USTA Press Release, November 5, 2019

Former college stars Francesca Di Lorenzo and Danielle Lao and 2016 French Open quarterfinalist Shelby Rogers have all positioned themselves to possibly overtake Katerina Stewart in the next two weeks to clinch the women’s Australian Open Wild Card Challenge.

All three players are within 35 points of Stewart, with the former Ohio State standout Di Lorenzo in second place after winning the singles title at the W60 event in Toronto last week. Di Lorenzo leads the former USC star Lao by four points and Rogers by eight, while former US Open girls’ finalist Alexa Glatch banked 70 points and sits in fifth place thanks to a run to the singles final at the W80 in Tyler, Texas. Click here to view the full Challenge standings.

After Week 1 of the Men’s Challenge, current University of Virginia sophomore Brandon Nakashima took advantage of familiar surroundings to put himself atop the table with a run to the semifinals at the Challenger 80 tournament in Charlottesville, Va. Former NCAA champion Marcos Giron is in second with two weeks left to play on the men’s side.

Americans who otherwise earn direct entry into the Australian Open are not eligible, nor are players ranked in the ATP or WTA Top 50 at the start of the Challenge. Should the player with the highest number of Challenge points earn direct entry into the Australian 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 November 18 will earn the wild card.

All USTA Pro Circuit tournaments will be streamed live on www.procircuit.usta.com. The Challenge will consist of the following events:

Women’s Events

• Week of November 4: USTA Pro Circuit W60 Event: Las Vegas; ITF World Tennis Tour W100: Shenzhen, China.
• Week of November 11: WTA $125,000 Series Events: Houston, Texas; Taipei; ITF World Tennis Tour W100: Tokyo.

Men’s Events

• Week of November 4: ATP Challenger 110: Bratislava, Slovakia; USTA Pro Circuit / ATP Challenger 80s: Knoxville, Tenn.; Kobe, Japan.
• Week of November 11: ATP Challenger 125: Houston; USTA Pro Circuit / ATP Challenger 80s: Champaign, Ill.; Helsinki, Finland; Ortisei, Italy; Pune, India.

The 2020 Australian Open will be held January 20-February 2.