Townsend Headlines U.S. Open Women’s Wild Card Recipients

The USTA has announced that former world number one junior Taylor Townsend, 2011 U.S. Open Junior Champion Grace Min, two-time NCAA singles champion Nicole Gibbs, 2014 NCAA singles champion Danielle Collins, former Wimbledon and Australian Open junior finalist Madison Brengle and USTA Girls 18s National Champion CiCi Bellis have been awarded women’s main draw wild card entries into the 2014 U.S. Open. Australia’s Jarmila Gajdosova and France’s Amandine Hesse will also receive wild cards.

The 2014 U.S. Open will be played Aug. 25-Sept. 8 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y. Both the men’s and women’s singles champions this year will earn $3 million, with the ability to earn an additional $1 million in bonus prize money–for a total $4 million potential payout–based on their performances in the Emirates Airline U.S. Open Series.

The 18-year-old Townsend of Chicago is currently ranked a career-high 125th in the world. She reached the third round of the French Open this year, as a wild card, in her Grand Slam main draw debut. She won the Har-Tru USTA Pro Circuit Wild Card Challenge to earn her entry into Roland Garros, winning singles titles at two USTA Pro Circuit $50,000 events this April. As a junior, Townsend won the 2012 Australian Open Girls Title and was the year-end world number one in 2012, the first American girl to accomplish that feat in 30 years.

Min, 20, of Atlanta, is currently ranked a career-high 106th in the WTA Rankings. She reached her first WTA semifinal this July in Bad Gastein, Austria, after qualifying for the French Open and falling in a tight, first-round match to Spain’s Garbine Muguruza, who defeated Serena Williams in the next round. Min, the 2011 U.S. Open Girls Champion, won two USTA Pro Circuit titles this year, at a $50,000 event in Dothan, Ala., and a $25,000 event in Innisbrook, Fla.

Gibbs, who is 21 years of age and hails from Santa Monica, Calif., earned her wild card as the top American points earner at select USTA Pro Circuit events this summer, winning the $50,000 event in Carson, Calif., and reaching the final of the $50,000 tournament in Lexington, Ky. She is currently ranked a career-high 141st in the world. Gibbs is appearing in her third straight U.S. Open as a wild card. She competed in each of the last two U.S. Opens as the NCAA Singles Champion, at Stanford, where she became the fifth player in history to win back-to-back NCAA singles titles.

Collins, 20, of St. Petersburg, Fla., won the NCAA singles title this year as a sophomore at the University of Virginia, the program’s first-ever NCAA singles champion. She went 37-10 in singles last year (21-5 against ranked opponents) to earn Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-America honors.

Brengle, 24, of Dover, Del., is ranked a career-high 115th in the world after a successful stretch on the USTA Pro Circuit in which she won the $50,000 event in Lexington, Ky., and reached the semifinals of the $100,000 tournament in Vancouver, B.C. As a junior, Brengle advanced to the girls singles finals at both Wimbledon and the Australian Open in 2007.

Bellis, 15, of Atherton, Calif., earned her wild card as the USTA’s Girls 18s National Champion. Bellis, the number two-ranked girl in the world, is the youngest USTA Girls 18s National Champion since Lindsay Davenport also won the title at 15 in 1991.

Gajdosova, 27, earned her U.S. Open wild card through a reciprocal agreement with Tennis Australia, which will grant an American a wild card into the 2015 Australian Open. Gajdosova, a former world 25th who reached the fourth round of the French Open and Wimbledon in 2010, recently won the USTA Pro Circuit $100,000 event in Vancouver, B.C.

Hesse, 21, of Vaucresson, France, earned her U.S. Open wild card through a reciprocal agreement with the French Tennis Federation. Hesse won two $25,000 pro circuit singles titles in 2013.

In addition to the eight U.S. Open women’s singles main draw wild cards, the USTA also announced the eight women who have been awarded wild card entries into the U.S. Open Qualifying Tournament, which will be held Aug. 19-22 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. One additional U.S. Open qualifying wild card will be awarded to the winner of the 2014 U.S. Open National Playoffs–Women’s Championship, taking place Aug. 15-18 in New Haven, Conn.

Players receiving U.S. Open qualifying wild cards are: Tornado Alicia Black (16, Boca Raton, Fla.), the USTA Girls 18s runner-up who also reached the U.S. Open Junior final last year; Jennifer Brady (19, Boca Raton, Fla.), the Pac-12 Singles Champion who helped UCLA win the NCAA team title this year, as a freshman; Samantha Crawford (19, Atlanta), the 2012 U.S. Open Junior Champion; Asia Muhammad (23, Long Beach, Calif.), who recently reached the semifinals of the $100,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Vancouver, B.C.; Bernarda Pera (19, North Haledon, N.J.), who has won five pro circuit singles titles in the last two years; Maria Sanchez (24, Los Angeles), formerly the top-ranked college singles player while at USC; Katerina Stewart (17, Coral Gables, Fla.), the USTA Girls 18s National Clay Court Champion; and France’s Fiona Ferro (17, Valbonne, France), who earned her qualifying spot through a reciprocal agreement with the French Tennis Federation.