as of July 23, 2015 KENTUCKY BANK TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS LEXINGTON, KY JULY 26 AUGUST 2 TOURNAMENT INFORMATION Site: Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex at the University of Kentucky Lexington, Ky. Websites: www.lexingtonchallenger.com procircuit.usta.com Facebook: Lexington Challenger Tennis Championships Twitter: @LexChallenger Qualifying Draw Begins: Sunday, July 26 Main Draw Begins: Tuesday, July 28 Main Draw: 32 Singles / 16 Doubles Surface: Hard Prize Money: $50,000 Tournament Director: Brooks Lundy, (859) 509-9707 lblundy1@gmail.com Tournament Press Contact: Chris Ware, (205) 960-8009 chris.madison.ware@gmail.com USTA Communications Contact: Amanda Korba, (914) 697-2219, korba@usta.com Prize money / points SINGLES: Prize Money Ranking Points Winner $7,600 70 Runner-Up $4,053 50 Semifinalist $2,216 32 Quarterfinalist $1,267 18 Round 16 $760 10 Round 32 $444 1 DOUBLES: Prize Money (per team) Winner $2,786 Runner-Up $1,393 Semifinalist $696 Quarterfinalist $380 Round 16 $254 COMMUNITY EVENTS Sunday, July 26 Pro-Am, 5:30 p.m. Monday, July 27 Pro-Am Finals, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 28 Pure Barre/Sweat Exercise, 8:00 a.m.; Kids Day, 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.; Women s Lunch, 12:00 p.m.; Ladies Round Robin, 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 29 Bluegrass Tennis Association Fun Tennis Blast, 5:00 p.m.; Big Blue Night Exhibition, 7:00 p.m. Thursday, July 30 Pure Barre/Sweat Exercise, 8:00 a.m.; Bluegrass Tennis Association Fun Tennis Blast, 5:00 p.m. Friday, July 31 Men s Round Robin, 5:30 p.m. Sunday, August 2 UK Hall of Fame Induction, 12:30 p.m. USTA USTA PRO CIRCUIT WOMEN S TENNIS RETURNS TO LEXINGTON AS FINAL EVENT IN THE US OPEN WILD CARD CHALLENGE The Kentucky Bank Tennis Championships return to Lexington as a women s event for the 19th consecutive year. Lexington is also holding a $50,000 men s Challenger in conjunction with this event in Lexington. It is the only women s USTA Pro Circuit event taking place in Kentucky. It is also the seventh $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit women s event of the 2015 season and the third played on hard courts; the previous four were held on clay. Lexington is also the last of three consecutive women s hard-court tournaments (joining $50,000 events in Stockton, Calif., and Sacramento, Calif.) that are part of the US Open Wild Card Challenge, which will award a men s and women s wild card into the 2015 US Open based on USTA Pro Circuit results. Along with these three women s tournaments, the men s tournaments that are part of the challenge are the $50,000 Levene Gouldin & Thompson Tennis Challenger in Binghamton, N.Y., held the week of July 20; the $50,000 Kentucky Bank Tennis Championships in Lexington, Ky., held the week of July 27; and the $100,000 Comerica Bank Challenger in Aptos, Calif., held the week of Aug. 10. USTA Sachia Vickery, who is currently ranked a careerhigh No. 108 in the world after qualifying for Wimbledon, represented the U.S. in the Pan American Games in Toronto this month. The American man and American woman who earn the most ATP and WTA ranking points at two of the three selected USTA Pro Circuit hard-court events will receive USTA wild cards to compete in the singles main draws of the US Open, which will be held Monday, Aug. 31, through Sunday, Sept. 13. Only players who do not receive direct entry into the US Open are eligible for the wild cards. This tournament will be streamed live on www.procircuit.usta.com. To follow the tournament, download the USTA Pro Circuit s new phone app by searching procircuit in the app store. Notable players competing in the main draw include: 2008 Lexington singles champion and former world No. 31 Melanie Oudin reached the singles quarterfinals of the 2009 US Open and won the 2011 US Open mixed doubles title with Jack Sock.
2008 Lexington singles champion Melanie Oudin, who is playing in just her third USTA Pro Circuit tournament since October 2014 after undergoing a heart procedure. Oudin reached the quarterfinals of the $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Stockton, Calif., earlier this month. Oudin burst onto the tennis scene in 2009, defeating former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon and beating five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova en route to the US Open quarterfinals. Oudin peaked at No. 31 in the world in singles in April 2010, but she struggled with injuries and inconsistency in the year that followed. She started a comeback in 2012, capturing her first career WTA title at the Wimbledon