Bradley Klahn and Nicole Gibbs Move Into
US Open Wild Card Challenge Leads
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Challenge Continues This Week with Men’s Tournaments in Atlanta, Binghamton, N.Y., and Granby, Quebec, and Women’s Event in Ashland, Ky.
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., July 23, 2018 – Bradley Klahn and Nicole Gibbs, both former NCAA singles champions from Stanford, shot to the top of the US Open Wild Card Challenge standings after Week 2, with Klahn winning the singles title at the $75,000 ATP Challenger in Gatineau, Quebec, and Gibbs reaching the final of the $60,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Berkeley, Calif.
Klahn’s 80 points well outpaces second-place Collin Altamirano’s 32. The singles title is the first since 2014 for the 2010 NCAA champ, the year he rose to No. 63 in the world before a series of back injuries kept him away from the game for nearly two years. He returned at the end of 2016 and made his first Grand Slam main draw appearance since 2014 at Wimbledon this summer, when he qualified and reached the second round.
Gibbs’ 48 points ties Jessica Pegula atop the women’s standings. American Sofia Kenin beat Gibbs to win the title in Berkeley, but Kenin received direct entry into the US Open and is therefore ineligible for the Challenge. Gibbs, who won back-to-back NCAA singles titles at Stanford in 2012-13, has played in the main draw of the US Open each of the last six years, reaching the third round in 2014.
Click here to view the full standings.
A large pool of American men will have the chance to earn points in Week 3, as the men’s Challenge will include results from the US Open Series’ BB&T Atlanta Open ATP 250 tournament, as well as the ATP Challengers in Granby, Quebec, and Binghamton, N.Y.
The women’s side of the Challenge includes only the USTA Pro Circuit $60,000 event in Ashland, Ky., this week.
Only hard-court events are included in the Challenge, which will consider the best three results for the men and the best two results for the women during this five-week window. Only Americans who do not earn direct entry into the US Open are eligible. In the event of a tie, the player with the best ATP or best WTA singles ranking on Aug. 13 will be awarded the wild card.
The remaining events in the US Open Wild Card Challenge:
Men’s Events
Week of July 23: Atlanta ATP 250; Granby, Canada $100,000; Binghamton, N.Y. $75,000
Week of July 30: Washington D.C. ATP 500; Los Cabos ATP 250; Chengdu, China $125,000; Segovia, Spain €85,000+H; Lexington, Ky. $75,000
Week of August 6: Toronto ATP Masters 1000; Jinan, China $150,000; Aptos, Calif. $100,000; Portoroz, Slovenia €64,000+H
Women’s Events
Week of July 23: Ashland, Ky. $60,000
Week of July 30: San Jose WTA Premier; Washington, D.C. WTA International; Lexington, Ky. $60,000
Week of August 6: Landisville, Pa. $60,000
All USTA Pro Circuit tournaments will be streamed live on
http://www.procircuit.usta.com. This is the seventh consecutive year the USTA has used a wild card challenge format to award US Open wild cards for American players.
Information on the US Open Wild Card Challenge will be available at
http://www.procircuit.usta.com. Follow the USTA Pro Circuit #USTAProCircuit.
