APTOS, July 30, 2016

Including wildcards, more than 10 solid US-American contenders headline the entry list for the 29th consecutive Nordic Naturals Challenger presented by Santa Cruz County Bank. The $100,000 ATP Challenger event is held from 8 to 14 August at Seascape Sports Club in Aptos.

This year Seascape welcomes back an extremely talented young US-American who has been busy breaking records. The No. 1 college player in the nation, 21-year-old Mackenzie “Mackie” McDonald, from Piedmont, Calif. announced last month that he would surrender his last year of eligibility as a UCLA Bruin to turn professional.

This came as no surprise after McDonald beat the odds to capture both the singles and doubles titles at the NCAA Division I Championships all in one day. He is the first player to win both events in the same season in 15 years.

The All-US-American singles and doubles player finished the year with a 22-1 overall singles record with 20 of those victories against ranked opponents. McDonald was named the 2016 ITA National Men’s College Player of the Year and the Pac-12 Player of the Year for the second straight season.

With his stunning performance at the NCAA championships, McDonald has already been granted a spot in the main draw of the U.S. Open following the Aptos Challenger. Making his Aptos debut in 2014 as a wildcard, McDonald returns two years later with tunnel vision as he leaves college tennis in the past and fully commits to the ATP Tour.

Full entry list:

Evans, Daniel GBR 82
Nishioka, Yoshihito JPN 93
Sugita, Yuichi JPN 106
Fratangelo, Bjorn USA 108
Kozlov, Stefan USA 163
Paul, Tommy USA 207
Ramanathan, Ramkumar IND 214
Dustov, Farrukh UZB 225
Mitchell, Benjamin AUS 234
Nguyen, Daniel USA 240
Krueger, Mitchell USA 247
Bangoura, Sekou USA 255
Escobedo, Ernesto USA 269
Broady, Liam GBR 274
Meister, Nicolas USA 275
Uchiyama, Yasutaka JPN 305
Glasspool, Lloyd GBR 307
Reid, Matt AUS 308
Kuznetsov, Alex USA 311
Matosevic, Marinko AUS 319
Gomez, Emilio ECU 321
Scholtz, Nicolaas RSA 324