Usue Arconada Leads US Open Women’s Wild Card Challenge
Bjorn Fratangelo, Chris Eubanks, Maxime Cressy Tied for Men’s Lead
July 15, 2019 – Twenty-year-old Usue Arconada, a former Top-5 junior in the world, has the Week 1 lead in the women’s side of the US Open Wild Card Challenge after winning her third singles title of 2019 at the USTA Pro Circuit / ITF World Tennis Tour W60 event in Honolulu.
Arconada, who was recently named to participate in the Pan American Games later this month in Lima, Peru, collected 80 standings points by winning the Honolulu title over American Nicole Gibbs, who earned 48 points for reaching the singles final in her first tournament since undergoing treatment for a rare salivary gland cancer in May.
Bjorn Fratangelo, Chris Eubanks and Maxime Cressy all earned 15 points and share of the Week 1 men’s lead for reaching the quarterfinals at different ATP Challenger Tour 80 events, Fratangelo and Eubanks in Winnetka, Ill., and Cressy in Winnipeg. Bradley Klahn won the title in Winnetka, but his current ranking of No. 84 should put him firmly into the US Open direct entry field. Americans who earn direct entry into the US Open are not eligible, nor are players that were ranked in the ATP or WTA Top 50 last week.
Click here to view the full Challenge standings.
Both wild cards will go to the American with the highest cumulative total of ATP or WTA singles ranking points earned from their best three results during the five-week window. Should the player with the highest number of Challenge points earn direct entry into the US Open, the wild card will go to the next eligible American in the Challenge points standings. In the event of a tie, the player with the best ATP or best WTA singles ranking on August 12 will earn the wild card.
The US Open Wild Card Challenge will consist of the following events:
Men’s Events
• Week of July 15: ATP Challenger Tour 110 (Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan) and 80 (Gatineau, Canada)
• Week of July 22: BB&T Atlanta Open ATP 250; ATP Challenger Tour 90 (Granby, Canada) and 80 (Binghamton, N.Y.)
• Week of July 29: Citi Open ATP 500 (Washington, D.C.); ATP Tour 250 (Los Cabos, Mexico); ATP Challenger Tour 110 (Chengdu, China), 90 (Segovia, Spain), and 80 (Lexington, Ky.)
• Week of August 5: Rogers Cup ATP Masters 1000 (Montreal); ATP Challenger Tour 90 (Aptos, Calif.) and 80 (Yokkaichi, Japan)
Women’s Events
• Week of July 15: ITF World Tennis Tour W60 (Berkeley, Calif.)
• Week of July 22: ITF World Tennis Tour W80 (Granby, Canada); ITF World Tennis Tour W60 (Ashland, Ky.)
• Week of July 29: Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic WTA Premier (San Jose); Citi Open WTA International (Washington, D.C.); ITF World Tennis Tour W60 (Lexington, Ky.)
• Week of August 5: Rogers Cup WTA Premier (Toronto); ITF World Tennis Tour W60 (Landisville, Pa.)
All USTA Pro Circuit tournaments will be streamed live on www.procircuit.usta.com. This is the eighth consecutive year the USTA has used a wild card challenge format to award US Open wild cards for American players. Previous US Open Wild Card Challenge winners (and how they did at that year’s US Open) are below:
2018: Bradley Klahn (1R), Asia Muhammad (1R)
2017: Tommy Paul (1R), Sofia Kenin (3R)
2016: Ernesto Escobedo (2R), Sofia Kenin (1R)
2015: Bjorn Fratangelo (1R), Samantha Crawford (1R)
2014: Wayne Odesnik (1R), Nicole Gibbs (3R)
2013: Bradley Klahn (2R), Shelby Rogers (1R)
2012: Steve Johnson (3R), Mallory Burdette (3R)
The 2019 US Open main draw will be held August 26 to September 8.
