HENDERSON, November 6, 2019 (by Steve Pratt)
Twenty-year-old singles wild card Fanny Stollar upset No. 4 seed Stefanie Voegele, 6-2, 6-2, to highlight first-round main draw action at the Henderson Tennis Open taking place at the DragonRidge Country Club in Henderson.
A member of the Hungary Fed Cup team from Budapest, Stollar currently holds a WTA ranking of No. 323 in the world after reaching a career high of No. 114 12 months ago. “That was my best match by far this year,” said Stollar, who has struggled this year on the results front but did compete in qualifying at all four major Grand Slams. “I’ve dropped somewhere in the 300s in the rankings so I really don’t want to look at it.”
Stollar, who won the 2015 Wimbledon girls’ doubles title, is playing in Las Vegas for the third time. She said she had never faced the 29-year-old Voegele of Switzerland, who is currently ranked No. 129 in the world. “I had never heard of her so I woke up this morning and we watched tape of her and that’s how I got ready for the match.”
In the only other main-draw singles match on the day, 23-year-old Mayo Hibi moved on to the second round as the tournament lost its No. 2 seed as Patricia Maria Tig, a Romanian who is ranked No. 111 in the world. Tig was unable to complete the fifth game of her match tied 2-2 retiring with lower back pain. Hibi, who grew up in Southern California and represents Japan, is currently ranked No. 214 in the world.
Hard-core Vegas tennis fans might recall 2013 when the then 17-year-old Hibi made a memorable run to the semifinals of the Party Rock Open at Darling Tennis Center before losing 7-5 in the third set to former US Open quarterfinalist Melanie Oudin. The Party Rock Open was sponsored by LMFAO frontman Redfoo and his Party Rock line of clothing.
Six main-draw first-round doubles matches were played Tuesday with the top-seeded team of Giuliana Olmos (Mexico) and Ellen Perez (Australia) defeated the wild-card pairing of Jessica Livianu and Rasheeda McAdoo, 7-5, 6-2. McAdoo is a former Georgia Tech All-American and the daughter of NBA Hall of Famer Bob McAdoo.
On Wednesday, former world top 5 player and one-time Wimbledon finalist Genie Bouchard will team with Stollar as the No. 2-seeded doubles team will take on Maria Gutierrez Carrasco of Spain and Stephanie Wagner of Germany in a 2:30 p.m. doubles match that will be carried live on Tennis Channel Plus.
In final round of qualifying, former University of Miami star and top-seed Stephanie Wagner of Germany defeated 29-year-old Indonesian Jessy Rompies, 6-2, 6-0. Also moving to the main draw was qualifying wild card and Southern California high school senior Charlotte Chavatipon, former University of Notre Dame star Quinn Gleason, Mexcio’s Marcela Zacarias, 18-year-old Floridian Alycia Parks, Spain’s Maria Gutierrez Carrasco, Virginia teenager Natasha Subhash, and No. 13 seeded Vladica Babic, who played her college tennis at Oklahoma State.
Wednesday’s Order of Play at the #HendersonTennisOpen. pic.twitter.com/KkBIrtLLKm
— Henderson Tennis Open (@HendersonOpen) November 6, 2019
