Locals Loeb and Chirico Receive U.S. Open Qualifying Wild Cards

August 15, 2013 | By New York Tennis Magazine Staff
Photo credit: Adam Wolfthal

The USTA has announced that 2013 Wimbledon junior singles quarterfinalist, 18-year-old Jamie Loeb of Ossining, N.Y., and French Open and Wimbledon girls singles semifinalist, 17-year-old Louisa Chirico of Harrison, N.Y. were among those who received a 2013 U.S. Open Qualifying Tournament wild card entry. The U.S. Open Qualifying Tournament will be held Aug. 20-23 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

Others receiving 2013 U.S. Open qualifying wild cards are: Jan Abaza (18, Deerfield Beach, Fla.), who has won two pro doubles titles in 2013; Brooke Austin (17, Indianapolis, Ind.), a USTA Girls’ 18s National Championships semifinalist; Victoria Duval (18, Delray Beach, Fla.), the 2012 USTA Girls’ 18s national champion; Allie Kiick (18, Plantation, Fla.), USTA Girls’ 18s National Championships singles runner-up and doubles champion each of the last two years; Brianna Morgan (19, Beverly Hills, Calif.), a freshman at Florida this year who won her first pro singles title in June; and Taylor Townsend (17, Chicago), who made history in 2012 as the first American girl in 30 years to hold the year-end number one world junior ranking. 

The USTA has also announced that that two-time NCAA singles champion Nicole Gibbs, U.S. Fed Cup team member Vania King, rising young Americans Alison Riske, Shelby Rogers and Maria Sanchez and USTA Girls’ 18s national champion Sachia Vickery are among those receiving wild-card entries into the 2013 U.S. Open Main Draw. Australia’s Ashleigh Barty and France’s Pauline Parmentier also will receive U.S. Open main draw wild cards. The 2013 U.S. Open will be played Aug. 26-Sept. 9 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. Both the men’s and women’s singles champions this year will earn $2.6 million, the largest payout in tennis history, with the ability to earn an additional $1 million in bonus prize money – for a total $3.6 million potential payout – based on their performances in the Emirates Airline U.S. Open Series.

Gibbs, 20, of Santa Monica, Calif., won her second consecutive NCAA singles title this year as a junior at Stanford. Gibbs turned pro this summer and won the singles title at the USTA Pro Circuit $50,000 event in Yakima, Wash., ascending to a career-high rank of 166th. She is now ranked 172nd.

King, 24, of Boynton Beach, Fla., has finished in the Top 100 each of the past four years. Once ranked 50th in the world, King won her first WTA singles titles as a teenager in Bangkok in 2006 and has represented the U.S. in Fed Cup eight times from 2006 to 2011. This year, she qualified for both the French Open and Wimbledon, reaching the second round at Roland Garros.

Riske, 23, of Pittsburgh, reached the semifinals of the WTA event in Birmingham, England, this summer, where all of her WTA main draw wins had come to that point. Then, after receiving a wild card into the Wimbledon main draw, she reached the third round there and broke into the Top 100 for the first time shortly thereafter. She is now ranked 98th.

Sanchez, 23, of Modesto, Calif., once was the number one-ranked college singles player at the University of Southern California and has been hovering around the Top 100 much of this year. Now ranked 113th, Sanchez won singles titles at both $75,000 and $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit events in 2012.

Rogers, 20, of Charleston, S.C., earned her U.S. Open wild card as the top American points earner at select USTA Pro Circuit hard-court events this summer. Rogers, who earned a USTA wild card into the 2013 French Open the same way and reached the second round at Roland Garros, has won two USTA Pro Circuit $50,000 titles in 2013. She is ranked 132nd.

Vickery, 18, of Hollywood, Fla., received a U.S. Open wild card after winning the USTA Girls 18s National Championships singles title. Formerly the number six-ranked junior in the world, Vickery is now at a career-high pro ranking of 229th. She trains at the USTA Player Development Headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla.

Barty, 17, of Ipswich, Australia, received a wild card through a reciprocal agreement with Tennis Australia, which will grant an American a wild card into the 2014 Australian Open, to be determined by a USTA playoff. The 2011 Wimbledon girls’ singles champion, Barty was a women’s doubles finalist at both Wimbledon and the Australian Open this year.

Parmentier, 27, of Paris, France, received her wild card through a reciprocal agreement with the French Tennis Federation, which awarded a wild card into the 2013 French Open to an American player designated by the USTA. A former Top 40 player, Parmentier reached the third round of the 2012 US Open and has been in the Top 100 for most of 2013.
 


New York Tennis Magazine Staff
Centercourt
USTA NTC

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