tune-up event in Birmingham, England. She then competed at Wimbledon as a wild card. Oudin also earned a wild card into the 2012 French Open based on her results on the USTA Pro Circuit, which included a title at the event in Charlottesville, Va. (She reached the second round at Roland Garros that year.) In addition to her success in singles, Oudin notched one of the biggest victories of her career at the 2011 US Open, claiming the mixed doubles title with fellow American Jack Sock. She has also been a consistent performer for the U.S. Fed Cup team in the past. Oudin announced in November 2013 that she was suffering from rhabdomyolysis, a muscle-damaging condition, and took time off to deal with it. She resumed competition in March 2014 and competed on the USTA Pro Circuit and in qualifying for the US Open, French Open and Wimbledon. She was then sidelined again by the heart procedure. Sachia Vickery, who is ranked a career-high No. 108 in the world after qualifying for Wimbledon and reaching the quarterfinals of the WTA s Wimbledon tune-up event in Nottingham, England, this June. Vickery also represented the U.S. in the Pan American Games in Toronto this month. Vickery won the first two career USTA Pro Circuit singles titles of her career earlier this year at the $25,000 Florida events in Plantation and Sunrise. She has competed in the US Open and the Australian Open main draws in her young career, earning a main-draw wild card into the 2014 Australian Open by winning the USTA s Australian Open Wild Card Playoff. She also competed in qualifying for the US Open, French Open and Wimbledon in 2014, and she reached the quarterfinals at the Emirates Airline US Open Series event in Stanford, Calif., last summer her first WTA quarterfinal. In 2013, Vickery won the USTA National Girls 18s singles and doubles titles, earning wild cards into the main draws of the singles and doubles events at the 2013 US Open. At the Open, she won her first-round match in her Grand Slam debut, defeating Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in straight sets. As a junior, Vickery ascended to No. 6 in the ITF World Junior Rankings, reaching the doubles semifinals of junior Wimbledon in 2012 and competing in all four junior Grand Slams. She trains with coach Adrian Zeman at the ZMG Tennis at Deer Creek facility in Deerfield Beach, Fla., and was a longtime trainee of the USTA Player Development program at the USTA Training Center Headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla. Maria Sanchez, who peaked at No. 107 in the world in July 2013 behind strong results on the USTA Pro Circuit and the WTA tour. She started that year by reaching the quarterfinals of the $100,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Midland, Mich., and competing in three WTA events. Also in 2013, Sanchez made her debut in a Grand Slam main draw by earning a wild card into the US Open. In 2014, she won her first career WTA doubles title, in Auckland, New Zealand, with Sharon Fichman. For her career, Sanchez has won two USTA Pro Circuit singles titles, both in 2012, and 10 USTA Pro Circuit doubles titles, including three $50,000 events this spring. Also this year, she reached the singles final of the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., losing to up-and-coming young American CiCi Bellis. As a junior player, Sanchez was ranked No. 1 in the U.S. as a 16-year-old and No. 4 in the country as an 18-year-old. She also was the No. 1-ranked collegian and an ITA All-American at the University of Southern California, winning the 2011 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship singles title. Julia Boserup, who qualified for and reached the quarterfinals of the WTA event in Monterrey, Mexico, in April 2014 for her career-best WTA result. In addition, following the 2014 US Open, she reached the quarterfinals or better at three $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit events. In her career, Boserup has competed in qualifying for the US Open and Australian Open, and she has won three USTA Pro Circuit singles titles, including the $25,000 event in Raleigh, N.C., this year her first USTA Pro Circuit title since 2012, when she achieved a career-best singles ranking of No. 174. Boserup was also a standout junior, winning the prestigious Orange Bowl in 2008, defeating U.S. Olympian Christina McHale in the final. Asia Muhammad, who learned to play tennis at the Andre Agassi Boys and Girls Club in Las Vegas. Muhammad is currently ranked in the Top 100 (at No. 91) in doubles after winning her first WTA doubles title in the Netherlands this June. In 2013, she captured her first singles title since 