LI’s Rubin, Former Champ Wawrinka Headline US Open Men’s Singles Wild Cards

August 15, 2018 | By Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
Noah Rubin (33)_crop
Photo Credit: Brian Coleman/LI Tennis Magazine

 

Former US Open champion Stan Wawrinka, Americans Tim SmyczekMichael MmohNoah Rubin, 2018 USTA Boys’ 18s National Champion Jenson Brooksby and US Open Wild Card Challenge winner Bradley Klahn have been awarded men’s singles main draw wild cards into the 2018 US Open. Nineteen-year old Frenchman Corentin Moutet was awarded a main draw wild card by the French Tennis Federation as part of its reciprocal agreement with the USTA, and Tennis Australia awarded its reciprocal agreement main draw wild card to Jason Kubler.

The 2018 US Open main draw will be played Aug. 27-Sept. 9 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 $3.8 million.

Wawrinka, 33, of Switzerland, is a three-time Grand Slam champion, winning the US Open in 2016. The former world No. 3 is currently in the midst of a comeback from a knee injury that forced him to miss the opportunity to defend his title in 2017. Wawrinka has won 16 career titles, including victories at Roland Garros in 2015 and Wimbledon in 2014. He is currently ranked No. 151.

Smyczek, 30, of Milwaukee, Wis., is making his seventh appearance in the US Open main draw. Once ranked as high as world No. 68, he is currently ranked No. 108. He reached the semifinals of the ATP 250 event in Newport, R.I., earlier this summer, as well as the second round of the Australian Open in January.

Mmoh, 20, of Bradenton, Fla., is ranked No. 133. He is making his second US Open main draw appearance after receiving a wild card in 2016 for winning the singles title at the USTA Boys’ 18s National Championships. He earned his first two ATP-level wins at the ATP event in Brisbane, Australia in January. This summer, Mmoh qualified for the main draw at Wimbledon and reached the quarterfinals of the ATP 250 event in Los Cabos, Mexico.

Rubin, 22, of Long Island, N.Y., is currently ranked a career-best No. 139. He returns to the US Open main draw for the second time, after receiving a wild card in 2014 as the USTA Boys’ 18s national champion, the same year he won the Wimbledon boys’ singles title. Rubin’s 2018 season includes a title at the $75,000 USTA Pro Circuit Challenger in Tallahassee, Fla., which clinched him the Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge and a berth in the French Open main draw.    

Brooksby, 17, of Sacramento, Calif., earned the wild card allotted to the USTA Boys’ 18s national champion. He has been successful at nearly every rung of USTA junior competition, having won the 12s national singles title, been the runner-up at the 16s level, and won the 18s singles title at the prestigious Easter Bowl junior tournament earlier this year. Brooksby is committed to play college tennis at Texas Christian University. 

Klahn, 27, of Poway, Calif., is a former NCAA champion and currently ranked No. 102. He made his last appearance in the main draw of the US Open in 2014, the year he rose to No. 63 in the world. Multiple back surgeries then kept him out of the game from February 2015 to November 2016, during which he contemplated retirement, before eventually returning to competition on the USTA Pro Circuit. He qualified and reached the second round at Wimbledon this summer, marking his first Grand Slam main draw appearance since 2014.

Moutet, 19, of Boulogne-Billancourt, received his wild card as part of the USTA’s reciprocal agreement with the French Tennis Federation that allowed Noah Rubin to make his Grand Slam main draw debut at Roland Garros this year. Moutet is ranked No. 112.

Kubler, 25, of Brisbane, received his wild card as part of the USTA’s reciprocal agreement with Tennis Australia, which allowed Tim Smyczek to play in January’s Australian Open. He is ranked No. 109.

The USTA also announced the nine men who have been awarded wild card entries into the US Open Qualifying Tournament, which will be held Aug. 21-24 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center as the anchor event of US Open Fan Week, a series of events and activations taking place both at the grounds of the US Open as well as at the US Open Experience at Brookfield Place, in Manhattan.

Donald Young (29, Atlanta), the former world No. 36, is joined by former collegians Chris Eubanks (22, Atlanta), a two-time All-American at Georgia Tech; JC Aragone (23, Yorba Linda, Calif.), a three-time national champion at the University of Virginia, who utilized a 2017 US Open qualifying wild card to reach his first-career Grand Slam main draw; Martin Redlicki (22, Boca Raton, Fla.), a two-time NCAA doubles champion; Dennis Novikov (24, San Jose, Calif.), who played two seasons at UCLA and is trying to reach the US Open main draw for the first time since 2012, and Tom Fawcett (22, Winnetka, Ill.), a three-time All-American at Stanford University and the winner of the 2017 American Collegiate Invitational.Ulises Blanch (20, Pompano Beach, Fla.), the former world No. 2 junior player, Sebastian Korda (18, Bradenton, Fla.), the reigning Australian Open boys’ singles champion, andBrandon Nakashima (17, San Diego), the 2018 USTA Boys’ 18s National Championships runner-up, round out the qualifying wild cards.

 


Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
Bethpage
Century

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