AMERICAN AMANDA ANISIMOVA ADVANCES TO MAIN DRAW
AT ORACLE CHALLENGER SERIES IN NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF.
Main Draw Matches to Begin Monday at 10 a.m. at Newport Beach Tennis Club

Newport Beach, Calif. – (January 21, 2018) – Sixteen-year-old Amanda Anisimova of Aventura, Fla., advanced to the main draw of the Oracle Challenger Series as she breezed past fellow American Danielle Lao 6-1, 6-0 in 68 minutes in the final round of qualifying at the Newport Beach Tennis Club.

Anisimova, who won the 2017 US Open Junior Girls’ singles title without dropping a set, is currently ranked No. 182 in the WTA singles rankings. She will meet fellow American Irina Falconi on Monday in her first-round main draw singles match.

A second-round qualifying match between two former local collegiate stars highlighted action in the men’s draw. Dennis Novikov, who played for UCLA, took on Raymond Sarmiento, a former five-time All-American at USC.

Novikov, currently ranked No. 238 in the ATP World Tour singles rankings, used his overpowering serve to overcome Sarmiento 7-5, 6-1 in 61 minutes. The former UCLA Bruin broke Sarmiento in the 12^th game to win the first set and then wrapped up the second set in 19 minutes. He dropped only 9 points on his serve during the match.

“We’ve played a few times. It’s always usually a tight match. He’s a good player. You had to come out and play well today and that’s what I did,” Novikov said. “I made a lot of first serves and kept the points short. I’m looking forward to the last (qualifying) round.”

Novikov will face Daniel Elahi Galan of Colombia in a final round qualifying match scheduled for 10 a.m. on Monday on Court No. 2.

Men’s top seed Kei Nishikori of Japan will play his first-round main draw singles match on Tuesday against a qualifier. Tuesday’s Order of Play will be released on Monday afternoon.

The Oracle Challenger Series – Newport Beach is free to spectators. Matches begin at 10 a.m. each day of the tournament. General Admission tickets will be distributed on a first come, first served basis at the Newport Beach Tennis Club starting at 9 a.m. Tickets will not be available in advance. Individual spectators will be permitted up to two tickets at the time of entry.

Ticket availability updates during the tournament, are available on Twitter at @OracleChallngrs and Facebook at www.facebook.com/OracleChallngrs/

For Monday’s men’s Order of Play, click here.
For Monday’s women’s Order of Play, click here.
For men’s singles main draw, click here.
For women’s singles main draw, click here.
For men’s doubles draw, click here.
For women’s doubles draw, click here.
For men’s singles qualifying draw, click here.
For women’s’ singles qualifying draw, click here.
For live scoring, go to: http://oraclechallengerseries.com/

Men
Qualifying Singles
Second Round
G. Olaso (ESP) d [1] B. Schnur (CAN) 46 64 64
[3] D. Novikov (USA) d R. Sarmiento (USA) 75 61
[7] D. Galan (COL) d R. Shane (USA) 75 67(4) 62
[8] M. Giron (USA) d R. Statham (NZL) 46 76(3) 63
J. Aragone (USA) d [WC] L. Bambridge (GBR) 61 76(4)
[WC] T. Fawcett (USA) d C. Eubanks (USA) 76(3) 63
J. Hiltzik (USA) d A. Gonzalez (COL) 64 75
C. Garin (CHI) d S. Fanselow (GER) 61 64

First Round
[WC] T. Fawcett (USA) d [2] J. Jung (TPE) 36 75 62

Women
Singles Qualifying
Final Round
[9] E. Kostova (BUL) d [1] C. Dolehide (USA) 64 64
[2] M. Bouzkova (CZE) d C. Ferrando (ITA) 63 26 62
[3] S. Zhuk (RUS) d [WC] S. Santamaria (USA) 64 75
[4] A. Anisimova (USA) d [8] D. Lao (USA) 61 60
[5] D. Seguel (CHI) d [10] A. Hesse (FRA) 64 75
[11] M. Hibi (JPN) d G. Olmos (MEX) 46 60 62