2007 at the $25,000 event in Raleigh, N.C. And in 2014, she won back-to-back doubles titles at the $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit events in Charlottesville, Va., and Indian Harbour Beach, Fla.; she also won the US Open National Playoffs USTA Missouri Valley Sectional Qualifying Tournament last summer. Overall, Muhammad holds 14 career USTA Pro Circuit titles (12 in doubles, including two titles this year). Lauren Embree, who completed her outstanding college career at the University of Florida in 2013 by being named the National College Player of the Year. Embree went 26-3 in her final year for the Gators at the No. 1 singles spot, and she compiled a staggering 117-16 singles record during her four years in Gainesville. As a pro in 2013, she won her second USTA Pro Circuit singles title at the $10,000 event in Fort Worth, Texas, and she won her second career doubles title at the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Redding, Calif., in September 2014. This year, she reached one USTA Pro Circuit final, at the $25,000 event in Sumter, S.C. In 2009, Embree won a USTA wild-card playoff to earn a berth into the main draw of the French Open, where she lost in the opening round to former world No. 3 Nadia Petrova. Samantha Crawford, who won the 2012 US Open girls singles title. Crawford also qualified for the women s singles main draw of the US Open that year. At 6-foot-2, Crawford s big serve and aggressive baseline game helped her rise to No. 5 in the ITF World Junior Rankings in 2012. This year, she won her fourth and fifth career USTA Pro Circuit doubles titles at the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit events in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., and Baton Rouge, La. In singles, she reached the finals at the $25,000 events in Plantation, Fla., and Raleigh, N.C., and the quarterfinals or better at three additional tournaments. A number of players will be competing in either the main draw or qualifying that are part of the USTA Collegiate National Team, a highlevel training program designed to help America s premier college players assimilate to professional tennis in a team-oriented environment by playing on the USTA Pro Circuit. USTA Collegiate National Team players competing in Lexington include: Jennifer Brady, who recently completed her sophomore year at UCLA and has since turned pro. This season, Brady was part of the UCLA team that reached the final of the NCAA Team Championships. During
her freshman season (2013-14), she was a member of the 2014 NCAA championship-winning team. Also last year, Brady won her first USTA Pro Circuit singles title, at the $25,000 event in Redding, Calif.; she also won the doubles title in Redding. In addition, Brady won two doubles events in 2011. She is competing in the main draw in Lexington. Jamie Loeb, who recently completed her sophomore year for the University of North Carolina, where she won the 2015 NCAA Division I singles title, becoming the first singles national champion in North Carolina s women s tennis history. Loeb was also the top-ranked college tennis player for most of her freshman year. In fact, as a freshman, she was named the 2014 Intercollegiate Tennis Association Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year, as well as the 2014 ACC Women s Tennis Player of the Year making her the third North Carolina player ever to earn that distinction. Last summer, Loeb won the inaugural American College Invitational at the US Open. She was also a standout junior player, reaching the quarterfinals of the Wimbledon girls event in 2013 and the junior singles final at the 2013 USTA International Spring Championships in Carson, Calif.; she also won the doubles title in Carson. Loeb holds three USTA Pro Circuit singles titles, including the $25,000 event in El Paso, Texas, this year, and four doubles titles, three of which came in 2014. She trains at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy in Randall s Island, N.Y. Loeb is competing in qualifying in Lexington. Julia Elbaba, who recently completed her junior season at the University of Virginia, where she received All-America singles honors for the third consecutive year and was No. 1 in the ITA singles rankings at one point. As a freshman, Elbaba was named the women s ITA National Rookie of the Year and became the first Virginia women s player to be seeded at the NCAA Individual Championships. Elbaba holds one USTA Pro Circuit title, in doubles at the $10,000 event in New Orleans in 2012. She is competing in qualifying in Lexington. Brooke Austin, who won the first USTA Pro Circuit singles title of her career at the $25,000 event in Sumter, S.C., last year. She also reached the final of the $25,000 event in Baton Rouge, La., this summer as a qualifier. Austin also holds two USTA Pro Circuit doubles titles. Austin recently completed her freshman year at the University of Florida, where she was the top-ranked freshman in the country. Austin is a former junior standout who won the 2012 USTA Girls 18s Spring National Championships and helped lead the U.S. to back-to-back World Junior Tennis titles (14 and under) in 2009 and 2010. Austin is competing in qualifying in Lexington. Additional notable players competing in qualifying include: Caitlin Whoriskey, a former University of Tennessee standout who was named the 2010 College Senior Player of the Year after leading the Volunteers to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament. Whoriskey captured her first career USTA Pro Circuit singles title last year at the $10,000 event in Hilton Head Island, S.C., where she also won the doubles crown. This year, she reached the singles quarterfinals and doubles semifinals at the $100,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Midland, Mich., and won her eighth USTA Pro Circuit/ITF-level doubles title at the $25,000 event in Jackson, Miss. She also won the 2014 US Open National Playoffs to earn a wild card into the US Open Qualifying Tournament, where she won her first-round match. Jessica Pegula, who played in just one tournament last year after having knee surgery. She achieved a career breakthrough in 2013 by qualifying for and reaching the third round of the WTA event in Charleston, S.C. She also qualified for the WTA events in Shenzhen, China, and Washington, D.C., climbing to a career-best No. 123 in the world rankings that year. This year, Pegula qualified for Charleston and reached the quarterfinals of the $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Dothan, Ala. She also reached the final round of qualifying at Wimbledon and the French Open this year. Pegula has enjoyed even greater success in doubles, competing in the US Open doubles main draw in 2011 and 2012 and peaking at No. 92 in the world in the doubles rankings in February 2013. Pegula s father, Terry, is the owner of the NHL s Buffalo Sabres and the NFL s Buffalo Bills. Kristie Ahn, who graduated from Stanford in 2014 as a four-time All-American. Ahn went 97-17 in four seasons at Stanford and was named the 2014 ITA National Senior Player of the Year. Ahn qualified for the 2008 US Open, where she lost to former world No. 1 Dinara Safina in the first round. Ahn has also won four USTA Pro Circuit/ ITF-level singles titles, including one title in Korea this year, and one doubles title. Danielle Lao, who graduated from USC in 2013 and earned two All-America honors during her college career. She also led the Trojans to back-to-back Pac-12 team championships and was a team captain her senior year. This June, Lao won her first career USTA Pro Circuit singles title at the $25,000 event in Baton Rouge, La. Also this year, Lao qualified for the $100,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Midland, Mich., and won her first ITF-level singles title in Leon, Mexico; she also captured the doubles title in Leon. She won the first USTA Pro Circuit title of her career in 2014 in doubles at the $25,000 event in Pelham, Ala. After college at USC, Lao wrote a book, Invaluable Experience, about playing college tennis. Alexandra Stevenson, 34, who drew international attention in 1999 by becoming the first female qualifier in Wimbledon history to reach the event s semifinals. She was ranked in the year-end Top 100 each year from 1999 to 2003, peaking at No. 18 in 2002. Injuries drove her ranking into the 600s in 2005, but Stevenson rebounded to climb back into the Top 200 in 2009, advancing to the final at the $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Carson, Calif., for her best result on the USTA Pro Circuit since 1998. She is the daughter of basketball Hall-of-Famer Julius Erving. Jacqueline Cako, who won sectional qualifying titles to advance to this year s US Open National Playoffs Women s Singles, Women s Doubles and Mixed Doubles Championships, which will take place in August. Last year, she won the playoffs mixed doubles championship to earn a wild card into the mixed doubles draw at the US Open, where she and partner Joel Kielbowicz lost to Donald Young and Taylor Townsend in the first round. Cako completed her NCAA career in 2013 at Arizona State University, where she received All-America honors and was named the 2013 Pac-12 Women s Tennis Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Cako has thrived in doubles on the USTA Pro Circuit, winning seven titles, including at the $25,000 event in Surprise, Ariz., earlier this year. She peaked at No. 169 in the world doubles rankings in September 2013. She has also won two USTA Pro Circuit singles titles, her last coming in 2009. Robin Anderson, who graduated from UCLA this year and earned All- America honors in both singles and doubles for the fourth consecutive year, becoming the seventh player in school history to be accomplish that feat. This year, she was named the ITA National Collegiate Player for the Year. Anderson was part of UCLA s NCAA-title winning team in 2014 and reached the NCAA doubles final in 2013. She has won one USTA Pro
