State) is in the field as well, coming off a quarterfinal showing at the Montgomery Futures. He will play another NCAA Doubles champion in Austin Krajicek in the first round (Texas A&M). Rising starts Filip Peliwo (Canada) and Bjorn Fratenjelo (USA) have both won a junior grand slam in singles and will play each other in the first round.

The wildcards for the main draw are Virginia's Mac Styslinger and Mitchell Frank, former Cavalier player Jarmere Jenkins, and Noah Rubin (a 17 year old from New York). Styslinger and Jenkins won the NCAA Doubles Championship together and ironically will square off in the first round of the singles. Frank won the ITA-All American Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma earlier this fall and after a hand injury (by running into a scoreboard at Tulsa) that kept him out from playing any more tournaments, his hand must be recovered now.

The doubles draw will be released within the next few days, and will possibly see Styslinger and Jenkins make a run at it again? Perhaps not but we will see.