Circuit singles title ($10,000 Landisville, Pa., in 2011) and one doubles title ($25,000 Redding, Calif., in 2013). As a junior player, she reached the singles quarterfinals of the 2010 junior US Open. Many WTA stars have found success in Lexington: 1997 singles runner-up and 2012 Olympian Liezel Huber is a former world No. 1 doubles player. She has won 53 WTA doubles titles including five Grand Slam women s doubles titles and has played an integral role in the U.S. s Fed Cup success. She has also won two Grand Slam mixed doubles titles, including the US Open in 2010. Defending singles champion Madison Brengle peaked at No. 35 in the world this May after a strong year so far. She started the year by qualifying and reaching the round of 16 in Brisbane and qualifying and reaching her first-ever WTA final in Hobart, both tune-ups for the Australian Open. She then reached the fourth round of the Australian Open her career-best Grand Slam result upsetting Top 10 player Andrea Petkovic in the first round. Brengle also reached the semifinals in Stuttgart and the third round in Charleston this year. Last year, Brengle won her first-ever Grand Slam main-draw match at the US Open, where she competed as a wild card. She also reached the quarterfinals of the WTA event in Linz, Austria, last October as a qualifier and won the sixth and seventh USTA Pro Circuit singles titles of her career at the $50,000 women s events in Lexington and Las Vegas. 2009 singles champion Sania Mirza is currently the No. 1-ranked doubles player in the world. She has won 27 career WTA doubles titles, including Wimbledon this year with Martina Hingis for her first women s doubles Grand Slam title. She has also won three mixed doubles Grand Slam titles (2009 Australian Open, 2012 French Open, 2014 US Open). Mirza has also ranked in the Top 30 in singles and won a WTA singles title in 2005 in Hyderabad, while also representing India in the Olympics and in Fed Cup. Carly Gullickson, the 2008 singles runner-up, won the 2009 US Open mixed doubles title with USTA Pro Circuit graduate Travis Parrott. 2002 singles champion Virginie Razzano of France peaked at No. 16 in the world in September 2009 after reaching the fourth round of the French Open and Wimbledon that year. She has won two WTA singles titles and one doubles title and upset world No. 1 Serena Williams in the first round of the 2012 French Open Williams first-ever loss in the first round of a Grand Slam event. lexington Past WINNERS Singles Doubles Year Winner Runner-Up Year Winner 2014 Madison Brengle (USA) Nicole Gibbs (USA) 2014 Jocelyn Rae (GBR) Anna Smith (GBR) 2013 Shelby Rogers (USA) Julie Coin (FRA) 2013 Nicha Lertpitaksinchai (THA) Peangtarn Plipuech (THA) 2012 Julia Glushko (ISR) Johanna Konta (GBR) 2012 Shuko Aoyama (JPN) Yi-Fan Xu (CHN) 2011 Chi Chi Scholl (USA) Amanda Fink (USA) 2011 ChiChi Scholl (USA) Tamaryn Hendler (BEL) 2010 Kurumi Nara (JPN) Stephanie Dubois (CAN) 2010 Bojana Bobusic (AUS) Christina Fusano (USA) 2009 Sania Mirza (IND) Julie Coin (FRA) 2009 Kai-Chen Chang (TPE) Tetiana Luzhanska (UKR) 2008 Melanie Oudin (USA) Carly Gullickson (USA) 2008 Chin-Wei Chan (TPE) Kimberly Couts (USA) 2007 Stephanie Dubois (CAN) Anne Keothavong (GBR) 2007 Melinda Czink (HUN) Lindsay Lee-Waters (USA) 2006 Camille Pin (FRA) Abigail Spears (USA) 2006 Chin-Wei Chan (TPE) Abigail Spears (USA) 2005 Natalie Grandin (RSA) Stephanie Dubois (CAN) 2005 Vilmarie Castellvi (PUR) Samantha Reeves (USA) 2004 Camille Pin (FRA) Mi-Ra Jeon (KOR) 2004 Claire Curran (GBR) Natalie Grandin (RSA) 2003 Miho Saeki (JPN) Salome Devidze (GEO) 2003 Janet Lee (TPE) Jessica Lehnhoff (GUA) 2002 Virginie Razzano (FRA) Samantha Reeves (USA) 2002 Nana Miyagi (JPN) Irina Selyutina (KAZ) 2001 Katarina Srebotnik (SLO) Sabine Klaschka (GER) 2001 Lisa McShea (AUS) Nana Miyagi (JPN) 2000 Jennifer Hopkins (USA) Dawn Buth (USA) 2000 Janet Lee (TPE) Wynne Prakusya (INA) 1999 Florencia Labat (ARG) Annabel Ellwood (AUS) 1999 Alexandra Fusai (FRA) Florencia Labat (ARG) 1998 Julie Pullin (GBR) Abigail Tordoff (GBR) 1998 Amanda Grahame (AUS) Bryanne Stewart (AUS) 1997 Karin Miller (USA) Liezel Huber (RSA) 1997 Elly Hakami (USA) Danielle Jones (AUS)
USTA PRO CIRCUIT With approximately 90 tournaments hosted annually throughout the country and prize money ranging from $10,000 to $100,000, the USTA Pro Circuit is the pathway to the US Open and tour-level competition for aspiring tennis players and a frequent battleground for established professionals. The USTA launched its Pro Circuit in 1979 to provide players with the opportunity to gain professional ranking points, and it has since grown to become the largest developmental tennis circuit in the world, offering nearly $3 million in prize money. Last year, more than 1,000 men and women from more than 70 countries competed in cities nationwide. Victoria Azarenka, Eugenie Bouchard, John Isner, Andy Murray, Kei Nishikori, Sam Querrey, Maria Sharapova and Caroline Wozniacki are among today s top stars who began their careers on the USTA Pro Circuit. More recently, the USTA Pro Circuit helped further the careers of two young Americans Stefan Kozlov and Nicole Gibbs. In her first full season as a professional after capturing back-to-back NCAA singles championships in 2012 and 2013, Gibbs won the women s USTA Pro Circuit US Open Wild Card Challenge in 2014. After claiming the title at the $50,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Carson, Calif., Gibbs clinched the US Open wild card by advancing to the final of the $50,000 tournament in Lexington, Ky., her last USTA Pro Circuit event of the season. Gibbs went on to reach the third round at the US Open, scoring a pair of Top 50 victories along the way. Two weeks after the US Open, as a qualifier at Seoul, she reached her first WTA Nicole Gibbs quarterfinal, which boosted her into the WTA Top 100 for the first time. Gibbs earned the second-most WTA ranking points of any American playing the USTA Pro Circuit in 2014. Kozlov, runner-up in 2014 at the junior championships of the Australian Open and Wimbledon, reached the final of the Sacramento Challenger last October at age 16, becoming the youngest American to reach a Challenger final since Andre Agassi in 1986. That result vaulted Kozlov to No. 443 in the world, making him the youngest player in the ATP World Tour Top 500. He concluded 2014 by sweeping the singles and doubles titles at the prestigious Orange Bowl Junior Tennis Championships, locking down a No. 3 junior world ranking. Timothy A. Clary/Getty Images PLAYER DEVELOPMENT The USTA Player Development program identifies and develops the next generation of American champions by surrounding the top junior players and young pros with the resources, facilities and coaching they need to reach their maximum potential. The Player Development program is based at the USTA Training Center Headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla., and also utilizes Training Centers in Carson, Calif., and Flushing, N.Y., as well as a series of Certified Regional Training Centers located throughout the continental United States. YOUTH TENNIS The USTA is making it easier and more fun for kids to get into the game and stay in the game. Kids are learning to play faster than ever before through the USTA s youth initiative, which is geared toward getting more kids to participate in tennis using modified equipment and courts tailored to a child s size. For more information, visit YouthTennis.com. NJTL Founded in 1969 by Arthur Ashe, along with Charlie Pasarell and Sheridan Snyder, the USTA/National Junior Tennis & Learning (NJTL) network is a nationwide group of more than 625 non-profit youth development organizations that provide free or low-cost tennis, education and life skills programming to more than 350,000 children each year. Celebrating its 45th anniversary this year, NJTL is one of the USTA s largest community-based offerings. US OPEN NATIONAL PlayoffS The USTA launched the US Open National Playoffs in 2010, making the US Open open to anyone age 14+ and of all skill levels. Last year, more than 1,200 players competed in 13 Sectional Qualifying Tournaments nationwide for a 2014 US Open Qualifying Tournament wild card. A mixed doubles element also was held, with the winning team earning a main draw mixed doubles wild card. This year, players can again compete in singles and mixed doubles, but also will have the chance to play in the new men s and women s doubles competition to earn main draw doubles wild cards. Registration for all divisions opens on March 15. For more information and the complete schedule, visit www.usopen.org/nationalplayoffs.